The former U.S. vice president Johnson County is named after held slaves, married and fathered children with enslaved woman
Richard Mentor Johnson may well be the most controversial vice president in the history of the United States, and considering some of his competition for that distinction, that is quite an accomplishment. Johnson took as his common-law wife a slave named Julia Chinn. He had inherited Julia from his father, and lived openly with her, treating her in all respects as his wife. He fathered two daughters with her and raised them as his daughters. When they married, both to white men, he gave them large tracts of land as a wedding present. When he was away from home, serving in Congress, Julia Chinn was left with full authority over his business affairs in his absence.