1. Elijah P. Lovejoy
Illinois History

2. Elijah Parish Lovejoy Born in Maine, 1802 Puritan upbringing
Walks from Maine to Illinois [1827]
Moves to St. Louis to continue teaching
Editor

3. Unsettled Returns to the East to attend divinity school at Princeton
Back in St. Louis, Lovejoy establishes The St. Louis Observer
Rallied Against:
Catholicism
Tobacco Use
Alcohol Use
Working on Sundays
Increasingly publishes Anti-slavery material

4. Danger in St. Louis Missouri is a slave state
As Lovejoy’s abolitionist rhetoric increased, it became dangerous for him to live in STL
Pro-slavery advocates break into The Observer and damage the printing press

5. Move to Alton Lovejoy arrives with the remains of his press
St. Louis residents come to Alton and throw his press in the river
Supporters of Lovejoy in Alton purchase him a new press
Economic panic, 2nd press destroyed
Third press > destroyed
Orders a 4th press

7. The Colored American: Sept. 16, 1837
“…the mandate came. ‘Let that minister of mischief, the Alton Observer, be immediately ejected,’ (see Missouri Republican of last week,) and Alton, boasting, swaggering Alton, with a servile bow, answered, ‘Yes, master, it shall be done,’ and it is done!” “Many things yet remain to be done, so say the sovereign mob. Mr. Lovejoy is threatened and has once been stopped in the street, though no violence was done to him, in consequence of sickness in his family. The storm rages furiously, but Christ is our Pilot and all will yet be well.”

8. “Sir, I dare not flee away from Alton
“Sir, I dare not flee away from Alton.... No sir, the contest has commenced here; and here it must be finished. Before God and you all, I here pledge myself to continue it—if need be, till death. If I fall, my grave shall be made in Alton” -Elijah Lovejoy, 1837

9. Fourth Press Arrives

11. Aftermath Mob members are not charged
Alton continues economic and social decline
Abolition has its first martyr
Many use the killing to show a natural link between slavery and violence