Moncure D. Conway facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Moncure D. Conway
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| Born | March 17, 1832 Falmouth, Virginia, U.S.
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| Died | November 15, 1907 (aged 75) Paris, France
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Moncure Daniel Conway (born March 17, 1832 – died November 15, 1907) was an important American minister and writer. He strongly believed in ending slavery.
Conway changed his religious beliefs several times. He was a Methodist, then a Unitarian, and later a Freethinker. He came from well-known families in Virginia and Maryland. But he spent most of his later life in England and France. There, he wrote books about famous people like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Paine. He also wrote his own life story. He led a group of freethinkers at Conway Hall in London, which is named after him today.
Contents
Family Background
Moncure Conway's parents came from important families in Virginia. His father, Walter Peyton Conway, was a wealthy farmer who owned slaves. He was also a judge and a state representative. Their home, the Conway House, can still be seen today.
His mother, Margaret Stone Daniel Conway, was the granddaughter of Thomas Stone. Thomas Stone was one of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence. Both of Conway's parents were Methodists. They even held church meetings in their home.
Conway had uncles who were also important. One uncle, Judge Eustace Conway, supported states' rights. Another uncle, Richard C.L. Moncure, was a judge in Virginia. His great-uncle, Peter Vivian Daniel, was a judge on the United States Supreme Court. Sadly, this great-uncle supported slavery. He even upheld the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
Two of Conway's three brothers later fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. However, Moncure Conway himself was against slavery. He learned these ideas from his mother's side of the family. His mother even moved away when the Civil War started.
Early Life and Education
Moncure Conway was born in Falmouth, Virginia. He went to the Fredericksburg Classical and Mathematical Academy. Later, he attended Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1849. At Dickinson, he helped start the college's first student newspaper. He also became a Methodist and began to oppose slavery.
In Cincinnati, Conway married Ellen Davis Dana. She was a Unitarian and also believed in women's rights and ending slavery. They had three sons and a daughter. When Moncure brought Ellen to meet his family, she hugged a young slave girl. This upset his family, and it took 17 years for them to make up.
Conway's Career and Beliefs
After studying law, Conway became a traveling Methodist minister. In 1850, he wrote a pamphlet about the importance of free schools in Virginia. But local leaders did not follow his ideas. They worried that universal education would bring Northern ideas about slavery.
Conway met a Quaker named Roger Brooke who was an abolitionist. In 1853, Conway left the Methodist church. He then went to Harvard University to study religion. There, he met important thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson. He also became a strong voice against slavery after talking with people like William Lloyd Garrison and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Fighting Slavery in America
After Harvard, Conway became a minister at the First Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C.. But he was asked to leave because he spoke out against slavery. When he returned to Virginia, people were angry. They thought he helped a runaway slave in Boston. Conway had to flee in 1854 to avoid being attacked.
He then became a minister in Cincinnati, Ohio. This church was against slavery. He served there from 1855 until the Civil War began in 1861. In 1859, he told his church he no longer believed in miracles. This caused some people to leave, but the church continued. Conway also edited a magazine called The Dial.
During the Civil War
In 1861, Conway published a book called The Rejected Stone. It was about ending slavery. This book was even given to Union soldiers. Conway spoke often about how ending slavery would weaken the Confederacy. He even met with President Abraham Lincoln to discuss his ideas.
While in Washington, D.C., Conway found 31 of his father's slaves who had escaped. He helped them travel safely to Yellow Springs, Ohio. He believed they would be safe there.
In 1862, Conway returned to his family home in Falmouth, Virginia. The Union army had taken over the area. His house was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers. Walt Whitman even worked there as a nurse. That year, Conway wrote another book about freeing slaves, called The Golden Hour.
On New Year's Day, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This declared many slaves free. Conway celebrated with other abolitionists like Julia Ward Howe. They unveiled a statue of John Brown, another famous abolitionist.
Around this time, Conway left the Unitarian ministry. He was becoming less traditional in his religious views.
Life in London
In April 1863, Conway was sent to London by American abolitionists. His job was to convince the United Kingdom that the American Civil War was about ending slavery. He wanted to stop Britain from supporting the Confederacy.
Conway tried to make a deal with a Confederate representative. He offered to stop supporting the war if the Confederacy freed the slaves. This embarrassed his American supporters, and they stopped backing him. He also had to apologize to the US Secretary of State.
Instead of returning to America, Conway went to Italy. He then moved back to London in 1864. There, he became the minister of the South Place Chapel. He continued to write and publish articles in both British and American magazines. He also traveled to Paris and Russia. He even worked as a war reporter during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71).
Conway wrote biographies of Edmund Randolph, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Thomas Paine. He also helped famous American writers like Walt Whitman and Mark Twain get their books published in London.
After his son Emerson died in 1864, Conway's beliefs changed again. He moved away from traditional religion towards a more humanistic way of thinking. This meant focusing on human values and reason. Women were allowed to preach at South Place Chapel, including Annie Besant. The South Place congregation eventually separated from the Unitarian Church.
Conway led South Place until 1886. He returned to lead it again in 1892 and stayed until his death. The South Place Ethical Society is now called Conway Hall.
Conway was friends with many famous writers and thinkers. These included Charles Dickens, Robert Browning, and Charles Darwin. In 1868, he spoke at the first public meeting in Britain to support women's suffrage (the right for women to vote). In 1878, he tried to start a new women's college at the University of Oxford.
In the 1870s and 1880s, Conway visited the United States. He made up with his family in Virginia in 1875. In 1897, Conway and his wife Ellen returned to New York City. Ellen wanted to die in America, and she passed away that Christmas. Their son Dana also died that year.
As the Spanish–American War began, Conway became a pacifist. He moved to France to work for peace. He also continued to write. He occasionally visited Fredericksburg, Virginia, which had grown to admire his achievements.
Travels to India
Conway visited India and wrote about his trip in a book called My Pilgrimage to the Wise Men of the East (1906). He met Helena Blavatsky, a famous spiritual leader. He believed that some of her spiritual letters were not real.
Later Life and Death
Moncure Conway died alone in his apartment in Paris at age 75. His body was brought back to New York for burial.
Legacy and Recognition
Conway Hall in London is named in his honor. In 2004, the Governor of Virginia said that Conway was the only descendant of a Founding Father to personally lead slaves to freedom. Both Ohio and Virginia have placed historical markers to remember him. His childhood home is also a U.S. and Virginia landmark.
See also
- American philosophy
- List of American philosophers
