William Henry Harrison
When his father passed away in 1791, William Henry Harrison, who came from a slave-owning family, received numerous slaves as an inheritance. His family held several slaves to maintain the Berkeley farm, where the family resided in Virginia. However, even if he is still one of the US Presidents who were pro-slavery during his lifetime, Harrison only had 11 slaves under his ownership.
Harrison, who was Indiana’s governor at the time, passed legislation favoring slave owners, authorizing them to bring their slaves into the newly established region despite Indiana’s restriction on the sale and purchase of slaves. Harrison considered the practice to be a matter of states’ rights overall.
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!