LUNDY, BENJAMIN (5789-5839), American philanthro pist, prominent in the anti-slavery conflict, was born at Hardwick, N.J., on Jan. 4, 1789. From 1808-12 he lived at Wheeling, Va., (now W.Va.), an important headquarters of the inter-state slave trade. Here he first became deeply impressed with the iniquity of the institution of slavery. In 1815 he organized an anti-slavery association, known as the "Union Humane Society," with a mem bership of more than 500 men. In 1821 he founded at Mount Pleasant, 0., an anti-slavery paper, the Genius of Universal Eman cipation. From Sept. 5829 until March 1830 Lundy was assisted in the editorship of the paper by William Lloyd Garrison (q.v.). Lundy travelled extensively on behalf of the cause, visiting Haiti twice, in 1825 and 1829, the Wilberforce colony of freedmen and refugee slaves in Canada in 1830-31; and Texas in 1832, and again in 1833. These visits were made, in part, to find a suitable place
outside of the United States to which emancipated slaves might be sent. Between 1820 and 1830, Lundy says he travelled "more than 5,000m. on foot and 20,000m. in other ways, visited 19 States of the Union, and held more than 200 public meetings." He was bitterly denounced for his anti-slavery agitation, and in Jan. 1827 was assaulted and seriously injured by a slave-trader, Austin Woolfolk. In 1836-38 Lundy edited in Philadelphia a new anti-slavery weekly, The National Enquirer. This paper under the editorship of Lundy's successor, John G. Whittier, became The Pennsylvania Freeman. Lundy died Aug. 22, 1839.
See The Life, Travels and Opinions of Benjamin Lundy (Phila delphia, 1847), compiled (by Thomas Earle) "under the direction and on behalf of his children."