James K. Polk
Who would have thought that a man who struggled to grow the size of the country was also one of the first US Presidents who were pro-slavery? James K. Polk had a large number of slaves at his service as a landlord in Tennessee, and even when he sold his property and relocated to Mississippi in 1834, he continued to buy more slaves to labor for him, and at least 13 of the 19 slaves he bought were kids.
Ironically, he supported preventing the expansion of slavery while he was president. He supported moving the Missouri Compromise boundary further west so that it would ban slavery in a larger portion of the country.
One Response
In order to understand why these presidents were pro-slavery, we must go back to the customs of the times. Those who were rich & powerful could do anything they wanted, & the law looked the other way. Slavery was an accepted institution. Not all slaves were treated badly, most had kind masters who gave them food & shelter, albeit of low quality. They worked long hours, & were exhausted at the end of a 12-hour day. The white non-slave were not much better off, working long hours for little pay, living in squalor. If a white worker got injured or died, nobody cared for the family. Corruption & bribery were rampant. Congressmen & Presidents often took bribes, or participated in crooked schemes to enrich themselves. Regretably, not much has changed!