John Tyler and slavery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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John Tyler, the tenth President of the United States, owned slaves throughout his lifetime and held complex views on slavery. He saw it as a necessary evil. Many of his policies as president reflected pro-slavery ideals with efforts to protect Southern interests and resist abolitionist influences, both domestically and internationally.
While estimates vary, U.S. president John Tyler owned as many as 50—and perhaps up to several hundred—slaves during his lifetime.[1][2] Many of these enslaved individuals, as well as some free African-American servants, worked at the White House during his administration.[1]
Like his father, John Tyler Sr., he held conflicting views on the morality of slavery.[2] Tyler saw slavery as a necessary evil, and supported the end of the African slave trade while opposing abolition.[2]
Tyler reportedly sold multiple slaves to finance his political career; he first attempted to sell a woman named Ann Eliza during his Senate run, and according to a news item from 1943 on slave-owning presidents, "It is said that John Tyler sold one of his slaves to defray his expenses when he went to Washington to assume his duties as vice-president of the United States."[2][3] The names of three people enslaved by Tyler are currently known to researchers through the historical record:[4]
- Armistead, a young valet who was killed in the explosion of the USS Princeton[4]
- James Hambleton Christian, a half-brother of Tyler's first wife Letitia Christian[4]
- Aunt Fanny[1]
Allegations of illegitimate children
In the 1840s, abolitionist publisher Joshua Leavitt alleged that Tyler fathered multiple enslaved children in an article known as “Tyler-Ising.”[5] Leavitt named two of these mixed-race sons, John and Charles Tyler, and implied that Tyler had sold many other illegitimate slave children.[2][6]
Tyler is also alleged by descendants to have been the father of John Dunjee (born 1833), though this remains unproven.
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