U.S. president John Tyler owned as many as 50 slaves during his lifetime.[1] According to a news item from 1943 on slave-owning presidents, "It is said that John Tyler sold one of his slaves to defray his expenses when he went to Washington to assume his duties as vice-president of the United States."[2] The names of three people enslaved by Tyler are currently known to researchers through the historical record:[3]
In the 1840s, abolitionist publisher Joshua Leavitt alleged that Tyler fathered multiple enslaved children.[4][5]
Tyler is also alleged by descendants to have been the father of John Dunjee (born 1833), though this remains unproven.
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