Grant briefly owned a slave before freeing him

During his time living with his father-in-law’s family, who were slave owners, Ulysses S. Grant came into the possession of a man named William Jones. After a year, he freed him for no recompense, even though Grant was in dire financial straits.

Coming from an abolitionist family, his father didn’t approve of Grant’s slave-owning in-laws. Grant’s own views on slavery were more complex. Initially more ambivalent, he wrote in 1863: “I never was an abolitionist, not even what could be called anti-slavery...”. Even when working on his father-in-law’s farm and owning William, it was said: "He couldn’t force them to do anything. He wouldn’t whip them. He was too gentle and good-tempered, and besides, he was not a bad owner.''

During the Civil War his views evolved, and in his Memoirs he stated: “As time passes, people, even of the South, will begin to wonder how it was possible that their ancestors ever fought for or justified institutions which acknowledged the right of property in man.”