Elijah Lovejoy November 7th 1837: Part Two

Lovejoy and his supporters exchanged gunfire with the mob. The leaders of the mob decided to burn down Gilman’s warehouse, so they got a ladder and set it alongside the building.

Lovejoy was considered a martyr by the abolition movement, and in his name, his brother Owen Lovejoy became the leader of the Illinois abolitionists. His murder was a sign of the increasing tension within the country leading up to the Civil War, and it is for this reason that he is considered to be the “first casualty of the Civil War.”