Lessons on American Presidents.
Ready-To-Print Handouts, MP3 & Online Quizzes - Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor was the United States’ 12th President. He was in Virginia in 1784 and taken as an to Kentucky to be raised on a plantation. He lived in a small wood cabin, moving to a brick house as a of his family's increased prosperity. He shared the house with seven brothers and sisters. Since there were no schools on the Kentucky frontier, Taylor had only a education.

Taylor the U.S. Army in 1808. He was promoted to captain in 1810 and in 1812, he successfully Indiana’s Fort Harrison from attack by Native Americans. He spent the next three winning major military victories, including the Battle of Buena Vista in 1847 during the Mexican-American War. This last elevated him to being a national and compared with George Washington.

Taylor decided to politics in 1848. With his reputation as a war hero and his straight , he won the 1848 presidential election. The slavery dominated much of Taylor’s term in office, especially because he 100 slaves. He advised California and New Mexico to apply for statehood. Southern leaders threatened to break from the Union as the new states would reject bills allowing slavery.

Taylor stood against the possible rebellion. He said he would personally lead the Army in a fight them and hang “persons taken in rebellion…with less reluctance than…hanged deserters and in Mexico”. He never wavered, but events took an unexpected . He died in 1850 as a compromise was being drafted. The conflict he of started eleven years later – the American Civil War.