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 ...
newspaper founded by
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 ...
in 1821, 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 ...
.
History
The newspaper was originally Elihu Embree's '' The Emancipator'' in 1820, before Lundy purchased it the following year. Lundy's contributions reflected his Quaker views, condemning slavery on moral and religious grounds and advocating for gradual emancipation and the resettlement of freed slaves in other countries, including Haiti,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and Liberia.''Michigan Historical Collections'', Volume 17 (Michigan Historical Commission, Michigan State Historical Society, 1910). The paper attracted few readers in Ohio, so Lundy moved his base of operations to
Greeneville, Tennessee
Greeneville is a town in and the county seat of Greene County, Tennessee, United States. The population as of the 2020 census was 15,479. The town was named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene, and it is the second oldest town i ...
, in an attempt to spread his ideas in a slave state. Although the paper gained national circulation through twenty-one states, Tennessee slave owners were not very receptive to Lundy's publications, and he realized the newspaper could have greater impact on the East Coast. In 1824, he moved ''The Genius'' to
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, where it would spend most of its publishing life. The paper would later be moved to
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
and then
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
, and Lundy continued to publish irregularly until his death in 1839.
Editors
Benjamin Lundy
Benjamin Lundy, considered by some as "The First Abolitionist", was born to Quaker parents in 1789, in
Sussex County, New Jersey
Sussex County is the northernmost county in the State of New Jersey. Its county seat is Newton. While working as a saddle maker in Wheeling, Virginia, Lundy witnessed the
slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
for the first time, thus beginning his career in abolitionism. At the time, the abolitionist movement had been losing momentum. In 1815, Lundy revived the movement by establishing The Union Humane Society, which sought gradual emancipation of slaves through legislation and to provide aid to freed slaves. Six years later, Lundy founded ''The Genius''. The paper alternated between monthly and weekly publications, as Lundy spent much of his time traveling to give speeches or to other countries for potential freed slaves. While on a trip to Haiti, Lundy's wife, Esther, died in childbirth, leaving him a single father of twins. As Lundy found himself with less time to devote to the paper, he met
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...
, and offered him an editing position. After Lundy and Garrison parted ways over the "Black List," Lundy began working closely with
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...
to establish freedman's colonies in Mexico, after Mexico abolished slavery completely in 1829. However, Texas revolted in 1836, and effectively ended any chances of such colonies being established. During this time, Lundy hired multiple assistants to keep the paper going, and its publishing regularity faltered. He moved the paper to Washington, then to Philadelphia, where it stopped publishing in 1835. In Philadelphia, he began publishing another newspaper, ''The National Enquirer and Constitutional Advocate for Liberty'', until it too stopped scheduled publications and fell into financial trouble. Lundy decided to move to Illinois, where his family was, and was invited to store his work and belongings in Pennsylvania Hall, which was used to host meetings about political topics, especially slavery. Lundy attended the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in Pennsylvania Hall, but on the second day of the convention, pro-slavery pamphlets began circulating the city advocating for "property rights", and on the fourth day of the convention, disaster struck when an angry mob burned down Pennsylvania Hall, including all of Lundy's work and possessions. He moved to
Putnam County, Illinois
Putnam County is the least extensive county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 6,006. The county seat is Hennepin. The county was formed in 1825 out of Fulton County and named after Israel Putn ...
, built a small house and printing shop, and reestablished ''The Genius''. Later that year, Lundy became very ill and he died on August 22, 1839, in debt and with few physical records of his abolitionist work remaining.
William Lloyd Garrison
In 1829, Lundy recruited the young
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...
to join him in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, and help him edit the paper. Garrison's experience as a printer and newspaper editor allowed him to revamp the layout of the paper and free Lundy to spend more time traveling as an antislavery speaker. The two first met in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
on one of Lundy's speaking tours; this meeting marked the start of Garrison's career in abolitionism. Initially, Garrison shared Lundy's gradualist views, but he eventually became convinced of the need to demand immediate and complete emancipation. Lundy and Garrison continued to work together on the paper in spite of their differing views, agreeing simply to sign their editorials to indicate who had written it.
One of the regular features that Garrison introduced during his time at the ''Genius'' was "the Black List," a column devoted to printing short reports of "the barbarities of slavery—kidnappings, whippings, murders." One of Garrison's "Black List" columns reported that a shipper from Garrison's hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts—one
Francis Todd
Francis may refer to:
People
*Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome
* Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
*Francis (surname)
Places
* Rural ...
—was involved in the slave trade, and that he had recently had slaves shipped from Baltimore to
on his ship ''Francis''. Todd filed a suit for libel against both Garrison and Lundy, filing in Maryland in order to secure the favor of pro-slavery courts. The state of Maryland also brought criminal charges against Garrison, quickly finding him guilty and ordering him to pay a fine of $50 and court costs. (Charges against Lundy were dropped on the grounds that he had been traveling and not in control of the newspaper when the story was printed.) Garrison was unable to pay the fine and was sentenced to a jail term of six months. He was released after seven weeks when the antislavery philanthropist
Arthur Tappan
Arthur Tappan (May 22, 1786 – July 23, 1865) was an American businessman, philanthropist and abolitionist. He was the brother of Ohio Senator Benjamin Tappan and abolitionist Lewis Tappan, and nephew of Harvard Divinity School theologian ...
donated the money for the fine, but Garrison had decided to leave Baltimore and he and Lundy mutually agreed to part ways. Garrison returned to
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
, and soon began his own abolitionist newspaper, '' The Liberator''. Garrison would go on to lead the abolitionist movement right up until the Emancipation Proclamation. Even though Garrison and Lundy parted ways after his arrest, when Lundy died, Garrison said, "It is to Benjamin Lundy that I owe all that I am as a friend of the slave."
Extant holdings, reprints, and digital facsimiles
* ''Genius of Universal Emancipation''
:: (microfilm);
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:: Filmed from the New York Public Library (microfiche);
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ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...
(microfilm);
::
Gale
A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface winds moving at a speed of between 34 and 47 knots (, or ).microfiche
Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. F ...
);
::
Gale
A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface winds moving at a speed of between 34 and 47 knots (, or ).Abolitionist publications