When Highland Garnet first emerged onto the antislavery scene, he was seriously against the sending of blacks to Africa as the best solution to the problem of slavery. However, his views came to change over the years, and during the year 1849 he assumed that the emigration to Africa could exist at the same time with the fight against slavery at home. At around 1881, we find that Garnet even planned to go to Liberia, the African nation colonized by the American blacks. He then moved there in the year 1881, after being appointed to a post in the country b the government.

Nonetheless, Garnet was among the first black abolitionists to call on the slaves to try and use any way possible to set themselves free from oppressions. Taking a look at his work, one might believe that he was a black separatist. But later in life, he turned out to be a voice telling the blacks to leave America for the nations of Mexico, West Indies and some other refuge countries. His calling for the moving of slaves to the other nations was a good proposal because it could help in cutting the links between them and their oppressors.

When the American Civil War broke out, he dissolved his hopes for emigration. In its place, he shifted his attention to the establishing of the black army units. When the approval for the black units came, Garnet helped with the recruitment of United States Colored soldiers and then gave support to the black soldiers, preaching several of them. His establishment and recruitment of the black army units could also help in ending or setting free the slaves because this would reduce their vulnerability.