On November 7, 1837, Elijah P. Lovejoy was killed in Alton by a pro-slavery mob. He was a minister and newspaper editor who used his press to denounce slavery, and he refused to be silenced even after mobs destroyed three of his presses. He died defending the fourth, and his death made him a martyr to the abolitionist cause, one that helped stir the conscience of a nation. He was also the first pastor of what is now LoveJoy United Presbyterian Church, which still carries his name. One day after the anniversary of his death, the Vintage Voices Players bring his story home to the congregation he helped begin.
The story isn’t told through Lovejoy himself. Five people whose lives were bound up with his tell it in first-person portrayals:
Celia Lovejoy, his widow
William “Scotch” Johnston, a free Black man who secretly buried Lovejoy’s body
Amanda Kitchell Chavers, whose freedom was bought when the people of Alton came together to purchase it
Thomas Dimmock, who led the effort to build the Lovejoy Monument
Isaac H. Kelly, the first official trustee of Lovejoy’s grave
The 45-minute performance will be the centerpiece of our Sunday morning worship. A few songs and a brief welcome come before and after it, and the whole morning runs a little over an hour. You don’t need to be a churchgoer or know what to do when. Come as you are, sit wherever you like, and bring anyone who loves local history, the Metro East’s role in the fight against slavery, or a good story well told.
Stay afterward for donuts, coffee and conversation.
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