Abraham Galloway

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.