Â鶹APP

Photo by Wikimedia commons –

Top 10 Facts about Andrew Jackson

He was born on March 15, 1767, in South Carolina and was raised by his widowed mother who lived in the Waxhaws settlement.

The settlement was located at the border of North and South Carolina.

Unfortunately, he grew up in an extended family whose origin was Scots-Irish and were immigrants and practiced farming.

His oldest brother Hugh died of a stroke in 1779. His other brother later died of smallpox.

At the age of 14, Jackson lost his mother to cholera. In 1784, Andrew moved to Salisbury North Carolina. 

This is where he studied law to accomplish his desire to become an attorney. He got a law license three years later.

Donald was married to Rachel Donelson who had been divorced from his marriage. Jackson and Rachel did not have their own biological children but they adopted.

Andrew became the 17th president of the United States in the year 1829 to 1837. He died at the age of 78 in 1845 due to congestive heart and cardiac failure.

1. Andrew Jackson the first sitting president to survive attempted assassination?

Photo by Wikimedia commons –

During his term as a president, he survive attempted assassination. Andrew Jackson became the first American sitting president to experience an assassination attempt.

His assassin was Richard Lawrence a painter. He approached President Jackson as he left a congressional funeral by shooting at him but the gun misfired.

Andrew Jackson confronted Lawrence clubbing him with his walking stick. Lawrence pulled a second loaded pistol and attempted to shoot which he again misfired.

Jackson was convinced that Lawrence had been hired by his Whig party opponents to assassinate him.

2. Why did Andrew Jackson serve Congress at a Young Age?

Photo by Ann Arbor –

In 1796, Andrew Jackson serve in congress at a young age and was the first representative in the house for only nine months before he quit to become a senator, a job he also served for only seven months.

 3. Andrew Jackson was an advocate and judge

Andrew Jackson studied law in his early years and was admitted into the bar at the age of 20 after which he became a prosperous frontier lawyer.

Andrew Jackson was appointed solicitor, western district of North Carolina. After quitting as a senator, he became a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court until his resignation in the year 1804.

4. Andrew Jackson was a self-taught Military Leader

Photo by Clément Bardot –

Andrew Jackson was a Military leader who was self-trained whereby he won an 1802 election by being involved in Tennessee’s state militia in which he won over John Sevier, another Revolutionary War figure.

He conquered the British at New Orleans along with his militia at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.

5. Andrew Jackson owned slaves

Andrew Jackson owned a cotton plantation called The Hermitage where he practiced cotton business where he owned slaves.

The plantation was very successful that by the time he left to become President, there were 150 slaves.

6. Andrew Jackson  was the only Us President who was a former prisoner of war

Jackson was 8 years when the American Revolution began in 1775. Together with his brother at the age of 13, Robert and Jackson joined the local Militia.

They were captured in 1781 by the British. During their captivity, they refused to clean a British officer’s boot and this led to them being slashed as a punishment.

They were then marched 40 miles where they fell ill with smallpox. His mother negotiated their release for British prisoners. He became the 17^th American President despite his dark days.

7. Andrew Jackson did not have his own biological children

Andrew did not have his own children but adopted his wife Rachel’s nephew who was named Andrew Jackson Jr. Jackson also became a legal guardian to a number of other children.

That not withstanding, he also had a legal guardian to a Native American he found on a battlefield.

Among these children he adopted were the son Samuel, Rachel’s brother, also he adopted two other children Lyncoya and Hutching.

8. Why Andrew Jackson was a gambler

Photo by Wikimedia commons –

Jackson grew up as an orphan in which he had to face hard life situations for survival.

This survival made him opt for an income where he thrived in taste for wagery on dice, on cards and even on cockfights.

During his teenage days, Jackson notoriously gambled away all of his grandfather’s inheritance on a trip to Charleston, South Carolina.

9. Andrew Jackson hated paper money.

In his own writing President, Andrew Jackson said that the only known currency to the constitution of the United States was gold and silver.

He said that a general paper currency being unknown to the constitution did not come within the scope of any of its provisions and could not be regulated under its authority.

His fear of paper money was legendary, he much hated the idea of a central bank issuing of paper currency.

10. Andrew Jackson was an orphan and his wife was never a first lady

Andrew Jackson’s father died before he was born. His eldest brother Hugh died of heart stroke following the battle of 1779.

His other brother, Robert died of smallpox which he contacted in the British’s captivity prison.

Tragically her mother contracted cholera and died leaving Jackson as a total orphan at the age of only 14 years.

Rachel Jackson, the wife of Andrew Jackson died a few days just before his husband Andrew was inaugurated as the president. She died on December 22, 1828, at the age of 61 years. She died of a heart attack.

She was buried on the grounds of the Hermitage on Christmas Eve in her what was to be an inaugural gown.

Andrew Jackson grew up as an orphan having grown without a father, losing both of his brothers and losing his mother at the age of 14 years.

As fate would have it, Andrew lost his wife a few days before he became president. Andrew Jackson survived at an early age where he made money for endurance as a teenage as a gambler.

Andrew Jackson became a successful frontier lawyer at an early age, later he was appointed solicitor and a judge of Supreme Court, hence, Andrew however did not let his hardships prevent him from achieving his goals and becoming the better version of himself.

Being an orphan never prevented him from becoming the 7th president of the United States of America.