The Vice President's Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn

Award-winning historian Amrita Chakrabarti Myers has recovered the riveting, troubling, and complicated story of Julia Ann Chinn (ca. 1796-1833), the enslaved mixed-race 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. This meant that Chinn had substantial control over economic, social, financial, and personal affairs within the couple's world, including overseeing Blue Spring's enslaved labor force. Chinn's relationship with Johnson was unlikely a consensual one since she was never manumitted.

Author: Amrita Chakrabarti Myers
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 10/10/2023
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.53h x 6.14w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781469675237

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2023
Publishers Weekly 08/28/2023
Library Journal 09/22/2023 pg. 1
Choice 06/01/2024

About the Author
Amrita Chakrabarti Myers is the Ruth N. Halls Professor of History and Gender Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. She is the author of Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston.