By LORNA CHEROT LITTLEWAY
THE MARTIN VAN BUREN National Historic Site and the Columbia County Libraries Association sponsored a talk, “Finding Julia: Centering Black Women in Antebellum History,” at the Kinderhook Memorial Library and via Zoom, Sunday, February 25. The talk was based on the book “The Vice President’s Black Wife: The Untold Story of Julia Chinn” by Professor Amrita Chalcuabarti Myers, published in 2023 by the University of North Carolina Press. The vice president in the title is Richard Mentor Johnson, a Kentuckian, who served under President Van Buren (1837-41).
Four National Parks Service (NPS) rangers spoke about slavery generally, Chinn and Johnson, specifically, as well as Sally Hemmings and President Thomas Jefferson. The purpose of the talk, said Ranger Melissa Dalley, was to “start a conversation about slavery, race and gender.” Dalley started with a quote from Myers’ book, “Language from the 18th and 19th centuries often doesn’t match that of our own time.”
Dalley explained that the NPS is revising its materials at historic sites to incorporate language that reflects enslaved people’s perspective. As an example, she said that slave owners are no longer identified as “master and mistress” but as “enslaver.”
Ranger Andrew Ashley called Chinn an “extraordinary woman” for three reasons: 1) she was literate, 2) Johnson referred to her publicly as his wife and acknowledged their two daughters, and 3) she managed Johnson’s business affairs while he pursued a political career and her authority extended over white workers as well as the enslaved.
When Johnson turned 18, his mother, Jemima, gifted him a 2,000-acre plantation, Blue Spring Farm in Scott County, and 100 laborers. Among them was Julia, a young teen designated as “housekeeper,” which implied providing sexual favors along with the duties of sewing, cooking and cleaning. Jemima also gifted to Johnson Julia’s brother-in-law, Daniel, and her sister, Patience.
At age 16, Julia birthed her first daughter, Imogene, in 1812, followed two years later by Adeline. Both girls married white men, Daniel Pence and Thomas Scott. Johnson provided generous dowries of land, furniture, clothing and enslaved persons to his daughters. Both he and Julia insisted the girls receive high-level educations. Julia, herself, was mixed race – the product of a white father and enslaved woman, Henrietta. In time the Chinn-Johnson girls would “cross the color line” and pass for white.
Ranger Zach Anderson explained a benefit to Julia due to Johnson was, “She gets to keep her family intact.” The first day of the New Year was dreaded by the enslaved and known as “Heartbreak Day” and “Hiring Day in the South.” On this day the enslaved learned who among them would be sold or contracted out during slow periods like between cotton and corn harvests. “What you do on day one [you] will do all the year.”
The horror was underscored by slides of auction advertisements: from NY “22 year old with 9 month baby (optional)” and from VA “Cash Sales . . . Thomas Griggs”; notices for family members, “Mary Bailey seeks information on five children sold by Ben Price” posted in The Daily Dispatch, Richmond; and illustrations in anti-slavery publications, “Gone All Gone Why Don’t God Kill Me” the lament of a mother whose 7 children were sold, appeared in the “Narrative of the Life and Adventure of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, 1849.” Anderson added that enslaved women resorted to suicide and infanticide to avoid these tragedies.
Although privileged, Julia nevertheless experienced threats of separation from her family of Henrietta, Patience and Daniel. Often enslavers mortgaged the enslaved to cover debts and Johnson did fall into debt. Rather than mortgaging Johnson added a tavern and the Choctaw Indian School to Blue Spring. Julia managed both enterprises and even the white schoolmaster fell under her authority. In addition Julia performed the traditional wifely duty of planning and hosting elaborate parties for luminaries like General Lafayette and President James Madison.
Expanding on comments about using language reflecting the enslaved person’s perspective, Ranger Dalley said, “White supremacy uses a lot of tools [especially] language as a euphemism. Victim of sexual assault [now supplants] ‘concubine’ and ‘mistress’ because those words imply consent.” An audience member noted that it would “not [be] historically accurate to say rape” since the enslaved had no legal standing as people. Ranger Anderson affirmed this, explaining that only a white man, who was not a slaveholder, could be “charged with trespassing against an owner’s property.”
Julia died in 1833 from a cholera epidemic and her daughter Adeline followed three years later, also from cholera. Although Julia and Johnson communicated extensively through letters, the missives were burned following their deaths. What is known about Julia comes from letters that were saved by people Johnson wrote to. Destroying such communications by surviving relations was common in order to erase the legacy of black descendants and to prevent them from making inheritance claims.
Johnson was described as the “most controversial vice president.” His public embrace of Julia as his common law wife was considered “bad manners.” Democratic party leaders refused to re-nominate Johnson as Van Buren’s running mate despite Van Buren’s protest that whatever Johnson did on his own time was none of his business so long as his did his job.
Johnson also was the butt of a joke told by Abraham Lincoln in a debate with Senator Henry Clay, who accused Lincoln of espousing equality between the races. Lincoln denied it and contended that Johnson was the only politician who believed in such equality. White politicians’ exploitation of enslaved women was not unusual. Clay had children with an enslaved woman but at the insistence of his wife sold the family “down river.”
An audience member asked why men such as Johnson and President Thomas Jefferson were not called pedophiles in light of Julia Chinn’s and Sally Hemmings’ ages as young teenagers when coerced into sexual relations with them.
Ranger Dawn Olson spoke about the similarities and differences between Chinn and Hemmings, who was a half sibling to Jefferson’s white children. The women’s lives overlapped with Hemmings dying two years after Chinn. Jefferson took Hemmings, age 14, and her older brother, James, to Paris when he was appointed ambassador to France. Like Johnson, Jefferson saw to Hemmings’ education, social graces, and outfitted her stylishly. After two years Jefferson was recalled to America. Hemmings could have remained in France, as her brother did, and claim her freedom. This was a pathway to freedom for many enslaved moved temporarily to jurisdictions without slavery.
According to Olson, Hemmings negotiated the emancipation of any future children by age 21 before agreeing to return with Jefferson. Hemmings bore seven children, three of whom died in infancy. Two of the children severed ties with Jefferson after their emancipation. While Johnson and Jefferson emancipated their children, they did not emancipate the mothers, Julia and Sally. Following Jefferson’s death, Hemmings lived in “unofficial freedom” in Charlotte, VA.
In summary, Ranger Dalley said that upgrades to the Van Buren historic site would be extensive because you cannot “tell the story of Van Buren without speaking about slavery.” She, also, noted that the historic site’s land in Kinderhook originally was home to the Mohicans before being pushed out by the Dutch.
About 50 people attended the panel discussion in person and another 80 participated on Zoom.
