Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson

Background

Andrew Jackson was born on March 1767 near the borderline area of South and North Carolina. His father died prior to his birth and he was raised by his mother. He almost received no formal schooling. He went on to become the seventh president of America. He was in fact, the first American president who had no links with the colonial aristocracy. Jackson along with his two brothers fought for the Continental army in the revolutionary war, while his mother played a role in nursing the prisoners of war. Jackson was the only member of his family to survive after the war. He was an orphan at the age of fourteen. He joined the continental army at an early age of 13 and served as a messenger. He was captured along with his brother, Robert in 1781 and was held captive for almost a month. The bad experience that Jackson curtailed in British captivity made him despise the British.

Jackson had a soft heart for the Native Americans and raised an Indian child. He also took part in several welfare activities for the Native Americans. However, he hated some of the native tribes for having sided with the British during the War of 1767 (American History Online).

Formal Education

Jackson hardly received any formal school education. Being an orphan, he was raised by his relatives. He worked as an apprentice to a saddle maker for half a year. The little formal education he had was used by him to teach IN school. By the time he grew up to be 17, he chose to study law. He joined the North Carolina bar in 1787. He soon became a prosecuting officer for a local superior court in Nashville which is currently in Tennessee, but was then a part of North Carolina (Longaker, 1956).

Major Contributions

Jackson worked hard for North Carolina to be established as a separate state. He was elected as the first member of the house of representative in Tennessee when it became a separate state. He was selected by the state legislature for the U.S Senate in 1797, but he resigned after just one session having decided he could not afford to work due to financial strains. He then served as a justice on Tennessee Supreme Court for six years. This helped him improve his financial position considerably (Longaker, 1956).

Jackson's position was significantly transformed in 1802 when he was elected as the Major General of the Tennessee state militia. He became a national hero after he lead two successful expeditions in the war of 1812 to suppress an Indian Creek uprising in Mississippi. He was promoted to major general of the U.S army for his success. He also coerced the inclusion of 20 million acres of lands from the creeks into American territory.

Jackson thus transformed himself into a prominent hero of that time. He had great passion and turned out to be an expansionist. He had been part of the democratic movement all along. He served as the American president for ...