Florence Johnson Smith

Florence Johnson Smith (May 1850 – September 15, 1920) was a mixed-race woman from Tennessee who was enslaved, from birth until approximately age 13, by Andrew Johnson, later the 17th president of the United States. She worked in service at the Tennessee governor's mansion during the American Civil War, at the White House as a housemaid during Johnson's presidency, and in his home in Greeneville as a cook after he left office. Her mother was Dolly Johnson; the identity of her father remains officially unknown. Since the late 20th century several scholars and popular historians have speculated or insinuated that Andrew Johnson may be Florence's biological father, although there is no evidence that either confirms the relationship or eliminates Johnson as a candidate for paternity. In later life Florence Smith may have been a woman of some financial means as she was remembered at the time of her death as a benefactress who financially supported local African American students pursuing college educations.

Biography Early life Florence Johnson was born in the month of May, The father of Florence and her older sister Lucy Elizabeth, called Liz, was never named in any known historical document, and his identity remains officially unknown. Per historian Annette Gordon-Reed, "Dolly, who was described in the census as black, would give birth to three children ... listed as 'mulattoes,' which suggests that they had been fathered by a white man or an extremely light-skinned black man." The childhoods of Dolly Johnson's children are almost entirely undocumented but they are believed to appear, as demographic summaries lacking names, on the 1850 and 1860 U.S. census slave schedules as property of Andrew Johnson. On April 16, 1854, Andrew Johnson wrote a letter to his second-born son Robert Johnson, aged 20, that included this statement: "I have bought a basket and some other little notions for your little brothe and a little chair for Liz and Florence &c."

On August 8, 1863, amidst the ongoing American Civil War, military governor of Tennessee Andrew Johnson freed his personal slaves, including Florence. According to Florence's younger brother William Andrew Johnson, "Mrs. Johnson called us all in and said we were free now. She said we were free to go or could stay if we wanted to. We all stayed." After freedom, the black Johnsons stayed with the white Johnsons as paid servants. In 1864 and 1865, when Andrew Johnson was military governor of Tennessee, he "claimed pay toward wages, rations, and clothing for three servants: Henry, Florence, and Elizabeth (Liz)." She would have been approximately 15 to 19 years old during the Johnson administration, and it may be during this period that she was photographed beside Andrew Johnson Stover, the youngest of Mary Johnson Stover's three children. In the words of David Warren Bowen, author of Andrew Johnson and the Negro, "The picture shows a handsome young woman of very light color most tastefully dressed in a manner that appears quite expensive and not the sort of attire one would expect of a common servant." Florence Johnson, age 22, is dually enumerated. In addition to being listed in her mother's household, she is enumerated in the household of Andrew Johnson, occupation "Ex Pres, Retired." Her occupation there is "cook." From his mother, William Andrew learned much about cooking, but his sister, Florence, who was a maid in the White House, taught him the culinary art after her return from a famous cooking school of that day to which the president sent her. — Knoxville Journal and Tribune, December 24, 1922 Smith was a native of Tennessee born about 1847. He was a former 1st Sergeant (the highest rank obtainable by a black man at that time) of Company G of the 1st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery. The 1st U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery was organized at Knoxville and then stationed in Greeneville from March 1865 to March 1866. Smith was possibly born enslaved as the colored heavy artillery units recruited heavily from the local populations of freed slaves, escaped slaves and contraband. Henry Smith reported that his father was born in Tennessee, and his mother was born in Virginia.

The whereabouts of Florence and the rest of the family between 1880 and 1900 are obscure, however by turn of the 20th century, Florence and Henry were living separately and Florence reported herself as either widowed or divorced.

A FAMILY FUSS Henry Smith Measures His Wife's Length Upon the Ground

Henry Smith, colored, appeared in the docks before Judge Bell of the City Court yesterday morning on charge of assault and battery. He was found guilty and fined $20. The evidence showed that Mr. Smith and Mrs. Smith had passed that stage of wedded bliss where man and wife are all in all to one another. It appeared that they were strolling along in the dusk of evening and that Mr. Smith's mind took a financial turn and he proposed to borrow of Mrs Smith the snug little sum of 50 cents. Mrs. Smith, who had great confidence in her judgment when it came to matters of finance, refused the loan and successfully rebutted all Mr. Smith's arguments as to his solvency. To cut the story short Mr Smith became enraged and struck his wife a blow that laid her prone upon the sidewalk. Hence the result as told.|title=The Tennessean, March 20, 1889 Henry and Florence Smith's daughter Mabel Smith died September 17, 1913, at age 27. Mabel Smith, a resident of 300 McGhee, had been working as a schoolteacher. He was living in or near the home in 1910, when he reported to census enumerators that he had been twice married. He shared a household with 18-year-old Bessie Cannon, a granddaughter. In 1920, Smith worked as a servant in the quartermaster's storehouse of the Johnson City Soldiers' Home. Henry Smith died June 19, 1924, and was buried June 21 in Section J Row 16 Site 5 of Mountain Home National Cemetery.

Edgar Smith Florence was predeceased by all her children except for Edgar Allen Smith, born October 29, 1875. When he registered for the World War I draft in 1918, he reported that he worked as a chef in a railroad dining car based out of Chattanooga. Circa 1925, Edgar Smith was a widowed lodger living in Davenport, Iowa. Edgar Smith's circumstances and fate after 1925 are unknown.

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