Abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy Murdered by Pro-Slavery Mob

Printer and abolitionist minister Elijah Lovejoy is shot and killed by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois on November 7, 1837, while defending his printing press. Lovejoy's press had been destroyed three times. His murder on free soil shocks the North and drives thousands to abolitionism, including a young Abraham Lincoln, who cites it years later.