The Enslaved Households of President Zachary Taylor
Born in 1784, Zachary Taylor grew up on a plantation in Virginia. His father, Richard Taylor, was an officer in the Continental Army and a southern planter. About six years later, Colonel Taylor purchased Springfield plantation and moved his family to Louisville, Kentucky, and by 1800, Taylor had expanded his slaveholdings to twenty-six enslaved people.1 Zachary Taylor lived at his father’s pl