As a child he moved to Augusta, Georgia, and as a young man he worked for two years as a painter's apprentice while he attended night school to get a basic education.

In 1875, he was elected probate judge of Edgefield County, South Carolina, by the Republican Party which was in control of local politics there.

[1] In 1877, reconstruction ended in that portion of South Carolina and Bouey and fellow black appointee, circuit court clerk Jesse Jones were pushed out of their positions.

[1] He next responded to a call by a group of South Carolina Baptists led by Edward M. Brawley to start missionary work in Africa.

[1] Bouey, George Curtis,[3] Benjamin F. Porter, Samuel Gaillard, Martin Delany, and others formed a Joint Stock Steamship Company of the Liberia Exodus Association to recruit as many as 300 people, equally divided men and women, to emigrate to Africa.

[4] Among those involved was William Coppinger, who sent Bouey literature to aid his cause, and John Mardenborough, who had left Edgefield County for Beaufort, South Carolina after receiving threats on his life.

[7] At his death, he requested his sons be returned to the United States for their education, and L. G. Jordan and William R. Pettiford worked to help the boys.