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Benjamin Lundy

Wikipedia: Benjamin Lundy (January 14 1789- August 22 1838) an American Quaker from New Jersey. Lundy was a businessman, newspaper publisher, and abolitionist. Lundy was a very prosperous businessman before turning to the anti-slavery cause in the 1810’s and dedicating the rest of his life to improving the lives of African American slaves. He also was instrumental in organizing the first formal anti-slavery society, Union Humane Society in 1815.

Early Life

Born to Quaker parents, Joseph and Eliza Lundy in New Jersey Benjamin lived there until he moved to Virginia when he was around 18 years old. In Virginia he pursued a career in saddle-making. It was also in Virginia as a young child that Lundy first encountered slavery and began his lifelong commitment to ending the terrible practice that he believed slavery to be. Due to the conflict between his religion and being in the midst of slavery, Lundy decided to move to Ohio in 1815. Life As a Young Adult: In 1815 Lundy decided to move to Ohio where he would become engaged and later marry Esther Lewis. They settled in St. Clairsville, Ohio where Lundy continued his craft of saddle-making which turned into a lucrative business. A year later, in 1816 Lundy helped organize the first formal anti-slavery society, Union Humane Society.

Call to Serve

As a child Lundy saw the injustices of slavery and wanted to find a way to change the conditions of the people who he saw as being treated wrongly. In 1815 he moved from Virginia due to not being able to tolerate the wrong doings taking place around him. After starting the Union Humane Society an anti-slavery society a year later he began to work with Charles Osborne of Mount Pleasant, Ohio. Working with Osborne, Lundy began writing abolitionist articles which appeared in the Philanthropist newspaper owned by Osborne in 1817. Lundy would continue to write articles for the Philanthropist, run his successful saddle making business, and lecture on the wrong doings of slavery at all chances he got as well as organizing committed groups to help the abolitionist cause.

Life as an Abolitionist

Around the fall of 1819 Lundy with three apprentices arrived in St Louis in hopes of disposing articles and pamphlets that he had written over the past years. In doing so Lundy left his thriving business and his young family in the care of friends in hopes of stopping the injustices. When he arrived in St. Louis things were not going well, issues regarding the Missouri compromise were up for debate and businesses were down. Lundy left for a year plus and when he returned he had lost thousands of dollars. Lundy however would continue fighting the injustices of slavery for the rest of his life but would use newspapers and his fame as a means of getting his point across to the masses. Newspapers, the Genius of Universal Emancipation: In 1821 Lundy began publishing his own anti-slavery newspaper called the Genius of Universal Emancipation. Lundy profited from the first issues of the newspaper. Copies of the newspaper would continue to be printed until the death of Lundy in 1839.

Bigger Opportunities

Bigger Opportunities, The Emancipator: After the death of Tennessee abolitionist Elihu Embree, state abolitionists recruited Lundy to continue the work. In 1822 Lundy moved him and his family to Greensville, Tennessee where he would work on the paper from. But Lundy had to move his family back to Ohio due to threats on their life. In Tennessee Lundy continued publishing his first newspaper the Genius of Universal Emancipation. Lundy was able to circulate his newspaper through 21 states especially in the upper South. Though he was able to circulate the paper throughout many states, financially the paper was not a success. Because of this, Lundy began publishing another newspaper called The American Economist and Weekly Political Recorder. This newspaper published local & world news, agriculture prices, and poetry. Convention Meeting of 1823: In 1823 at the American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery held in Philadelphia, Lundy came into contact with many prominent and rich eastern abolitionists. At the time of the meeting Lundy had joined the Humane Protecting Society and was the president of the Greensville branch of the Tennessee Manumission Society. After his encounter with abolitionist at the Convention, Lundy decided to move his family and newspaper to Baltimore in 1824.

Problems in Baltimore

After the Convention Lundy would invite William Lloyd Garrison to help him in publishing his newspaper the Genius, as it was being called now. Garrison was invited to work with Lundy but after a few months they would ultimately end up parting ways due to some of Garrison’s extreme ideas and views on equal terms. The damage had been done though; Lundy was viewed as an agitator, troubled man, and a madman. He received many of threats and on one occasion was brutally beaten by a Baltimore slaveholder. Resolution to Slavery, Colonies: Lundy had always believed that gradual emancipation and colonization outside of the U.S. was the only way for black slaves to become truly free. So in 1825 he presented a formal plan that would gradually end slavery and be of no loss to the South, the name for such a plan was called "Gradual Abolition of Slavery in the United States without Danger or Loss to the South," After not getting the support he believed his plan deserved, Lundy took it upon himself. He traveled to Haiti in hopes of persuading the government to allow freed slaves into the country during the summer of 1825. However Lundy was unsuccessful in getting the government to do so.

Death of Esther Lundy

While in Haiti looking for a colonization society for freed black slaves, Esther Lundy who was pregnant with twins at the time, died during child birth. Once Lundy arrived back in the states he placed his new born twins and three older children with family members. By doing so he was able to continue on with his mission of fighting to end slavery.

Continuing the Fight for Freedom

In the years following Lundy’s return from Haiti, the Quakers of Ohio had formed a free slave’s society in Ontario, Canada. When he arrived at the society it was not as Lundy pictured. After leaving Canada, Lundy would travel back to Haiti and two times to Texas in hopes of finding a settlement for the freed slaves. However he was unsuccessful for a second time in Haiti and when Texas voted to become a slave state Lundy was back where he started, with no place in site for the freed slaves. While being back in Philadelphia, Lundy began to write articles and pamphlets on the Mexican-Texas conflict. In the summer of 1836 he began publication on his third anti-slavery newspaper, the National Enquirer, and the Genius on a weekly. It was said that him and John Quincy Adams became close friends, and during an outing one night at the house of James and Lucretia Mott, a mob threatened the house and all escaped but Lundy’s possessions. The possessions were temporarily stored in Pennsylvania Hall and later destroyed by a mob which set fire to the belongings.

Final Days

Final Days: in 1838, Lundy moved back to his family in Illinois, it was during this time he began publication of the Genius again. A year later he turned over the National Enquirer to, John Greenleaf Whittier. In 1839 Lundy would edit only few more issues of The Genius of Universal Emancipation. Before his death, Lundy complained of a fever, two weeks later Lundy passed on August 22, 1839. Two days later he was buried in Friends Burying Ground of Clear Creek Meeting. 100 years after the death of Lundy the Centennial Memorial Committee visited his gravesite to dedicate a plaque to the abolitionist pioneer. The tribute, from Whittier, 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."

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