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List of vice presidents of the United States who owned slaves

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This is a list of vice presidents of the United States who owned slaves. Slavery was legal in the United States from its beginning as a nation, having been practiced in North America since early colonial days. The Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution formally abolished slavery in 1865, after the end of the American Civil War.

At least nine vice presidents owned slaves at some point in their lives. Thomas Jefferson was the first while Andrew Johnson was the last.

Vice presidents who owned slaves

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No. Vice president Approximate number
of slaves held 		While in office? Notes Ref.
2 Thomas Jefferson 600+ Yes (1801–1809) Most historians believe Jefferson fathered multiple slave children with the enslaved woman Sally Hemings, the likely half-sister of his late wife Martha Wayles Skelton. Despite being a lifelong slave owner, Jefferson routinely condemned the institution of slavery, attempted to restrict its expansion, and advocated gradual emancipation. As president, he oversaw the abolition of the international slave trade. See Thomas Jefferson and slavery for more details. [1][2][3]
3 Aaron Burr 10+ Yes (1801-1805) Burr was born into a slaveholding family. He became a slaveholder himself upon his marriage to Theodosia Bartow Prevost, who held slaves from her prior marriage to Jacques Marcus Prevost, and bought a servant named Carlos. Burr personally opposed to slavery, proposing a 1785 bill for immediate emancipation which failed in the New York State Assembly in favor of another bill which required gradual emancipation and was never passed; a later bill for immediate emancipation was passed after Burr returned to the State Assembly in 1799. His son John Pierre Burr became an abolitionist and civil rights activist. [4] [5]
7 John C. Calhoun 70–80 unknown Calhoun led the pro-slavery faction in the Senate, opposing both total abolitionism and attempts such as the Wilmot Proviso to limit the expansion of slavery into the western territories. He also owned 70–80 enslaved African-Americans at his Fort Hill Plantation, comprising the area where Clemson University currently sits. [6]
8 Martin Van Buren 1 No Van Buren's father owned six slaves. The only slave Van Buren personally owned, Tom, escaped in 1814, and Van Buren made no effort to find him. Otherwise, Van Buren hired out free and enslaved African Americans to work at the Decatur House, a pattern he continued during his time in the White House. Later in life, Van Buren belonged to the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery into the Western territories, but not immediate abolition. [7][8][9][10]
9 Richard M. Johnson unknown unknown Johnson inherited Julia Chinn, an octoroon mixed-race woman (seven-eighths European and one-eighth African in ancestry), who was born into slavery around 1790. He was later criticized for his interracial relationship with Chinn. Unlike other upper-class planters and leaders who had African-American mistresses or concubines, but never acknowledged them, Johnson treated Chinn as his common-law wife. He acknowledged their two daughters as his children, giving them his surname, much to the consternation of some of his constituents. When Lewis Tappan requested presentation of an abolitionist petition to the Senate, Johnson, still a slaveowner, declined the request. [11][12][13]
10 John Tyler 29 Yes (1841) Evidence suggests that at least four enslaved and free enslaved African Americans worked in the White House when Tyler was president. He also never freed any of his slaves and consistently supported the slaveholder's rights and the expansion of slavery during his time in political office. [14][15]
13 William R. King unknown unknown He developed a large cotton plantation based on slave labor, calling the property "Chestnut Hill". King and his relatives formed one of the state's largest slaveholding families, collectively owning as many as 500 people. During the conflicts leading up to the Compromise of 1850, King supported the Senate's gag rule against debate on antislavery petitions and opposed proposals to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, which Congress administered. [16][17][18]
14 John C. Breckinridge unknown unknown 1850, he was nominated for a position in the Kentucky state legislature by a meeting trying to protect the interest of slaveowners. He joined Buchanan in supporting the proslavery Lecompton Constitution for Kansas. In 1860, he ran for president and campaigned on a platform calling for federal intervention to protect slaveowners in U.S. territories. He resigned as a U.S. Senator in 1861, becoming a brigadier general for the Confederacy and later a Secretary of War. [19][20][21][22]
16 Andrew Johnson 9 No Johnson acquired up to at least ten slaves from 1843 until their manumission on August 8, 1863, after which they remained as paid servants. A year later, on October 24, 1864, Johnson, as military governor of Tennessee, proclaimed the freedom of Tennessee's slaves. [23][24][25]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ ""This Deplorable Entanglement"". Monticello. Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  2. ^ Mann, Linda. "The Enslaved Household of President Thomas Jefferson". White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022. ...Jefferson owned over 600 enslaved people during his lifetime, the most of any U.S. president
  3. ^ "Monticello Affirms Thomas Jefferson Fathered Children with Sally Hemings". Monticello. Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Archived from the original on February 19, 2022. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  4. ^ Burr, Sherri. "Aaron Burr Jr. and John Pierre Burr: A Founding Father and his Abolitionist Son". Princeton & Slavery. Princeton University. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  5. ^ Davis, Matthew. "Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Volume 2". Project Gutenberg. The Project Gutenberg. Archived from the original on March 21, 2024. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  6. ^ "John C. Calhoun". Clemson University. Archived from the original on March 23, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2022. Calhoun...owned...some 70–80 enslaved African-Americans
  7. ^ "Martin Van Buren and the Politics of Slavery". National Park Service. Archived from the original on February 4, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022. The 1830 census lists four enslaved women in his household while in residence at the Decatur House
  8. ^ Costello, Matthew. "The Enslaved Households of President Martin Van Buren". White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on March 23, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022. Martin Van Buren owned at least one enslaved person during his lifetime...He also hired out enslaved and free African Americans to work at Decatur House...This pattern continued during his time at the White House, where five free African Americans and four enslaved people labored to maintain the Executive Mansion.
  9. ^ "The Election of 1848: Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men". National Park Service. December 9, 2020. Archived from the original on February 10, 2022. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  10. ^ Adamack, Joe (2008). "Politics versus Convictions: Martin Van Buren, Roger Sherman Baldwin, and the Trials of Mutinous Slaves" (PDF): 25. Retrieved October 14, 2020. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ^ Snyder, Christina (2017). Great Crossings: Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in the Age of Jackson. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 3–4, 7–9, 38–40, 42–44, 47–53, 56–60, 62–63, 66–67, 69. ISBN 978-0-19-939907-9.
  12. ^ Mills, David (April 26, 2007). "The Vice-President and the Mulatto". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on June 18, 2021. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  13. ^ Mark O. Hatfield (1997). "Vice Presidents of the United States: Richard Mentor Johnson" (PDF). U.S. Senate. Government Printing Office. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 9, 2006. Retrieved March 24, 2022. These efforts, together with a sizeable bequest of land and slaves from his father, eventually made Johnson a wealthy man, although he never identified with the privileged classes.
  14. ^ Costello, Matthew. "The Formerly Enslaved Households of President Andrew Johnson". White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on March 23, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022. These four identified individuals, a mix of free and enslaved African Americans, worked in the Tyler White House...Newspaper accounts from the time also suggest that there were other enslaved individuals working at the White House...by 1850, there were forty-six enslaved individuals working at the Tyler property; ten years later, that number decreased slightly to forty-four
  15. ^ Leahy, Christopher Joseph. "John Tyler Before the Presidency: Principles and Politics of a Southern Planter". Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College: 193. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  16. ^ "U.S. Senate: William Rufus King, 13th Vice President (1853)". U.S. Senate. Archived from the original on July 22, 2020. Retrieved March 24, 2022. He believed that abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia would be unfair to the slaveholders in adjacent states, but he supported abolition of the slave trade there.
  17. ^ "The rich history of Williams Rufus King". The Sampson Independent. January 28, 2018. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. ...William R. King was a slaveowner and earned income and maintained his lifestyle by using slaves....Reportedly, in Alabama, King and his relatives formed one of the largest slave-holding families in Alabama, collectively owning as many as 500.
  18. ^ Vigdor, Neal (June 24, 2021). "An Iowa County Chooses to Be Named for a Black Professor, Not a Slaveowner". New York Times. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022. In 2005, lawmakers and the governor of Washington State approved naming King County after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. instead of William Rufus King, the 13th vice president, who owned slaves and supported the Fugitive Slave Act.
  19. ^ "John C. Breckinridge". History.com. November 9, 2009. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022.
  20. ^ "Princetonians in Kentucky". Princeton & Slavery. Princeton University. Archived from the original on October 15, 2021. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  21. ^ Heck, Frank H. (1976). Proud Kentuckian: John C. Breckinridge, 1821–1875. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. p. 24. ISBN 0-8131-0217-0.
  22. ^ Klotter, James C. (1986). The Breckinridges of Kentucky. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. p. 113. ISBN 0-8131-9165-3.
  23. ^ Fling, Sarah. "The Formerly Enslaved Households of President Andrew Johnson". White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022. In 1864 and 1865, he claimed pay toward wages, rations, and clothing for three servants: Henry, Florence, and Elizabeth (Liz)...Though Johnson's actual relation to his enslaved servants can only be corroborated by DNA evidence, he certainly had a unique relationship with Dolly, Florence, Liz, William, and Sam
  24. ^ "October 24, 1864". Andrew Johnson National Historic Site Tennessee. National Park Service. April 14, 2015. Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  25. ^ "Andrew Johnson and Emancipation in Tennessee". Andrew Johnson National Historic Site Tennessee. National Park Service. February 5, 2020. Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
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