This website seeks to honor the memory of the people enslaved by John Tyler, 10th President of the United States, and his family. This effort is a work in progress, and many questions remain unanswered.
Please visit the Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History’s Enslaved Ancestor File to learn more about those enslaved in Charles City County, Virginia.
The African American Heritage Society of New Kent County, Virginia is also engaged in tracing the histories of enslaved and free Black families in the region. Contact LaVonne Allen at lpanewkent@gmail.com for more information.
Recommended Reading
President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler by Christopher J. Leahy, Professor of History at Keuka College (LSU Press, 2020)
John Tyler, The Accidental President by Edward P. Crapol, Professor Emeritus of History at William & Mary (UNC Press, 2012)
The Enslaved Households of President John Tyler by Matthew Costello, Vice President of the Rubenstein Center for White House History (White House Historical Association, 2020)
Cultural Landscape Report on Sherwood Forest by Mary C. Fesak, 2018 Rudy J. Favretti Fellow (Garden Club of Virginia, 2019)
Julia Gardiner Tyler: A Nineteenth-Century Southern Woman by Theodore Carter DeLaney (William & Mary, 1995)
The Enslaved People and the Tylers Too: Why It Is Imperative to Discuss Slavery in Public History by Meredith Jackson (William & Mary, 2021)
The Letters and Times of the Tylers by Lyon G. Tyler (Whittet & Shepperson, 1884-96)
And Tyler Too: A Biography of John and Julia Tyler by Robert Seager II (McGraw-Hill, 1963)
Acknowledgements
This website would not be possible without the collaborative efforts of Darlene Black Giles, Descendant of the Black Family; Judith Ledbetter of the Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History in Charles City County, Virginia; Rebecca Lallier, Julia Gardiner Tyler Scholar; Mary C. Fesak, 2018 Rudy J. Favretti Fellow with the Garden Club of Virginia; and Meredith Jackson, History Honors Thesis Student at William & Mary, Class of 2021.