Abraham Harris Galloway (February 8, 1837 – September 1, 1870) was an American abolitionist and politician. A former slave, he served as a Union Army spy and early black political organizer in eastern North Carolina during the American Civil War. After the war, helped to organize the Republican Party in the state and served in the North Carolina Senate from 1868 to 1870.
Galloway was born in Smithville to an enslaved black woman and a white ship's pilot. He moved with his master to Wilmington and worked as a brick mason before fleeing the city with another slave to seek freedom in 1857, eventually reaching Canada. In subsequent years, Galloway travelled frequently both within Canada and back into the United States, namely the states of Ohio and Massachusetts, where he made contacts with abolitionists and sometimes delivered speeches denouncing slavery. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, he was recruited to serve as a spy for federal forces. He traveled widely throughout the secessionist Confederacy during the war, though the full extent and nature of his activities is not known. In 1862, he disappeared in Mississippi under unknown circumstances, eventually resurfacing in Union-occupied New Bern, North Carolina by the following year. He emerged as a leading figure in the local black community and convinced freed slaves to support the Union war effort and enlist in the federal army.
As the war drew to an end, Galloway became increasingly focused on black citizenship and voting rights for freedmen, leading efforts to establish National Equal Rights League chapters in eastern North Carolina. Returning to Wilmington, he spearheaded local efforts to establish and promote the Republican Party, viewing it as the political organization best suited to represent the interests of blacks and poor whites. He served as a delegate in the state's 1868 constitutional convention and was subsequently elected to the North Carolina Senate, developing a reputation as a fierce debater. As a legislator, he voted for ratification of the 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution, assisted in efforts to create a public school system, denounced railroads and the Ku Klux Klan, and supported women's rights. He died shortly after his reelection in 1870.
Early life Abraham Harris Galloway was born on February 8, 1837, in the small town of Smithville, North Carolina, United States. He was born to an enslaved black woman, Hester Hankins, who was owned by the widow of a Methodist minister. His father was John Wesley Galloway, a white ship's pilot. How the two met is unclear. The Galloways were a locally prominent family and included several wealthy planters. Abraham was owned by the widow's son, Marsden Milton Hankins. Historian David Cecelski suggests a "family bond may have brought" the parents into contact, as John was Marsden's second cousin. Abraham later recounted that his father "recognized me as his son and protected me as far as he was allowed to do so." John Galloway married a white woman in 1839 and had eight children with her. The extent of Abraham's contact with these relations is not clear, though his eventual widow later recalled that Abraham had familiarity with the eldest of Galloway's white wedlock-born sons, Alexander Swift Galloway, and indicated that the two were playmates in childhood. Abraham had no formal education in his youth and could not read or write.
Hankins eventually moved to Wilmington to work as a mechanic and engineer. Galloway apprenticed as a brick mason until he became a master of the trade. Once achieving this status, he moved in with Hankins and his wife in their home off of North Fourth Street. He later recalled Hankins as a "man of very good disposition" who "always said he would sell before he would use the whip" but described his wife as a "mean woman". Hankins permitted Galloway to find brick masonry work at his preference as long he could pay Hankins $180 a year from his earnings.
Galloway decided to escape when it became impossible for him to continue bringing his owner the money in light of tightening economic conditions in Wilmington. In 1857, at the age of 20, Galloway was able to escape from slavery alongside a fellow slave, Richard Eden. A sympathetic ship captain agreed to hide Galloway and Eden below the deck of his schooner, among barrels of turpentine, tar, and rosin. Northbound ships were fumigated by burning turpentine to flush out insects and runaway slaves. Galloway and Eden planned to don oilcloth and wet towels to ward off smoke, but the fires were never lit. Galloway and Eden arrived successfully in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sickened by exposure to the ship's cargo. The two sought assistance at the offices of the Vigilance Committee of Philadelphia, the city's oldest abolitionist organization, and met one of the group's leaders, Underground Railroad operative William Still. Though Pennsylvania was a free state, Galloway and Eden faced the risk of capture by bounty hunters under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. To ensure their safety, Still supplied Galloway, Eden, and a third fugitive slave, John Henry Pettifoot, train tickets and a list of contacts to assist them on a journey to Kingston, Ontario, Canada. At a Vigilance Committee member's request, Galloway left in their care two souvenirs: a photograph of himself and one of the oilcloths he and Eden had used on their voyage. An etching of the photograph was later created, and it remains the only confirmed image of Galloway.
Galloway, Eden, and Pettifoot left Philadelphia in late June 1857. In Kingston they met George Mink, a black stagecoach operator and ally of the Vigilance Committee of Philadelphia. On July 20, Eden wrote Still a letter confirming the party's safe arrival in Kingston and connecting with Mink. He also mentioned that Galloway had found work as a brick mason. In subsequent years, Galloway travelled frequently both within Canada and back into the United States, namely the states of Ohio and Massachusetts, where he made contacts with abolitionists and sometimes delivered speeches denouncing slavery. In December 1860 he went to Boston to prepare to sail to the Republic of Haiti to support abolitionist James Redpath's black settler colony. He arrived in Haiti in January 1861. He stayed for 15 weeks, visiting a black American exile community in Saint-Marc, and returning to the United States on April 1.
American Civil War Shortly after Galloway returned to the United States, the American Civil War broke out. At the recommendation of abolitionist George Luther Stearns, federal military leaders in Massachusetts recruited Galloway to serve as a spy in the territory of the breakaway Confederate States of America. Within several weeks he was reporting to Major General Benjamin Butler, who commanded the federal garrison at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Galloway traveled widely throughout the Confederacy during the war, though the full extent and nature of his activities is not fully known. He rarely spoke of his service as a spy later in his life. He investigated potential landing sites for federal forces in advance of Burnside's North Carolina Expedition in 1861 and 1862.
In 1862, Butler was reassigned to command the newly-formed Department of the Gulf. Galloway was transferred along with the commander to federally-held land in Louisiana. Shortly thereafter he was attached to federal forces operating near Vicksburg, Mississippi. He later disappeared in Mississippi under unknown circumstances. The Anglo-African wrote that he had been seized by Confederate forces "on distant Southern strand" but did not elaborate further. He later resurfaced in Union-occupied New Bern, North Carolina. Mary Ann Starkey, a former slave and local leader in the black community, later said of his arrival in the city that he was in dire need of her help. The two later became close allies, with Galloway supporting her efforts to assist freedmen and women and sometimes joining meetings among black activists at her home.
Galloway made frequent appearances in New Bern. He developed a reputation as prideful and brazen. Ignoring racial customs, he refused to move aside to let white men pass him on the street or to allow white customers to make purchases ahead of him in shops. In May 1863, Edward Kinsley, an abolitionist and an emissary of Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew, traveled to New Bern to investigate the possibility of recruiting blacks to serve in the Union Army. Kinsley managed to secure a meeting with local black leaders one night in Starkey's home, among whom was Galloway. Galloway initially opposed black enlistment. The black leaders demanded, among other things, that blacks would be recruited on the condition that they would be serving in a struggle to end slavery, not only preserve the territorial integrity of the United States. The negotiations proved contentious and lasted into the morning, but Kinsley eventually ceded to their demands. Galloway departed, and several days later he and some of the other black leaders led a procession of thousands of slaves into New Bern. Those that enlisted with the federal army were organized as the 1st North Carolina Colored Volunteers.
With a system of black recruitment set up under Brigadier General Edward A. Wild, Galloway served as an emissary between the general's recruiters and fugitive slave bands, easing contraband enlistment into the army. Over the summer of 1863, he frequently addressed black gatherings, arguing that armed black participation in the federal war effort would help secure full citizenship for freedpeople after the war. Although illiterate, Galloway proved an able orator. In his speeches to black audiences, he employed sarcasm and irony when ridiculing whites. He also helped Starkey's efforts to provide aid to black soldiers and their families, soliciting donations on her behalf when he travelled to New York and Boston, and on one occasion bringing her funds for disbursement to wounded and ill black soldiers in Portsmouth, Virginia. Later in 1863, Butler was brought back from the Gulf and assumed command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, Galloway joined with other black leaders in asking that he urge the Department of War to ensure better treatment of black soldiers. Galloway also succeeded in helping his mother escape Confederate-held Wilmington and bringing her to New Bern. With General Wild's assistance, he was able to send her to Boston and arrange for her to stay with an abolitionist businessman.
Meanwhile, Butler had received reports of some of the captured Confederates held at the federal prisoner of war camp at Point Lookout, Maryland, of holding Unionist sympathies. In what proved to be his last official act as a Union spy, Galloway agreed to go on behalf of the general to the prison to ascertain the inmates' sympathies. At Butler's recommendation, some of the soldiers were given the opportunity to switch allegiances and enlist in federal military service. In December 1863, he met with Robert Hamilton, publisher of The Anglo-African, in Norfolk, Virginia and agreed to guide him on a tour of Union-occupied ports in the South. The two quickly became friends, and together saw Norfolk and visited Portsmouth, Hamilton, and Fortress Monroe. From there, the two sailed to New Bern, took a train to Morehead City, and sailed again to Beaufort. In Beaufort, Galloway took Hamilton to the home of two freedpeople, Napoleon and Massie Dixon, and their daughter with whom he was romantically involved, Martha Ann Dixon. Galloway married Dixon on December 29 at her parents' home. Dixon advocated for abolition and later worked as a seamstress. In the time intervening their arrival in Beaufort and his marriage, Galloway also facilitated meetings between Hamilton and black leaders in New Bern. Hamilton's resulting dispatches to The Anglo-African carried a positive impression of Galloway.