Sarah Childress Polk was one of the most powerful First Ladies in history, advising her husband on political matters and serving as his communications secretary and campaign manager throughout his political career. They made a formidable couple in Washington political circles and left a legacy of marriage that is decidedly modern. Sarah was a woman ahead of her times, but her long widowhood took her out of the spotlight.
Each month, I’ll detail the life of the first lady and their legacy. Then I’ll share what I learned while studying them, along with ways you can travel in their footsteps through historical sites and museums. I’ll also share books, podcasts, TV shows, and websites where you can learn even more about that first lady. Read all of the way through the blog post or click on the links below to go straight to those sections.
Life
Childhood
Sarah Childress was born on September 4, 1803 in Sumner County, Tennessee. The third of six children born to a wealthy plantation owner and his wife, Sarah had a privileged upbringing in a luxurious home in Murfreesboro. She always had the most stylish dresses of silk and satin and received the best educational opportunities.
Her father believed his daughters should receive the same education as his sons, ensuring Sarah had lessons from an esteemed headmaster of a famous local boys’ school and eventually sending her to a boarding school in Salem, North Carolina. The Salem Female Academy was the oldest institution of higher learning for women in the country, and Sarah thrived in its rigorous academic environment, establishing her lifelong love of learning and reading.
Tragedy struck when Sarah was fifteen as her beloved father died suddenly. She came home from school to help her mother, ending her formal education. Her deeply religious mother’s strict Presbyterian beliefs imprinted on Sarah and affected her entertaining style even in the White House decades later.
Marriage
When Sarah was 19, she became reacquainted with one of her brother’s former schoolmates, James K. Polk. He had been a star pupil at both the Tennessee school and the University of North Carolina and had a promising political future as a protégé of Andrew Jackson. Jackson was the one who encouraged James to pursue Sarah, and they married at Sarah’s childhood home on New Year’s Day, 1824.
Sarah wasn’t considered beautiful at the time, but she had large, expressive eyes and black ringlets, and her intelligence showed through her charming and vivacious personality. James was more serious and ill at ease in social situations, making them the perfect pairing. They must have come to the marriage with some understanding of their political future because James was quoted as saying she wouldn’t have married him if “I’d been satisfied with a clerkship.”
James and Sarah moved to his hometown of Columbia, Tennessee and lived in a home near his large family, including his sister, Jane, who would become Sarah’s closest friend. Sarah also brought a young enslaved maid from her childhood home, and an enslaved coachman/valet was also a part of their household. James and Sarah would eventually purchase a Mississippi cotton plantation and enslave over forty workers there.
Not content to be a small town lawyer, James ran for Congress the following year and won, leaving Sarah at home while he went to Washington, DC. She was miserable to be separated and missing out on all of the political action, so they agreed that she would travel with him in the future. James was quoted as saying, “Why should you stay at home? To take care of the house? Why, if the house burns down, we can live without it.” With no children to consider (most likely due to a bladder operation that was thought to have left James sterile), this was an option that wasn’t available to most Congressional families.
Political Wife
Sarah traveled with James to Washington in November of 1826 and quickly fell in love with the capital city. From attending debates on the House floor to the endless stream of socializing, she thrived in the city. They lived in a boarding house and entertained constantly in its public rooms where congressmen, senators, and justices all grew to admire Sarah’s intellect and political acumen. When James was elected Speaker of the House in 1835, Sarah rented extra rooms at the boarding house to host twice weekly parties that had the feel of a European salon.
Sarah’s personal touch came in handy for James as politics at this time was becoming more challenging with the slavery issue beginning to rise above all else. James was embroiled in the issue, both as a slave owner and as the Speaker, ushering in a gag rule to prevent anti-slavery petitions from being heard on the House floor. Sarah had grown up around slavery and had no issue with the institution, especially with her religious belief of predestination.
James ran for Tennessee governor in 1839 and spent four months on the campaign trail to the detriment of his health. Sarah served as his campaign manager and communications secretary. This was highly unusual behavior for women at this time since they typically stayed on the political sidelines. James trusted Sarah’s opinion, but his letters from this time are cold and dry, focused on work without any thank you or personal questions. Sarah didn’t seem to mind as her only surviving letter from this time is also impersonal and down to business. They wanted to get things done!
James won the election, and he and Sarah moved to Nashville where they rented a house and moved their furniture from their Columbia home. They were in debt from campaign expenses and living costs, so she did not entertain as First Lady of Tennessee but attended parties given by others. James kept to himself, not realizing or caring about the value of her parlor politics. This was an issue two years later when James lost the governor’s race.
James and Sarah moved back to Columbia where he set up a law practice. He ran for governor again in 1843 but was defeated by the same opponent. James’ (and thereby Sarah’s) political career seemed over.
First Lady
In 1844, James became the first dark horse presidential candidate with the Democratic party in disarray over the annexation of Texas, resurrecting his political career. Sarah became his communications manager again, working six days a week on managing correspondence and the press. Many thought by casting a vote for James, they were getting a “two-for-one” deal with Sarah, as she had assured voters that if James won, she would “neither keep house nor make butter.” While thought to be a dig at his Whig opponent’s wife, Sarah made clear that she would be involved in the day-to-day running of the country.
James won the election even though he didn’t carry his home state, and he and Sarah made their way to the capital, stopping at Andrew Jackson’s home in Nashville before starting the journey. James and Sarah were greeted by enthusiastic well wishers along the way, but she shut down any celebration she deemed inappropriate such as a brass band’s greeting on a Sunday.
At James’ inauguration, the always fashionable Sarah wore a gray and red striped gown topped by a sand-colored wool coat with quilted rose taffeta lining along with a red velvet bonnet. She carried a gold presidential “National fan” that had the picture of every president (click here to see). At the inaugural ball, Sarah wore a blue velvet dress with a cape with fringe but didn’t dance due to her strict religious beliefs.
Sarah ran a much different White House than her predecessor, the young and loquacious Julia Tyler, who thought Sarah dull and uninteresting. Sarah banned dancing, playing cards, and serving hard liquor although she did allow wine and champagne (getting a nickname “Sahara Sarah” for her teetotaling ways!). The White House was in shambles, so Congress appropriated funds for renovations, including the installation of gas lighting. The ever-frugal Sarah only spent half allotted and had replicas of the furniture made to take back to Tennessee.
Sarah was also penny pinching when it came to staffing the White House as she fired half of the workers and brought her enslaved workers to fill their roles. She hired a part-time chef to serve for her nightly dinners or receptions. The dinners themselves were extravagant with over fifty courses (one time 150 courses were recorded!). She had new White House china made, the first with the presidential shield containing the national motto, and began salons in the newly decorated Red Room where men and women could socialize together. She initiated the custom of the Marine Band playing “Hail to the Chief” when the president entered (other First Ladies had done this but Sarah formalized it). The song was one of her favorites, written in her own 14 year old hand in a childhood music book.
Sarah rarely ate at these events and focused instead on charming political opponents and wooing potential votes for James’ causes. She thrived in the political intrigue and even met with congressmen when they came to the White House to discuss business. Everyone knew that they had to win Sarah over to get to James. Sarah continued to serve as his most trusted advisor, and they shared an office where Sarah would read newspapers and mark the ones that James should read. She had more important things to do than returning house calls, so she invited her nieces to come to Washington to serve as her social ambassadors.
N. Currier, Plumbe, John, photographer. Mrs. J.K. Polk / lith. & pub. by N. Currier. , 1846. New York: N. Currier. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/96525379/.
Sarah became good friends with former First Lady, Dolley Madison, and Dolley was photographed with Sarah and James along with soon-to-be-president James Buchanan in one of the first photographs taken at the White House (click here to see!). Sarah and James helped with Dolley’s dire financial situation and carried through on her pet project, the building of the Washington Monument. James was the president who laid the cornerstone with Dolley in 1848 (along with other illustrious figures such as Eliza Hamilton and three future presidents).
The public loved Sarah, naming their children after her, and reverently called her the “Presidentress,” but public opinion began to change as the United States became bogged down in the Mexican-American War. James had campaigned on annexing Texas and other southwest territory along with Oregon, but the stalemate in the war took a toll on citizens and the president. Sarah watched as James worked himself to near death to finalize a peace treaty in 1848. No other president added more land to the country than James, but it came at a high personal cost for both James and the families who sacrificed their loved ones in battle.
As James had campaigned as a one term president, Sarah began supervising the move back to their new Nashville home near the state Capitol. Called “Polk Place,” this would be the place where they could finally rest after serving the country for so many years. With James’ precarious health, she looked forward to this peaceful time.
A Long Widowhood
Alas, it was not meant to be. After a long trip through the Southern states in the midst of a cholera outbreak, James and Sarah made it home; however just three months after leaving office, James contracted cholera and died in June of 1849, the youngest president and the youngest to die. His last words were said to have been, “I love you Sarah. For all eternity, I love you.” He had to be buried out of town due to the sickness, but he was reinterred on Polk Place’s grounds the following year.
Sarah was devastated, and at only 45, she had a long widowhood ahead of her. She turned Polk Place into a shrine to James and his political career, filling its walls with portraits and displaying his addresses and artifacts. The Tennessee state legislators visited her before every session began, and she was known to host dignitaries and presidents upon their visits to Nashville.
Sarah took in her grandniece, Sallie, and raised her as a surrogate daughter (she and James had provided for many of their nephews and nieces over the years). She didn’t receive a pension from the US government, relying on the income from her Mississippi plantation to sustain her. She never stopped mourning James, wearing black for the rest of her life.
When the Civil War broke out and Tennessee seceded, Sarah stayed officially neutral although she did participate in Confederate women’s aid societies and harbored Southern tendencies. When Nashville fell to the Union in 1862, she welcomed Union General Buell and flew an American flag. Her wartime hospitality was appreciated, and her home was considered protected territory (her Confederate neighbors and even the state historical society brought her items for safekeeping!). She did visit Confederate soldiers in the hospital and refused to take an oath of loyalty to the Union, but that didn’t keep President Lincoln from granting her wish to sell cotton bales through the lines.
The Union Army came to her Mississippi plantation on August 19, 1863, and many of the enslaved joined the army as members of the USCT. They helped in a victory over Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tupelo, and some came back to the land after the war to serve as sharecroppers.
Sarah continued living at Polk Place after the war and served as the head of the Nashville Ladies Memorial Association that purchased land for a Confederate cemetery. With her plantation sold, she was grateful for the government pension granted to all presidential widows after the assassination of President Garfield. She was the first person in Nashville to use a telephone and opened the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition by an electric signal. What amazing technological changes happened during her lifetime!
Sarah died on August 14, 1891. She died announcing, “I am ready. I am willing to go. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.” She was buried beside James with her epitaph reading, “A noble woman, a devoted wife, a true friend, a sincere Christian.”
Sarah left Polk Place to Sallie and her daughter, Saidee, but it wasn’t hers to give according to James’ will. A bitter dispute broke out among the Polk descendents, resulting in the sale of the house in 1897. It was eventually torn down and Sarah and James’ tomb was moved to the state Capitol grounds. Sallie and Saidee continued to be the caretakers for James and Sarah’s legacy, forming the James K. Polk Association in 1924 and purchasing his parents’ home in Columbia to serve as a museum. It is the only surviving residence of the Polks outside of the White House. The Tennessee State Legislature has explored moving James and Sarah’s tomb here.
Legacy
Sarah’s groundbreaking work as First Lady has been lost to history until her most recent biography (see below). With no children and only one term in office, both James and Sarah are forgotten by most except historians. However once you learn about this forward-thinking woman, you can’t help but remember her!
When reading her interest in politics, I couldn’t help but think of a modern day First Lady of similar persuasion, Hillary Rodham Clinton (who also was quoted as not wanting to focus on domestic duties and for being a “two-for-one deal”). Sarah was the first of several First Ladies to be a politically effective partisan helpmate to the president. With her thoroughly modern marriage that bucked the norms of 19th century society, Sarah established a different path forward for women in politics.
However, she wasn’t what you’d consider a champion of women’s rights. She did not agree with the 1848 women’s movement established at the Seneca Falls convention. She believed more in the power of persuasion, always couching her suggestions with “Mr. Polk believes…” As a wealthy woman whose husband listened to her thoughts, she didn’t “need” the rights the convention was proposing for all women, so she didn’t support it.
Like many of the other First Ladies, her legacy is tainted by the stain of slavery. As a Southern woman, she grew up in slavery and thought it was just a part of life. She benefited from the institution and thought herself to be a kind and considerate plantation mistress; however her Mississippi plantation had a high mortality rate and most of the enslaved left when Union troops came. There are stories of her kindness to certain enslaved members of the Polk household, but they don’t negate the facts that some of the enslaved were separated from their families and forced to work under harsh conditions at the Polk plantation. Learn more about the Polks’ views on slavery here.
Sarah’s legacy is complex and is a good example of the dichotomy of the time period.
My Time with Sarah
I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Sarah this month, especially as I was visiting her home state. As I drove around the Nashville area, I tried to imagine how Sarah would have seen it in the mid-19th century, the rolling hills, the beautiful state Capitol, the gracious homes lining the road to Columbia. It also made it clearer to me how hard life must have been to travel back and forth from this distant frontier outpost to Washington, DC. Sarah was a hardy soul.
I liked how she was such an asset to James, and he knew it. Without her, he would not have made it to the presidency or been so successful. Her outgoing personality was a direct and needed contrast to his serious outlook. I would love to know if they discussed this before marriage and set up their life together in this way. It seems so!
Travels with Sarah
I had a trip already planned to Nashville for this month, so it gave me the perfect opportunity to see some of the sites associated with Sarah!
Tennessee:
President James K. Polk Home and Museum, Columbia
This museum is located in the home of James Polk’s parents and is the must-see place to learn more about Sarah. The museum has her furniture, including the replicas of the White House furnishings, and is the keeper of James and Sarah’s legacy. I visited while in Nashville and loved the museum and the quaint town, especially the statues of James and Sarah! It’s also where I found out there is a collection of coins commemorating First Ladies. I started my collection with Sarah’s coin!
Don’t miss walking just a block west to see the only remaining part of James and Sarah’s house, steps leading from the sidewalk that is now attached to a parking lot.
Childress-Ray House, Murfreesboro
Sarah’s brother lived in this home, and she was an occasional visitor. It is privately owned but may be available to rent. There is a historical marker here.
Tennessee State Capitol, Nashville
James and Sarah’s tomb was moved here from the nearby Polk Place in 1893. You can see their tomb as you walk around the Capitol grounds. A historical marker can be found nearby.
Former site of Polk Place, Nashville
Located near the state Capitol is the location of Polk Place, now the Capitol Hotel. There is a nearby historical marker.
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville
This state museum has many items displayed about its native daughter, Sarah. I loved seeing one of her beautifully luxurious dresses! Check out the new items from Sarah that are now being exhibited here.
North Carolina:
President James K. Polk State Historic Site, Charlotte
James’ recreated birthplace cabin also tells the stories of the Polks’ enslaved workers, including the ones in Tennessee and Mississippi.
Salem College, Winston-Salem
Sarah’s attendance at this female academy shaped her love of learning the rest of her life. It is now a women’s college.
Mississippi:
Polk Plantation, Yalobusha County
A historical marker is all that remains of the Polks’ Mississippi plantation.
Washington, DC:
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Check out the First Ladies exhibit to see artifacts from Sarah including her beautiful White House china. You can even search the collections online and see her inaugural gown!
To Learn More
Books to Read:
All links are Amazon affiliate links. You can also purchase the books through my affiliate link to Bookshop.org which supports independent bookstores.
Nonfiction:
Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk by Amy S. Greenberg
This is the definitive biography about Sarah and is entertaining and educational.
Provisions & Politics: Recipes Honoring First Lady Sarah Childress Polk
Created by the James K. Polk Memorial Association to commemorate Sarah’s 200th birthday in 2003, this cookbook/history book is only available at the President James K. Polk Home and Museum. I can’t wait to try some of the recipes!
Sarah Childress Polk: A Biography of the Remarkable First Lady by John R. Bumgarner
Fiction:
Gone for Soldiers: A Novel of the Mexican War by Jeff Shaara
While not about Sarah, this novel is set during the Polk presidency and gives the reader a fascinating look at Sarah’s contemporaries. It also is good to read as a precursor to the Civil War as almost all of the soldiers in this book go on to be well-known for their service on both sides of the war.
Podcasts
Here’s Where It Gets Interesting: The Wealthy and Powerful Sarah Polk
The Road to Now, Episode 54: The (After)Life of James K. Polk w/ Tom Price
TV Show
C-SPAN First Ladies: Influence and Image
Song
Check out the song, “James K. Polk” by They Might Be Giants
Websites
President James K. Polk Home and Museum
White House Historical Association
- Ornaments: The Polks have a few different Christmas ornaments available.
- 1994 annual ornament featured James and Sarah being serenaded by the Marine Band in front of the White House
- Polk china teapot and teacup ornaments feature Sarah’s exquisite taste!
C-SPAN First Ladies: Influence and Image
Sarah Childress Polk was the most powerful woman in America in the mid-19th century. Her legacy is virtually unknown but should be studied for its perfection of soft power and how she established a path for other First Ladies to be a political partner with their husband.
