Two men were waiting for Elijah Lovejoy on the road from Alton. Doctors Beall and Jennings threatened to tar and feather him, and they had intercepted him away from home. Lovejoy was alone and unarmed.
By this point, the controversy surrounding Lovejoy had become increasingly dangerous. His opposition to slavery and the positions he took in his newspaper had made him enemies.
But when the two doctors confronted him on the road, Lovejoy didn’t run. He didn’t threaten them or beg for his life. Instead, he told them that he knew he couldn’t stop them from doing what they intended to do. Then he made a request. He was carrying medicine home to his sick, pregnant wife, Celia. If they were going to take him l, he asked them to please make sure the medicine reached her.
The men were threatening to tar and feather him, and Lovejoy’s immediate concern was that Celia get her medicine. Something unexpected happened because of his demeanor. The two men who had come to harm him found themselves admiring his courage so much that they could t go through with their plans.
Lovejoy went home to his wife.
This is one of the reasons I find the real people behind Lincoln Seeks Justice for Elijah Lovejoy so interesting and so much more than the simple historical events.
It is easy to reduce Lovejoy to a cause. He was an abolitionist. He was a newspaper editor. He believed passionately in what he was doing and could be remarkably uncompromising. But he was also a husband carrying medicine home to his sick wife. And on the road that evening, facing two men who intended to harm him and possibly kill him, that was what mattered most to him.
When I began my novel, the controversy surrounding Lovejoy was already underway. I didn’t need to invent danger for him. It was already there. What I needed to do was turn the historical figure back into a man.
Current Projects
- My Book: continuing revision of Lincoln Seeks Justice for Elijah Lovejoy, a historical mystery that brings Abraham Lincoln into the very real and increasingly dangerous controversy surrounding Elijah Lovejoy.
- Edward Bryant: continuing preparations for future publication and preservation of stories by my friend Edward Bryant.
Thanks for walking alongside me.
