Andrew jackson biography timeline info

President of the United States from 1829 to 1837

This article is about the seventh president of the United States. For other uses, see Andrew Jackson (disambiguation).

"President Jackson" redirects here. For the attack transport, see USS President Jackson. For the class of attack transports, see President Jackson–class attack transport.

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845

Andrew Jackson served as the 7 President of the United States. Before his Presidential term, Jackson was a celebrated military commander who led American troops during The Creek War of 1813-14, War of 1812 and First Seminole War. Known as a populist candidate and revered military leader in his time, Andrew Jackson’s complicated life tells us much about warfare and politics in the United States during the early nineteenth century.

Andrew Jackson was born on the border of North and South Carolina on March 15, 1767. He was the third son of Andrew and Elizabeth Jackson. His father died shortly before his birth. Jackson grew up in the Waxhaws settlement, previously occupied by the Waxhaw people who were decimated by European diseases. The settlement was home to Irish, Scots-Irish, and German settlers. 

Only a young boy during the Revolution, Jackson lived through the British invasion of the western Carolinas in 1780-81. The British captured Charleston on May 12, 1780. Following the capture of Charleston, groups of soldiers and Tory sympathizers pillaged the South Carolina countryside. British forces surprised American forces at the Waxhaw’s settlement where the Jacksons lived, killing over 100 soldiers and destroying the settlement. Many survivors of the battle claimed the British massacred patriots who were surrendering. The massacre at Waxhaw’s, also called Buford's Massacre, sparked outrage throughout the colonies. Soon after Andrew and his brothers joined a patriot regiment.

Andrew Jackson served as a courier for the Continental Army and was captured and imprisoned by the British in 1781. He witnessed the Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill as a British prisoner of war. While in captivity Jackson suffered greatly, nearly starving, contracting smallpox, and being slashed with a sword by a British officer for refusi

Andrew Jackson, 1767-1845

Seventh President, 1829-1837

Personal Information

Jackson was born in the then remote Waxhaws region of the Carolinas, on March 15, 1767. His parents were Scots-Irish immigrants, and his father died just three weeks shy of Jackson’s birth.

One of three children (all boys), Jackson grew up in near-poverty and received very little schooling as a child. His older brother Hugh died of heat stroke during the Battle of Stono Ferry—a battle against the British, near Charleston, SC, during the American Revolution in 1779. Andrew, then thirteen years old, joined the local militia as a patriot courier.

At fifteen years of age, Jackson and his other brother, Robert, were captured by the British in 1781. Jackson’s face was slashed by a British officer’s sword when he refused to polish his boots while in imprisoned, leaving lasting scars. While in confinement, the two brothers contracted smallpox, from which Robert would die just a few days after being released.

Soon after the death of his brother, Jackson’s mother died of cholera and Jackson was orphaned at the age of 14. The deaths of his family members led to his lifelong distrust of Britain.

In 1791, Jackson married Rachel Donelson Robards (1767-1828). He was her second husband; she divorced her first husband, Lewis Robards.

In 1802 Jackson was appointed as major general of the Tennessee militia, and would later lead troops in the War of 1812.

Jackson led his troops to victory in the Battle of Horseshow Bend in March of 1814, which decimated the Red Sticks, a faction of the Creek Indians, and lead to the US obtaining 20 million acres of land in what is now Georgia and Alabama. Jackson would then be promoted to major general. 

Although the War of 1812 had officially ended, the British later attempted to separate the Louisiana Territory from the rest of the US. “Mad Dog Jackson,” as he was known during his military career, led his soldiers to victory against the British in the

On December 10, 1832, President Andrew Jackson issued the Nullification Proclamation, which stated that states and municipalities are forbidden from nullifying federal laws. He also threatened to enforce the proclamation with the use of federal arms. Although congressional compromise soon defused the situation, Jackson's proclamation made it clear that he believed the federal government was the supreme power in the United States and he was willing to use the military to ensure its supremacy.

The debate over the issue of nullification actually began before Andrew Jackson took office. The passage of highly protectionist Tariff of 1828 upset many South Carolinians. They felt that tariffs on foreign manufactured goods, designed to protect the United States' infant manufacturing sector, hurt them disproportionately, since they sold their cotton on the world market and could more profitably buy manufactured goods from abroad. Since only a small number of states in the lower South shared the South Carolina viewpoint, there was little prospect of repealing the offending tariff.

Believing the tariff to be unconstitutional, South Carolinians articulated a route by which they themselves could declare a law unconstitutional. The view was put forward in an essay entitled, “An Exposition and Protest,” which was written by John C. Calhoun, but published anonymously. The essay argued that since the federal Constitution was a compact between the states, the states had the ability to declare laws unconstitutional. If a state did this, Calhoun argued, then the proper course of action was for the federal government to reconsider the law. Under Calhoun's plan, a nullified law would have to be re-approved by a two-thirds vote in Congress and a three-fourths vote in the state legislatures, then the nullifying state would have the option of acquiescing or seceding. Few beyond South Carolina found the arguments in the “Exposition and