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weekly journal entitled The Philanthropist was soon after started at Mount Pleasant by Charles Osborne; and Lundy, at the editor's invitation,

westward to Wheeling, Virginia, where, during the next four years, he learned the trade of a saddler, and gained an insight into the cruelties and villainies of slaveholding-contributed to its columns, mainly by Wheeling being at that time a great selections. In a few months, he was thoroughfare for negro-traders and urged by Osborne to join him in the their prey on their route from Mary- newspaper enterprise, and finally conland and Virginia to the lower Mis- sented to do so, removing to Mount sissippi. Before he made Wheeling Pleasant. Meantime, he made a voyhis home, he had spent some time at age to St. Louis in a flat-boat to disMount Pleasant, Ohio, whither he pose of his stock of saddlery. Arrivreturned after learning his trade, ing at that city in the fall of 1819, and remained there two years, dur- when the whole region was convulsed ing which he married a young wo by the Missouri Question, he was man of like spirit to his own. He impelled to write on the side there then, after a long visit to his father unpopular in the journals of the day. in New Jersey, settled at St. Clairs- His speculation proved unfortunate ville, Ohio, near Wheeling, and opened a shop, by which in four years he made about three thousand dollars above his expenses, and, with a loving wife and two children, was as happy and contented with his lot as any man need be.

But the impression made on his mind by his experiences of Slavery in Wheeling could not be shaken off nor resisted. In the year 1815, when twenty-six years of age, he organized an anti-Slavery association known as the "Union Humane Society," whereof the first meeting was held at his own house, and consisted of but five or six persons. Within a few months, its numbers were swelled to four or five hundred, and included the best and most prominent citizens of Belmont and the adjacent counties. Lundy wrote an appeal to philanthropists on the subject of Slavery, which was first printed on the 4th of January, 1816, being his twenty-seventh birthday. Short and simple as it was, it contained the germ of the entire anti-Slavery movement. A

the whole West, and, indeed, the whole country, being then involved in a commercial convulsion, with trade stagnant and almost every one bankrupt. He returned to his home on foot during the ensuing winter, having been absent nearly two years, and lost all he was worth.

Meantime, Osborne, tired of his thankless and profitless vocation, had sold out his establishment, and it had been removed to Jonesborough, Tennessee, where his newspaper took the title of The Emancipator. Lundy removed, as he had purposed, to Mount Pleasant, and there started, in January, 1821, a monthly entitled The Genius of Universal Emanci pation. He commenced it with six subscribers; himself ignorant of printing and without materials; having his work done at Steubenville, twenty miles distant; traveling thither frequently on foot, and returning with his edition on his back. Four months later, he had a very considerable subscription list. About this time, Elihu Embree, who had started The Eman

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ABOLITION SOCIETIES IN THE SOUTH.

113

cipator in Tennessee, died, and Lundy | second meeting adjourned, an antiwas urged to go thither, unite the Slavery society was formed; and he two journals, and print them himself proceeded to hold fifteen or twenty from the materials of The Emancipa- similar meetings at other places withtor. He consented, and made the in that State. In one instance, he journey of eight hundred miles, one- spoke at a house-raising; in another, half on foot and the rest by water. at a militia muster. Here an antiAt Jonesborough, he learned the art Slavery society of fourteen members of printing, and was soon issuing a was thereupon formed, with the capweekly newspaper beside The Genius, tain of the militia company for its and a monthly agricultural work. He President. One of his meetings was removed his family a few months later, held at Raleigh, the capital. Before and East Tennessee was thencefor- he had left the State, he had organward his home for nearly three years, ized twelve or fourteen Abolition Soduring which The Genius of Univer- cieties. He continued his journey sal Emancipation was the only distinc- through Virginia, holding several tively and exclusively anti-Slavery pe- meetings, and organizing societies— riodical issued in the United States, of course, not very numerous, nor constantly increasing in circulation composed of the most influential perand influence. And, though often sons. It is probable that his Quaker threatened with personal assault, and brethren supplied him with introduconce shut up in a private room with tions from place to place, and that two ruffians, who undertook to bully his meetings were held at the points him into some concession by a flour- where violent opposition was least ish of deadly weapons, he was at no likely to be offered. time subjected to mob violence or legal prosecution.

In the winter of 1823-4, the first American Convention for the Abolition of Slavery was held in Philadelphia; and Lundy made the journey of six hundred miles and back on purpose to attend it. During his tour, he decided on transferring his establishment to Baltimore; and, in the summer of 1824, knapsack on shoulder, he set out on foot for that city. On the way, he delivered, at Deep Creek, North Carolina, his first public address against Slavery. He spoke in a beautiful grove, near the Friends' meeting-house at that place, directly after divine worship; and the audience were so well satisfied that they invited him to speak again, in their place of worship. Before this

He reached Baltimore about the 1st of October, and issued on the 10th No. 1 of Volume IV. of the "Genius," which continued to be well supported, though receiving little encouragement from Baltimore itself. A year afterward, it began to be issued weekly.

Lundy visited Hayti in the latter part of 1825, in order to make arrangements there for the reception of a number of slaves, whose masters were willing to emancipate them on condition of their removal from the country-in fact, were not allowed, by the laws of their respective States, to free them otherwise. Being detained longer than he had expected, he was met, on his return to Baltimore, with tidings of the death of his wife, after giving birth to twins, and

8

hastened to his dwelling to find it en- | Poughkeepsie, Albany, Lockport,

tirely deserted, his five children hav-
ing been distributed among his
friends. In that hour of intense af
fliction, he renewed his solemn vow
to devote his entire energies to the
cause of the slave, and to efforts de-
signed to awaken his countrymen to a
sense of their responsibility and their
danger. In 1828, he traveled east-
ward, lecturing and soliciting sub-
scribers to his "Genius," and calling,
in New York, on Arthur Tappan,
William Goodell, and other anti-
Slavery men. At Boston, he could
hear of no Abolitionists, but made
the acquaintance, at his boarding-
house, of WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON,
a fellow-boarder, whose attention had
not previously been drawn to the
Slavery question, but who readily
embraced his views. He visited suc-
cessively most of the clergymen of
Boston, and induced eight of them,
belonging to various sects, to meet
him. All of them, on explanation,
approved his labors, and subscribed
for his periodical; and, in the course
of a few days, they aided him to hold
an anti-Slavery meeting, which was
largely attended. At the close of his
remarks, several clergymen expressed
a general concurrence in his views.
He extended his journey to New
Hampshire and Maine, lecturing
where he could, and obtaining some
encouragement. He spoke also in
the principal towns of Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, and Connecticut; and,
on his homeward route, traversed the
State of New York, speaking at

9 Lundy's brief journal of this tour has been preserved; and, next to an entry running-" On the 25th I arrived at Northampton, Mass., after 9 o'clock in the evening, and called at three taverns before I could get lodgings or polite treatment"-we find the following:

Utica, and Buffalo, reaching Baltimore late in October.

He

Lundy made at least one other visit to Hayti, to colonize emancipated slaves; was beaten nearly to death in Baltimore by a slave-trader, on whose conduct he had commented in terms which seemed disrespectful to the profession; was flattered by the judge's assurance, when the trader came to be tried for the assault, that "he [L.] had got nothing more than he deserved ;" and he made two long journeys through Texas, to the Mexithe Rio can departments across Grande, in quest of a suitable location on which to plant a colony of freed blacks from the United States, but without success. traveled in good part on foot, observing the strictest economy, and supporting himself by working at saddlery and harness-mending, from place to place, as circumstances required. Meantime, he had been compelled to remove his paper from Baltimore to Washington; and finally (in 1836), to Philadelphia, where it was entitled The National Inquirer, and at last merged into The Pennsylvania Freeman. His colonizing enterprise took him to Monclova, Comargo, Monterey, Matamoras, and Victoria, in Mexico, and consumed the better part of several years, closing in 1835. He also made a visit to the settlements in Canada, of fugitives from American Slavery, to inquire into the welfare of their On the 17th of May, inhabitants.

"September 6th-At Albany, I made some acquaintances. Philanthropists are the slowest creatures breathing. They think forty times before they act."

There is reason to fear that the little Quaker was a 'fanatic.'

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