John Tyler and slavery

John Tyler, the tenth President of the United States, owned slaves throughout his lifetime and held complex views on slavery.

Many of his policies as president reflected pro-slavery ideals with efforts to protect Southern interests and resist abolitionist influences, both domestically and internationally.

[2] Tyler reportedly sold multiple slaves to finance his political career; he first attempted to sell a woman named Ann Eliza during his Senate run, and 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] His cabinet was composed largely of wealthy southern slaveowners and even alleged disunionists, including Abel Parker Upshur and John C.

[2] He viewed slave uprisings in the Caribbean as a threat to the American South and enacted various measures to denounce, contain, and even actively destabilize Haitian revolutionaries.