This Week in Christian History: Dante Exiled, Pastor Murdered, Martin Luther's Birthday
Abolitionist Minister Murdered — November 7, 1837
This week marks the anniversary of when Presbyterian minister Elijah Parish Lovejoy was murdered for running an abolitionist printing press.
A native of Maine, Lovejoy moved to slave state Missouri and ran a publication that often expressed anti-slavery sentiments. Eventually threats against him and his family led him to move to nearby Illinois.
When a new printing press for his anti-slavery work was delivered, a mob attacked the press and through the chaos an individual shot Lovejoy dead.
"Throughout the North and West, more people joined anti-slavery societies following Lovejoy's death," noted America's Library.
"Officials in Illinois said almost nothing about the incident, with the exception of a young state representative named Abraham Lincoln, who spoke out against the crime."
