Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States. He was born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1767. His Irish-Scottish parents had immigrated to the USA from Ireland two years earlier. He was the youngest of three brothers but his father died three weeks before Jackson was born. He grew up in a very remote area of the Virginian countryside.
At the age of 13 he joined the American Revolution as a courier. He was the last U.S. President to have fought in the Revolution. He was captured by the British and nearly starved to death. His mother died from Cholera in 1781, leaving Andrew an orphan at the age of 14. He began to study law in his late teens and became an outstanding young lawyer in Tennessee.
Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion near Nashville. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and he served briefly in the Senate. He was a major general in the War of 1812 and became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans. This paved his way to political success and eventually the Presidency in 1829.
Jackson served two terms as President, from 1829 to 1837. He supported the idea of a small federal government with a powerful President. He was a leading advocate of removing Native Americans from the east of the country and his policy eradicated many tribes. He also supported slavery. In 1835, Jackson survived an assassination attempt. He died of tuberculosis and heart failure in 1845, aged 78.