(1805-08-29)August 29, 1805 Wythe County, Virginia, U.S.
Died
April 29, 1877(1877-04-29) (aged 71) Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting place
Old Gray Cemetery Knoxville, Tennessee
Political party
Whig American Republican
Spouse
Eliza O'Brien (m. 1836)
Relations
Walter P. Brownlow (nephew)
Children
Susan, John Bell, James, Mary, Fannie, Annie, Caledonia Temple
Profession
Minister, newspaper editor
Signature
William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow (August 29, 1805 – April 29, 1877) was an American newspaper publisher, Methodist minister, book author, prisoner of war, lecturer, and politician who served as the 17th governor of Tennessee from 1865 to 1869 and as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1869 to 1875. Brownlow rose to prominence in the late 1830s and early 1840s as editor of the Whig, a polemical newspaper in East Tennessee that promoted Whig Party ideals and opposed secession in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Brownlow's uncompromising and radical viewpoints made him one of the most divisive figures in Tennessee political history and one of the most controversial Reconstruction Era politicians of the United States.
Beginning his career as a Methodist circuit rider in the 1820s, Brownlow was both censured and praised by his superiors for his vicious verbal debates with rival missionaries of other sectarian Christian beliefs. Later, as a newspaper publisher and editor, he was notorious for his relentless personal attacks against his religious and political opponents, sometimes to the point of being physically assaulted. At the same time, Brownlow was successfully building a large base of fiercely loyal subscribers.[1]
Brownlow returned to Tennessee in 1863 and in 1865 became the war governor with the U.S. Army behind him. He joined the Radical Republicans and spent much of his term opposing the policies of his longtime political foe Andrew Johnson.[1] His gubernatorial policies, which were both autocratic and progressive, helped Tennessee become the first former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union in 1866, "exempting it from the lengthy federal military reconstruction inflicted on most of the South".[1][2]
Soon after the Civil War, Brownlow utilized the state government to enfranchise male African-American former slaves with the right to vote and run for public office in Tennessee. Soon after, ex-Confederate political leaders and military officers used the Ku Klux Klan and likeminded vigilante groups to disenfranchise African-Americans.[1]
^ abcdForrest Conklin, William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow. Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009. Retrieved on October 18, 2012.
^Jack Neely, "Requiem for Parson Brownlow," Metro Pulse, 6 April 2011] Accessed at the Internet Archive, September 20, 2017
William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow (August 29, 1805 – April 29, 1877) was an American newspaper publisher, Methodist minister, book author, prisoner of...
Brownlow was the son of East Tennessee preacher and politician ParsonBrownlow. James P. Brownlow served in several positions in the Union Army, finishing the...
candidate ParsonBrownlow was nominated for governor by a convention of Tennessee Unionists in January 1865. He was the only nominee. On March 4, Brownlow was...
government administrator, and real estate developer. The older of ParsonBrownlow's two sons, Brownlow was a Southern Unionist who served as colonel in the United...
occupy East Tennessee. A pro-Union newspaper publisher, William G. "Parson" Brownlow, used the arrests and hangings as propaganda in his 1862 anti-secession...
elect the next governor of Tennessee. Incumbent Republican Governor ParsonBrownlow was elected to the United States Senate and resigned as governor on...
on March 4, 1865, East became "Acting Governor of Tennessee" until ParsonBrownlow, the elected governor of Tennessee, was inaugurated on April 5, 1865...
the mountain regions of Appalachia and the Ozarks. Unionists, led by ParsonBrownlow and Senator Andrew Johnson, took control of East Tennessee in 1863...
regional fame for his frequent clashes with rival editor, William "Parson" Brownlow. Following the Civil War, Haynes moved to Memphis, where he practiced...
toward the end of the war, and appointed William G. "Parson" Brownlow governor. Under Brownlow's administration from 1865 to 1869, the legislature allowed...
family plots of two bitter Civil War rivals, pro-Unionist William "Parson" Brownlow and pro-secessionist John Hervey Crozier, are separated only by a roadway...
The Interlocking Careers of T.A.R. Nelson, Andrew Johnson, and W.G. (Parson) Brownlow,’ East Tennessee Historical Society Publications, No. 24 (1952), pp...
Gillem and his colonels, John K. Miller, W. H. Ingerton, and John "Belt" Brownlow, determined they must seize the moment and organized what was intended...
3, 1871 Unionist Joseph S. Fowler 15 Democratic 40th Republican 16 ParsonBrownlow Republican Mar 4, 1869 – Mar 3, 1875 Elected in 1867. Retired. 14 41st...
theater during World War II. Nathan Bedford Forrest—disparaged by ParsonBrownlow in 1864 as a "sin-hardened negro trader, and livery stable man of Memphis"—was...
Rebels with a loaded pistol. Brownlow was from a Southern Unionist family of East Tennesseeans. Her father was the Fighting Parson, and her two brothers were...
Johnson resigned, having been elected Vice President of the United States. Brownlow resigned, having been elected to the United States Senate. Frazier resigned...
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