Sarah Polk

Sarah Childress grew up on a wealthy Tennessee plantation and was given an advanced education. She was solely devoted to James Polk’s political career, and she served as her husband’s loyal secretary, advisor, and trusted supporter. A fashionable dresser, she was also a pious Presbyterian who banned dancing and hard liquor at the White House. James died in 1849, only three months after retiring from Washington, leaving Sarah to live another 42 years on their estate at Polk Place in Tennessee. Perhaps her best political ingenuity was during the Civil War as she maneuvered the preservation of her home as the neutral territory between the Confederacy and the Union.

Born: 4 September 1803, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Died: 14 August 1891, Nashville, Tennessee

Early Life and Family Background

Sarah Whitsett Childress was born on 4 September 1803, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She hailed from a family of Scottish, Irish, and English descent. Her father, Joel Childress, was born on 22 March 1777 in North Carolina and passed away on 19 August 1819 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Joel Childress was a wealthy plantation owner, enslaver, and merchant who enslaved a significant number of African Americans who worked on his plantation and in his home.

Sarah’s mother, Elizabeth Whitsett, was born in 1780 in North Carolina and died in 1863 in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Sarah’s parents married in Sumner County, Tennessee, although the exact date is unknown. Elizabeth Whitsett’s parents, John Whitsett and Sarah Thompson Whitsett, both lived to a relatively old age and relocated from Tennessee to Alabama.

Sarah was the third of six siblings: Anderson Childress (1799-1827), Susan Childress Rucker (1801-1888), Benjamin Whitsett Childress (who died in infancy), John Whitsett Childress (1807-1884), and Elizabeth Childress (who also died in infancy).

Education

Sarah Childress received her early education at the Murfreesboro Common School from approximately 1808 to 1813, where she learned basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. She and her sister Susan were then tutored by Samuel Black, the principal of Bradley Academy, a boys’ private school in Murfreesboro, from around 1814 to 1816.

In 1816, Sarah and Susan attended Abercrombie’s Boarding School in Nashville, Tennessee, where they learned piano, sewing, and social etiquette. The sisters then traveled to Salem, North Carolina, to attend the Moravian Female Academy from 5 May 1817 to 19 August 1819. This school provided a comprehensive education, including English grammar, Bible study, Greek and Roman literature, geography, music, drawing, and sewing. Sarah’s lifelong love of reading was nurtured here. The sisters’ education was abruptly cut short by their father’s death, and they returned home.

Marriage to James K. Polk

Sarah Childress met James K. Polk while he was serving as clerk of the Tennessee Senate. They began courting and married on 1 January 1824 in Rutherford County, Tennessee. James Polk, born on 2 November 1795 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, was a lawyer and state legislator.

The Polks moved to Columbia, Tennessee, where James began his political career. Sarah played a crucial role in his career, managing his public schedule, and correspondence, and advising him on political matters. Unlike many women of her time, Sarah’s lack of household responsibilities and children allowed her to fully support and participate in her husband’s political ambitions.

Life Before the White House

In 1825, after James Polk was elected to the U.S. Congress, Sarah joined him in Washington, D.C. She was one of the few political wives fully engaged in social and political interactions in the capital. Her family's friendship with Andrew Jackson further elevated the Polks’ status.

Sarah’s political acumen became evident during James Polk’s campaign for Governor of Tennessee in 1839. She handled his correspondence, scheduled speaking engagements, and monitored state newspapers. Despite her efforts, Polk lost his re-election bid in 1840 and a subsequent race in 1843.

Campaign and Inauguration

James Polk’s support for expansionism and the annexation of Texas won him the Democratic nomination for the 1844 presidential election. Sarah played a significant role in his campaign, maintaining extensive correspondence with party leaders and newspaper editors.

Following Polk’s election, Sarah joined him at his inauguration on 4 March 1845. She attended two inaugural balls but maintained a sober and orthodox Christian demeanor, refusing to permit business or social activities on Sundays.

First Lady of the United States

Sarah Polk’s tenure as First Lady from 4 March 1845 to 4 March 1849 was marked by a strict adherence to her Presbyterian faith. She banned dancing and alcohol in the White House, though she allowed wine to be served at dinners. Sarah was a key advisor to her husband, managing his correspondence and acting as a liaison between him and political figures.

She was involved in political discussions and provided detailed reports on state and local political incidents. Sarah’s discretion and political acumen were widely recognized, though she often presented her views as those of her husband.

Despite her conservative social policies, Sarah supported technological advancements, such as gaslighting in the White House. She shared her husband’s belief in “Manifest Destiny,” supporting the annexation of Texas and the Mexican-American War.

Life After the White House

Following the end of his presidency, James Polk returned to Nashville with Sarah Polk, moving into a new home they had renovated, to be known as “Polk Place.” Throughout her marriage, Sarah Polk had sought to discourage her husband’s tendency to overwork. James Polk had physically deteriorated because of his killing workload as President.

Highly vulnerable during a cholera outbreak, he died three months after leaving office. Widowed at age 45, Sarah Polk rarely left Polk Place for the nearly four decades that she survived him, except for attending church on Sundays and several visits to his and her family members in nearby Columbia and Murfreesboro.

In 1850, Sarah Polk traveled to inspect her Mississippi cotton plantation. As an enslaver herself, Sarah Polk has a mixed record. There was a high infant mortality rate and while she claimed that she wished not to sell individuals and break up families, she did so if it meant a profit. On the other hand, she saw to it that the African Americans she enslaved were provided with both medical care and religious training. Whether it was declining profits or her own political savvy in detecting the imminent outbreak of the Civil War and eventual emancipation of those enslaved, she sold her plantation in 1860, a year before the war began.

During the Civil War, Sarah Polk declared herself neutral and welcomed both Union and Confederate military leaders to her home. When, however, she was asked to sign an oath of loyalty to the Union, as was required of all Nashville residents seeking to obtain coal, she refused. Later she admitted that her sympathies were with the South and she blamed the divisions within the Democratic Party during the 1860 election for the outbreak of war, believing the conflict could have been avoided through legislation.

At Polk Place, the presidential widow essentially created a shrine and museum there to her late husband, displaying mementos and historical objects associated with him and his Administration, his photographs and portraits, as well as his extensive presidential papers. When historian George Bancroft began research and completed some writing about the Polk Administration, Sarah Polk willingly shared material with him and even loaned some papers, which she sent by mail to Washington.

Although she lived in relative isolation, removed from the realities of the Reconstruction South, she did maintain her interest in emerging technologies and had both a telegraph and telephone installed in her home.

She was later given the honor of opening Cincinnati’s Centennial Exposition, by pressing an electric button connected by telegraph to the fair, setting the machinery in motion to signal the start of the event. Among her many distinguished guests were President and Mrs. Hayes in 1877. Later, when the Women’s Christian Temperance Union assembled testimonies to honor Lucy Hayes, First Lady Sarah Polk was the first to sign the book. During the 1887 visit by President and Mrs. Cleveland, Sarah Polk spoke extensively with them about the rooms and changes made since she lived in the White House.

Although she assiduously responded to all the public inquiries and requests that came her way, she resisted the urges of her friends to record aspects of her own biography and experiences, focusing always on her late husband’s life.

She always identified herself as “Mrs. James K. Polk,” using Sarah Polk only on legal documents.

Death and Burial

Sarah Polk passed away on 14 August 1891 in Nashville, Tennessee. She was buried beside her husband in his tomb on the front lawn of their home, Polk Place. Their burial site is located near the Tennessee Capitol building.

Sarah Polk’s commitment to her husband’s political career, her at times divisive nature, and her influence as First Lady left a lasting impact on the role of presidential spouses in American politics.