Julia Chinn | Kentucky Studies

Julia Chinn was the common-law wife of Richard Mentor Johnson, the ninth vice president of the United States, who served under President Martin Van Buren. Julia Chinn did all the things expected in her position in antebellum Kentucky. She managed Blue Spring Farm in Scott County while her husband was away in Washington, D.C., and while he was serving in the War of 1812. When the Marquis de Lafayette, a Revolutionary War hero, came to visit in 1825, she organized a lavish community reception.

What makes her story different is that she was an enslaved woman.