Henry Brown ( – died October 25, 1866) was an American servant who worked in the U.S. executive mansion, the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
, as an assistant steward.
He had worked for
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Dem ...
"for many years past,"
and was likely enslaved by him, and had continued with him as a paid servant after
emancipation.
Andrew Johnson is believed to have freed all of his personal slaves on August 8, 1863; consequently, August 8 has traditionally been celebrated as Emancipation Day in eastern
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
and parts of
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
.
[ & ]
Brown was described as an "intelligent and valued colored man who lived in the President's family in Tennessee, served in the
First Tennessee Union Cavalry commanded by Col.
Robert Johnson, and came with the President's family to Washington where he has lived ever since."
Brown died in Washington, D.C., of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
"after a very brief illness."
Johnson's daughter
Mary Stover and Col. Johnson accompanied Brown's widow in the President's private carriage to the funeral.
The funeral procession was otherwise composed of a large number of carriages occupied by people of color.
Brown was buried at
Harmony Cemetery.
Henry Brown may be conflated in some histories and biographies of Andrew Johnson with
Henry Johnson, who was likely a younger man and died in 1890.
See also
*
Andrew Johnson and slavery
*
African Americans in Tennessee
African Americans are the second largest ethnic group in the state of Tennessee after whites, making up 17% of the state's population in 2010. African Americans arrived in the region prior to statehood. They lived both as slaves and as free cit ...
See also
*
1863–1875 cholera pandemic
The fourth cholera pandemic of the 19th century began in the Ganges Delta of the Bengal region and traveled with Haj, Muslim pilgrims to Mecca. In its first year, the epidemic claimed 30,000 of 90,000 pilgrims. Cholera spread throughout the Middle ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Henry
1866 deaths
19th-century American slaves
African-American history of Tennessee
People from East Tennessee
People who were enslaved by Andrew Johnson
People of Tennessee in the American Civil War
Southern Unionists in the American Civil War
Burials at Columbian Harmony Cemetery
White House staff