On November 24, 1784, future President Zachary Taylor was born in Virginia. Taylor became an unexpected obstacle to slavery’s expansion, until his sudden death in 1850.
zachary-taylorTaylor’s death on July 9, 1850 shocked a nation that was in a heated debate about issues that eventually led to the Civil War. The details about how President Taylor died are still in dispute today.
But as a Southern and slaveholder, the former military officer was at the point of forcing a possible armed confrontation between the North and the South, since he objected to moves to force New Mexico to becoming a pro-slave state.
How Taylor got to a ceremony at the site of the Washington Monument on July 4, 1850, where he reportedly ate some tainted iced milk and cherries, mirrored the life journeys of three former Presidents: George Washington, Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison.
