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EIGHTH GRADE Part Seven: Andrew Jackson 
Jackson
As far as American history is concerned, Andrew Jackson is probably the most important person to come from So we're going to tell you a lot about this man. And since everyone loves "TOP TEN" lists, we're going to list for you the "10 THINGS THAT MAKE ANDREW JACKSON A FASCINATING PERSON."  1) Andrew Jackson was born... well, no one knows where. We know that he was born in an area known as the Waxhaws, along the border between North and South Carolina. No one is certain exactly where his family was living when he was born and which of those two states can rightfully claim the event. Regardless of where he was born, however, he soon corrected the mistake and moved to Tennessee.
2) Jackson's father died before he was born, and his mother and two brothers died before he was fourteen. So he wasn't just an orphan. He had to take care of himself at a very early age, which may have something to do with why he became such a tough young man.
3) Young Andrew Jackson wasn't exactly well behaved. When he was in his early twenties he was apprenticed to a lawyer in Salisbury, North Carolina. He developed such a reputation for wildness that the citizens of that town were happy to see him leave.
Rachel Jackson
4) One of the people who took part in the legendary journey of the Adventure flatboat in 1779 -- click here to read the whole story -- was Rachel Donelson. She later became Andrew Jackson's wife.
Andrew Jackson wasn't Rachel's first husband. When she was seventeen, she married a man named Lewis Robards. But in 1790 Robards left her, and a few months later she heard that he had been granted a divorce from her. Andrew Jackson and Rachel were married the next year. But after two years of living together as man and wife, Andrew and Rachel learned that Robards had never actually been granted a divorce. Lewis Robards was later granted a divorce from Rachel, and Andrew and Rachel were married again (this time legally) in 1794. In any case, what all of this meant is that Andrew and Rachel were actually living as husband and wife before they legally were husband and wife. This unintended error haunted Andrew Jackson for the rest of his life. And heaven help the man who made a disrespectful comment about his wife.  5) Andrew Jackson held a dim view of Native Americans in general, but could be kind to them individually. During the campaign against the Creeks in 1813-1814, his army destroyed a Creek town and killed most of the warriors that they found there. But after the carnage, General Jackson found an orphaned infant Indian, took pity on him, and adopted him. A few months later, in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Jackson led an army consisting of regular army soldiers, armed state militia, Cherokees, and Creeks in defeating the hostile band of Creeks known as Red Sticks. Click here for a virtual tour of the Horseshoe Bend battlefield, which is in present-day Alabama.
Sevier
6) Two of the most important people in Tennessee history -- possibly the two most important people -- were Andrew Jackson and John Sevier. Naturally, they couldn't stand one another. No one is certain as to the origins of this feud, but it should be pointed out that in 1802 Tennessee Governor Archibald Roane chose Jackson over Sevier to be head of the Tennessee militia. A few years later, Sevier traded insults with Jackson in the streets of Knoxville. "I know of no great service you rendered the country, except taking a trip to Natchez with another man's wife," Sevier reportedly said to the future president. This exchange resulted in the two men making preparations to duel, although they never actually did so.
7) For most of his adult life Jackson lived with two bullets in his body. In 1806, Jackson dueled Charles Dickinson. Dickinson died in the affair, but not before he shot Jackson in the chest. A few years later Jackson got in a brawl with brothers Thomas and Jesse Benton in Nashville's City Hotel. Jackson was shot twice and nearly bled to death as a result of wounds he suffered that day. Doctors decided not to try to retrieve the bullets that Jackson took on both occasions; their presence obviously caused him pain for the rest of his life.
The Battle of New Orleans
8) Jackson made his reputation at the Battle of New Orleans, and it would be hard to overstate how amazed the world was at what he and his army achieved there. "In the waning days of the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson shocked the world by leading a ragtag force of local and state militia, regular U.S. troops, free men of color, Choctaw Indians, and Baratarian pirates to a crushing victory of an invading army of proud, tested, elite British soldiers determined to seize New Orleans," is the way that a brochure for The Historic New Orleans Collection summarizes it.
Tennesseans made such an impact during the War of 1812 that this was the beginnings of the nickname "Volunteer State." 9) The first time Andrew Jackson ran for president, in 1824, he won the popular vote but didn't get enough electoral votes to win. The House of Representatives settled the matter and elected John Quincy Adams president. Jackson thus became the first of TWO Tennesseans to run for president and win the popular vote but lose the election. The second, of course, was Al Gore in 2000.
10) When Andrew Jackson was president, the state of South Carolina threatened to secede, or leave the Union, because people there were opposed to a tariff (a tax on imports and exports). President Jackson was furious and made it very clear that if South Carolina tried to secede, the U.S. government would wage war against it. "In forty days I can have within the limits of South Carolina fifty thousand men, and in forty days more another fifty thousand," he wrote at the time. "The wickedness, madness, and folly of the leaders and the delusion of their followers in the attempt to destroy themselves and our Union has not its parallel in the history of the world. The Union will be preserved."
South Carolina backed down in 1833. Twenty eight years later, the same state tried to leave the Union again. Another American president, Abraham Lincoln, reacted in much the same way Jackson did. This time, however, South Carolina didn't back down, and the end result was the Civil War. QUIZ
1) (TRUE OR FALSE) Andrew Jackson was born in Nashville. 2) (TRUE OR FALSE) Andrew Jackson's parents were wealthy and sent him to the best schools. 3) (TRUE OR FALSE) Rachel Jackson was Andrew Jackson's first and only wife. 4) (TRUE OR FALSE) Andrew Jackson and John Sevier were close friends. 5) (TRUE OR FALSE) Jackson defeated the French at the Battle of New Orleans. 6) Who did Andrew Jackson lose to in the presidential election of 1824? 7) What state came very close to leaving the United States when Andrew Jackson was president? 8) What is the name of Andrew Jackson's home in Nashville? |
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©2005-2006 Tennessee History for Kids, Inc. All rights reserved.
All photographs taken by Bill Carey for THKF unless otherwise stated.
All photographs taken by Bill Carey for THKF unless otherwise stated.