John William Dunjee (1833 - 1903) was an American missionary, educator, Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 minister, and founder of Baptist churches across the United States.

Early life and education

John William Dungy was born a slave in New Kent County/Charles City County, Virginia in 1833 to the Terrell family. His family asserted that President John Tyler

John Tyler

John Tyler was the tenth President of the United States . A native of Virginia, Tyler served as a state legislator, governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator before being elected Vice President . He was the first to succeed to the office of President following the death of a predecessor...

 was his father and Dungy's mother was a slave. John William's absentee owners, the Ferrell family heirs, hired him out to former Virginia governor, John Munford Gregory

John Munford Gregory

John Munford Gregory was a U.S. political figure and Acting Governor of Virginia from 1842 to 1843.Gregory was born in Virginia on July 8, 1804 and was a member of the Virginia state House of Delegates from 1831 to 1840. He served as acting Governor of Virginia from 1842 to 1843 and then as a...

 and while working for Gregory in the winter of 1859, Dungy learned that the Ferrells were going to take him to Alabama shortly. He then decided to make his escape to freedom in Canada through the Underground railroad

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...

 with the help of William Still

William Still

William Still was an African-American abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, writer, historian and civil rights activist....

 and others, landing in the port of Philadelphia in February. He arrived in Hamilton, Canada on the 15th of that month and returned to the United States at the conclusion of the Civil War. From 1866 to 1868 John Dungy studied at Bates College

Bates College

Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

 (also known as the Maine State Seminary) in Lewiston, Maine

Lewiston, Maine

Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...

 where he lived and studied with several other former slaves. Dungy then studied at Oberlin College

Oberlin College

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

 in Ohio where he changed his name to "Dunjee."

Career

He next became a minister with the Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 Home Missionary Society. He traveled throughout the country from New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 to the South

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

 to the Midwest preaching and starting new Baptist churches for African Americans in mainly rural areas. Dunjee also played a particularly prominent role in supporting Storer College

Storer College

Storer College was a historically black college located in Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It operated from 1865 until 1955.-Storer School:...

, a Freewill Baptist College for African Americans in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. In many books the town is called "Harper's Ferry" with an apostrophe....

, as well as many other institutions such as Spelman College

Spelman College

Spelman College is a four-year liberal arts women's college located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The college is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman was the first historically black female...

, Shaw College, Hampton College

Hampton College

Hampton College could refer to:*Hampton College *Hampton College *Hampton Community College, Hampton, London, England...

, and Langston University

Langston University

Langston University is an institution of higher learning located in Langston, Oklahoma, USA. It is the only historically black college in the state, and the westernmost historically black college in the United States...

. Dunjee's friends included such well-known figures as Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...

. Additionally, Dunjee founded the Harper's Ferry Messenger in 1882. His children Drusilla Dunjee Houston, a historian, and Roscoe Dunjee later contributed to the Messenger and were editors of the Black Dispatch in Oklahoma. John Dunjee died in Oklahoma City

Oklahoma city

Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...

in 1903.

External links

• "Rev. John William Dungy (1833-1903)" by Dr. Peggy Brooks-Bertram of the University of Buffalo
• "Arrival from Richmond - John William Dungy" "Still's Underground Rail Road Records. With a Life of the Author" by William Still, Pages 541-547 (published in 1886)
• "Storer College Postcard(photos)"
• "Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission - African American Studies"