Oh No They Are Going To Eliminate Our Presidents From The Hi

Oh no they are going to eliminate our presidents from the history books

Joseph Parish

With all this hoopla concerning the Confederate General’s statues being removed, I fear some of our presidents will be eliminated from our history books soon. The practice of slave holding officially concluded with the final shots of the Civil War and the establishment of the Thirteenth amendment to the constitution. In all, America has had twelve presidents who were slave owners at one time or another within their lifespan. Eight of these prominent individuals, even held slaves while serving in the nation’s highest public office.

The first president to be a slaveholder while serving his country was also our first president – General George Washington, while the last one to be elected and still possess slaves was President Zachary Taylor. The very last president to relinquish his slaves at some point in his life was Ulysses S. Grant. We have to remember at this time period in our history, slave ownership was a common practice. Of our first twelve presidents we find that only John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams had never owned slaves. Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison did not own any slaves while they served in the office of president.

Presidents who held slaves included General George Washington who owned 317 slaves. At the time he was contemplated to one of the nation’s major slaveholders, before, during and even after he became president. Upon his death, his will clearly state that his slaves should be set free upon the death of his wife, Maratha however, she decided to free them within a year of George’s death. For nine years in the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson owned a whopping 600 slaves even though he allegedly opposed the practice throughout his life. In fact, he even proposed legislation intended to free the slaves. Due to his high debt amount upon his death, his last will and testament only freed a few of his slaves and not all of them. It is rumored that Jefferson fathered multiple children from one of his slaves named Sally Hemings, who actually was the half-sister to his wife Martha Wayles Skelton.

The precise number of slaves that President James Madison held is unknown, but statistics declare that it exceeded one hundred in the count. It was Madison who proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, which proposed to record slaves as three fifths of a person for taxation purposes. Madison did not free his slaves in his will when he died and while serving as president, Paul Jennings, who was one of Madison's slaves served him during his term of office at the White house. Jennings later wrote his memoirs of his life in the White House.

Although James Monroe was critical of slave ownership, he himself owned 75 slaves. Monroe suggested that the United States send all freed slaves to the country of Liberia, where in all reality some actually did move there. The country's capital is Monrovia which is aptly named for the former American president. Next, we have Andrew Jackson with his 200 slaves. Jackson is one of the presidents who held slaves while serving as our nation’s leader. During his election campaign and throughout his presidency, he encountered numerous issues relevant to slavery. Upon his death, not a single slave of his was given their freedom. The eighth president to own slaves was Martin Van Buren. He held a single slave, although it was rumored that his father owned six. His only slave whose name was Tom escaped in 1814. When the authorities located Tom in Massachusetts, Van Buren consented to sell him to the individual who had captured him. The interesting thing about this event was that the terms for selling them were not firm and settled at the time, therefore Tom remained free for the remainder of his life. Van Buren later in life opposed the expansion of slavery into America’s Western territories.

William Henry Harrison, our ninth slave holding president had 11 slaves, of which several he had inherited. In his lifetime, he lobbied congress unsuccessfully to legalize slaves in Indiana. Oddly, it was a slave holder President Jefferson, who opposed Harrison’s efforts despite being a slave owner himself. Although considering slave holding as evil President John Tyler had 10 slaves of his own. He never freed his slaves and supported both slavery and its expansion.

Within the four-year period from 1845 to 1849 James K. Polk had 25 slaves. It was his tolerance and support of slavery that obtained his Democratic nomination for president. Even as President of the United States, Polk supported the practice of slavery. He stated in his will that his slaves were to be given their freedom when his wife died, however the Thirteenth Amendment freed them long before her death. Although Zachary Taylor owned 150 slaves, he resisted all attempts to expand slavery within the new territories. There were rumors that the advocates of slavery had poisoned Taylor although this has never been confirmed. Andrew Johnson owned 8 slaves and he even had convinced Abraham Lincoln to exempt the state of Tennessee from the Emancipation Proclamation.

Lastly, we come to Ulysses S. Grant, who owned 5 slaves. Here we have the general of the Union Army who was fighting a Civil War intended to end slavery and free those bonded men actually owning slaves himself. Of the five slaves he personally only owned one of them, Mr. William Jones; the rest belonged to his wife. Instead of selling Jones, Grant decided to free him. During the Civil War, Grant enlisted many slaves into the Union’s war efforts.

From all that we can gather here, it would appear that many of our early historical figures were actually extremely hypocritical. It would appear that it was okay for them to own the slaves, but not for the next man. They are part of our history and heritage and should be preserved the same as the statues of the Confederate Generals. Slave ownership may be cruel and evil, but it too was a part of our history.

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