Freedom's Champion: Elijah Lovejoy - Softcover

Simon, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809319411 ISBN 13: 9780809319411

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994

Synopsis

In this revised edition of his earlier biography, Paul Simon provides an inspiring account of the life and work of Elijah Lovejoy, an avid abolitionist in the 1830s and the first martyr to freedom of the press in the United States.

Lovejoy was a native New Englander, the son of a Congregational minister. He came to the Midwest in 1827 in pursuit of a teaching career and succeeded in running his own school for two years in St. Louis. Teaching failed to challenge Lovejoy, however, so he bought a half interest in the St. Louis Times and became its editor. In 1832, after experiencing a religious conversion, he returned east to study for the ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. After his graduation, Lovejoy was called back to St. Louis by a group of Christian businessmen to serve as the editor of a new religious newspaper, the Observer, promoting religion, morality, and education. It was through this forum that Lovejoy took an ever stronger stance against slavery.

In the slave state of Missouri, such a view was not onlyunpopular, but in the eyes of many, criminal. As a result, Lovejoy and his family suffered repeated persecution and acts of violence from angry mobs. In July 1836, in hopes of finding a more tolerant community in a "free" state, he moved both his printing press and his family across the Mississippi River to Alton, Illinois.

The move to Alton was a fateful one. Lovejoy’s press was dismantled and thrown into the river by a mob on the night of its arrival. Lovejoy ordered a new printing press, and it, too, was destroyed eleven months later. A determined and dedicated man, Lovejoy ordered a third press, and city officials took special precautions to ensure its safety after delivery. Nevertheless, an organized and angry mob rolled this third press, still in its crate, into the river exactly one month after Lovejoy’s second press had been destroyed. A fourth press, housed in a large stone warehouse and guarded by Lovejoy and his supporters, met the same fate but only after a drunken mob had killed Lovejoy himself. He was buried two days later, 9 November 1837, on his thirty-fifth birthday. No one was ever convicted of his murder.

Rather than suppressing the abolitionist movement, Lovejoy’s death caused an eruption of antislavery activity throughout the nation. At a protest meeting in Ohio, John Brown dedicated his life to fighting slavery, and Wendell Phillips emerged from a Lovejoy protest meeting in Boston to become a leader in the antislavery fight.

Simon defines Lovejoy’s fight as a struggle for human dignity and the oppressed. He distinguishes Lovejoy as a courageous and admirable individual and his story as an important and enduring one for both the cause of freedom for the slaves and the cause of freedom of the press.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Simon has been a senator from Illinois since 1985. Active politically since 1955, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985. He has also been a professional newspaper publisher and editor in Madison County, Illinois, where Alton is located.

From Library Journal

Like his subject, Simon was a newspaper editor in southern Illinois. Unlike the unfortunate Lovejoy, Simon survived his earlier career to enter Congress. He has also found time to write several books, including Advice and Consent (LJ 8/92). As in his earlier works, Simon tells his story in excellent fashion. Lovejoy, trained as a preacher, began his editorial career in 1835 in St. Louis with a Presbyterian newspaper. Soon, he was fearlessly attacking slavery but found little tolerance for his stance; instead, he moved upriver to Alton, Illinois, where he once again encountered strong opposition to his views. On November 7, 1837, in an attempt to protect his press from a mob, Lovejoy was shot and killed. Simon tells the story crisply and without the burden of a heavy academic style. He enhances the book by relating Lovejoy's legacy and the subsequent history of his family. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries.
Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0809319411
• ISBN 13: 9780809319411
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240