Presbyterian minister Elijah Lovejoy was murdered in Alton, Illinois, on November 7, 1837. A staunch abolitionist and fighter of slavery, Lovejoy also owned a newspaper that a mob had firebombed three times. After vigorously defending an enslaved person burned alive by pro-slavery forces, the mob set fire to his warehouse. Lovejoy was shot trying to beat back the fire. His death was a major rallying cry for Northern Abolitionists before the US Civil War. This is a monument to him in Alton.
