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The Murder of Elijah Lovejoy
Topic Started: Jan 29 2010, 07:59 PM (117 Views)
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November 7, 1837

Tensions over slavery erupted into violence today when an Illinois mob attacked abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy's printing shop in Alton, killing him in the process. Lovejoy was a Presbyterian minister and noted critic of slavery in that state who had been attacked several times before by anti-abolitionist groups for his political views. It is reported that having suffered through the previous destruction of two of his printing presses, Lovejoy this time decided to defend himself and met the oncoming crowd atop his warehouse with a musket. In response he was shot at least five times, dying at the scene.

Many Northern abolitionists have decried this attack on freedom of the press and are calling Mr. Lovejoy a martyr. His brother, Owen, vowed "never [to] forsake the cause that had been sprinkled with my brother's blood" and is determined to continue advancing abolitionism in Illinois.
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