Parson Brownlow

Later, as a newspaper publisher and editor, he was notorious for his relentless replies in the form of personal attacks against his religious and political opponents, sometimes to the point of being physically assaulted. At the same time, Brownlow was successfully building a large base of fiercely loyal subscribers. Brownlow returned to Tennessee in 1863 and in 1865 became governor with support of the U.S. Army behind him.

Brownlow aligned with the Radical Republicans in the state, supporting President Abraham Lincoln's policies and spent much of his term opposing the policies of conservative Republicans. Brownlow's gubernatorial policies, which were both autocratic and progressive, helped Tennessee become the first former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union in 1866, exempting it from the lengthy federal military reconstruction inflicted on most of the South.

After the Civil War, Brownlow again resumed his opposition to longtime political foe President Andrew Johnson, an often bitter and biting dislike for each other that both Brownlow and Johnson had put aside during the dark days of the Civil War.

Soon after the Civil War, Brownlow and Radical Republicans utilized their control of state government to enfranchise male African-American former slaves with the right to vote and run for public office in Tennessee and extend other civil rights to all former slaves.

Conservative Republicans generally opposed these actions by Brownlow and his Radical Republican base, and ex-Confederate political leaders and military officers joined into this opposition directed against Brownlow, utilizing the Ku Klux Klan and likeminded vigilante groups in efforts to disenfranchise African-Americans across Tennessee.