Lovejoy, Elijah Parish

Lovejoy, Elijah Parish, 1802–37, American abolitionist, b. Albion, Maine, grad. Waterville (now Colby) College, 1826, and later studied theology at Princeton. In 1833 he became editor of the Observer, a Presbyterian weekly in St. Louis. His antislavery views (he advocated gradual emancipation) became extremely unpopular, and in 1836 he moved to Alton, Ill. There he advocated immediate abolition in his Alton Observer. Mobs destroyed three of his presses, and on Nov. 7, 1837, while guarding another new press, he was killed. Lovejoy's martyrdom helped advance the cause of the abolitionists.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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