Reverend Thomas W. Conway was assistant commissioner of the

Freedmen Bureau The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...

in Alabama and Louisiana during the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

that followed the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Freedmen's Bureau activities in Louisiana began on June 13, 1865 when the Bureau's commissioner,

Oliver O. Howard Oliver Otis Howard (November 8, 1830 – October 26, 1909) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the Civil War. As a brigade commander in the Army of the Potomac, Howard lost his right arm while leading his men against ...

, appointed Chaplain Thomas W. Conway as the state's assistant commissioner. He published a report for that year, ''The Freedmen of Louisiana: Final Report of the Bureau of Free Labor, Department of the Gulf, to Major General Canby, Commanding'' (1865). Another seven assistant commissioners would later hold this office.

Background

Conway had served as superintendent of

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...

in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

Department of the Gulf The Department of the Gulf was a command of the United States Army in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and of the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. History United States Army (Civil War) Creation The department was cons ...

. In that role he tried to organize work which the Army needed done. In April 1865, he was given command of the Freedmen Bureau's Alabama operations as interim Freedmen's Bureau assistant commissioner for the state. Amid the disruption of the closing days of the war, Conway reported on the horrible conditions African Americans faced in the South. Often having left plantations when emancipated, they faced a lack of housing and food, and brutal attacks by angry whites. He appealed for funding from the North. In May 1865 Conway adopted a set of labor regulations he had drafted for Louisiana while under the authority of Major General

Stephen Hurlbut Stephen Augustus Hurlbut (November 29, 1815 – March 27, 1882), was an attorney and politician, who commanded the U.S. Army of the Gulf in the American Civil War. Afterward, he continued to serve as a politician and also as a diplomat. Althoug ...

. It was an attempt to set up rules for the new free labor market. In 1866 Conway wrote to the

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...

of the state of New York seeking support for a trip to England. He planned to seek capital investments for cotton cultivation projects which he said would benefit White and Black residents of Louisiana and help calm social tensions. He issued a series of orders regarding abandoned lands, sick refugees and freedmen, as well as other issues under the Freedmen Bureau's purview. Conway supervised the opening of the

Abraham Lincoln School Abraham Lincoln School was for freedmen and opened on October 3, 1865, in New Orleans on the campus of University of Louisiana (predecessor to Tulane University) after the American Civil War. It was featured on the cover of ''Harper's Weekly ...

on the campus of the University of Louisiana (predecessor to

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

), a school for African Americans. After passage of the

Reconstruction Acts of 1867 The Reconstruction Acts, or the Military Reconstruction Acts, (March 2, 1867, 14 Stat. 428-430, c.153; March 23, 1867, 15 Stat. 2-5, c.6; July 19, 1867, 15 Stat. 14-16, c.30; and March 11, 1868, 15 Stat. 41, c.25) were four statutes passed duri ...

, Conway was no longer assigned to the Freedmen Bureau, but he remained in contact with Howard. He had introductory letters from Hulbert for a tour of Bureau activities in the South. He reported on assistance that the Bureau and its officials were providing to the

Union League The Union Leagues were quasi-secretive men’s clubs established separately, starting in 1862, and continuing throughout the Civil War (1861–1865). The oldest Union League of America council member, an organization originally called "The Leag ...

. Conway was involved in Republican Party organizing in Louisiana during the Reconstruction era. In the contentious state elections for 1868, he supported Henry C. Warmoth for governor, who was a white Northerner considered a "

carpetbagger In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical term used by Southerners to describe opportunistic Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War, who were perceived to be exploiting the lo ...

" by some Republicans in the state. Conway criticized Dr.

Louis Charles Roudanez Louis Charles Roudanez, M.D. (1823-1890) was an American physician and newspaper publisher. He founded the first African-American newspaper in the American South, ''L'Union'' (1862-1864), which was the first bilingual (French-English) newspaper fo ...

of New Orleans, who published ''

The New Orleans Tribune ''The New Orleans Tribune'' was a newspaper serving the African-American community of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the first Black daily newspaper in the United States. History The ''Tribune'' was founded in 1864 by Dr. Louis Charles Roudane ...

''. Roudanez was part of the community of men who had been

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...

before the war, and he had been educated in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and at top American schools for his medical degree. The ''Tribune'' was the first daily black newspaper in the United States; it strongly supported the Republican Party and promoted the franchise for all African Americans. Roudanez supported local candidates over those from the North. Conway lobbied in Washington D.C. with the national party to switch from Roudanez's paper to the ''Republican'', which supported Warmoth, as the party's official journal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conway, Thomas W. Union Army officers 19th-century United States government officials