Floride Bonneau Colhoun Calhoun

Female

February 15, 1792

July 25, 1866

Newport, RI USA
Washington, D.C., USA
Fort Hill, SC USA
Pendleton, SC USA

John C. Calhoun (January 1811)

Floride Bonneau Colhoun spent time with her future husband at her family's summer retreat in Newport, Rhode Island in 1804. Her father, John Ewing Colhoun, and John C. Calhoun were first cousins. John C. Calhoun studied at Yale and visited his family in Newport on breaks. The couple married in 1811, the same year Calhoun was appointed to Congress.

Floride e was devoutly and deeply religious, a lifelong Episcopalian. She was also an accomplished pianist and passionate about music.

As the wife of a powerful Washington politician and became one of Washington's most popular hostesses. She was close with President Monroe who had appointed her husband his Secretary of War. In the spring of 1820, the Calhoun's infant daughter was extremely ill and the President broke established ...protocol to visit Floride and the baby every day. The Calhouns hosted the Marquis de LaFayette in 1824 and 1825 when he returned to the United States.

In 1831, Floride was the center of the "Petticoat War" that divided the cabinet of President Andrew Jackson. She refused to socially accept Peggy Eaton, wife of the then Secretary of War John Eaton. Floride, thinking Peggy's morals questionable, refused to return Peggy's calls, causing several other cabinet wives to do the same. Since her husband was the Vice President, it put him in an awkward position, and President Jackson, who was very close to Peggy, was angered. The "Petticoat War" divided the cabinet for over a year until Martin Van Buren broke the impasse.

Floride and John had ten children, five sons and five daughters (three of whom died in infancy). Following her husband's resignation as Vice President, Floride returned to the couple's South Carolina plantation, Fort Hill, where she was responsible for the management of the 1100 acre plantation, including 70-80 enslaved African Americans. She remained there until after her husband's death (in 1850). In 1854, she sold the plantation and 50 enslaved African Americans to her eldest son and moved shortly thereafter to a smaller house in Pendleton, South Carolina. In this time, six of her seven surviving children also died.

Floride died in July, 1866 and is buried in Pendleton, South Carolina, near her children.
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"Floride Bonneau Colhoun Calhoun." Clemson University. http://www.clemson.edu/about/history/calhoun-clemson/floridebcalhoun.html

Hatfield, Mark O. Vice Presidents of the United States: John C. Calhoun (1825 - 1832). Reprinted from Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789 - 1993. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Government Printing Offices, 1997. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/john_calhoun.pdf