9. Richard Mentor Johnson
President: Van Buren, 1837-1841
Party: Democrat
State: Kentucky
Slave Owner: Yes. See below.
Johnson had a common-in-law marriage and two daughters with one of his slaves, Julia Chinn. When Chinn died of cholera, he turned to another one of his slaves, Chinn’s niece, who refused his affection. So he sold her. Johnson was dubbed by the doorkeeper of the U.S. Senate as “the most vulgar of all vulgar men in this world.”