How many us presidents owned slaves?
Of the Presidents who served before the civil war, most were slave-owners. John Adams, his son John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce did not own slaves. James Buchanan purchased two slaves from his brother-in-law but immediately freed them. William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren had both owned slaves earlier in their lives, but (like Buchanan) did not own slaves during their presidencies. Of the Presidents serving after 1860, only two had been slaveowners. Andrew Johnson had owned slaves earlier in his life, as had Ulysses S. Grant, who is known to have owned at least one slave and who profited from the use of slaves belonging to his father-in-law.
