Floride Calhoun

Floride Bonneau Calhoun
Second Lady of the United States
In office March 4, 1825 – December 28, 1832
Preceded by	Hannah M. Tompkins
Succeeded by	Letitia Tyler
Personal details
Born	(1792-02-15)February 15, 1792 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	July 25, 1866(1866-07-25) (aged 74) Pendleton, South Carolina U.S.
Spouse	John Caldwell Calhoun

Floride Bonneau Calhoun (February 15, 1792 – July 25, 1866) was the wife of prominent U.S. politician John C. Calhoun.

Background and early life

She was born Floride Bonneau Colhoun to U.S. Senator John E. Colhoun and Floride Bonneau. She was a niece of Rebecca Colhoun Pickens, wife of Andrew Pickens. On January 8, 1811, she married John C. Calhoun, her first-cousin-once-removed (her father's first cousin). Soon after their marriage, her husband was elected to Congress, leaving his wife in charge of his plantation, "Fort Hill," in present-day Clemson, South Carolina. Within the next eighteen years, she gave birth to ten children, including five sons and five daughters, although three daughters died in infancy.

In 1817, she accompanied her husband to Washington upon his appointment as Secretary of War.

Second Lady

Eight years later, she became Second Lady of the United States, with her husband's election as Vice President, serving in that role from 1825 to 1832.

Petticoat affair

During her tenure as Second Lady, she became embroiled in a social scandal involving Margaret O'Neill Eaton, the wife of Secretary of War John Eaton, in what became known as the Petticoat affair. Calhoun had organized a coalition among the wives of Jackson cabinet members against Peggy Eaton, whom Calhoun discovered had committed adultery with Eaton while still married to her first husband John B. Timberlake. The affair allegedly drove Timberlake to suicide after he discovered the affair. The coalition resulted in the resignation of Jackson's Cabinet, except Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, who was a widower. The social ostracism of Mrs. Eaton by Mrs. Calhoun further damaged already-strained relations between Vice President Calhoun and President Andrew Jackson.

Return to South Carolina

Following her husband's resignation as Vice President and election to the United States Senate, she returned to "Fort Hill," resuming her former status as a plantation mistress. Her husband died in 1850. In 1854, she sold the plantation to her oldest son, Andrew Pickens Calhoun, and held the mortgage. In 1855, she moved to a smaller house in Pendleton, South Carolina, which she dubbed "Mi Casa." She endured the deaths of six of her seven surviving children. After Andrew died in 1865, she filed for foreclosure against Andrew's heirs.

Protracted estate issues

Following her death in 1866, the plantation was auctioned at Walhalla in 1872, after lengthy legal proceedings. The executor of her estate won the auction, which was divided among her surviving heirs. Her daughter, Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson and son-in-law, Thomas Green Clemson, received about three-quarters of the plantation including the house and her great granddaughter, Floride Isabella Lee, received the balance.