Elijah Lovejoy Murdered: Abolitionist Editor Killed by Pro-Slavery Mob

Elijah Lovejoy, a Presbyterian minister and abolitionist newspaper editor in Alton, Illinois, was shot and killed by a pro-slavery mob that had attacked his warehouse and destroyed his printing press for the fourth time. Lovejoy had previously been driven from St. Louis for antislavery writing. His murder in a free state shocked the North and dramatically accelerated abolitionist sentiment. A young Abraham Lincoln cited Lovejoy's murder in an 1838 speech about mob violence. Lovejoy's death transformed many moderate antislavery Northerners into committed abolitionists.