Benjamin Lundy

For more information on Benjamin Lundy, visit Britannica.com.

Benjamin Lundy (1789-1839) nurtured the antislavery movement in the United States during the 1820s through his newspaper, the "Genius of Universal Emancipation".

Benjamin Lundy was born into a New Jersey Quaker family on Jan. 4, 1789. Although he had little formal education, he acquired the traits of activism and concern for oppressed people. At the age of 19 he moved to Wheeling, Va., where he learned saddle-making and first saw slaves being marched southward. In St. Clairsville, Ohio, he married Esther Lewis. In 1815 he founded the Union Humane Society, devoted to using legal and political means to free slaves and to assist free blacks. When an antislavery newspaper was started in a nearby town in 1817, Lundy found that he could write effectively. Henceforth, antislavery journalism became his primary interest.

Witnessing slavery firsthand in Missouri in 1819, Lundy realized that economic and political pressures, not just moral attack, would be needed to eliminate slavery. In 1821, back in Ohio, he founded his own newspaper, the Genius of Universal Emancipation, which more or less continuously for the next 18 years described the evils of slavery, the superiority of free labor, the need for political pressure, and the basic equality of blacks and whites. Moving about the country, he published the Genius whenever and wherever he could.

During the 1820s the Genius served as a national link between scattered groups of abolitionists. Lundy's interest in black emigration was not widely shared. He believed that, though blacks had every right to remain in the United States and could be a useful part of society, emigrant colonies would demonstrate to slave owners the economic superiority of free labor. To find suitable places for such colonies, Lundy visited Haiti in 1825 and 1829, Canada in 1832, and the Mexican province of Texas three times in the 1830s.

On a lecture tour in 1828-1829, Lundy persuaded a young journalist named William Lloyd Garrison to join the Genius at Baltimore. During Lundy's absence Garrison libeled local slave dealers in the pages of the Genius, and both Lundy and Garrison were sued and physically attacked. Garrison left to found his own journal, the Liberator, and replaced Lundy as the leading voice of abolitionism in the 1830s. The Genius ceased publication in 1839.

After Texas won its independence, Lundy vigorously opposed efforts to annex the Republic of Texas to the United States as slave territory. In 1836 he published an effective booklet, The War in Texas, which detailed the Texas slave owners' conspiracies. Former President John Quincy Adams, then in Congress, used Lundy's information to mobilize northern opinion and delay annexation. Lundy also published the National Enquirer from 1836 to 1838.

Although overshadowed by the Garrisonian abolitionists after 1831, Lundy's achievements were acclaimed by both white and black reformers. He died in Illinois on Aug. 22, 1839.

Further Reading

The Life, Travels and Opinions of Benjamin Lundy (1847), compiled from Lundy's writings by Thomas Earle, contains the Mexican diary and various pieces, mostly from the period after 1830. Merton L. Dillon, Benjamin Lundy and the Struggle for Negro Freedom (1966), includes rich detail and sympathetic analysis.

Benjamin Lundy

Benjamin Lundy (January 4, 1789 – August 22, 1839) was an American Quaker abolitionist who established several anti-slavery newspapers and worked for many others. He traveled widely seeking to limit the expansion of slavery, and in seeking to establish a colony to which freed slaves might be located, outside of the United States.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Legacy 3 External links 4 References

Biography

Lundy was born in Hardwick, Sussex County, New Jersey. Once he turned nineteen, he moved to Wheeling, Virginia, and spent the first eighteen months working as a saddlemaker's apprentice. After his apprenticeship, he married Esther Lewis. Four years later, he moved to Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and then to St. Clairsville, where he formed the Union Humane Society in 1815. Four years later, he founded the antislavery periodical, Philanthropist, which was published at Mount Pleasant. In 1819 he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he opposed the expansion of slavery to the state. After moving back to Mount Pleasant, in 1821, Lundy founded The Genius of Universal Emancipation. Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (1807-1834) was invited by Benjamin Lundy to write for his periodical. She wrote for and edited the "Ladies' Repository" section of his newspaper. After her death, her articles, poems, and letters were gathered and published by Benjamin Lundy, and the proceeds from the sale of those books went to the cause of abolition^[1]. He moved to Greeneville, Tennessee, and then again, in 1824, to Baltimore, Maryland.^[2] While living in Baltimore, a major slave-trading center, he was severely thrashed by Austin Woolfolk, an angry slave dealer.

He traveled to Haiti in 1825 in search of a refuge for freed slaves. In 1828, he journeyed on foot through the Eastern States, giving speeches that explained his aims. In 1829, William Lloyd Garrison became co-editor of Genius of Universal Emancipation, and published several particularly inflammatory editions while Lundy was absent in Mexico, still seeking a location for his colony for ex-slaves. (In 1831, Mexico included areas which are now in the States of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Nevada). Garrison was imprisoned, and Lundy moved the paper to Washington, D.C., where it failed. In 1830–31, he visited the Wilberforce colony of freed slaves in Canada. Between 1832 and 1835 Lundy again visited Mexico and Mexican Texas and applied for an Empresario grant with local authorities to establish a colony of free slaves. In 1836 he published his most famous work The War in Texas, written to influence public opinion in opposition to the Texas Revolution and Texas annexation to the United States. In 1836, Lundy began the National Enquirer, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but retired from it in 1838. That same year, a mob burned Pennsylvania Hall,^[3] destroying nearly all of his possessions. He became a persona non grata in Philadelphia.

In 1839, after moving to Lowell, LaSalle County, Illinois, he revived the Genius of Universal Emancipation. He was able to produce only a few issues before he died of a fever on August 22, 1839. He was buried at Friends Burying Ground of Clear Creek Meeting. ^[4]

Legacy

Lundy's house in Mount Pleasant

One hundred years after his death, a bronze plaque was dedicated to the pioneer abolitionist and placed at his gravesite. The tribute reads, "It was his lot to struggle, for years almost alone, a solitary voice crying in the wilderness, and, amidst all, faithful to his one great purpose, the emancipation of the slaves." ^[4]

His house in Mount Pleasant is a National Historic Landmark.

External links

• an abolitionist tract by Benjamin Lundy, published 1845, Anti-Texas Legion: Protest of some free men, states and presses against the Texas rebellion, against the laws of nature and of nations hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
• The war in Texas; a review of facts and circumstances, showing this contest is a crusade against Mexico, set on foot by slaveholders, land speculators, & c. in order to re-establish, extend, and perpetuate the system of slavery and the slave trade. hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
• 1911 Britannica article on Lundy

References

1. ^ "Elizabeth Margaret Chandler". The Michigan Women's Historical Center & Hall of Fame. http://hall.michiganwomenshalloffame.org/honoree.php?C=36&A=20~114~96~172~79~2~62~113~46~80~3~152~167~74~138~63~92~196~4~32~121~84~48~153~192~41~129~82~69~109~42~93~97~56~175~103~13~207~21~126~104~5~98~131~27~53~38~195~139~219~106~57~22~147~58~107~127~6~173~144~85~17~148~47~208~49~221~43~205~135~168~181~33~115~176~23~14~75~169~130~162~44~198~204~99~7~118~119~8~136~222~50~15~157~65~150~108~24~154~170~163~76~9~209~110~140~70~59~51~155~16~158~156~60~182~191~116~190~28~164~125~160~197~86~193~223~29~134~39~159~111~61~177~132~87~52~199~54~35~210~211~64~112~200~183~165~100~10~122~71~77~94~120~11~36~25~224~151~178~55~88~45~184~128~72~78~171~141~180~206~189~73~123~83~89~145~18~66~26~30~212~188~142~220~90~19~40~161~218~133~81~225~67~37~146~217~91~143~12~31~68~1~213~101~117~214~174~102~137~185~124~95~216~166~187. Retrieved July 19 2007. 
2. ^ Tara Mitchell Mielnik, "Benjamin Lundy." The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002. Retrieved: 3 June 2008.
3. ^ Sieczkiewicz, Robert (2007). A Green Country Town: Essays on Philadelphia History. Philadelphia: American College of Physicians. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Who are the Quakers?". Benjamin Lundy, Pioneer Quaker Abolitionist. http://www2.gol.com/users/quakers/Benjamin_Lundy.htm. Retrieved June 16 2008. 

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