{"id":60529,"date":"2021-02-09T18:19:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T18:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=60529"},"modified":"2021-02-09T18:20:38","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T18:20:38","slug":"he-became-the-nations-ninth-vice-president-she-was-his-enslaved-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=60529","title":{"rendered":"He became the nation\u2019s ninth vice president. She was his enslaved wife."},"content":{"rendered":"

He became the nation\u2019s ninth vice president. She was his enslaved wife.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a>
\n2021-02-07<\/p>\n

Ronald G. Shafer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nRichard Mentor Johnson<\/a> became vice president in 1837. (Library of Congress)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Her name was Julia Chinn<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

She was born enslaved<\/a> and remained that way her entire life, even after she became Richard Mentor Johnson\u2019s<\/a> \u201cbride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, a Kentucky<\/a> congressman who eventually became the nation\u2019s ninth vice president in 1837, couldn\u2019t legally marry Julia Chinn<\/a>. Instead the couple exchanged vows at a local church with a wedding celebration organized by the enslaved people at his family\u2019s plantation in Great Crossing<\/a>, according to Miriam Biskin, who wrote about Chinn decades ago.<\/p>\n

Chinn died nearly four years before Johnson took office. But because of controversy over her, Johnson is the only vice president in American history who failed to receive enough electoral votes to be elected. The Senate<\/a> voted him into office.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s story is complicated and fraught, historians say. As an enslaved woman, Chinn could not consent to a relationship, and there\u2019s no record of how she regarded him. Though she wrote to Johnson during his lengthy absences from Kentucky, the letters didn\u2019t survive.<\/p>\n