 Antislavery activists in Massachusetts sought to influence public opinion and applied moral and political pressure on the United States Congress to abolish slavery.William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), of Boston began publishing the antislavery newspaper "The Liberator" and founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831, becoming one of the nation's most influential editors and abolitionists.Garrison and his uncompromising rhetoric provoked a backlash both in the North and South and escalated regional tension prior to the war.