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BENJAMIN LUNDY

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Friend Benjamin Lundy HDT WHAT? INDEX

FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

The contemporary scholar Lewis Perry has characterized the American Colonization Society, on page 9 of his RADICAL : ANARCHY AND THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD IN ANTISLAVERY THOUGHT, as the antebellum political organization which most successfully arranged a political marriage of convenience between the American white racists and the American antislavery crusaders. He has used the example of Friend Benjamin Lundy to illustrate just how lacking in influence the antebellum antislavery crusaders actually were, where they were unable to forge this political bond with their strange bedfellow, the white American who hated and feared black Americans whether they were enslaved or free.

There’s a comparison of with Friend Benjamin Lundy on pages 73-4 that has caught my eye: In their concepts of activism the two men were very different. Lundy practiced a benevolence of charitable deed, while Garrison had emerged as an exponent of the prophetic word. Lundy hoped to persuade individuals to emancipate slaves; Garrison wanted to persuade the nation to abolish . Lundy still hoped for political action in the South; Garrison aimed to shock the North into moral awareness. Lundy tended to emphasize the satisfaction that would come from taking benevolent action, Garrison the disaster that would punish a failure to act. Lundy shared Garrison’s belief in the sinfulness of slavery, but the younger man’s evangelical fervor and melodramatic style went against the Quaker grain. I think the comment I would make on this passage is that it seems to imply that the difference between Friend Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison was a difference in chosen tactics and a difference in conviction- heat and a difference in personal style. I just don’t analyze Garrison’s soul that way. It seems to me that this was a man on a quest for personal purity, who had to project the evils of the world into others so that he could feel righteous. In other words, this was a quest for selfrighteousness. And that is just shameful.

“Abolitionists often identified themselves with the slaves in a mood not so much of compassion as of self- seeking liberation.” — Bliss Perry, THE AMERICAN SPIRIT IN LITERATURE, page 233

My vote goes to Friend Benjamin. He was actually trying to help make people’s lives better, and this showed. Somehow, however, I just can’t put my mind around a proposition like “Garrison was trying to help make people’s lives better.” He just wasn’t. He was a purist. What he was after was righteousness, and as the Good Book points out, our righteousness is as filthy rags. HDT WHAT? INDEX

BENJAMIN LUNDY FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1789

January 4, Sunday: Benjamin Lundy was born in Sussex County, New Jersey, in a Quaker family.

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

Friend Benjamin Lundy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1815

While operating a saddlery in , Friend Benjamin Lundy founded the Union Humane Society.

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Friend Benjamin Lundy HDT WHAT? INDEX

BENJAMIN LUNDY FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1819

Friend Benjamin Lundy began to devote himself fulltime to the abolitionist cause and began the antislavery periodical Philanthropist.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Friend Benjamin Lundy HDT WHAT? INDEX

FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1821

Friend Benjamin Lundy, an Ohio saddlemaker, urged the abolition of slavery and began publication of his antislavery newspaper Genius of Universal Emancipation. He would soon relocate to Greenville, Tennessee, and would further relocate to in 1824. A slavetrader would attack and severely injure him in 1828 — but Lundy would enlist the support of William Lloyd Garrison as associate editor for 6 months beginning in September 1829.

“It is simply crazy that there should ever have come into being a world with such a sin in it, in which a man is set apart because of his color — the superficial fact about a human being. Who could want such a world? For an American fighting for his love of country, that the last hope of earth should from its beginning have swallowed slavery, is an irony so withering, a justice so intimate in its rebuke of pride, as to measure only with God.” — Stanley Cavell, MUST WE MEAN WHAT WE SAY? 1976, page 141 HDT WHAT? INDEX

BENJAMIN LUNDY FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1828

March: William Lloyd Garrison met Friend Benjamin Lundy, the Quaker anti-slavery advocate, publisher of the newspaper The Genius of Universal Emancipation, in Boston, and was converted to the antislavery crusade.

August 7, Thursday: Friend Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison staged an abolitionist meeting in the vestry room of the Baptist church in Boston. After they had said their piece the reverend of the church arose to caution his parishioners against allowing themselves to be swayed by such dangerous enthusiasms as these.

(What was the Reverend suggesting? Was he suggesting “Remember, we’re white people here, this really isn’t any of our problem”? —Well then, can you offer a more plausible parsing of what he was suggesting?)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth with his daughter Dora returned from their tour of the Netherlands and the Rhine.

Russian forces captured Akhalkalaki from the Turks.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day / Our public Quarterly Meeting was not a very satisfactory one, the preaching was far from being sound tho’ charity would induce the hope that the preacher was honest in her views, & what she said did not convey her real meaning else she was very ignorant of what our principles — In the Meeting for buisness we had several cases of importance - particulalry an appeal from a Woman & a case of difference between two Monthly Meetings was referred to the Quarterly HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Meeting & by them to a committee. — The excellent epistle from the Yearly to the subordinate Meetings was read &c. — After Meeting I rode with Wm Jenkins to Bristol ferry & Dined at Jeremiah Giffords, after crossing the ferry — I rode the rest of the distance to Providence with John Farnum & lodged at Wm Jenkins’s RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Friend Benjamin Lundy HDT WHAT? INDEX

BENJAMIN LUNDY FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1829

April: William Lloyd Garrison accepted the post of associate editor on Friend Benjamin Lundy’s paper, the

Genius of Universal Emancipation. Friend Benjamin’s belief in forming colonies in thinly populated regions abroad for freed slaves would, however, lead the two editors in differing directions. Friend Benjamin would be spending much time visiting and , and between 1830 and 1835 would travel to three times in the hope of obtaining land there for such a colony. He would consider Texas to be ideal because of the positive response from the Mexican government, which had over the years developed some markedly negative ideas about human enslavement. (The Texian Revolution and the US government’s attack on the nation of eventually would intervene, and the new Republic of Texas –since it considered itself to be all about freedom and since what freedom is all about is the ability to molest and mess with other people– would of course immediately legalize human enslavement.) WAR ON MEXICO HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1830

Arthur Tappan donated to Friend Benjamin Lundy’s antislavery paper.

CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

Friend Benjamin Lundy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

BENJAMIN LUNDY FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

Robert Purvis met the abolitionists Friend Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison.

Annual black conventions began in . In the convention of this year, joined in an appeal to establish a manual labor school for blacks.

The free mulatto Shadd family moved from Delaware to West Chester outside of Philadelphia. Mary Ann Shadd would attend a Quaker school there, run by Miss Phoebe Darlington. Her father Abraham Shadd would be active in abolitionist groups and other political organizations that discussed black immigration to Canada, Africa, and the West Indies. He would function as an agent of subscriptions for Garrison’s newspaper, The Liberator. He and his family would begin to socialize with the more affluent blacks of the area. The Shadd home in West Chester would function as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

In this year the shipbuilders of Chatham in Canada West (where Mary Ann Shadd eventually would teach) were launching their first commercial vessel, the Sans Pareil. HDT WHAT? INDEX

FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

February 19, Friday: “The Grand Jurors ... for the ... city of Baltimore, [charged] that Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison did, in a certain newspaper the Genius of Universal Emancipation, publish a gross and malicious libel against Francis Todd and Nicholas Brown.”

A quantity of dead fish fell from the sky upon Nokulhatty Factory in India. Most of them were large, and while some were fresh, others were rotten and mutilated. There was a drizzle but no storm at the time, and it was reported that the fish had been sighted in the sky as they had descended, appearing like a flock of birds.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6 day 19 of 2 M / Took tea at Dr Tobeys in company with my wife E & L Breed — Wm & Anna Jenkins & John Farnum — it was a very pleasant little interval RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

Friend Benjamin Lundy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

BENJAMIN LUNDY FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1835

The Genius of Universal Emancipation ceased publication. BENJAMIN LUNDY HDT WHAT? INDEX

FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1836

August: Benjamin Lundy began publishing the National Enquirer and Constitutional Advocate of Universal Liberty in Philadelphia in order to forward the assertion that the war on Mexico had been a slaveholders’ plot to enhance the political power of slaveholders in our national government by adding in the Texas district of northern Mexico. In this same year he was publishing his pamphlet THE WAR IN TEXAS, arguing against the acceptance of Texas as a state. ... union of Texas with the United States, which is the avowed meaning of “Texian Independence,” they will be fighting for that which, at no distant period, will inevitably DISSOLVE THE UNION. PEOPLE OF AMERICA! —Again I entreat you ... Let your voice be heard, immediately, in the strongest language of reprobation, and denunciation of the UNHALLOWED SCHEME ...

Refer to: http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/lundy.htm

Lundy would win many influential adherents, among them . Adams, Lundy, and their followers would be instrumental in delaying the annexation of Texas for nine years. US MILITARY INTERVENTIONS HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1838

Friend restored Friend Benjamin Lundy’s Philadelphia journal, the National Enquirer and Constitutional Advocate of Universal Liberty, as the Pennsylvania Freeman. HDT WHAT? INDEX

BENJAMIN LUNDY FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1839

August 22, Thursday: Benjamin Lundy died. HDT WHAT? INDEX

FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

1847

The children of Friend Benjamin Lundy collected some of his writings, including his accounts of his Texas journeys, and printed them as Earle, Thomas, ed. THE LIFE, TRAVELS AND OPINIONS OF BENJAMIN LUNDY (this book would be reprinted in 1971).

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Friend Benjamin Lundy HDT WHAT? INDEX

BENJAMIN LUNDY FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM HDT WHAT? INDEX

FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: July 12, 2014 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX

FRIEND BENJAMIN LUNDY BENJAMIN LUNDY GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh.