Marie Harrison

• American

Marie Harrison was an enslaved American woman in Georgia who was widely understood to be one of six children fathered by US President William Henry Harrison. Through her father, she was the half-sister of Congressman John Scott Harrison and the aunt of President Benjamin Harrison, and through her daughter she became the grandmother of civil-rights leader Walter F White. When William Henry Harrison sought to avoid the political liability of having mixed-race, enslaved children in his household during his presidential campaign, he transferred Marie and three of her siblings to his brother, who then sold them to planter Joseph Poythress in LaGrange, Georgia. While held in enslavement there, Marie became the concubine of Dr Augustus C Ware; although they could not legally marry under slavery and anti-miscegenation laws, Dr Ware provided a home for her and formally acknowledged their four children — Nathaniel, Waverly, Madeline and Alice — each of whom was provided for in his will. His family was divided by the Civil War: his brother, 2nd Lieutenant Eugenius S Ware, died fighting for the Confederate States of America near King's School House, Virginia, at the Battle of Oak Grove. - AsNotedIn

Lineage

• Father William Henry Harrison

• Brother: John Scott Harrison

• Daughter: Madeline Harrison White