James W. Hunnicutt

[1] Hunnicutt disapproved of infant baptism practiced by the Methodists and founded the pre-Civil War denomination of Union Baptists in 1841.

The following year he published "A summary of the doctrines held and maintained by the Union Baptists: to which is annexed a recantation of infant baptism", and began establishing congregations in Virginia and eastern North Carolina.

[3] A proslavery man who opposed the establishment of an African American Baptist Church in Fredericksburg in 1854, in 1857 he was one of the city's delegation to the Southern Commercial Convention in Knoxville, Tennessee.

It was disrupted by local secessionists who pressured him to suspend the Christian Banner and vote publicly for secession at the May 23 referendum to retain his congregation.

During 1866 and 1867 made popular speeches among large Richmond crowds, and organized the city's African American voters with black businessman Albert Royal Brooks.

[10] Hunnicutt retired from public life, living on Brook Station farm in Stafford County, Virginia nearby Fredericksburg.