Elijah P. Lovejoy Elijah P. Lovejoy was murdered on November 7, 1837, for reporting on abolitionist activity in his newspaper the Alton Observer. Born in Maine on November 9, 1802, Lovejoy graduated from Waterville College (now Colby) in 1826 and moved to St. Louis to teach. In 1833, after attending Princeton Theological Seminary, Lovejoy began publishing the St. Louis Observer. Anti-­‐abolitionists ran him out of St. Louis, causing Lovejoy to settle and revamp his paper in Alton, Illinois. Though very unwelcomed, he continued to speak out against slavery. In 1837, a mob set fire to his printing press and shot him. The event turned him into a martyr in abolitionist circles across the nation. 1 Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born in Maine on November 9, 1802. He graduated from Waterville College (now Colby) in 1826, and after teaching for several months in Maine, relocated to St. Louis, where he continued to teach (Lovejoy 32). Soon after, he published a newspaper advocating Henry Clay for President. In 1832, he moved to New Jersey to enroll at the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he trained as a Presbyterian minister. At the urging of Christian friends in St. Louis, Lovejoy returned to the city in 1833 and began publishing a new paper—the St. Louis Observer—on November 22, 1833. The paper was not committed to abolition but rather “to diffuse information concerning the religious operations of the day” (Lovejoy 69). According to his brother, Elijah opposed slavery and “cherished an ardent desire to see it abolished”—gradually (Lovejoy 128). Yet he used his paper to present diverse opinions about abolition to his readers, such as the debates surrounding the American Colonization Society at Lane Seminary (Lovejoy 117, 121). Lovejoy married Celia Ann French, the daughter of a Missouri planter, in 1835 (Ripley 71). Soon after his marriage, Lovejoy became embroiled in controversy when his newspaper was targeted for discussing abolition and other issues surrounding race in the city. In May of 1835, a “mulatto” man named Francis McIntosh stabbed a sheriff as he tried to escape from jail. His escape was not successful, but a mob broke into his cell, tied him to a tree, and burnt him alive. Lovejoy reported on the event, taking a stand against mob violence. In October of 1835, Lovejoy left the paper for several weeks to participate in synod affairs. During his absence, the owners and several readers of the Observer asked him to stop printing articles on slavery when threats of mob violence were directed at the paper (Lovejoy 135-­‐136). Lovejoy rejected their appeals citing freedom of the press, but feared he was going to be tarred and feathered or even lynched for his subversive essays dealing with race, slavery, and abolition (Lovejoy 143, 156). Soon after, Lovejoy decided to relocate his paper to Alton, Illinois where he felt he would be safer. News of his arrival preceded him, and his printing press was destroyed as it lay on the banks of the river (Lovejoy 180). Later, Lovejoy openly criticized the decision of a St. Louis judge who declared that no one would stand trial for the mob murder of Francis McIntosh, calling the judge a papist and a foreigner (Lovejoy 175-­‐176). Lovejoy was assaulted by a mob soon after the article appeared in print (Lovejoy 181). The minister and printer did not back down. Lovejoy issued two articles in July of 1837 that infuriated white residents in Alton: one on anti-­‐slavery petitions and another on celebrating the creed of “all men are born free and equal” on Independence Day. In response, a group formed an anti-­‐abolition meeting to discuss the Observer, and several petitioners in Alton began appealing for him to stop printing articles referring to slavery (Lovejoy 216). Finally, on November 7, 1837, a mob surrounded the offices of Godfrey, Gilman & Co. where a new printing press for the Observer was being protected under the mayor’s orders (Lovejoy 283). The mob set the building on fire, and Elijah Lovejoy, in an attempt to drive the mob away, ran out of the building and was shot dead (Lovejoy 291). 2 Lovejoy’s brothers Owen and Joseph compiled a memoir about Elijah’s life based on dozens of Observer articles and personal letters. John Quincy Adams wrote the forward to the work, which was published in 1838. While Elijah Lovejoy expressed his distaste for slavery throughout his letters and articles, it is notable that he resisted being labeled an abolitionist. Ripley, however, notes that he helped organize an auxiliary to the American Anti-­‐Slavery Society while in Illinois (Ripley 71). Either way, his posthumous Memoire helped turn him into an abolitionist martyr and promoted the idea that pro-­‐slavery activists were willing to suppress constitutional rights with violence to prevent open discussion about abolition. 3 Works Cited & Further Reading Lovejoy, Joseph C., and Owen Lovejoy, eds. Memoir of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, Who Was Murdered in Defence of the Liberty of the Press, at Alton, Illinois, Nov. 7, 1837. New York: John S. Taylor, 1838. Ripley, C. Peter, ed. The Black Abolitionist Papers. Vol. II. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. 4