Andrew Jackson

As far as American history is concerned, Andrew Jackson is almost certainly the most important person to come from Tennessee.  

But he had a rough life. His father died before he was born; his mother and both his brothers died before he was 14. Luckily for him, he found a job as a lawyer's apprentice when he was a teenager. At the age of 20 he moved to Nashville at a time when the city was a frontier town. Jackson was a tall, slender, hot-tempered man, and he made a great general. His greatest military victory ever was over the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. In 1828 he was elected president of the United States – the first person to ever hold that office who was not from one of the thirteen original colonies.

Today people still argue about things Andrew Jackson did as president. He dissolved the Bank of the United States. He paid off the national debt. But the most controversial thing he ever did was order all Native Americans moved west – a forced migration known as the Trail of Tears. 

Andrew Jackson was a very respected man and a very feared man. He wasn’t the kind of person who you would casually insult, because if you did so he might challenge you to a duel. Click here to learn more about his many duels.  

Nancy Ward  

She was born as a member of the Cherokee tribe in 1738 -- in the midst of a horrible smallpox epidemic -- and at that time her name was Nan’yehi. As a young woman she took part in battles against the Creek Indians, and largely because of this she became a leader within the Cherokee nation. But she could also be a peacemaker, and at one point she spared the life of Lyda Bean, the wife of William Bean (Tennessee's first permanent white male settler).

Later in life, as European settlers took over parts of Tennessee, she began to blend into the white world, and she became known as Nancy Ward. As an elderly lady she ran an inn in Polk County and cared for many children, which is why she became known as "Granny Ward." Today there is a monument at her grave on a hilltop near the former site of the inn. 

David Crockett  

“Be sure you are right. Then go-ahead.” This was the motto of David Crockett. Crockett was born in Greene County in 1786 and as a young man he, at different times, lived in Lincoln, Franklin, Lawrence and Gibson counties (today there is a monument or park to him just about everywhere he lived). He excelled at hunting and at being a soldier, fighting in several battles against Native Americans.  

Then he shifted to politics, getting elected to the legislature and later to Congress. But Crockett was a critic of President Andrew Jackson, which hurt his political ambitions. And by this time people had written articles and books about his life as a frontiersman, making him a national hero.  

In 1835 Crockett lost a Congressional election, and it made him so mad that he moved to Texas. He was killed at the Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, on March 6, 1836, and thus became a legend in two states. 

Sam Houston  

Sam Houston was a big, strong man, but many of his biographies say he was afraid of the dark. He also became governor of two American states even though he seemed to prefer Native American culture over white culture.  

Houston was born in 1793 and grew up in Maryville. When he was a teenager, he ran away from home to live with Cherokee Indians on Hiwassee Island, in Meigs County. He stayed there for about three years and was given the name "The Raven" by a Cherokee chief. Young Sam later came back to white society and then, in a battle against the Creeks in 1814, became a hero when he fought on despite an arrow wound in his thigh.  

Houston later moved to Lebanon, became a lawyer, and then was elected to Congress. With Andrew Jackson’s backing, he became governor of Tennessee. But then, in one of the most shocking things ever to happen in Tennessee politics, Houston resigned as governor and went back to live with the Cherokees (to this day, no one knows why he did this). Then, Houston moved to Texas to fight for the independence of that state. He later became governor of Texas. The largest city in America named for a Tennessean is Houston, Texas.

As we said before, one of the big differences between Native American tribes and white settlers is that the Native Americans didn’t have a written language.  

The man who would eventually do something to change this was born in 1776 in the Cherokee town of Tuskegee, in present day Monroe County . His English name was George Gist; his Cherokee name – and the one by which he was more frequently called – was Sequoyah. His father was a white fur trader and his mother was a member of a prominent Cherokee family.  

Sequoyah was raised in a manner typical of Cherokee children of that era, but he spent much of his youth exposed to white culture. For instance, he was trained as a blacksmith – certainly something that wasn’t a part of Cherokee culture. During the War of 1812 and the Creek War of 1813-14 he fought on the side of the Americans. Legend has it that he first got the idea to create an alphabet for the Cherokee people when he saw soldiers writing letters home during that war. 

Convinced his people needed a language, Sequoyah spent several years creating one, coming up with new symbols for every sound in the Cherokee spoken language. Legend has it that he first demonstrated his new written language to other Cherokees at a tribal meeting, with his daughter reading something he had written. Sequoyah’s new “talking leaves,” as they were sometimes known, caught on so fast within the Cherokee nation that by the late 1820s it is believed that the literacy rate among Cherokees was higher than it was for whites who lived near them. Starting in 1828, the Cherokees even had their own newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, written in the new language. However, Sequoyah’s language came too late to make any real impact on the sad fate that awaited the Cherokee nation.

By the way, the giant redwood trees that can be found in some forests of California and Oregon are named for Sequoyah.

When Andrew Jackson was president, one of his most devoted followers in the U. S. House of Representatives was James K. Polk, a resident of Columbia and former governor of Tennessee. In fact, Polk was often known as “Young Hickory.” In 1844 Polk was elected president of the United States. 

When Polk became president, Mexico claimed a lot of what we now know as the state of Texas, while England claimed a lot of what is now the state of Washington. Under Polk's leadership, the United States went to war with Mexico over Texas in what we now call the Mexican-American War. He also threatened war with England, and it was through this process that the United States and England finally agreed on the boundary between Canada and the U.S. in the Pacific Northwest. So there are large parts of the United States that might not be part of this country were it not for President Polk.  

Polk did not run for a second term. He died only months after he left office and is now buried on the lawn of the State Capitol.

QUIZ

Identify the person who might have written the following sentences:

 1. I was the American president during the Mexican-American War.

 2. I invented an entire alphabet.

 3. I was the hero of the Battle of New Orleans.

 4. I was a hero to my Cherokee people in war, but I mainly wanted them to live in peace.

 5. I quit my job as governor of Tennessee and went to live with the Cherokees. Later I became governor of Texas .

 6. I was a hunter, a settler, a Congressman, and a frontier hero. But I left Tennessee in disgust.

ASSIGNMENT: Write a report on a famous Tennessean from this era.