Elijah
Parish Lovejoy,
the son of a Congregational minister, and brother of Owen
Lovejoy, was born
in
Albion, Maine, on 9th November, 1802. After
graduating from Waterville College
in 1826, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he established a school
before attending the Princeton Theological Seminary.
In 1834 Lovejoy became the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in St.
Louis. He started a religious newspaper, the St.
Louis Observer, where he advocated
the abolition of slavery. In 1836 Lovejoy
published a full account of the lynching
of an African American in St. Louis and the subsequent trial that
acquitted the mob leaders. This critical report angered some local
people and in July, 1836, his press was destroyed by a white mob.
Unable to publish his newspaper in St. Louis, Lovejoy moved to Alton,
Illinois where he became an active member of the local Anti-Slavery
Society.
He also began editing the Alton
Observer and continued to advocate
the end of slavery.
Three times Lovejoy's printing press was seized by white mobs thrown
into the Mississippi River. Lovejoy
wrote in his paper: "We distinctly avow it to be our settled
purpose, never, while life lasts, to yield to this new system of attempting
to destroy, by means of mob violence, the right of conscience, the
freedom of opinion, and of the press."
On 7th November, 1837, Lovejoy
received another press from the Ohio
Anti-Slavery Society. When local slave-owners heard about the
arrival of the new machine, they decided to destroy it. A group of
his friends attempted to protect it, but during the attack, Lovejoy
was shot dead.
Elijah
Parish Lovejoy was America's first
martyr to freedom of the press. In 1952 the
Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award was
established and it is given to a member of the newspaper profession
who continues the Lovejoy heritage of fearlessness and freedom.
(1)
William Wells Brown, Narrative of William
W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave (1847)
I
was soon after taken from Mr. Colburn's, and hired to Elijah P. Lovejoy,
who was at that time publisher and editor of the St. Louis Times.
My work, while with him, was mainly in the printing office, waiting
on the hands, working the press, etc. Mr. Lovejoy was a very good
man, and decidedly the best master that I had ever had. I am chiefly
indebted to him, and to my employment in the printing office, for
what little learning I obtained while in slavery.
(2) Alton Observer (
November, 1837)
Night had come to the town of Alton, Illinois and a crowd began to
gather in the darkness.
Some of the men stooped to gather stones. Others fingered the triggers
of the guns they carried as they made their way to a warehouse on
the banks of the Mississippi River.
As they approached, they eyed the windows
of the three-story building, searching for some sign of movement from
inside. Suddenly, William S. Gilman, one of the owners of the building,
appeared in an upper window.
"What do you want here?" he asked the
crowd.
"The press!" came the shouted reply.
Inside the warehouse was Elijah Parish Lovejoy,
a Presbyterian minister and editor of the Alton Observer. He
and 20 of his supporters were standing guard over a newly arrived
printing press from the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. This was the fourth
press that Lovejoy had received for his paper. Three others already
had been destroyed by people who opposed the antislavery views he
expressed in the Observer. But Lovejoy would not give up.
This time, in an attempt to hide the arrival of
the new press, secret arrangements were made. A steamboat delivered
the press at 3 o'clock in the morning on November 7, 1837, and some
of Lovejoy's friends were there to meet it. Moving quickly, they carried
the press to the third floor of Gilman's warehouse, but not before
they were spotted by members of the mob.
Word of the arrival of the press spread throughout
the town all that day. As nightfall approached, mob leaders were joined
by men from the taverns, and now the crowd stood below, demanding
this fourth press.
Gilman called out: "We have no ill feelings
toward, any of you and should much regret to do any injury; but we
are authorized by the Mayor to defend our property and shall do so
with our lives." The mob began to throw stones, breaking out
all the windows in the warehouse.
Shots were fired by members of the mob, and rifle
balls whizzed through the windows of the warehouse, narrowly missing
the defenders inside. Lovejoy and his men, returned the 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
building. 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 mob, they 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 brave attempt to overturn the ladder, they
were spotted. Lovejoy was shot five times, and Weller was also wounded.
Lovejoy staggered inside the warehouse, making his way to the second
floor before he finally fell.
"My God. I am shot," he cried. He died
almost immediately.
By this time the warehouse roof had begun to burn.
The men remaining inside knew they had no choice but to surrender
the press.
The mob rushed into the vacant building. The press
Lovejoy died defending was carried to a window and thrown out onto
the river bank. It was broken into pieces that were scattered in the
Mississippi River.
Fearing more violence, Lovejoy's friends, did not
remove his body from the building until the next morning.
Members of the crowd from the night before, feeling
no shame at what they had done, laughed and jeered as the funeral
wagon moved slowly down the street toward Lovejoy's home. Lovejoy
was buried on November 9, 1837, his 35th birthday.
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