General Grant and His Family

As this print made shortly after the Civil War demonstrates, Ulysses S. Grant, Julia Grant, and their children Fred, Buck, Nellie, and Jesse had achieved a remarkable level of fame before they even entered the White House. But some members of their household remained invisible. Raised on a farm outside of St. Louis, Missouri, that was worked by about thirty enslaved people, Julia Boggs Dent received a chilly welcome when she married into the staunchly abolitionist Grant family. A formerly enslaved woman who worked for the family later recalled that the general “wanted to give his wife’s slaves their freedom as soon as he was able.”

Having relied upon enslaved servants for most of her life, Julia Grant had only supervisory experience with cooking and baking. When as first lady she was asked to contribute a recipe to a charity cookbook, she submitted a friend’s recipe for chicken gumbo.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution