Precedents for Governor Mark Sanford
He Wasn't the First S.C. Governor to Go Sexually Astray
Aug 19, 2009
In fact, his Argentine dalliance with Maria Belen Chapur pales in comparison with the escapades of a 19th-century predecessor, James Henry Hammond.
Hammond and Slave Mistresses
Hammond, who was governor from 1842-1844 and U.S. senator from 1857-1860, had a fondness for young girls, which he indulged on his nieces and on his slaves. In 1839, he bought a slave woman with an infant daughter and made her his mistress. When the slave woman died, he turned his attention toward her 12-year-old daughter.
His wife, like Jennifer Sanford, was a woman of wealth, and she refused to countenance the extramarital, interracial relationship. As Walter Edgar, in his epic volume, “South Carolina: A History” (1998, University of South Carolina Press) reported, Catherine Elizabeth Fitzsimons Hammond gave him an ultimatum: sell his young mistress or move out. Hammond refused to give up the girl, and Mrs. Hammond moved out.
Slave Mistresses Were Common
It was, as Edgar observed, an unusual decision for its day: “Most white women either simply ignored or endured their spouses’ relationships with slave women.” He quoted Mary Boykins Chestnut, a prolific chronicler of Southern life during the Civil War era as saying: “The mulattoes one sees in every family exactly resemble the white children, and every lady tells you who is the father of all the mulatto children in everybody’s household, but those in her own she seems to think drop from the clouds. . .”
Misconduct with Nieces
In his own diaries, Hammond candidly admitted to sexual interaction with his young nieces, daughters of Wade Hampton II, father of the Confederate general and post-war governor. This conduct nearly cost him his career, but in 1857 he managed to win a U.S. Senate seat, which he held until the state seceded from the union in 1860.
Strom Thurmond and Carrie Butler
In the 20th century, J. Strom Thurmond carried the secret of his interracial dalliance through terms as a circuit judge, a governor, a candidate for president and a U.S. senator. Only after his death did it become generally known that Thurmond, at the age of 22, had fathered a daughter by Carrie Butler, his family’s 16-year-old maid. Essie Mae Washington-Williams was 16 years old when she first learned that the woman she thought was her mother was really her aunt, and the woman she thought was her aunt was really her mother – impregnated by the man who would make a career of fighting against equal rights for blacks.
Ms. Washington-Williams’story has been told in a book, “Dear Senator,” (HarperCollins, 2005) ghosted by William Stadiem.
Name Added to Monument
Thurmond provided financial support for his daughter and sent her to South Carolina State College, an all-black institution. After his death, Ms. Washington-Williams acknowledged that there was warmth in her relationship with her father. Thurmond’s other children have accepted her as their father's offspring, and her name was added to theirs on a monument to the senator on the State House grounds in Columbia.
Sanford Clings to Office
Mark Sanford pursued an affair with Ms. Chapur while he was still governor, and paid her a visit on the pretense of taking a hike down the Appalachian Trail. His term as governor ends in 2010. Some leaders, even from his own party, have urged him to resign. According to The State, the capital newspaper, Sen. Glenn McConnell, Republican of Charleston, stated that “the governor has lost the support of the people that is needed to govern.” But the governor seems determined to serve out his term.
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