Robert Jemison Jr. (September 17, 1802 – October 16, 1871) was an American politician, entrepreneur and slave owner who served as a Confederate States Senator from

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

from 1863 to 1865. He also served in the two houses of the

Alabama Legislature The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the state government of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the House of Representatives and Senate. It is one of the few state legislatures in which members of both chambers serv ...

from 1837 until 1863.

Early years

Jemison was born in

Lincoln County, Georgia Lincoln County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,690. The county seat is Lincolnton. The county was created on February 20, 1796. Lincoln County is includ ...

, near

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...

, to William and Sarah (Mims) Jemison. He was educated there at Mount Zion Academy, where he was a classmate of

Dixon Hall Lewis Dixon Hall Lewis (August 10, 1802 – October 25, 1848) was an American politician who served as a Representative and a Senator from Alabama. Life and career Lewis was born on Bothwick plantation, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and moved to H ...

, and attended the University of Georgia. His father, William Jemison, was a slaveholder and landowner of at least four large-scale properties. Robert Jemison Jr. used the Jr. behind his name to distinguish himself from his grandfather, also named Robert. In 1826, Jemison moved with his father's family to

Pickens County, Alabama Pickens County is a county located on the west central border of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,123. Its county seat is Carrollton, located in the center of the county. It is a prohibition, or dry count ...

, where he was a planter until 1836, when he moved to

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

, Alabama.

Career

Jemison served in the Alabama state legislature, initially in the Senate and then in the House, from 1840-1851. He returned to the Senate from 1851-1863. In 1861, he was a Delegate to the Convention and voted against the Ordinance of Secession. He was elected unanimously to be President of the Alabama Senate in 1863; soon after, he was elected to the Confederate States Senate, replacing

William Lowndes Yancey William Lowndes Yancey (August 10, 1814July 27, 1863) was an American journalist, politician, orator, diplomat and an American leader of the Southern secession movement. A member of the group known as the Fire-Eaters, Yancey was one of the mo ...

, who had died of a kidney ailment. Jemison owned multiple businesses. A primary source of capital was his plantations. His papers show that he owned 120 slaves in 1851, including 44 children under the age of 10. He owned six

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s in western Alabama, totaling . In 1858, he attempted to sell the plantations, 70 slaves and other land in Tuscaloosa, including another residence, a livery stable and the Indian Queen Hotel. Jemison's other ventures included a

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

line,

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...

s, toll bridges,

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

s, sawmills, turnpikes, stables, a hotel, and plank roads. His largest enterprise was a Cherokee Place plantation in what is now Northport, Alabama, where he lived before building the Jemison-Van de Graaff Mansion in Tuscaloosa. Jemison advocated for the creation of a state-owned mental hospital which eventually became

Bryce Hospital Bryce Hospital opened in 1861 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is Alabama's oldest and largest inpatient psychiatric facility. First known as the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane and later as the Alabama Insane Hospital, the building ...

, and hired the same Philadelphia architectural firm to design both his private Tuscaloosa mansion and the hospital. After the Civil War, Jemison's wealth was significantly diminished, and eventually he lost his family mansion due to debt. One of his businesses was the Tuscaloosa Bridge Company. It built two of the first covered bridges across the

Black Warrior River The Black Warrior River is a waterway in west-central Alabama in the southeastern United States. The river rises in the extreme southern edges of the Appalachian Highlands and flows 178 miles (286 km) to the Tombigbee River, of which the Bl ...

. Jemison hired Horace King, a skilled multiracial enslaved person from Russell County to build bridges in eastern

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. King became one of the most respected bridge designers and builders in the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...

. In 1846, Jemison, along with King's owner, John Godwin, obtained his freedom through an act of the

, which exempted King from the

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...

laws. King built the last covered bridge at Tuscaloosa and Northport over the Black Warrior in 1872 just a few months after Jemison's death on October 16, 1871.Dictionary of Alabama Biography
/ref> Jemison made an arrangement with

Tuscaloosa County Tuscaloosa County is a county in the northwest-central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama and is the center of commerce, education, industry, health care, and entertainment for the region. The county's population was 227,036 as of the 2020 c ...

for King to build the bridge and this bridge was the first of many that the county would build.

Family

Jemison was married to Priscilla (Cherokee) Jemison and had one daughter, Cherokee Mims Jemison.

References

External links

Confederate Congress bio

The Robert Jemison Jr. Papers, W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jemison, Robert Jr. 1802 births 1871 deaths 19th-century American politicians Alabama Secession Delegates of 1861 Alabama state senators Confederate States of America senators Members of the Alabama House of Representatives People from Lincoln County, Georgia People of Alabama in the American Civil War American slave owners