James Madison Jr. was nicknamed Jemmy as a child. At five foot, four inches, he was the shortest American president and he never weighed more than 100 pounds. He had a sickly constitution and suffered “sudden attacks somewhat resembling epilepsy” throughout his life. Although he was raised Anglican, he was never a particularly devout Christian.

Jemmy was born to a wealthy slave-owning family. The oldest of twelve children, he attended the College of New Jersey (known as Princeton today). He was soft spoken and had trouble speaking in front of large groups. He was not a fan of drunkenness. At parties, he would water down his drinks or only pretend to take a sip to avoid getting too drunk.

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We don’t know much about Thomas Jefferson when he was young due to a fire which destroyed many early records. There’s disagreement amongst people who met him over whether he had clear or freckled skin, whether he had blue, hazel, or green eyes, and whether his hair was sandy red or reddish blond.

We do know he was born to a wealthy family. His father died when he was 14 and he was estranged from his mother. After graduating from the College of William and Mary, he became a lawyer, mostly handling cases involving land claims and titles. He played the violin and was nearly always humming or singing to himself. Building and rebuilding his Monticello estate, which was located on top of a mountain, was a lifelong project.

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John Adams smoked tobacco since he was eight. He received a Harvard education and after being a teacher for a short time, he became a lawyer. At one point, the wealthy John Hancock was put on trial for smuggling and John Adams represented him, succeeding in getting the charges dropped. He started courting his future wife Abigail when she was 15 and he was 25. He stopped seeing her, but they met again years later and married when he was 29 and she was 20.

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George Washington not only raised, trained, and led a militia against the greatest superpower in the world, he also refused payment for leading the army. (It helps that he was rich.) He surprised the world by giving up power after winning the American Revolution. He set precedents like having a presidential cabinet and only serving two terms.

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Ex-Presidents

Al Carroll’s book has an appendix examining what presidents did after they were no longer president. Some presidents died in office or shortly after leaving office. Some, like Truman, lived decades after leaving office but didn’t do anything of note. Others accomplished quite a bit.

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