Elijah Parish Lovejoy was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor and abolitionist. In 1827 Lovejoy moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he established a school and entered journalism. Six years later he became editor of the St. Louis Observer, a Presbyterian weekly where he strongly condemned slavery and supported gradual emancipation. Missouri was a slave state, and in 1835 a letter signed by a number of important men in St. Louis requested him to change the tone of his editorials. He replied in an editorial reiterating his views and his right to publish them. After his denial to change his tone of anti slavery, threats of mob violence forced him to move his press across the Mississippi River to Alton, to the state of Illinois. Despite him moving, the mob still tormented and destroyed his press. One night, a mob attacked the press building, and Lovejoy was killed in its defense. His death enraged the people of the North profoundly and led to stronger support for the abolitionist sentiment. Lovejoy was important because he was a martyr. He died to protect the cause he believed in. I chose him because his death played a key role in motivating Northerners and abolitionists to push harder for anti-slavery laws.…show more content… Lovejoy's father was a Congregational preacher and farmer and his mother, a devout Christian. Due to his father's own lack of an education, he encouraged Elijah to become an educated man. As a result, Elijah was taught to read the Bible and other theological texts at an early age. Once he felt that he was proficient enough in subjects such as Latin and Mathematics, he enrolled at Waterville College in Maine. He excelled in his studies, and, upon staff recommendation, became a teacher in the college's preparatory division. Lovejoy graduated from Waterville College with honors at the top of his
