Abstract
On May 17, 1838, the Liberty Bell rang out, summoning help as anti-abolitionist mobs attacked and destroyed the newly constructed Pennsylvania Hall. Christened a “Temple of Liberty,” the hall had come into existence in a rare moment of cooperation between groups of abolitionists with divergent interests. The abolitionists who supported the construction of the hall wanted to awaken American citizens to the cause of slavery, while their opponents wanted to stop abolitionists from discussing the issue. Liberator editor William Lloyd Garrison, who barely escaped the melee, described the destruction of the hall as a “legal lynching.”