Henry Fowler was born on September 15, 1809 to Samuel and Clarissa (Page) Fowler, in Danvers, Massachusetts. In 1829, Fowler sailed with William Endicott and Leonard Poole from Salem, Massachusetts, on the ship Glide to the Fiji Islands; the men were after a cargo of beche-de-mer (a sort of sea-slugs found on the reefs), tortoise-shells, and sandal-wood. The ship was wrecked on some rocks during a strong gale, but was patched up and the men managed to reach the islands, however, the islands were inhabited by cannibals. Fowler lived in friendly relations with the natives for four years and by his own account, was honored and respected by them.

Fowler wrote of his experience witnessing cannibalism among the Fiji natives to the Danvers Courier on August 16, 1845. Another survivor of the ill-fated trip of the Glide, James Oliver, wrote about some of his time on the islands in a volume entitled The Wreck of the Glide, which was published posthumously in 1848.

Fowler married Sally H. Putnam on April 17, 1838. He died in 1895.