Moncure D. Conway
At various times Methodist, Unitarian, and a Freethinker, he descended from patriotic and patrician families of Virginia and Maryland but spent most of the final four decades of his life abroad in England and France, where he wrote biographies of Edmund Randolph, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Paine and his own autobiography.His great-uncle, Peter Vivian Daniel, served on the United States Supreme Court, where he upheld slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, including in the Dred Scott Decision of 1857.After attending the Fredericksburg Classical and Mathematical Academy (alma mater of George Washington and other famous Virginians), Conway followed his elder brother to Methodist-affiliated Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1849.During his time at Dickinson, Conway helped found the college's first student publication and was influenced by Professor John McClintock, which caused him to embrace Methodism as well as an anti-slavery position, although that controversy was starting to split the denomination.[citation needed] After studying law for a year in Warrenton, Virginia, partly out of a moral crisis caused by seeing a lynching of a Black man whose retrial had been ordered by the Court of Appeals,[6] Conway became a circuit-riding Methodist minister.Ignorance, Vice and Poverty", but had been unable to convince local politicians to follow his recommendations, particularly as the pro-slavery faction believed such universal education influenced by Northern mores.[8] In 1853, after being reassigned to a circuit around Frederick, Maryland, and shortly after his beloved elder brother Peyton died of typhoid fever and his assistant Becky of another, Moncure Conway left the Methodist church and entered the Harvard University school of divinity to continue his spiritual journey.Before graduating in 1854, he met Ralph Waldo Emerson and fell under the influence of Transcendentalism, as well as became an outspoken abolitionist after discussions with Theodore Parker, William Lloyd Garrison, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Wendell Phillips.[citation needed] A story he published in The Dial was grounded in Arthurian legend, and explained how Arthur's sword Excalibur came into George Washington's possession, and then was passed on to John Brown, who used it in his raid on Harpers Ferry.Conway secured train tickets and safe-conduct passes for them and escorted them on a dangerous trip through Maryland to safety in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he believed they would be safe because of the town's accepting culture.[3][13] In 1862, during the Union occupation before the devastating Battle of Fredericksburg in December of that year, Conway returned home to Falmouth and learned that his family's house had been spared from destruction because of its association with him, although it was commandeered for use as a hospital for wounded soldiers (at which Walt Whitman would work as a nurse).On New Year's Day, 1863 (also called Emancipation Day, because President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, news of which reached Boston by telegraph), Conway with fellow abolitionists Julia Ward Howe, Amos Bronson Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., George Luther Stearns and Wendell Phillips unveiled a marble bust of John Brown at Stearns' home.[21] Conway wrote that Blavatsky "created the imaginary Koothoomi (originally Kothume) by piecing together parts of the names of her two chief disciples, Olcott and Hume.
Falmouth, VirginiaabolitionistMethodistUnitarianFreethinkerEdmund RandolphNathaniel HawthorneThomas PaineConway HallFirst Families of VirginiaConway HouseRappahannock RiverThomas StoneDeclaration of IndependencehomeopathyMethodistsEpiscopalPresbyterianRichard C.L. MoncureVirginia Supreme CourtPeter Vivian DanielFugitive Slave Act of 1850Dred Scott DecisionEaston, PennsylvaniaJohn Moncure DanielGeorge WashingtonDickinson CollegeCarlisle, PennsylvaniaJohn McClintockCincinnatifeministWarrenton, VirginiaWashington, D.C.Rockville, MarylandRoger BrookeRoger Brooke TaneyFrederick, Marylandtyphoid feverHarvard UniversityRalph Waldo EmersonTranscendentalismTheodore ParkerWilliam Lloyd GarrisonElizabeth Cady StantonWendell PhillipsFirst Unitarian ChurchAnthony BurnsBoston, MassachusettsCincinnati, OhioArthurian legendExcaliburraid on Harpers FerryBostonAmerican Civil WarWilliam Henry ChanningAbraham LincolnYellow Springs, OhioBattle of FredericksburgWalt WhitmanEmancipation ProclamationJulia Ward HoweAmos Bronson AlcottOliver Wendell Holmes Sr.George Luther StearnsJohn Brownsocial conservatismUnited KingdomConfederacyJames Murray MasonConfederate States of AmericaWilliam H. SewardVeniceSouth Place Religious SocietyFinsbury, LondonFranco-Prussian WarRobert BrowningMark TwainLouisa May AlcotttheismhumanisticFreethoughtArtemus WardAnnie BesantCleveland HallStanton CoitSouth Place Ethical SocietyClementia TaylorAubrey HouseCampden Hillwomen's suffrageGreat BritainCharles DickensThomas CarlyleCharles LyellCharles DarwinUniversity of OxfordLady Margaret Hall, OxfordNew York CitySpanish–American WarHelena BlavatskyMahatma lettersKoot HoomiOlcottWestchester County, New YorkHolborn, LondonMark R. WarnerWilliam CobbettAmerican philosophyList of American philosophersQuarles, BenjaminLittle, Brown and CompanyThe Washington PostHanegraaff, Wouter JVersluis, ArthurChisholm, HughEncyclopædia BritannicaWayback MachineWilson, J. G.Fiske, J.Appletons' Cyclopædia of American BiographyProject GutenbergInternet ArchiveLibriVox