Background
JEMISON, Robert, Jr. was born on September 17, 1802 in Lincoln County, Georgia, United States, United States. Son of William and Sarah (Mims) Jemison.
Businessman congressman planter senator
JEMISON, Robert, Jr. was born on September 17, 1802 in Lincoln County, Georgia, United States, United States. Son of William and Sarah (Mims) Jemison.
Private school, southern university, law school. University of Georgia.
He attended the school of Professor N.S.S. Beaman and studied law at the University of Georgia during the 1820s. He was a unionist Whig and a Methodist. He married Priscilla Cherokee Taylor, and they had one son.
Jemison moved to Alabama in 1826 and for ten years was a planter. In 1836, he moved toTuscaloosa, Alabama, where he operated a saw mill, flour mill, toll bridge, and stagecoach line. He served in the lower house of the state legislature from 1840 to 1850 and the upper house from 1851 to 1863.
Jemison was a unionist delegate to the Alabama secession convention, and also served as its president. His support of the Confederate Constitution brought many Alabama unionists into the secessionist camp. In the early stages of the war, he assisted in raising Alabama troops for the war effort.
In 1863, Jemison was elected to the Confederate Senate to replace the late William L. Yancey, and he was reelected in 1864. In the Senate he generally opposed the Davis administration and served on the Finance, Claims, Naval Affairs, and Post Roads Committees. After the war, he became a Democrat, ran a railroad, headed a hospital for the insane, and helped to systematize Alabama’s postwar finances.
Jemison held no further public office because of restrictions.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Spouse Priscilla Cherokee Taylor.