Rev. James M.
McCarter (b. 1822 - d. 1900)
MSA SC
5496-51531
M.E. Preacher/Abolitionist/Soldier
Biography:
James Mayland McCarter was born in New York City, but spent most of his childhood in Norristown, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal at age 10, and quickly became a prodigious student of the church. By 16, McCarter was "junior preacher," following the Philadelphia Circuit that extended from southern New Jersey to the Maryland/Virginia Eastern Shore. These early experiences began to shape his strong opinions regarding slavery, and his church's ambivalent stance toward the institution. According to an 1898 biography, James first saw bonded African-Americans in Cecil County, Maryland, leading to a "great reluctance to visit and eat in homes where there were slaves."1 His feelings gradually developed into a more activist streak, which coincided with his rise within the circuit.
The young exhorter was admitted to the Annual Conference on a trial basis, beginning in 1842. Much of the next four years were spent on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, specifically via the Centreville and Chestertown circuits. McCarter would encounter slavery in numerous communities, where much of the white and black population claimed Methodist membership. It is unknown if he made any protest regarding those observations. However, the traveling teacher did manage to make a more positive discovery during that time. McCarter would marry the former Elizabeth Kelly, of Caroline County, in 1846 or 1847.2 Her father Thomas had been a slaveholder as late as his death in 1836, though it appears that none of this chattel was passed to his young daughter.3 The marriage connected him to his sister in law's family, the Stewarts, of whom Thomas and James were known pro-slavery advocates on the Shore. In fact James A. Stewart owned over forty slaves in the 1850's and had been involved in the legal battle regarding ownership of Harriet Tubman's mother, Rit Ross. It is entirely possible that the young minister came into contact with members of Tubman's family, who were at times owned or hired by the Stewarts.4
The union certainly brought McCarter into closer proximity with the depravities of slavery as it existed in the region. However, he was not the only M.E. preacher who was shocked when confronted with the crimes of their religious brethren in Maryland and Delaware. The church had wrestled with the issue since its inception in the colonial period. McCarter would have a range of appointments after his marriage, none of which were directly in Maryland. Operating out of Smryna and Millington, Delaware until 1850, the pastor still would have been exposed to Eastern Shore slavery or individuals who were complicit. In the following decade, he was posted throughout southern Pennsylvania, where the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act would have a severe effect on established African-American communities.5 However, it was the internal actions of the church leadership, particularly in response to other members' intrepid efforts, which drove McCarter to go public with his accusations. In 1857, Maryland-born Rev. John Dixon Long wrote Pictures of Slavery in Church and State, where he discussed first hand experience on the Eastern Shore, stopping just short of naming individuals.6 Still, many who knew Long personally felt that they were being slandered and angrily responded.
It was after these incidences that McCarter began to take a more antagonistic stance toward his church brethren. In an 1859 Conference meeting, he recalled one such instance. McCarter stood up and questioned whether the Presiding Elder of Maryland's Snow Hill District "was connected with slavery." For this infraction he was rebuffed and seemingly ridiculed by the Bishop. While he was defended by another member, most men in attendance laughed approvingly at the slight.7
In 1860, McCarter voiced his frustration in the scathing treatise, "Border Methodism and Border Slavery." He estimated that there were about 500 slaveholders in the Easton District of the Philadelphia Conference, alone. Furthermore, he claimed that "one half of the trustees of churches are probably connected with slavery."8 Like Rev. Long, McCarter named names, attempting to publicly shame those individuals for behavior that he saw as hypocritical and inconsistent with church teaching. He was particularly appalled with the growing leniency by the conference leadership toward slaveholders, as evidenced during the 1859 meeting. Preachers seeking admission were increasingly more likely to be questioned about their connection to abolitionism than about their holding of slaves, though the latter had been more common practice when McCarter was first initiated in 1842.9
He even referred to the plight of Samuel Green Sr., whose case further highlighted the conflicting policies of the Methodist Episcopal Church. McCarter recounted a scene from a recent conference. As a local black preacher named Handy Long was about to speak, McCarter warned him "against his having a copy of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' in his possession." In 1857 Green, a "licensed exhorter" within the Dorchester County M.E. community, had been arrested and convicted for possessing that allegedly incendiary literature. Local whites were actually hoping to prove his involvement in several recent slave escapes, but settled for the trumped up charge that they were able to prove. Despite national attention and outrage, Green's ten year sentence was met with near silence from Philadelphia Conference officials.10
The reverend was able to put his beliefs into practice with the outbreak of the Civil War. By that time, he had returned to preach for a Lebanon, Pennsylvania congregation. McCarter was first commissioned by the governor, but was ultimately contacted by the U.S. Secretary of War, General Cameron, requesting him to raise a regiment. He was quickly able to form the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry, with more than one thousand men from the community. They saw action in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. At Fair Oaks, VA, McCarter had two horses killed under him and was severely wounded by the blasts.11 In a Baltimore hospital, his surgeon employed electric shock therapy to restore his consciousness, but he was still noticeably inhibited by his injuries. McCarter also received the then-legal treatment of opium, which may have led to addiction. Soon after, he was court-martialed and removed from command for drunkenness on duty, though he was more likely still under the influence of the medication. The Colonel was allowed to resume command of the 93rd through several significant battles, including Antietam and Gettysburg. However, the complaints about his condition and opportunism on the part of some lower officers ultimately caused McCarter to offer his resignation in September 1863.12 Ironically this was the same time that former Eastern Shore slaves were flooding the ranks of newly formed Colored Troop regiments.
Despite his "semi-paralytic condition," McCarter was placed in command of the defense of Baltimore, during the Confederate raids of 1864. The following year, he served as the provost marshal for Caroline and Dorchester Counties. After the war McCarter would continue to preach, presumably still in the within the bounds of the Philadelphia Circuit.13 While he did not re-enter the regular ministry, he was still ordained and authorized to administer the sacraments, his status being that of a "local preacher." These men could assist the appointed ministers, and might be put in charge of churches during special circumstances. McCarter did manage to found a Methodist church on Chincoteague Island, off the coast of Virginia's Eastern Shore.14 He would not officially retire until 1883, when he also purchased 92 acres near Preston in Caroline County.15 The reverend lost his wife Elizabeth in 1886, after having raised two sons and one daughter, with only James Edward and Charles H. McCarter surviving into adulthood. Around that time, he began living with the latter son, also in Caroline County.16 He lived out the rest of his days in relative obscurity, dying in 1900. McCarter was buried at the Bethesda United Methodist Church in Preston, where he had begun worshipping in his last years.
Footnotes -
2. Ibid.
3. CAROLINE COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Inventories) 1834-1843, pp. 158-162.
4. Kate Clifford Larson. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2004, pp. 97-99.
5. Portrait, p. 355.
8. Border Methodism, 31.
9. Ibid, 35-6.
10. Ibid.
11. Portrait, 355.
12. Reverend Joseph DiPaolo, Public Talk on June 2, 2012, at Harriet Tubman UGRR Conference. "The Pugnacious Parson: James M. McCarter - Minister, Author, Soldier".
13. Portrait, 355.
14. Reverend DiPaolo, "The Pugnacious Parson".
15. Caroline County Circuit Court (Land Records) LHG 47, 1883-1884, pp. 184 - 185.
16. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census. Caroline County, Maryland, Preston, District 6, p. 24.
Researched and Written by David Armenti, 2012.
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