America at 250 Series
Andrew Jackson was born in 1767 in the Carolina backcountry, in a cabin on the edge of the wilderness. His father died before he was born. At thirteen, he was a courier in the Revolution; when a British officer ordered him to clean a boot, he refused, and the officer slashed his face with a sword. He carried the scar, and the grudge, for the rest of his life.
He grew into a duelist, a lawyer, a planter, and an enslaver. At New Orleans in 1815, he routed a British army and became a national hero overnight.
As the seventh president, he broke the Bank, defied the Supreme Court, and signed the Indian Removal Act — sending the Cherokee, Choctaw, and others west on a road that became known as the Trail of Tears. Thousands died.
He died at the Hermitage in 1845, surrounded by the people he owned.
