Grant and Slavery

Ulysses S. Grant was the last U.S. president to have enslaved people. Though Grant was raised in an abolitionist family in the free state of Ohio, he became involved in slavery through his marriage to Julia Dent, whose father owned the White Haven plantation in Missouri which was sustained by the labor of enslaved people. Grant supervised the plantation from 1854 - 1859 and himself enslaved a man named William Jones during this period. In 1858, Grant wrote a letter to his sister Mary stating “I have now three negro men, two hired by the year and one of Mr. Dents, which, with my own help, I think, will enable me to do my farming pretty well.” However, Grant was not regarded as an advocate of slavery and was unable to bring himself to enforce an enslaved man to work. He eventually freed Jones in 1859, in his manumission describing Jones as “my negro man William, sometimes called William Jones, of Mulatto complexion, aged about thirty-five years…being the same slave purchased by me of Frederick Dent.” His experience at White Haven may have impacted his subsequent role as a Union general who won the Civil War and thus contributed to the abolition of slavery.

During his presidency, Grant supported the ratification of the 15th Amendment which gave all African American males the right to vote. The 15th Amendment was passed by Congress in February 1869 and ratified in February 1870. This was the last of the Reconstruction Amendments; the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865 and abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, while the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 and established birthright citizenship and equal protection of the law for all US citizens.

References and Further Reading
Brands, H.W. The Man Who Saved The Union: Ulysses S. Grant in War and Peace. New York: Doubleday, 2012.

Fling, Sarah. “The Formerly Enslaved Household of the Grant Family.” The White House Historical Association, 17 Apr. 2020, The Formerly Enslaved Household of the Grant Family - White House Historical Association (whitehousehistory.org).

Foner, Eric. A Short History of Reconstruction. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2015.

Wikipedia
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site - Wikipedia