Andrew Jackson Daguerreotype

Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson was a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws region, a territory located on the border between North and South Carolina. His parents, Andrew and Elizabeth Jackson, were poor Scottish-Irish immigrants who had recently settled in the colonies. Jackson was the third child in a family of five boys and three girls. He had two older brothers, Hugh and Robert, and an older sister named Elizabeth. His other siblings, Mildred, William, John, and Thomas, died during the Revolutionary War, leaving Jackson's family devastated. Jackson married Rachel Donelson Robards in 1791, but the marriage was complicated by a technicality: Rachel had been previously married to another man who had not yet obtained a legal divorce when they married. The controversy surrounding their marriage would haunt the couple throughout their lives. The couple adopted a nephew and raised him as their own son. Andrew Jackson had a distinguished career. He fought in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 and became a national hero for his victory in the Battle of New Orleans. Jackson later served as a U.S. representative, senator, and governor of Florida. He also ran unsuccessfully for president in 1824 but was elected in 1828 and 1832. Jackson's presidency was marked by significant events, such as the Indian Removal Act, the Nullification Crisis, and the establishment of the Democratic Party. Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845, at the Hermitage, his plantation in Nashville, Tennessee.