page_title: Elias Polk
hierarchical_section_title: Elias Polk
caption_attribution_description: English: Elias Polk as illustrated in the Daily American newspaper, published in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 31, 1886.
context_page_description: Elias Polk was an American slave known for serving President James K. Polk for decades. After emancipation, he became a conservative Democratic political activist, when most freedmen allied with the Republican Party. As a slave, Polk had lived and worked in the White House in 1845, and again from 1847 to 1849. At the end of the president's term, he returned with him to Nashville, Tennessee.
  After the president died, Elias Polk continued to live at Polk Place in Nashville, where he served the widowed First Lady Sarah Childress Polk in the household. After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which applied to this Union-occupied state, Polk continued to work for her.
  When freedmen were given the franchise, Polk became a Democratic activist and served as the president of the Independent Colored Conservative National Club. He returned to Washington, DC, where he worked as a laborer on the United States Capitol from 1876 to 1882. He died three days after meeting President Grover Cleveland in 1886 and is buried in Nashville.
context_section_description: Elias Polk (1806 – December 30, 1886) was an American slave known for serving President James K. Polk for decades. After emancipation, he became a conservative Democratic political activist, when most freedmen allied with the Republican Party. As a slave, Polk had lived and worked in the White House in 1845, and again from 1847 to 1849. At the end of the president's term, he returned with him to Nashville, Tennessee. 
  After the president died, Elias Polk continued to live at Polk Place in Nashville, where he served the widowed First Lady Sarah Childress Polk in the household.  After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which applied to this Union-occupied state, Polk continued to work for her. 
  When freedmen were given the franchise, Polk became a Democratic activist and served as the president of the Independent Colored Conservative National Club. He returned to Washington, DC, where he worked as a laborer on the United States Capitol from 1876 to 1882. He died three days after meeting President Grover Cleveland in 1886 and is buried in Nashville.
caption: Illustration from the Daily American newspaper, published in Nashville on December 31, 1886
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