A Martyr’s Echo:
From David Walker to Daphne Caruana Galizia
A Pro-Humanity History of Press Freedom
It was a cold November night in 1837, a white minister and newspaper editor named Elijah Parish Lovejoy was shot five times while guarding his printing press from a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois (Tanner 12). History has often called him “the first martyr to the freedom of the press.”
That title is not accurate.
Elijah Lovejoy was the first white martyr whose death was covered relentlessly by mainstream newspapers and mourned by powerful politicians. But Black journalists were shedding blood for the same cause years earlier. Their deaths were not called martyrdom. They were “justified” by the society that killed them. And same same shit different day.
One hundred and eighty years after Lovejoy, on a warm October afternoon in 2017, a Maltese journalist named Daphne Caruana Galizia started her car and was instantly killed by a bomb planted by men who wanted her reporting to stop (“Daphne Caruana Galizia: Journalist Killed”).
Their weapons were different. A pamphlet, a printing press, a blog, but their cause was the same. The belief that a free press is the cornerstone of human rights. This is their story, told whole.
The Black Journalists Who Came First
David Walker (1796–1830)
David Walker was born free in North Carolina to an enslaved father. He moved to Boston and became a clothing retailer and undercover writer. In 1829, he published Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America (Walker).
The pamphlet was revolutionary. Walker did not ask for gradual emancipation. He demanded immediate abolition and argued that enslaved people had not only the right but the moral duty to fight for their freedom. He wrote: “They want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us… therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed” (Walker, Article IV).
Southern states reacted with fury. Governors demanded Walker be arrested for sedition. A bounty was placed on his head. The pamphlet was banned, and anyone caught distributing it faced severe punishment or death (Hinks 124).
Frontispiece from David Walker's "Appeal."
In June 1830, David Walker was found dead in his Boston home. The official cause was listed as consumption (tuberculosis), but many abolitionists believed he had been poisoned. He was 33 years old (Aptheker 42).
Walker was not killed by a mob at a printing press. But he died because he wrote the truth, and the slaveholding class wanted him silenced. That makes him a martyr for press freedom, whether history books acknowledge it or not.
Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm (Freedom’s Journal, 1827)
On March 16, 1827, Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm published the first issue of Freedom’s Journal, the first Black-owned and operated newspaper in the United States (Freedom’s Journal 1:1). Its mission statement read: “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us” (Freedom’s Journal 1:1).
Freedom’s Journal covered international news, local events, lynchings and anti-Black violence that white newspapers refused to report. Covering lynching was the most dangerous of all. The paper also railed against the American Colonization Society, which proposed sending free Black people to Africa, arguing that Black Americans had earned their place in the United States (Bacon 67).
The newspaper faced constant threats. White mobs destroyed copies. Subscribers were harassed. Cornish was forced to resign after just six months due to the stress and danger. Russwurm continued alone until 1829, when he shockingly reversed his position and endorsed colonization. A decision that devastated the Black community (Russwurm).
John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish
No one killed Cornish or Russwurm. But they lived under the constant threat of violence for the crime of publishing while Black. Their crime was not what they wrote. Their crime was existing as free Black men with a printing press.
The Pattern of Erasure
Why is Lovejoy called the “first martyr” while Walker is called a “radical pamphleteer” and Freedom’s Journal is called a “historic footnote”?
The answer is white supremacy. Lovejoy’s death was covered by white newspapers read by white politicians. They saw themselves in him. He was a white minister, a Princeton-educated man, a husband and father. His death could be mourned without challenging the viewer’s own complicity in slavery (Ellingwood 245).
Walker, by contrast, was dangerous. His death was convenient for the slaveholding class. Calling him a martyr would mean acknowledging that a Black man’s words were powerful enough to threaten the entire Southern economy. That was too frightening to admit (Hinks 189).
Elijah Parish Lovejoy (1802–1837)
Early Life and Calling
Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born on November 9, 1802, near Albion, Maine, the first of nine children of a Congregational preacher (Dillon). After graduating at the top of his class from Waterville College (now Colby College) in 1826, he followed a calling west, settling in St. Louis, Missouri (“Elijah Parish Lovejoy”). There, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and, in 1833, began publishing the St. Louis Observer (Lovejoy and Lovejoy 89).
The Slavery Question
Initially, Lovejoy supported gradual emancipation, a position considered dangerously radical in slaveholding Missouri (Ellingwood 112). But when a mob burned a Black boatman named Francis McIntosh alive in 1836 and a judge refused to convict anyone. He insinuated that Lovejoy’s writings had incited the violence. Lovejoy erupted. He called the judge “a Papist; and in his charge we see the cloven foot of Jesuitism” (St. Louis Observer qtd. in Dillon 87).
The night that article appeared, a mob damaged his press. Lovejoy moved his family across the Mississippi River to Alton, Illinois, a free state, determined to continue (Tanner 34).
Four Presses, Four Destructions
Before Lovejoy could even unload his press in Alton, a mob destroyed it (Ellingwood 156). Over the next eighteen months, pro-slavery mobs destroyed three more. Each time, Lovejoy resolved to continue.
At a public meeting, prominent Alton citizens asked him to leave. He refused, delivering an eloquent defense of civil rights:
“But gentlemen, as long as I am an American citizen, and as long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject” (Lovejoy and Lovejoy 178).
The Final Stand
On November 7, 1837, a mob gathered outside a warehouse where Lovejoy’s fourth press was stored. They demanded its surrender. Inside, Lovejoy and a small band of supporters waited, armed to defend it (Tanner 56).
When someone from the mob attempted to set the warehouse roof on fire, Lovejoy stepped outside to stop him. He was shot five times and died almost instantly. The mob then threw the press out the window and dragged it to the Mississippi River, where it was destroyed (Ellingwood 212).
Legacy
Abraham Lincoln later called Lovejoy’s death “the most important single event that ever happened in the new world” (qtd. in Ellingwood 280). His brother, Owen Lovejoy, took up the cause and became a leading abolitionist congressman (“Owen Lovejoy”).
But we must say this plainly: Elijah Lovejoy was not the first person to die for freedom of the press. He was the first white person whose death was recorded as such. David Walker died seven years before Lovejoy, and his crime was the same: publishing words the powerful did not want printed. A complete history places Lovejoy in a line that includes Walker, Cornish, Russwurm, and countless unnamed Black journalists who were beaten, jailed, and killed for telling the truth.
Daphne Caruana Galizia (1964–2017)
The Blogger Who Took on a Nation
Daphne Caruana Galizia was born in Sliema, Malta, in 1964. She studied archaeology at the University of Malta but found her true calling in journalism (“Daphne Caruana Galizia” Committee to Protect Journalists). By the 2010s, she had become the island nation’s most feared investigative reporter, publishing a popular blog called Running Commentary.
Her specialty was corruption. Using public records and leaked documents, she exposed how politically connected businessmen were profiting from government contracts, secret offshore accounts, and money laundering schemes (Garside).
The Panama Papers
In 2016, Caruana Galizia’s reporting reached a global audience. She was one of the journalists who broke the Panama Papers. This massive leak of 11.5 million documents revealed how the world’s wealthy hid their assets in offshore shell companies (“The Panama Papers”).
Her specific target was Malta’s Energy Minister, Konrad Mizzi, and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri. She revealed that both had opened secret Panama companies just as the government awarded lucrative oil exploration contracts (Caruana Galizia, “The Secret Panama Companies”).
She wrote on her blog: “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate” (Caruana Galizia, Running Commentary).
The Murder
On October 16, 2017, Caruana Galizia left her home in Bidnija, Malta, and drove her Peugeot 108. A bomb attached to the underside of the car detonated, killing her instantly. She was 53 years old (“Daphne Caruana Galizia: How the Murder Unfolded”).
The murder sent shockwaves across Europe. Tens of thousands of Maltese citizens poured into the streets of Valletta, demanding justice. The European Parliament condemned the killing as “an attack on the freedom of the press” (European Parliament Resolution).
The Aftermath
In 2019, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was forced to resign after it emerged that his chief of staff was connected to the murder plot (“Malta’s PM Joseph Muscat to Resign”). In 2021, three men were convicted for carrying out the bombing: brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, and Vince Muscat. They were sentenced to 40 years in prison (“Three Men Convicted”). The alleged mastermind, businessman Yorgen Fenech, remains on trial as of 2025 (“Yorgen Fenech Trial”).
Legacy
The Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism is now awarded annually by the European Parliament (“Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize”). UNESCO has called her murder “a stark reminder of the price journalists pay for exposing wrongdoing” (UNESCO).
What Connects Them
David Walker (1830)
Slavery Pamphlet
Bounty on his head
Likely poisoned
No one charged
Samuel Cornish & John Russwurm (1827–1829)
Racism, colonization
Newspaper Constant threats, mob destruction
Lived under threat
N/A (survived)
Elijah Lovejoy (1837)
Pro-slavery mobs
Printing press
Four presses destroyed
Shot by mob
No one convicted
Daphne Caruana Galizia (2017)
Government corruption
Blog Multiple libel suits
Car bomb
Three convicted; mastermind on trial
All were warned. All refused to stop. And in each case, the powerful people who wanted them silenced were either never brought to justice or were brought to justice only after public outrage forced action.
Conclusion
UNESCO reports that more than 85% of journalist murders go unpunished worldwide (UNESCO 8). That statistic would not surprise David Walker. It would not surprise Elijah Lovejoy. And it would not surprise Daphne Caruana Galizia.
They all knew that those who kill reporters often believe they will never face consequences. But they also knew something else: that a single voice, printed on a page, can outlast any mob. That a free press is not a luxury. It is the only weapon the powerless have against the powerful.
As the editors of Freedom’s Journal wrote in their very first issue: “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us” (Freedom’s Journal 1:1).
It is past time we let them.
Works Cited
Aptheker, Herbert. One Continual Cry: David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World. Humanities Press, 1965.
Bacon, Jacqueline. Freedom’s Journal: The First Black Newspaper. Lexington Books, 2007.
Caruana Galizia, Daphne. “The Secret Panama Companies of Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.” Running Commentary, 3 Apr. 2016.
Running Commentary. 15 Sept. 2017.
“Daphne Caruana Galizia.” Committee to Protect Journalists, 2017, cpj.org/data/people/daphne-caruana-galizia/.
“Daphne Caruana Galizia: How the Murder Unfolded.” Times of Malta, 16 Oct. 2018, timesofmalta.com/articles/view/daphne-caruana-galizia-how-the-murder-unfolded.691865.
“Daphne Caruana Galizia: Journalist Killed by Car Bomb in Malta.” BBC News, 17 Oct. 2017, bbc.com/news/world-europe-41648547.
“Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism.” European Parliament, 2021, europarl.europa.eu/daphne-prize.
Dillon, Merton L. “Lovejoy, Elijah Parish (1802-1837).” American National Biography, Oxford University Press, 1999.
“Elijah Parish Lovejoy.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Parish_Lovejoy. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.
Ellingwood, Ken. First to Fall: Elijah Lovejoy and the Fight for a Free Press in the Age of Slavery. Pegasus Books, 2021.
European Parliament. Resolution on the Murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. 15 Nov. 2017.
Freedom’s Journal. Vol. 1, no. 1, 16 Mar. 1827.
Garside, Juliette. “Malta Car Bomb Kills Panama Papers Journalist.” The Guardian, 16 Oct. 2017, theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/malta-car-bomb-kills-panama-papers-journalist.
Hinks, Peter P. To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance. Penn State Press, 1997.
Lincoln, Abraham. Speech at Springfield, Illinois. 1857. Quoted in Ellingwood, First to Fall, p. 280.
Lovejoy, Joseph C., and Owen Lovejoy. Memoir of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy. J.S. Taylor, 1838.
“Malta’s PM Joseph Muscat to Resign over Caruana Galizia Case.” Al Jazeera, 1 Dec. 2019, aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/1/maltas-pm-joseph-muscat-to-resign-over-caruana-galizia-case.
“Owen Lovejoy.” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000469. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.
“The Panama Papers.” International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 2016, icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/.
Russwurm, John. “To the Public.” Freedom’s Journal, 28 Mar. 1829.
Tanner, Henry. The Martyrdom of Lovejoy. Fergus Printing Company, 1881.
“Three Men Convicted of Murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia.” Reuters, 24 Nov. 2021, reuters.com/world/europe/three-men-convicted-murdering-maltese-journalist-daphne-caruana-galizia-2021-11-24/.
UNESCO. “Director-General Condemns Murder of Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.” 17 Oct. 2017, unesco.org/en/articles/director-general-condemns-murder-journalist-daphne-caruana-galizia.
“Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.” 2024 Report.
Walker, David. Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America. Boston, 1829.
“Yorgen Fenech Trial: What You Need to Know.” Malta Today, 15 Jan. 2025, maltatoday.com.mt/news/court-and-police/129322/yorgen_fenech_trial_what_you_need_to_know.
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