Brownlow, William G.

▪ American journalist and politician

in full  William Gannaway Brownlow  

born Aug. 29, 1805, Wythe county, Va., U.S.

died April 29, 1877, Knoxville, Tenn.

      editor of the last pro-Union newspaper in the antebellum South of the United States who served as governor of Tennessee during the early years of Reconstruction.

      As a young child, Brownlow migrated with his family from Virginia to eastern Tennessee. He was orphaned at age 11, grew up with relatives, and had little formal schooling. But he read widely and, in 1826, entered the Methodist ministry.

      For the next decade Brownlow was an itinerant preacher. In 1838 he began his long career as a newspaper editor, starting with the Tennessee Whig (1838) and continuing with the Jonesboro Whig and Independent (1839–49) and the Knoxville Whig (1849–69 and 1875–77).

      An outspoken and unconditional advocate of the Union, Brownlow continued to ridicule secession until Confederate authorities suppressed the Knoxville Whig and caused its editor to flee in the fall of 1861. His press and type were destroyed, putting an end to the last pro-Union paper in the South. The Confederate secretary of war, Judah Benjamin, banished Brownlow to the North, where the former editor regained his health (after having suffered from typhoid), made a successful lecture tour, and wrote a book, Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession; With a narrative of Personal Adventure Among the Rebels (1862).

      When eastern Tennessee was brought under the control of Federal forces in 1863, Brownlow returned to his home state and was instrumental in restoring civil government there. Then, in 1865, he was elected governor of that state. Determined to punish pro-secessionists, he advocated disenfranchising all who had fought against the Union, and he mobilized 1,600 state guards in order to crush the newly organized Ku Klux Klan. Despite failing health, he was elected to a second term by a large majority.

      Toward the end of his second term as governor, Brownlow was elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1875 he returned to Knoxville, bought back the Whig (which he had sold in 1869), and edited the paper until shortly before his death.

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