President James Polk Trivia Questions with Answers
Who was the 11th President of the United States?
A: James K. Polk.
James Polk was the oldest of how many children?
A: 10.
On what date was James Polk born?
A: November 2, 1795.
Where was James Polk born?
A: In what is now Pineville,
North Carolina in Mecklenburg County, just outside
Charlotte.
Who was James’s father?
A: Samuel Polk, a slave holder and successful farmer and surveyor of Scots-Irish
descent.
Who was his mother?
A: Jane Polk Knox, a descendant of a brother of the Scottish
religious reformer
John Knox.
Jane named her firstborn after whom?
A: Her father James Knox.
What schools did James Polk attend?
A: None, he was home schooled.
In 1812 his James Polk’s pain became so unbearable that he
was taken to Dr. Ephraim McDowell of Danville,
Kentucky, who operated to remove
what?
A: Urinary stones.
Polk’s urinary stone surgery may have left him what?
A: Sterile as he did not sire any children.
The house where Polk spent his adult life before his
presidency is still standing and is known as what?
A: James K. Polk Ancestral Home.
In January 1816, Polk was admitted into what University?
A: The University of North Carolina.
While at the university, Polk joined what society?
A: Dialectic Society where he regularly took part in debates.
Participating in the Dialectic Society debates taught him
what?
A: The art of oratory.
Polk’s roommate, William Dunn Moseley, later became the
first what?
A: Governor of Florida.
When did Polk graduate with honors?
A: In May 1818.
Polk was admitted to the bar in June 1820. What was his
first case?
A: Defending his father against a public fighting charge, and secured his
release for a one dollar fine.
In 1822 Polk joined the Tennessee militia as a what?
A: A captain in the cavalry regiment of the 5th Brigade.
Who did Polk marry January 1, 1824?
A: Sarah Childress.
How old were James Polk and Sahara when they married?
A: He was 28, and Sarah was 20.
In 1824, Jackson unsuccessfully ran for what office, but
lost?
A: President of the US.
Polk made his first major speech on March 13, 1826, in
which he said what?
A: That the Electoral College should be abolished.
After being elected to this fifth term in the House in
August 1833, Polk became the chair of what?
A: The House Ways and Means Committee.
Polk never challenged anyone to a duel as was customary
then, no matter how much they what?
A: Insulted his honor.
James Polk is the only president who ever served as what?
A: Speaker of the House.
Polk left Congress in 1839, and became a candidate in the
Tennessee what?
A: Gubernatorial election, defeating the incumbent Whig.
In 1846, Polk approved a law restoring the what?
A: Independent Treasury System.
Polk inherited how many of his father’s of his father's
slaves?
A: Twenty.
What did James Polk's will stipulate?
A: That their slaves were to be freed after his wife Sarah had died.
The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1865 Thirteenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution freed all remaining slaves before
what?
A: The death of his wife in 1891.