The Benjamin Lundy House is a historic house at Union and Market Streets in

Mount Pleasant, Ohio Mount Pleasant is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in southern Jefferson County, Ohio, Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. The population was 394 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is part of the Weirton–Steubenville met ...

. It was home in 1820 to

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

Benjamin Lundy Benjamin Lundy (January 4, 1789August 22, 1839) was an American Quaker abolitionist from New Jersey of the United States who established several anti-slavery newspapers and traveled widely. He lectured and published seeking to limit slavery's expa ...

(1789–1839), where he established the influential antislavery newspaper '' The Genius of Universal Emancipation'', one of the first antislavery publications in the United States. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in May 1974, and included in the Mount Pleasant Historic District later the same year.

Description and history

The Benjamin Lundy House stands at the western end of Mount Pleasant's Union Street, its principal thoroughfare. It is on the south side of the street, at an angle on a lot between Market Street and County Road 104. It is a -story brick building, with a gabled roof. Its main section is three bays wide, with the entrance in the right most bay, with a recessed two-bay extension on the right side. A single-story wood-frame ell with clapboarded exterior extends to the left.{{cite web, url={{NHLS url, id=74001537, , , title=National Historic Landmark nomination for Benjamin Lundy House, publisher=National Park Service, accessdate=2018-03-08 The house (either one of its duplex units, or both) was built in 1812 or 1813, and was for one year the home of

, one of the early organizing forces in the movement for the abolition of slavery in the United States. During his year of residency here, Lundy began publishing '' The Genius of Universal Emancipation'', the first dedicated anti-slavery publication of its type. The house belonge to Dr. Isaac Parker, a leader of the local abolitionist community, from 1815 to 1843. The building is known to have served as a station on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

, and is one of the few known instances of a place where a

free produce movement The free-produce movement was an international boycott of goods produced by slave labor. It was used by the abolitionist movement as a non-violent way for individuals, including the disenfranchised, to fight slavery. In this context, ''free'' si ...

store operated. These stores refused products and profits that were based in any way on slave labor.{{cite web, url={{NHLS url, 74001536, title=NHL nomination for Mount Pleasant Historic District, publisher=National Park Service, accessdate=2018-03-08 In late 2009 the three-story house stood in extreme disrepair. It was acquired in 2015 by the

Ohio History Connection Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, a preservation organization that has stabilized its condition and plans to restore it.{{cite web, url=https://savingplaces.org/stories/the-story-behind-ohios-benjamin-lundy-house-and-free-labor-store, title=The story behind Ohio's Benjamin Lundy House, publisher=National Trust for Historic Preservation, accessdate=2018-03-08

References

{{reflist {{commonscat, Benjamin Lundy House {{National Register of Historic Places National Historic Landmarks in Ohio Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Houses in Jefferson County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Jefferson County, Ohio

Description and history

See also

References