Read On Book Club Presents: The Vice President's Black Wife: the Untold Life of Julia Chinn

Join the Read On Book Club in the reading and discussion of "The Vice President's Black Wife: the Untold Life of Julia Chinn by Amrita Chakrabarti Myers.  This award winning historian Myers has recovered the riveting, troubling, and complicated story of Julia Ann Chinn (1796-1833), the enslaved mixed-raced wife of Richard Mentor Johnson, owner of Blue Spring Farm, veteran of the War of 1812, and US Vice President under Martin Van Buren.  Johnson never freed Chinn, but during his frequent absences from his estate, he delegated to her management of his property.  This meant that Chinn, while enslaved, had substantial control over economic, social, financial, and personal affairs.  When the family left the farm, they faced steep steps moving forward, exclusion from town dances, burial in separate graveyards, and so much more.