Continuing on our year-long salute to the quarter, we offer our second (somewhat literary) look at the quarter with a quote from William Lloyd Garrison, the editor of an abolitionist newspaper.
In this instance, quarter refers, not to money or measurement, but consideration.
William Lloyd Garrison, founded The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper in Massachusetts, with Isaac Knapp in 1831. It ran until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Garrison, an ardent abolitionist and social reformer believed every individual—man and woman—had the God-given rights stated in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Though many favored a more gradual approach to ease the impact emancipation would have on the Southern economy, Garrison, founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, urged immediate emancipation of American slaves. In other words, he brooked no arguments; he would give no consideration.
Interesting note, in Great Britain, the Slave Compensation Act of 1837, put the country in debt to the tune of 20 million pounds (the equivalent of 16.5 billion pounds today) to compensate British Colonial slave owners when slavery was abolished there. The debt was not paid in full until 2015.
Quarters literally refers to accommodations. In the 13th century, when prisoners of war were given no quarter, it was effectively a death sentence. They would receive no provision, no accommodation, no consideration—instead, these prisoners faced execution.
On the high seas, a red flag (known as the bloody flag) was used to signal that no quarter would be given to opposing military forces. The Jolly Roger, used among pirates, was flown to intimidate other ships into surrendering. It meant no quarter would be given—it meant surrender or die.
The Hague Convention of 1899 outlawed the practice of giving no quarter during military combat or piracy; it is now considered a war crime.
The history of taking prisoners and selling them into slavery dates to the beginning of mankind. Spectacular Failures, by Ken Lizzio, WayWord’s forthcoming title, follows British explorations into the interior of Africa. Taken from the explorers’ journals, it exposes the horrors of the African slave trade, the mysteries of the Congo and Niger rivers, and man’s unquenchable thirst for adventure.