Sam Johnson

Sam Johnson (after 1901) was a laborer and carpenter who was enslaved by Andrew Johnson from 1842 until 1863. Sam Johnson was also a musician ("He played a violin he made himself that could be heard for a mile around...") and built his own home.

Biography Andrew Johnson paid a man named Elim Carter for Sam in 1842. Two months later he paid $500 for Sam's older half-sister Dolly. Both were enslaved by Johnson until 1863, when he emancipated them amid the American Civil War. In the 1840s, Andrew Johnson regularly hired out Sam around town for jobs including "plastering a house, pulling corn, cutting oats with scythe and cradle, and doing janitorial work by 'attending the Court House.'" The income from this work was typically paid to Andrew Johnson. Johnson is credited with organizing the first Freedom Day celebration in Tennessee, a celebration of the anniversary of the day Andrew Johnson freed Sam and his other personal slaves, on August 8, 1863. August 8 is still celebrated as Emancipation Day in Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia. Emancipation Day "celebrations remained relatively small and isolated to small towns in upper East Tennessee throughout the 1870s. During the 1880s, the celebration spread across the region and the state, connecting Andrew Johnson to the memory of emancipation in Tennessee."

According to the Knoxville Mercury Project, over the decades Tennessee Emancipation Day developed into quite an event:

Sam Johnson's great-great-grandson Ned Arter was a featured guest at Tennessee Emancipation Day celebrations in 2012 and 2023.

Sam Johnson supported his family by working as a carpenter, and lived on land in Greeneville known as Johnson's Woods. Circa 1901, he had white hair, owned his house and was considered an important figure in the African-American community of East Tennessee.

Family Sam married a woman named Margaret in the mid-1850s. They ultimately had nine children together, eight daughters and a son.

Dora Robert Hattie