Elijah P. Lovejoy
|
|
Elovejoy.jpg
Rev. Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 - November 7, 1837) was an American abolitionist and journalist. Born in Albion, Maine, he graduated from Colby College in 1826. He studied at the Princeton Theological Seminary and in 1834 was ordained a minister, like his father before him.
Lovejoy then joined the staff of the St. Louis Observer. Afterwards, due to increased hostilites between State's rights partisans (who were incensed over the issue of slavery) and aboloitionists, Lovejoy left Missouri, crossing the Missouri River-Mississippi River, and became the editor of the abolitionist paper the Alton Observer of Alton, Illinois.
Lovejoys printing press had been seized by states-rights/pro-slavery factions and thrown into the Missouri-Mississippi River on three different occasions. He received another printing press from the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society (or possibly the Anti-Slavery Society of Illinois--records conflict). When local pro-slavery partisans heard about the arrival of the new printing press, they decided to destroy it.
On November 7, 1837, pro-slavery partisans congregated and approached Gilman's warehouse, where the printing press had been hidden. According to the Alton Observer, shots were then fired by the pro-slavery advocates, and musket balls whizzed through the windows of the warehouse, narrowly missing the defenders inside. Lovejoy and his men, returned fire. Several people in the crowd were hit, and one was killed.
"Burn them out!", someone shouted. Leaders of the mob called for a ladder, which was put up on the side of the warehouse. A boy with a torch was sent up to set fire to the wooden roof. Lovejoy and one of his supporters, Royal Weller, volunteered to stop the boy. The two men crept out-side, hiding in the shadows of the building. Surprising the pro-slavery partisans, Lovejoy and Weller rushed to the ladder, pushed it over and quickly retreated inside.
Once again a ladder was put in place. As Lovejoy and Weller made another attempt to overturn the ladder, they were spotted. Lovejoy was shot five times, and Weller was also wounded. Suffering the same fate of its predecessors, the new printing press was destroyed -- it was carried to a window and thrown out onto the river bank. The printing-press was then broken into pieces that were scattered in the river.
Afterwards, Lovejoy was considered a martyr by the abolition movement, and in his name, his brother, Owen Lovejoy became the leader of the Illinois abolitionists. Elijah Lovejoy is buried in Alton Cemetery in Madison County, Illinois.
The Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is named in his honor. A proposal when the school was initially formed was to name the whole university after him.
External links
- Biography from Spartacus Schoolnet (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASlovejoy.htm)