Description
Award-winning historian Amrita Chakrabarti Myers has recovered the riveting, troubling, and complicated story of Julia Ann Chinn (ca. 1796-1833), the enslaved wife of Richard Mentor Johnson, owner of Blue Spring Farm, veteran of the War of 1812, and US vice president under Martin Van Buren. Johnson never freed Chinn, but during his frequent absences from his estate, he delegated to her the management of his property, including Choctaw Academy, a boarding school for Indigenous men and boys on the grounds of the estate. This meant that Chinn, although enslaved herself, oversaw Blue Springs slave labor force and had substantial control over economic, social, financial, and personal affairs within the couples world. Chinns relationship with Johnson was unlikely to have been consensual since she was never manumitted.
What makes Chinns life exceptional is the power that Johnson invested in her, the opportunities the couples relationship afforded her and her daughters, and their communitys tacit acceptance of the familyup to a point. When the family left their farm, they faced steep limits: pews at the rear of the church, burial in separate graveyards, exclusion from town dances, and more. Johnsons relationship with Chinn ruined his political career and Myers compellingly demonstrates that it wasnt interracial sex that led to his downfall but his refusal to keep itand Julia Chinnbehind closed doors.
Author: Amrita Chakrabarti Myers
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 10/10/2023
Series: A Ferris and Ferris Book
Pages: 296
Weight: 1.3lbs
Size: 9.53h x 6.14w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781469675237
Language: English
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.