J 301F Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Elijah Parish Lovejoy, William Lloyd Garrison, Maria W. Stewart
9/1 Abolition
The Peuliar Istitutio Diides a Natio
• The North began to industrialize with urban-based factories, while the South remained an agrarian society
with an economy dominated by the production of cotton and tobacco.
• Southerners saw slavery as a way to introduce a backward people to Christian civilization. In addition,
slaves received, food, clothing, shelter, and security during sickness and old age.
• Abolitionists saw that slaves could not benefit from the fruits of their own labor, were not guaranteed the
right to participate in the domestic relations of marriage and parenthood, and could not regulate their
conduct to prepare the immortal soul for eternity. Slaves were not free, and were denied their rights as
children of God.
• To spread the message abolitionists created their own newspapers-the motivation was a determination to
disseminate the antislavery ideology to a larger audience throughout the North and intensify the negative
feelings against slavery.
Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy: Journalistic Martyr
• Elijah Lovejoy established a Presbyterian newspaper in the far western state of Missouri called the St.
Louis Observer, where Lovejoy preached against slavery.
• Missouri communities opposed the Observer arguing that commercial operations in the South would
refuse to do business with Missouri if the state allowed Lovejoy to publishing antislavery sentiment.
• Lovejoy relocated his family to Illinois where he published the Alton Observer, however Illinois was not as
accepting of his abolitionist stance as he had hoped.
• Despite having three printing presses destroyed in the name of slavery, Lovejoy remained steadfast and
stated that he had no intentions of leaving Alton.
• He stored his fourth printing press in a warehouse near the river, where a crowd of 200 men gathered and
set the warehouse on fire. Lovejoy ran outside and aimed his pistol at the man on the ladder with the
torch, but Lovejoy was shot five times.
• Loejoys urder here o puishet as issued trasfored the Aolitio Moeet from the
relatively narrow issue of denying rights to members of a disenfranchised minority group to the much
broader issue of threatening the civil liberties of all Americans.
• Loejoys death ould the sere his rusade agaist slaery ad his defese of a free press.
• Abolitionists had sincerely believed that once slave owners were informed of the sins of slavery, they
would voluntarily free their slaves. The Alton riot showed antislavery forces that their crusade would not
triumph unless they took direct action and entered the political game.
William Lloyd Garrison: Radical Abolitionist Editor
• The primary vehicle Garrison used to spread his gospel was The Liberator, the Boston weekly he edited for
thirty-five years starting in 1831.
• In 1829 he set his sights on Francis Todd, who took slaves to Louisiana sugar plantations on his ship.
Garriso rote a artile aout the horrile istreatet of slaes eig haied i a arro plae
etee deks. Todd filed a liel suit, sayig the slaed hadt ee haied and argued that Garrison
had relieved on hearsay for his article. Garrison refused to repent and spent the next forty-nine days
behind bars.
• Garrison was known throughout the country because of his success as a provocateur, and would often
reprint editorial attacks made against him along with his own vehement response-giving his readers far
more compelling content than his original editorial had.
• Garrisos groig ifluee o the atios osiee ae i the for of the uerous goeretal
bodies that attempted to silence him.
• The Liberator’s status as the most widely known voice for abolition, was not extremely successful
otherwise. Paid subscribers never exceeded 2,500, mostly powerless African Americans, and Garrison paid
his printing costs through the fees he charged for speaking engagements (which mostly ended with stones
and rotten eggs).
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Document Summary
The north began to industrialize with urban-based factories, while the south remained an agrarian society with an economy dominated by the production of cotton and tobacco. Southerners saw slavery as a way to introduce a backward people to christian civilization. Slaves were not free, and were denied their rights as children of god. To spread the message abolitionists created their own newspapers-the motivation was a determination to disseminate the antislavery ideology to a larger audience throughout the north and intensify the negative feelings against slavery. Elijah lovejoy established a presbyterian newspaper in the far western state of missouri called the st. Louis observer, where lovejoy preached against slavery: missouri communities opposed the observer arguing that commercial operations in the south would refuse to do business with missouri if the state allowed lovejoy to publishing antislavery sentiment. Lovejoy ran outside and aimed his pistol at the man on the ladder with the torch, but lovejoy was shot five times.
