Chester Allen Arthur: A Brief Biography

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Chester Allen Arthur was born on October 5, 1830 in Fairfield, Vermont. The son of Malvina Arthur and the Reverend William Arthur, a passionate abolitionist, young Chester and his family migrated from one Baptist parish to another in Vermont and New York. The fifth of eight children, Chester had six sisters and one older brother. Before beginning school in Union Village (now Greenwich), New York, he studied the fundamentals of reading and writing at home. In 1845, young Arthur entered Union College in Schenectady as a sophomore. There he studied classical languages, arts, and the sciences. He supplemented his tuition by teaching during winter vacations at various schools in the area. During the school year, Arthur spent a lot of time in campus…show more content…
With white Democrats back in power because of the Compromise of 1877 which gave Hayes the presidency, southern whites began to formulate a series of laws known as Jim Crow laws that effectively disfranchised southern blacks for the next seventy years. At that time, Southern newspapers began to demonize African American men as a threat to the safety of white women, thus setting the stage for the lynchings that were to come in the 1890s and early 1900s. In 1895, the Supreme Court reinforced these Jim Crow laws by allowing for segregation by race in public places as well as race-focused registration laws that all but eliminated the black vote by…show more content…
By struggling with the tariff issue and supporting the modernization of the American navy, Arthur stands as an important transition figure in the reunification of the nation after the bitter turmoil of Civil War and Reconstruction. Arthur demonstrated how the office of President could bring out the very best in its occupants. These are some of Arthur’s quotes "I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damned business." "Well, there doesn't seem to be anything else for an ex-president to do but go into the country and raise pumpkins." President Chester Arthur got married to Ellan Lewis Herdon on October 25, 1859 in New York City, New
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