James A Bowley

The James Bowley home is located in Georgetown, South Carolina

NPS/K. Crawford

Quick Facts

Significance:

Nephew of Harriet Tubman who became a Reconstruction era politician and educator in South Carolina

Place of Birth:

Maryland

Date of Birth:

1844

Place of Death:

Georgetown, South Carolina

Date of Death:

January 30, 1891

How do you make your family proud? Do you carry on the family legacy?

James A. Bowley, the great nephew of Harriet Tubman, sought to continue her transformative work during the Reconstruction era. Born enslaved in Maryland in 1844, he was amongst the first people Tubman helped to emancipate along the Underground Railroad, along with his mother and sister. Upon securing his freedom, Bowley sought to bring change and opportunity to newly freed people in the Lowcountry. 

After serving as a landsman for the United States Navy during the Civil War, he settled in Georgetown, South Carolina, with his wife Laura, a Lowcounty native. In his late 20’s, Bowley worked as a teacher for the Freedman’s Bureau before serving in the S.C. House of Representatives from 1869-1874. During his appointment, he sponsored the enactment of the Union Savings Bank of Georgetown to supplement the slowly waning Freedmen’s Bank’s work. The institution was established to provide a safe space for African Americans to deposit their savings as well as seek financial advice for their futures. 

Throughout his political career, Bowley faced hardships and criticisms from white South Carolinians, who deemed that he was deemed unfit for his role, despite securing positive outcomes for the people of South Carolina. The Anderson Times, a politically charged newspaper, reported in 1872 that ”Mr. Bowley, from Georgetown, is a colored man, and judging from his craneology, physiognomy and tautology, we fear he will make the ways and means very easy.” In response, Bowley founded The Georgetown Planet, a political publication, which sought to "advocate… to every citizen liberty, equal rights [and] justice before the law." 

He continued to his work in education at the university level during a brief moment of desegregation within the state. When named a trustee of the University of South Carolina in 1873, it became the only state-supported Southern university to fully integrate during the Reconstruction era, with about 90% of their enrolled students being African American. Bowley fought for higher student enrollment and was able to make the institution tuition free. However his efforts were overturned in 1877 with the election of Wade Hampton to the governorship. With his political career coming to a close at age 36, Bowley returned to his passion for education - In the 1880 census he was listed as a teacher.

When he left Maryland as a child with Harriet Tubman, Bowley likely never imagined that one day he would carry on the family legacy of improving the lives of his fellow African Americans. Prior to his death in 1891, he had led an eventful life - from his liberation on the Underground Railroad to a political and educational career in South Carolina.

Bibliography

The Maryland State Archives has a brief online biography of Bowley 

To learn more about Black political leaders and the desegregation efforts at the University of South Carolia,see Invisible No More: The African American Experience at the University of South Carolina, ed. By Robert Greene II and Tyler D. Parry (University of South Carolina Press, 2021)

James A. Bowley's death was reported in the May 23, 1891 issue of the Georgetown Times. 

The NPS also manages the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom to preserve and interpret places and stories associated with freedom seekers like James Bowley during the Antebellum and Civil War eras.  

Written by Park Ranger Kaley Crawford, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park