susan swain: thank you.ery briefly because we're going to spend more time on that a little bit later, but just give us a quick synopsis. pamela sanfilippo: sure. julia's parents came to st. louis in 1816 and established their family in the city of st. louis and then a country home out at white haven, where she grew up, spending most of her summers and then year-round. she had four older brothers and two younger sisters, so it was a rather large family. they considered themselves southerners, her father did, and they were a slave-holding family. there were as many as 30 slaves that colonel dent utilized the labor of at white haven. susan swain: and that caused great tension between the two families, the grant and the dent families. is that correct? pamela sanfilippo: yes. as a matter of fact, when ulysses and julia were married in the city of st. louis, none of the grants attended the wedding, reportedly because they didn't approve of ulysses marrying into a slave-holding family. susan swain: did father dent

susan swain: oh sure. susan swain: and it was 50 years?acqueline berger: they've got 48, i think they were married 48 years. and no, it was a tremendous love match. someone once said that they were the same mind and same soul. you know, i -- kendra hinkle: even though completely different. jacqueline berger: exactly, even though completely different. kendra hinkle: and it said that , you know, he could be vehement, he -- he was a fighter, but the one person that he leaned on completely was this frail little woman. susan swain: and i am looking for it, not successfully here, but somewhere on facebook, someone asked, what would eliza johnson wish her legacy to be as first lady? do we have any sense of that? and if we don't know what she wished, what should history view her legacy as first lady? kendra hinkle: well, on andrew johnson's monument, it says his faith in the people never wavered. and i think hers might be her faith in her husband never wavered. i think that's what she would want her legacy to be. that, her, and her children. jacqu

susan swain: terrific.l, we will be here all the way until president's day next year with a break in the summer with an individual program on nearly every first lady. a couple cases, that we've combined them, but for the most part, 35 programs to tell you about the lives of the first lady and learn american history that way. you're a greeneville, tennessee native. and how did you get interested in the johnson history? kendra hinkle: wow. i guess when i was about 12, my mother told me she knew what i needed to do with my life. and she said, "you love history, you love to tell stories, you need to work for the national park service," so she said "we've got one here in town." and we went to see it and i fell in love. and when i was in high school in the anchor club, someone came and said, "who would like to dress in victorian clothes and help with the christmas candlelight tour at the johnson homestead this weekend?" so, "pick me please, pick me!" so, and that just really impacted me. i've always loved civil w

susan swain: many thanks to all the folks at the grant sites around the country who helped with us, bringing you video tonight, and to the good people at the white house historical association who are our partners for this series. and that concludes our discussion of julia dent grant. our thanks to our two guests for being with us tonight. william seale: thank you, susan. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> american history tv is featuring suzanne's original series "first lady" and it :00 p.m. eastern time throughout the rest of the syri -- c-span's original series "first ladies" at p.m. eastern time throughout the rest of the summer. >> a good read can be the perfect companion for your summer journeys. what better book than one that appears inside of the personal life of every first lady in american history -- peers inside the life of every first lady in american history? inspiring stories of fascinating women that survived the

susan swain and william seale. susan swain is a 30 year veteran of the cable public affairs channel. she integrates her management role at the network was that of on camera interview orer, sitting down with presidents. during the 2013-2014 season, she was post at c-span's very special biography series -- first lady influence and image which in the historical association was very proud to be a partner. i had the pleasure of the interview by susan on the floor of the republican national convention in 2012 as a she announced the launch of the first lady series. i was also very grateful to join her for the series closing segment. the highly successful series is the basis for this latest c-span book project which we will hear , about today. this book gives an intimate portrayal of the personal life of every first lady in american history based on original interviews with major historians and with first ladies themselves. one of the preeminent historians called upon to help tell the story of our nation's first ladies was

susan swain nancy: is in bristol, indiana. you're on, nancy. caller: oh, thank you.erful, unique woman is my hero. and something that's not brought up very often i mean, it is brought up often is about her mental condition, but i've never seen in all the books i've read anything about the laudanum and paregoric that she took. oh, what's the word? it's a drug, and it affected her mind. she took these things from a child on. she had headaches i guess all her life. this would calm her down. but we know it affects the brain, and i don't i don't understand why more people don't bring this up, especially as her mental condition got worse as she got older. susan swain: thank you, nancy. do you know anything about her treatment of her headaches? richard norton smith: it was migraines all her life. lincoln used to leave the office thunderstorms, too. she was terrified at thunderstorms. at the first sign of a thunderstorm, they would go home. susan: our next caller, thank you. caller: hey, good evening. i'm fascinated by the program. i've been listening since it's been on and