Contesting Secession: Parson Brownlow and the Rhetoric of Proslavery Unionism, 1860–1861

Abstract

During the American Civil War there were few Southern Unionists better known in the North than Rev. William G. "Parson" Brownlow of East Tennessee. A regionally prominent figure before the war, the controversial Methodist minister and newspaper editor became something of a national celebrity during the conflict itself. Brownlow denounced "the vile heresy of secession" in the Knoxville Whig for as long as Tennessee remained in the Union. After the state voted in favor of separation in June 1861—against the wishes of a large majority of East Tennesseans, though not of Knoxvillians—he shifted his focus to a vitriolic critique of the "so-called Confederacy" and its "reign of terror" over Southern Unionists. 1 Local authorities finally arrested him and charged him with treason in late 1861; and after an imprisonment of three months, he was banished beyond Confederate lines in March 1862. Shortly thereafter he began a triumphal speaking tour of the North, addressing large and enthusiastic audiences from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Portland, Maine. 2 At the same time, his speeches were widely published in pamphlet form, a dime novel was written about his "heroic" daughter, and Brownlow himself took time from the lecture circuit to pen a hasty account of his experiences as a Unionist martyr. Known popularly as Parson Brownlow's Book, the volume sold more than 100,000 copies before the war's end. 3 [End Page 294]