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Letters

Andrew Jackson was the third son of Scotch-Irish immigrants.

He was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws, a harsh barren region along the border of North and South Carolina. His father, also Andrew Jackson, died while building a log cabin a month before Andrew's birth. His mother, Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, was a pious woman whose dream was for Andrew to become a Presbyterian minister. Many have said she and Rachel resembled one another a great deal.

Throughout his life, Andrew's hatred for the British was a driving force. This hatred formed from stories his mother told him of their family's suffering under British rule in Ireland, and escalated during his own experience during the American Revolution including losing his mother. Andrew Jackson was an orphan at thirteen.

At about the same age, Rachel Donelson, later to be known as Rachel Jackson, Andrew's wife, was traveling west on a flatboat called the "Adventure" with her father leading a crew of family and friends. They covered over a thousand miles on water to reach the last outpost on the American Frontier - Fort Nashborough - today Nashville, Tennessee.

After only a few months in Fort Nashborough, Rachel's family left for a more civilized area. Indian attacks were growing more frequent and dangerous. They settled in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where, at seventeen, Rachel married her first husband, Lewis Robards. After a tumultuous few years, in 1788, Rachel returned alone to her mother's home, now back in Fort Nashborough. Her mother was now a widow.

Around the same time, newly certified attorney Andrew Jackson traveled more than 300-miles from Salisbury, North Carolina, to a blockhouse, recommended by friends in Fort Nashborough. The blockhouse was owned by widow Donelson, Rachel's mother.   >>>

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Early Hardships | Once Together | Unconquerable Relationship
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