FIRST TO FALL

The short, eventful life of a bold agitator against slavery.

Drawing on rich historical sources, journalist Ellingwood effectively conveys the brutal reality of pre–Civil War America, when champions of slavery, anti-slavery activists, and abolitionists clashed violently. The central character in this vibrant history is Elijah Lovejoy (1802-1837), a Presbyterian minister, newspaper editor, and temperance crusader whose relentless stance against slavery cost him his life. At first, Lovejoy distanced himself from abolitionists, widely denigrated as “madmen and insurrectionists.” Rather, he took the view that slavery should be eradicated gradually, and he backed “colonization as the best solution to the young country’s racial conundrum.” However, owning newspapers in St. Louis and Alton, Illinois, made him increasingly aware of rampant barbarity. Slavery was a sin, he declared, a stance that put him in the crosshairs of those who viciously opposed him: He was threatened with being tarred and feathered; his offices were vandalized; his printing presses were repeatedly destroyed. Pressured to go silent on the issue, he became emboldened. “I have sworn eternal opposition to Slavery,” he wrote, “and, by the blessing of God, I will never go back.” Ellingwood also follows the fortunes of other editors, including James Birney, “a son of the South, a man bred to privilege amid the slavery system,” who freed the handful of slaves he owned and unapologetically declared himself an abolitionist. Both men faced restrictions on freedom of the press. States could defend the First Amendment—or not; Southern and border states preferred not. Lovejoy proceeded bravely even in the face of mounting violence. At home, he and his brothers slept with loaded muskets next to their beds. In the end, though, he fell victim to an armed, drunken mob that stormed a warehouse where he and others guarded a new press. He became a martyr to the cause of justice, and Ellingwood clearly demonstrates his important contributions to the anti-slavery movement.

A lucid and dramatic portrait of a tormented nation.