James McLemore (1782–1834) was a white Baptist minister in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a leader of the

Alabama Baptist Association The Alabama Baptist Association (ABA) was an association of Baptist churches founded on 15 December 1819 by four churches: the Antioch Baptist Church (of Montgomery County, Alabama) and the Baptist churches of Old Elam (also named Elim), Bethel, an ...

and founder of a number of churches. He is known also for having an African American associate minister, the enslaved Caesar Blackwell. McLemore and his descendants acquired much land which developed into the 7000-acre McLemore Plantation, which was farmed first by enslaved people and later by sharecroppers and tenants.

Biography

Born in Granville County, North Carolina, McLemore married in Hancock County, Georgia, and preached in the Elam Church in Jones County, Georgia, which became a member of the Ocmulgee Baptist Association in 1810. He moved to Montgomery by way of the Federal Road where he founded the Antioch Baptist Church (organized on June 5, 1818), one of four churches that went on to form the

(ABA). At the time, slavery and, more specifically, the membership of enslaved people in Baptist churches, was becoming a serious matter of contention; the Ocmulgee Baptist Association had resolved, citing Ephesians 6:9 and Colossians 4:1, that enslaved people were to be treated "with humanity and justice", a decision which according to Gary Burton, pastor of Pintlala Baptist Church,

Hope Hull, Alabama Hope Hull, also known as McGehees Switch, is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Alabama, United States, southwest of Montgomery. It is home to the drive-through zoological park ''Alabama Safari Park''. History Hope Hull, a stop o ...

, was to have a great influence on McLemore's future with a black associate minister. McLemore, who built a reputation as a "famous white evangelist", founded three of the four churches that made up the ABA—in addition to Antioch, he founded the Elim (also known as Old Elam, June 19, 1819) and Bethel churches (February 13, 1819). He was described as a "holy man and zealous herald of the truth, although afflicted in body". McLemore is known also as the preacher who "owned" the wife and child of Caesar Blackwell, an enslaved man who had been bought by the ABA and became McLemore's associate minister at the Antioch Church. After his death, the execution of his will was contested in the

Alabama Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is house ...

; specifically, how two of the people enslaved by McLemore were to be distributed among children "of the whole blood" and those "of the half blood" was challenged, with the court deciding that those "of the whole blood" were to be favored. The McLemore bible, more than a hundred years old, was read from at a ceremony celebrating the continued unity of the four original Baptist churches in 1923. The latter's family continues to be a prominent family in Montgomery: the campus of Auburn University at Montgomery is built on 500 acres of the former McLemore plantation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLemore, James 1782 births 1834 deaths Southern Baptist ministers People from Granville County, North Carolina People from Montgomery, Alabama Baptists from Alabama Baptists from North Carolina