This antislavery periodical was started in 1821 by Benjamin Lundy (1789-1839) in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. While not the first serial publication to advocate the abolition of slavery, the Genius of Universal Emancipation was the first to be entirely devoted to the abolitionist cause. Previous newspapers such as the Emancipator and the Philanthropist considered other reform issues in addition to slavery, and were addressed primarily to the Quaker community. A Quaker himself, Lundy realized the limited usefulness of addressing only fellow Quakers. After witnessing the failure of abolitionists to influence policy during the Missouri controversy of 1820, he began to think that a more effective way to force changes in the slave system would be to use his newspaper to galvanize the general public about the evils of slavery.
Soon after the periodical’s beginning, Lundy moved his operation to Jonesborough, Tennessee, publishing his antislavery views from within a slave state. For most of the 1820s, the Genius was the only newspaper in the United States focusing exclusively on the slavery question. Lundy’s efforts attracted the anger of the opposition, and he was threatened with physical harm several times. The newspaper, however, continued to grow in circulation and influence. Tireless in his efforts, Lundy traveled widely, spreading the word about abolition and the Genius. He later moved its operations to Baltimore, while continuing in his attempt to build a nationwide antislavery movement with the political clout necessary to challenge proslavery interests. He organized antislavery societies in New England with the help of clergymen and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, whom he convinced to embrace slavery as the crucial reform issue. Garrison coedited the newspaper with Lundy after 1829.
With a combination of zeal and practicality, the Genius of Universal Emancipation advocated the end of slavery by various possible means. Lundy at first considered the efforts of the American Colonization Society to be legitimate but later repudiated the proslavery elements of the movement. Open to any ideas that would undermine the slave system, he also advocated gradual emancipation through political means and the inclusion of former slaves into American society. While based on many of the moral appeals that characterized the later abolition movement, Lundy was also interested in undermining slavery politically by creating a groundswell of voter opposition through the Genius. His newspaper continued to be published in various incarnations until his death in 1839.
Further reading: John W. Blassingame and Mae F. Henderson, eds., Antislavery Newspapers and Periodicals (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980-84); Merton L. Dillon, Benjamin Lundy and the Struggle for Negro Freedom (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1966).
—Eleanor H. McConnell
World History
