Elijah Parish Lovejoy

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Elijah Parish Lovejoy

Elijah Parish Lovejoy (born November 9, 1802 in Albion , Massachusetts , † November 7, 1837 in Alton , Illinois ) was an American Presbyterian pastor , journalist and opponent of slavery ( abolitionist ). He was murdered by a slavery pro mob. He was venerated as a martyr by the abolitionists .

Life

Lovejoy's father was a pastor of a congregational church, so Lovejoy grew up as a devout Christian. He attended Waterville College (now Colby College ) in his home state of Maine . He later moved west and settled in St. Louis , Missouri in 1827 . There he worked as a journalist for the St. Louis Observer , a newspaper that opposed President Andrew Jackson . He also ran a school. Lovejoy later studied at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey and became an ordained minister. When he returned to St. Louis, he became a journalist for the Observer , writing against slavery.

In 1836, when advocates of slavery destroyed his printing press for the third time, he moved to Alton, Illinois. In 1837 he founded the Alton Observer . In this newspaper he continued to write against slavery. On November 7, 1837, a lynch mob harassed him, set his building on fire, destroyed his press and murdered him.

Elijah Lovejoy was buried in Alton Cemetery . His brother Owen went into politics, became a member of the United States House of Representatives, and led the Illinois abolitionist movement.

Private

In 1835 Lovejoy married Celia Ann French and had two children with her.

Legacies and Honors

literature

additional

  • Jennifer Phillips: Elijah Lovejoy's Fight for Freedom . Publisher: Nose in a Book Publishing, 2009. Biography for middle-grade readers.
  • Paul Simon: Freedom's Champion . Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL 62902-3697 1994, ISBN 0-8093-1940-3 , p. 206.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John D. Lawson, Robert L. Howard (Eds.): American State Trials: A Collection of the Important and Interesting Criminal Trials which have taken place in the United States, from the beginning of our Government to the Present Day . St. Louis: FH Thomas Law Book Co 1916.
  2. Joseph C. Lovejoy, Owen Lovejoy: Memoir of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy: Who was Murdered in Defense of the Liberty from the Press at Alton, Illinois, Nov. 7, 1837 . 1838