List of 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 from early colonial days. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution formally abolished chattel slavery in 1865, immediately after the end of the American Civil War.

Twelve U.S. presidents owned slaves at some point in their lives; of these, eight owned slaves while in office. Ten of the first twelve American presidents owned slaves, the only exceptions being John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, neither of whom approved of slavery. George Washington, the first president, owned slaves, including while he was president. Andrew Jackson was an interregional slave trader until at least the War of 1812. Zachary Taylor was the last one who owned slaves during his presidency, and Ulysses S. Grant was the last president to have owned a slave at some point in his life. Of these presidents who owned slaves, George Washington owned the most over his lifetime, with 600+ slaves, followed closely by Thomas Jefferson. Woodrow Wilson was the last president born into a household with slave labor, though the Civil War and abolition concluded during his early childhood.

Presidents who owned slaves President Approximate numberof slaves held While in office? Notes 1st George Washington 600–+ Yes Washington was a major slaveholder before, during, and after his presidency. His will freed his slaves pending the death of his widow, though she freed them within a year of her husband's death. As president, Washington signed a 1789 renewal of the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, which banned slavery north of the Ohio River. This was the first major restriction on the domestic expansion of slavery by the federal government in US history. In 1793 he signed into law the first Fugitive Slave Act, guaranteeing a right for a slave master to recover an escaped slave. See George Washington and slavery for more details 3rd Thomas Jefferson 200–+ Yes(1801–1809) Jefferson fathered multiple enslaved 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 4th James Madison + Yes(1809–1817) Madison occasionally condemned the institution of slavery and opposed the international slave trade, but he also vehemently opposed any attempts to restrict its domestic expansion. Madison did not free his slaves during his lifetime or in his will. Paul Jennings, one of Madison's slaves, served him during his presidency and later published the first memoir of life in the White House. See James Madison and slavery for more details 5th James Monroe Yes(1817–1825) Like Thomas Jefferson, Monroe condemned the institution of slavery as evil and advocated its gradual end, but still owned many slaves throughout his entire adult life, freeing only one of them in his final days. As president, he oversaw the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state in exchange for admitting Maine as a free state and banning slavery above the parallel 36°30′ north. Monroe supported sending freed slaves to the new country of Liberia; its capital, Monrovia, is named after him. See James Monroe and slavery for more details 7th Andrew Jackson 200 Yes(1829–1837) One controversy during his presidency was his reaction to anti-slavery tracts. During his campaign for the presidency, he faced criticism for being a slave trader. Jackson did not free his approximately 150 slaves in his will. When Jackson died he was in the top one percent of slave owners in the U.S. Unlike most of the other slave-owning presidents, he did not inherit any of his slaves, but rather built a fortune in human chattel from scratch. See Andrew Jackson and slavery and Andrew Jackson and the slave trade in the United States for more details 8th Martin Van Buren No(1837–1841) 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. In December 1824, A. G. Hammond of Berlin, New York, located Tom in Worcester, Massachusetts. Van Buren tentatively agreed to sell him to Hammond for $50, provided Hammond could capture him without violence. Hammond could not make the guarantee, and was disinclined to pay because New York's gradual emancipation law guaranteed that if he was re-enslaved, Tom would be freed in 1827. Tom remained free, as Van Buren probably intended. Later in life, Van Buren belonged to the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery into the Western territories. See Martin Van Buren and slavery for more details 9th William Henry Harrison No(1841) Harrison inherited several slaves. As the first governor of the Indiana Territory, he unsuccessfully lobbied Congress to legalize slavery in Indiana. See William Henry Harrison and slavery for more details 10th John Tyler Yes(1841–1845) Tyler never freed any of his slaves and consistently supported slaveholders' rights and the expansion of slavery during his time in political office. See John Tyler and slavery for more details 11th James K. Polk Yes(1845–1849) Polk became the Democratic nominee for president in 1844 partially because of his tolerance of slavery, in contrast to Van Buren. As president, he generally supported the rights of slave owners. His will provided for the freeing of his slaves after the death of his wife, though the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ended up freeing them long before her death in 1891. See James K. Polk and slavery for more details 12th Zachary Taylor Yes(1849–50) Although Taylor owned slaves throughout his life, he generally resisted attempts to expand slavery in the territories. Taylor opposed the Compromise of 1850, which admitted California into the Union as a free state and banned the slave trade in Washington, DC, in exchange for allowing most of the remaining territory captured from Mexico to decide the issue of slavery locally and passing a federal fugitive slave law requiring state authorities to assist federal marshals in capturing and detaining escaped slaves. However, Taylor died in office before he could veto the bill, leading to its successful passage under his successor Millard Fillmore. After his death, there were rumors that slavery advocates had poisoned him; tests of his body over 100 years later have been inconclusive. Taylor did not free any of his slaves in his will. See Zachary Taylor and slavery for more details 17th Andrew Johnson No(1865–1869) Johnson owned a few slaves and was supportive of James K. Polk's slavery policies. As military governor of Tennessee, he convinced Abraham Lincoln to exempt that area from the Emancipation Proclamation. Johnson went on to free all his personal slaves on August 8, 1863. On October 24, 1864, Johnson officially freed all slaves in Tennessee. See Andrew Johnson and slavery for more details 18th Ulysses S. Grant No(1869–1877) Although he later served as a general in the Union Army, his wife Julia had control of four slaves during the American Civil War, given to her by her father. It is unclear if she actually was granted legal ownership of them or merely temporary custody. All would be freed along with those freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, although by Julia's choice, as the proclamation did not apply to her state of Missouri. Grant was given a slave, William Jones, from his father-in-law. Even though he was not an abolitionist at this time, he did not like the idea of slavery, and could not bring himself to make Jones work as a slave, nor sell Jones. So, Grant's holding was brief and he freed William Jones on March 29, 1859. See Ulysses S. Grant and slavery for more details

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List of presidents of the United States who owned slaves

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