Lundy, Benjamin

Lundy, detail of a lithograph after a painting
By courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

(born January 4, 1789, Sussex County, New Jersey, U.S.—died August 22, 1839, Lowell, Illinois) American publisher and leading abolitionist in the 1820s and '30s.

Born to Quaker parents, Lundy was introduced early on to antislavery sentiment, as Quakers condemned the practice. His dedication to the abolitionist cause, however, did not begin until he was working as an apprentice saddlemaker in Wheeling, Virginia, where he was first exposed to the slave trade. In 1815 he organized the Union Humane Society, an antislavery association, in Ohio. In 1821 he founded a newspaper, the Genius of Universal Emancipation, which he edited at irregular intervals in various places until 1835, when he began publication of another newspaper, The National Enquirer (later the Pennsylvania Freeman), in Philadelphia. Much of his time was spent traveling in search of suitable places where freed slaves could settle, such as Canada and Haiti. From 1836 to 1838 he worked closely with U.S. Representative John Quincy Adams against the annexation of Texas, which would provide an opportunity for the extension of slavery. He moved to Illinois in 1839 and reestablished the Genius, which he published until his death.