The Liberty Minstrel is a collection of antislavery songs compiled by George Washington Clark, gathering verses and tunes intended for use at abolitionist meetings in the years before the American Civil War. The songs set the cause of emancipation to familiar and original melodies for communal singing.
As a document of reform culture, the volume shows how music served the antislavery movement, rallying audiences and spreading its message through song. The texts combine moral appeal with the practical needs of meetings and conventions. Of particular interest to historians of American music and of the abolitionist cause, it preserves a once-popular repertory of protest in print.