Benjamin Lundy was born on January 4, 1789 in Hardwick, New Jersey. Lundy was a member of the Religious Society of Friends. At the age of nineteen, moved to Wheeling, Vermont, where he served an apprenticeship with a saddle-maker. This is where he first became opposed to the slave trade. 1815 he founded the Union Human Society. The following year, Lundy established the anti-slavery newspaper Genius of Universal Emancipation.
William Lloyd Garrison aided Lundy with the publication of the newspaper until Garrison moved to Boston. Lundy eventually moved to Philadelphia and began the newspaper, The National Inquirer, in 1829. Many of Lundy’s belongings were lost in the burning of the Pennsylvania Hall in 1838 by a mob. In 1839, he moved to Illinois and returned to publishing Genius of Universal Emancipation. Lundy traveled throughout the country and its territories in attempts to limit the spread of slavery. Benjamin Lundy died on August 22, 1839.