George F. Bowles, born enslaved in 1844 in Charleston, South Carolina, was one of the most prominent figures in Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction era Mississippi. He was a lawyer, newspaper editor, politician, and businessman. His early life remains somewhat unclear, with conflicting accounts of his parent’s status, whether one or more were enslaved or free: one source claims his father was a free man from California, while another, the Indianapolis Freeman newspaper, states he was born to enslaved parents. What is known is that Bowles received a strong education at his parent’s urging, attending schools in South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Bowles gained his freedom before the Civil War, though the specifics are not well-documented. He farmed in Fayette County, Tennessee, before enlisting in the Union Army in 1863. After the Civil War, he worked as a barber in Giles County, Tennessee, and entered the grocery business in 1866. By 1867, he was teaching Black children in Cornersville, Tennessee, but had to flee due to threats from the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1868, Bowles was admitted to the Tennessee bar. Three years later, in 1871, he moved to Natchez, Mississippi, and began practicing law. Some newspaper accounts indicate that he actively practiced law in the state in 1871, while other sources suggest he didn’t receive admission to the Mississippi Bar until 1875. He also began practicing law in Vidalia, Louisiana, in 1879.
Bowles held several notable local government positions all in Natchez, Mississippi: City Attorney (1872), City Marshal (1875), Militia Colonel in the Mississippi Militia (1878), and Chief of Police in Natchez (1879). In 1881, he was elected to Mississippi’s House of Representatives as a Republican, representing Adams County. He served in this role until 1894, opting not to seek re-election to focus on his business interests, which included law, groceries, editing a newspaper, and other ventures. Bowles’s legislative career included two major measures. In 1888, he introduced a bill to repeal the Mississippi Railroad Commission Act, criticizing it as burdensome to taxpayers and ineffective. Another bill he introduced to the House in the same year was for the first Colored Insane Asylum that he hoped to get established in the state.
In 1887, Bowles founded The Natchez Brotherhood, a newspaper that became a voice for Black advancement in Mississippi. The paper called for an orphanage for Black children, encouraged voting, and promoted education and “progress,” which at the time meant the acquisition of property. On June 2, 1894, the Huntsville Gazette republished an article from the New Orleans Rescue that claimed that the printing office of The Natchez Brotherhood was the most complete and largest printing office owned by any African American in the United States. The Brotherhood thrived until it ceased publication in 1900.
George F. Bowles died on December 26, 1899, just months after his wife, Laura Bowles (Davis), died on August 17, 1899. The couple were married on January 8, 1880. Bowles died at the age of 55.
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Tennessee, General Assembly, Senate, Committee on Military Affairs, Report of Evidence Taken Before the Military Committee, (Boston, MA, S. C. Mercer, Printer to the State, 1868)
Justin Behrend, Reconstructing Democracy: Grassroots Black Politics in the Deep South After the Civil War, (Athens, GA, University of Georgia Press, 2015)
Eric Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction, (Baton Rouge, LA, LSU Press, 1996)
