Biography martin van buren

Martin Van Buren, born on December 5, , was the first American President not born a British subject. Van Buren's non-British ancestry (his parents were Dutch) would break one presidential mold, and his modest upbringing was preceded only by that of Andrew Jackson.

Both of Van Buren's parents, Abraham and Maria, were of pure Dutch extraction. They lived in Kinderhook, New York, a town near Albany that was populated largely by others of similar descent. The Van Burens were a struggling family with six children in the household, Martin being the fourth oldest. His mother had been widowed with three children before marrying his father. Not rich by any means, the Van Burens did own six slaves, which was not unusual for a family in Kinderhook. Politics, though, made the family a living. Abraham owned a tavern and inn frequented by government workers traveling between Albany and New York City. He held the post of town clerk for extra money, and the tavern hosted political meetings or elections. Guests at the tavern, such as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, offered young Martin his first glimpses of American politics.

Martin attended Kinderhook's one-room schoolhouse until age fourteen—an unusually advanced education for a child who

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