the early life of Andrew Jackson

the early life of Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson's parents were Scotch-Irish folk who came to America two years before his birth in 1767. His mother was widowed while pregnant with him.

Jackson's father died in an accident in February 1767, at the age of 29, three weeks before his son Andrew was born in the Waxhaws area. His exact birth site is unclear because he was born about the time his mother was making a difficult trip home from burying Jackson's father. The area was so remote that the border between North and South Carolina had not officially been surveyed

Andrew's mother and her three small boys moved in with her Crawford relatives. After her husband's death she raised her three sons at the South Carolina home of one of her sisters. Jackson received a sporadic education in the local "old-field" school. Andrew attended several academies in the Waxhaw settlement, but his education was incomplete and he never developed a taste for learning.

The Revolutionary War that soon followed, was very bloody in the rather wild and poor country where they lived, and Jackson at 13 years, joined a regiment. Captured by the British, he was wounded and nearly killed by a sword for not polishing a British officer's boots. He and his brother, imprisoned together, contracted smallpox.

Jackson's mother got the boys released, but his brother died on the long trip home. The mother later went to tend wounded American prisoners and was fatally stricken by cholera.

Robert Jackson died on April 27, 1781, a few days after their mother Elizabeth secured the brothers' release. After being assured Andrew would recover, Elizabeth Jackson volunteered to nurse prisoners of war on board two ships in Charleston harbor, where there had been an outbreak of cholera. She died from the disease in November 1781, and was buried in an unmarked grave. Jackson became an orphan at age 14. Following the deaths of his brothers and mother during the war, Jackson blamed the British for his losses.

He worked for a time in a saddle-maker's shop. Later, he taught school and studied law in Salisbury, North Carolina. In 1787, he was admitted to the bar, and moved to Jonesborough, in what was then the Western District of North Carolina. This area later became the Southwest Territory (1790), the precursor to the state of Tennessee.

After admission to the bar in 1787, he accepted an offer to serve as public prosecutor in the new Mero District of North Carolina, west of the mountains, with its seat at Nashville on the Cumberland River. Arriving in 1788, Jackson thrived in the new frontier town. He built a legal practice, entered into trading ventures, and began to acquire land and slaves. 

Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion, the Hermitage, near Nashville. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and he served briefly in the Senate. A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans.

Jackson was appointed commander of the Tennessee militia in 1801, with the rank of colonel. He was later elected major general of the Tennessee militia in 1802

In the Creek War, Jackson commanded the American forces, which included Tennessee militia, U.S.regulars, and Cherokee, Choctaw, and Lower Creek warriors. Jackson defeated the Red Sticks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.

In 1824 some state political factions rallied around Jackson; by 1828 enough had joined "Old Hickory" to win numerous state elections and control of the Federal administration in Washington. 

After the victory, Jackson imposed the Treaty of Fort Jackson upon both the Upper Creek enemies and the Lower Creek allies, wresting twenty million acres (81,000 km²) in present-day Georgia and Alabama from all the Creek for European-American settlement. Jackson was appointed Major General after this action. 

When British forces threatened New Orleans, Jackson took command of the defenses, including militia from several western states and territories. He was a strict officer but was popular with his troops. 

In the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, Jackson's 5,000 soldiers won a decisive victory over 7,500 British. At the end of the battle, the British had 2,037 casualties: 291 dead (including three senior generals), 1,262 wounded, and 484 captured or missing. The Americans had 71 casualties: 13 dead, 39 wounded, and 19 missing. He received the Thanks of Congress and a gold medal by resolution of February 27, 1815.

He was ordered by President James Monroe in December 1817 to lead a campaign in Georgia against the Seminole and Creek Indians. Jackson was also charged with preventing Spanish Florida from becoming a refuge for runaway slaves. 

Jackson believed the best way to do this was to seize Florida. Before going, Jackson wrote to Monroe, "Let it be signified to me through any channel ... that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished."

Jackson captured Pensacola, Florida, with little more than some warning shots, and deposed the Spanish governor. He captured and then tried and executed two British subjects, Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbuthnot, who had been supplying and advising the Indians. 

Sources:
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