Early Life and Education
Sarah Childress was born in 1803 to Joel Childress, a prominent planter, merchant, and land speculator, and Elizabeth Whitsitt Childress—the third of their six children. Sarah was well educated for a woman of her time and place, attending the exclusive Moravians' "female academy" at Salem, North Carolina. She was then schooled at what is now Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1817, one of the few institutions of higher learning available to women in the early 19th century.
Sarah met James Polk while both were receiving instruction from Samuel P. Black in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; he was 19, she was 12. Several years later James began courting her. Legend says Andrew Jackson called her “wealthy, pretty, ambitious, and intelligent,” and urged James K. Polk to marry her. In 1823 the two became engaged, and on January 1, 1824, Sarah Childress, aged 20, married James Polk, aged 28, at the plantation home of the bride's parents near Murfreesboro. The Polks had no children of their own, but raised a nephew, Marshall Tate Polk (1831–1884) as their personal ward. After her husband's death, Mrs. Polk assumed guardianship of an orphaned niece, Sarah Polk Jetton (1847–1924), and raised the girl as her own.
Sarah physically was a fairly tall young lady, with black hair that was parted in the middle and worn in ringlets, brown eyes and sallow coloring. She had prominent teeth that caused her to tighten her lips, giving her a disapproving look, though she was admired as a "noble" beauty. She usually dressed in vibrant blues, reds and maroons, that suited her dark coloring.
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