Elijah Lovejoy was anti-slavery martyr in Illinois

By Tom Emery

Abolitionists such as Elijah Lovejoy were not in the mainstream of 1830s society in Illinois. But Lovejoy met the challenge head on.

November 7 marked the anniversary of the murder of Lovejoy, a newspaper publisher and vocal opponent of slavery, in Alton in 1837. The tragedy became a flashpoint for the slavery debate in Illinois.

Born in Maine on Nov. 9, 1802, Lovejoy moved west to St. Louis and founded a classical high school. He also edited a reform-minded newspaper, though, oddly, never paid much attention to the slavery issue. After five years, though, he underwent some sort of religious transformation, went back east, and earned a divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary.

In 1833, Lovejoy returned to St. Louis to edit the Observer, a top Presbyterian journal of the west that opposed Catholics, Campbellites, Baptists, and liquor. Slavery now became a foremost issue to Lovejoy, and his editorials were increasingly heated, much to the anger of the pro-slavery public.

In response to his writings on the lynching of a free black man in St. Louis, a mob broke into his office in July 1836 and tore apart his printing press.

Alarmed, Lovejoy moved his wife and infant son across the Mississippi River to Alton, considered by many the most progressive city in Illinois. Still, plenty in Alton had no use of Lovejoy. When the remnants of his press arrived in town, a group of proslavery locals dumped it into the river.

The reaction to Lovejoy’s stance was certainly not unusual at the time. Slavery was a fiercely divisive issue in Illinois, and in 1837, the state Senate unanimously passed resolutions against abolitionism.

Alton was heavy with New England transplants, though much of its river business was conducted with Southern states. Still, city leaders offered monetary and moral support to Lovejoy, who insisted on his right, “as long as American blood runs through these veins…to publish whatever I please on any subject.”

In his first edition of the new Alton Observer in September 1836, he declared “the system of Negro slavery is an awful evil and sin.” His editorials only flared from there, and he gradually lost support within the city.

On Aug. 21, 1837, an angry crowd broke into the Observer office and destroyed Lovejoy’s printing press once again. Eastern anti-slavery supporters contributed to a third press, which arrived a month later and was quickly pushed into the river by another mob.

Undeterred, Lovejoy invited other abolitionists, including Edward Beecher of Jacksonville, the brother of Uncle Tom’s Cabin author Harriett Beecher Stowe, to establish an anti-slavery society in Illinois.

However, state attorney general Usher Linder and Upper Alton’s Cyrus Edwards, who ran for governor in 1838, overran Lovejoy’s convention with pro-slavery advocates.

Finally, Lovejoy was asked to leave Alton, but he refused to go. He defiantly declared his “right freely to speak and publish my sentiments…The contest was commenced here, and here it must be finished…If I fail, my grave shall be made in Alton.”

Lovejoy’s fourth press arrived at 3 a.m. on Nov. 7, 1837, which he determined to protect with armed guards at a large stone riverfront warehouse. That evening, a mob assembled and shots were fired.

A boy climbed a ladder to the roof with a torch in hand, and Lovejoy twice emerged from the warehouse to knock over the ladder. On his second attempt, he was shot five times, dying in front of the warehouse. The mob extinguished the fire and again destroyed the press.

Northern abolitionists were incensed at Lovejoy’s death, but the mob was never punished. Linder actually tried to prosecute the owner of the warehouse and eleven other Lovejoy supporters for inciting the riot. Illinois Gov. Joseph Duncan expressed outrage at Lovejoy’s death, but blamed abolitionists for the violence.

Lovejoy’s brother, Owen, later moved to Princeton, Ill. and remained a vocal abolitionist. Elijah became a martyr to the anti-slavery movement, and his reputation grew with time.

In 1897, a striking 117-foot granite memorial was dedicated to Lovejoy in the Alton Cemetery. The library of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville is named in Lovejoy’s honor.

Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Ill. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or [email protected].