Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Aside from his career, Lovejoy also participated in reform movements in St. Louis. However, he wasn't involved in any antislavery movements yet.
Once done with college, Lovejoy moved to St. Louis to begin a career. He started his own private high school and taught similarly to the most prestigious academies in the east. In 1830, after four years of teaching, Lovejoy acquired a new job as a partner of publication of the St. Louis Times. The Times was a political newspaper known for being very judgemental of President Andrew Jackson.
After two years working for the St. Louis Times, Lovejoy entered Theological Seminary at Princeton. On April 18, 1833, he was given the right to preach from the presbytery of Philadelphia.
However, Lovejoy decided to return to St. Louis after months in various East Coast cities. He was offered a printing press and a job as editor at The Observer, a reform newspaper. In St. Louis, he could have an impact on politics and religion - two things he felt strongly about.
Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born on November 9, 1802. Lovejoy grew up in a very religious family. He was the oldest of nine children and lived on a frontier farm in Albion, Maine.
While growing up, Lovejoy was a very serious student. He attended Waterville College in 1823, where he excelled in all of his studies, especially writing. He graduated at the top of his class in 1826.
Although Alton citizens welcomed Lovejoy, they did not want him to bring the violence with him. He tried to concentrate on the original purpose of religious editorials, but he couldn't help but share his antislavery opinions. When he tried to get the citizens to involve in an antislavery petition, The Observer offices were mobbed and his printer was destroyed again. Lovejoy tried to explain his right to express his opinions in a non-violent manner, but people wanted him to stop publishing The Observer and leave Alton. He refused and ordered a new press. The word got out, and that night, at ten o' clock, a mob assembled outside of his warehouse to set the roof on fire. On November 7, 1837, when Lovejoy step out of the doors, he was shot in the chest several times and died almost instantly.
Lovejoy's strong opinions about religion and antislavery that he shared in The Observer were very unpopular among people in St. Louis. Francis McIntosh, a slave that killed a deputy sheriff while trying to escape got murdered by a mob. Lovejoy's view on the case caused so much violence towards him that he had to leave St. Louis. He moved to Alton, Illinois so that he could safely publish The Observer.
However, his printing press was damaged while being moved to the new location - a sign that violence and hate would follow him anywhere.