Chapter 5

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson's early years were not the stuff of a gentlemanly upbringing. He grew up in
hardscrabble circumstances in the Waxhaw region in Appalachia, a community of Scotch-Irish
immigrants, located between North and South Carolina. His father died before his birth. Jackson's
mother and her three sons moved in with her relatives. They were invited to live there out of little
more than a sense of family duty and a desire for personal gain. The Jacksons needed a home and
their relatives the Crawfords needed help.
Mrs. Crawford was an invalid, wrote James Parton, an early Jackson biographer, and Mrs.
Jackson was permanently established in the family as housekeeper and poor relation. Here young
Andrew developed a humiliating awareness of his dependence and galling discomfort. His mother
performed household drudgery in regard for a pittance for herself and her children. But he did
experience some semblances of a normal childhood, attending local schools, receiving an
elementary education and bits of higher learner. At the Waxhaw Presbyterian Church he
memorized the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
Because Jackson grew up fatherless, he may have felt obligated more than usual to prove his
strength and manliness. He displayed more than usual ferocity in frontier sports like wrestling. A
contemporary who squared off against Jackson recalled, I could throw him three time out of four,
but he would never stay throwed. A neighbor recalled saying during Andrew's childhood that,
Mother, Andy will fight his way in the world. He was an unbalanced, excitable, insecure, and
defensive boy coming of age on the eve of a terrible war between Britain and its largest colony.
His childhood came to an end during the Revolutionary War. John Meacham writes in
American Lion that the fighting conditions in the region were especially savage. Conflict took the
form of ambushes, sharp skirmishes, and massacres. In 1779 Andrew's oldest brother Hugh, 16,
enlisted in a regiment and died at Stone Ferry, southwest of Charleston, likely from heatstroke. The
Twelve-year-old Andrew and his brother Robert were too young to join the formal military so they
battled with irregulars against the British. On May 29, 1780, 300 British troops killed 113 men near
Waxhaw and wounded another 150. It was a vicious massacre. Even after surviving rebels fell to the
ground, asking for quarter, the British went to the ground and plunged their bayonets into everyone
that exhibited any sign of life. The boys Andrew and Robert avoided execution and escaped, but
they were captured a year later.
Soldiers ransacked their house. An officer ordered young Andrew to polish his boots. The 14year-old refused. Sir, he said, with striking coolness, I am a prisoner of war, and claim to be
treated as such. The officer swung his sword at the young man. Jackson blocked the blade with his
hand, but he could not completely fend it off. The sword point reached my hand and has left a
mark there...on the skull, as well as on the fingers, Jackson recalled later in life. Robert also
refused. The officer smashed the sword over his head, knocking him to the floor.
The boys were taken from the house to a British prison camp in Camden. The April heat was
insufferable. They walked through swollen streams, with mosquitoes harassing them constantly.
Disease spread through the camp. Both boys contracted smallpox. Their mother eventually won her

sons' release, but not before Robert fell desperately ill. The wound on his head had never been
dressed, causing inflammation of the brain. They rode home with Mrs. Jackson on one horse and
Robert on the other.
Andrew was barefoot, for the British had taken his shoes and coat. He trudged 45 miles home
back to Waxhaw. Robert died shortly after. Then Andrew's mother died while trying to retrieve
some nephews from a British prison ship. Her grave was never found, despite Jackson spending
considerable time looking for it years later. All of their deaths were beyond his power. As an adult
he strove to see that few other things would be.
Jackson recounted later in life his mother's last words to him. In 1815, after his victory at New
Orleans, he spoke of his mother to his friends: Gentlemen, I wish she could have lived to see this
day. There never was a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and brave as a lioness. Her last
words have been the law of my life.
Andrew, if I should not see you again, I wish you to remember and treasure up some things I
have already said to you: in this world you will have to make your own way. To do that you
must have friends. You can make friends by being honest, and you can keep them by being
steadfast. You must keep in mind that friends worth having will in the long run expect as
much from you as they give to you. To forget an obligation or be ungrateful for a kindness is
a base crimenot merely a fault or a sin, but an actual crime. Men guilty of it sooner or later
must suffer the penalty. In personal conduct be always polite but never obsequious. None
will respect you more than you respect yourself. Avoid quarrels as long as you can without
yielding to imposition. But sustain your manhood always. Never bring a suit in law for
assault and battery or for defamation. The law affords no remedy for such outrages that can
satisfy the feelings of a true man. Never wound the feelings of others. Never brook wanton
outrage upon your own feelings. If you ever have to vindicate your feelings or defend your
honor, do it calmly. If angry at first, wait till your wrath cools before you proceed.
***
Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw settlement, a community of Scotch-Irish immigrants
between North and South Carolina. The son of Irish immigrants, he had little formal schooling and
taught himself law in his late teens and earned entry to the North Carolina bar in 1787. Jackson's
loss of his entire immediate family in the Revolutionary War was only one of the many devastating
setbacks he encountered in life. He lived for some time with relatives, but he disturbed the peace by
frequently arguing with guests to the household because he believed that he was old enough to
know his rights and had the courage to defend them. The family shuffled him off to another relative.
Having a fire-tongued, headstrong youth around presented too many problems for a respectable
Southern family.
Orphaned and left to fend for himself on the streets of South Carolina, Jackson bootstrapped his
way through each stage of life. From ages 14 to 17 he tried his hand at saddle making and school
teaching, failing at both. He eventually left South Carolina for good at 17. After a brief period of
study in Salisbury, North Carolina, he received his license to practice law in that state.
The wild youth brought his unconventional style into his profession. He challenged the first
lawyer he ever tried a case against to a duel and arranged for local prostitutes to arrive in the
middle of a society Christmas ball. Years later, when locals heard that Jackson was running for