Julia Gardiner Tyler

And it begs the question for those of you listening, like, can you accept that somebody might have moved forward, say, the cause of women or the ability of a first lady to have a precedent if they're speaking out at an issue? Like in reaction to someone saying, you're a first lady, you have no business speaking in an issue.

Oh, no. Julia Tyler did.

But can you do that at the same time, maybe abhorring the issue that she's defending, which in this case was slavery? And it begins in late 1852.

Harriet Sutherland Gower, who is the Duchess of Sutherland, organizes what became known as the Stafford House Address.

Can't have like a guy.

If Tyler responds, well, that's not going to work.

So Julia Tyler decides to answer personally.

And her essay is Miss J.C. Tyler to the Duchess of Sutherland and is published February 1853.

I'm Jane Smekal, Professor of History at Brookdale Community College.

Today we'll be discussing a new book by Christopher J. Leahy and Sharon Williams Leahy called Presidentess: The Life of Julia Gardiner Tyler and the Transformation of the American First Lady, published by University Press of Kansas.

Christopher J. Leahy is Professor of History at Keuka College and is the author of President Without a Party: The Life of John Tyler.

Sharon Williams Leahy is an independent scholar and the author of several articles on the first ladies, including Julia Gardiner Tyler and Mamie Eisenhower.

Welcome to New Books Network.

Thank you so much.

Christopher is a John Tyler biographer, and, and you are a first lady historian, Sharon.

Yes.