Wendell Phillips (1811-84), American abolitionist leader and political reformer, whose oratorical vigor helped popularize the antislavery cause in the period before the American Civil War. He was born on November 29, 1811, in Boston, and educated at Harvard University and Harvard Law School. In 1837 he attained wide recognition as one of the most eloquent antislavery orators when, at a public meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, he delivered a ringing denunciation of the proslavery mob that had killed the abolitionist editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy. Phillips subsequently lectured in many parts of the country against slavery. He was a disciple of the abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison and contributed numerous articles to The Liberator, the newspaper published by Garrison. Phillips denounced the federal Constitution for its toleration of slavery and advocated the dissolution of the Union. During the Civil War, he condemned President Abraham Lincoln for taking a moderate stand on slavery and the emancipation of the slaves, and he opposed Lincoln's reelection.

In 1865 Phillips broke with Garrison over the question of dissolving the American Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison claimed that the purpose of the society had been fulfilled. Phillips, who wished the society to continue, succeeded Garrison as its president and led the struggle for enactment of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In 1870, after the amendments passed, the society was dissolved. Thereafter Phillips lectured on various causes, including woman suffrage, abolition of capital punishment, rights of workers, and prohibition of alcoholic beverages. He died on February 2, 1884, in Boston.