Family Life, the Law, Business and Politics: 1767-1811 | Andrew Jackson Timeline, 1767-1845 | Articles and Essays | Andrew Jackson Papers | Digital Collections | Library of Congress (2024)

A timeline from Andrew Jackson’s birth through his marriage and early career in the new nation.

Timeline

1. 1767 Mar. 15

   Andrew Jackson is born in Waxhaw, S.C., the third child of Andrew Jackson, Sr., and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson. Former linen weavers, Jackson's parents immigrated to the U.S. from northern Ireland in 1765, part of a larger Scotch-Irish trans-Atlantic migration. They established a small log-cabin homestead in Carolina mountain country near Twelve Mile Creek. Andrew Jackson, Sr., died shortly before the birth of his namesake son. Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, left a widow with the care of three young boys, moves to the nearby home of her sister and brother-in-law, the slaveholding farmers Jane and James Crawford.

2. c. 1775-1780

   Jackson is schooled by local clergymen.

   

3. 1776 July 4

   Continental Congress approves the U.S. Declaration of Independence

4. 1779-1781

   All three Jackson brothers serve in the American Revolutionary War.

5. 1779 June

   Eldest brother Hugh Jackson dies of exposure at the Battle of Stono Ferry.

6. 1780-1781

   Andrew and brother Robert Jackson participate in the Battle of Hanging Rock. in October. Both are later captured by the British and jailed in Camden with ill and malnourished prisoners. They contract small pox. Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson successfully secures their release through prisoner exchange, but Robert, in a weakened physical condition, dies two days later. Andrew is sick with fever, but survives.

7. 1781 Fall

   Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson goes to Charleston to nurse the sick and dies of cholera or "prison fever." At age 14, Andrew Jackson is the only surviving member of his nuclear family of five.

8. 1781-84

   Jackson lives briefly in Charleston before returning to the Waxhaw settlement, where he rooms with relatives, races horses, teaches school, and studies law. He leaves Waxhaw permanently in 1784.

9. 1784-1787

   Lives in Salisbury, N.C., and studies law. Becomes friends with fellow law student John McNairy (1762-1837). McNairy will have a long career as a prominent judge in Tennessee.

10. 1787 Sept. 26

    Jackson is licensed as an attorney in North Carolina, where he practices law and tends store in Martinsville.

11. 1788

    Jackson and McNairy travel West as young lawyers to Jonesboro, in the territory that will later become the state of Tennessee.

12. 1788

    Jackson fights his first duel, with Waightstill Avery (1741-1821), a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and fellow attorney. There is no blood shed.

13. 1788 Oct.

    At age 21, Jackson settles in Nashville, where McNairy is appointed judge of the Superior Court.

14. 1788 Nov. 17

    Jackson purchases a young slave woman named Nancy from Micajah Crews. About the same age as Jackson, Nancy is the first of many enslaved persons he will purchase or retain as labor during his lifetime.

15. 1788-90

    Jackson and McNairy lodge with the widow of Colonel John Donelson. John Overton (1766-1833) is a fellow lodger, and he and Jackson become good friends. Jackson also meets and falls in love with Rachel Donelson Robards (1767-1828), the member of an influential local family. She is separated at the time from her husband Lewis Robards. Their marriage, begun in March 1785, has proven a deeply unhappy one. McNairy appoints Jackson prosecuting attorney for the district. He and Rachel begin a courtship.

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16. 1789

    George Washington becomes the first President of the U.S. (1789-1797).

17. 1789 Dec. 21

    Jackson is elected attorney general of the Mero District by the North Carolina legislature.

18. c. 1791

    Rachel Donelson Robards and Andrew Jackson wed. Prior to the wedding Rachel pursued divorce proceedings to dissolve her marriage to Lewis Robards. The Jacksons learn that the divorce was not properly finalized. Robards accuses Rachel of adultery in January 1792. The divorce decree is issued September 27, 1793.

19. 1791

    Jackson purchases six-year-old Aaron, an African-American slave child, later known after emancipation as Aaron Jackson. Aaron (d. 1878) will become a blacksmith and raise a family on the Hermitage property.

20. 1791-92

    Jackson becomes a protégé of territorial governor William Blount (1749-1800) and thus the recipient of important political patronage. Jackson is appointed judge-advocate of the Davidson County militia regiment.

21. 1792 Feb. 23

    Purchases land in Jones Bend for a home, Poplar Grove.

22. 1794 Jan. 18

    Second marriage ceremony of Andrew and Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson. In the course of their marriage, Rachel Jackson is much beloved by her husband (he refers to her as "My Dearest Heart" in his correspondence to her). She proves an able administrator of their estate during his frequent absences due to his legal, military, and business careers, and as such is an important financial as well as emotional asset in Jackson's life.

23. 1794

    Jackson purchases Hannah, an African-American slave child less than 12 years old. Hannah (d. ca. 1895) will become Rachel Jackson's personal servant and later head of the domestic staff in the Hermitage household.

24. 1794-1795

    Engages in land speculation with John Overton, and invests in a Nashville store with business partner Samuel Donelson.

25. 1795-1796

    Jackson develops an abiding distaste for debt. He invests in the short-staple cotton industry. He establishes a cotton exchange business wherein manufactured articles from Philadelphia can be exchanged for cotton, which he markets in New Orleans. The Jacksons suffer a financial setback when a business associate defaults on notes due to bankruptcy in August 1795, and in 1796 he sells his Nashville store.

26. 1795 Dec. 19

    Jackson elected as a delegate to the Tennessee Constitutional Convention.

27. 1796 Jan. 11-Feb. 6

    Participates in the Tennessee Constitutional Convention.

28. 1796 June 1

    Tennessee is admitted as a state in the Union.

29. 1796 July 5

    Jackson licensed to practice law in Tennessee.

30. 1796 Oct. 22

    The favored choice of William Blount, Jackson is elected to represent Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Blount is one of the two first U.S. senators from the state, serving in 1796-1797.

31. 1796-1797

    From December 6, 1796 to March 3, 1797, Jackson serves in the U.S. House of Representatives, which convenes in Philadelphia. He serves on committee to examine methods for determining post offices and post roads, as a member of Ways and Means, and in other functions. In the spring of 1797, he quarrels with John Sevier (whose expedition against the Cherokees he supported in Congress) and John McNairy, and in the winter with William co*cke.

32. 1797 Sept. 26

    Jackson elected to the U.S. Senate by the Tennessee legislature. He takes his Senate seat November 22.

33. 1797 Dec.

    Votes in the U.S. Senate to ratify treaty with the Senecas. Exposes Glasgow land frauds.

34. 1797 Oct.

    Sells Poplar Grove.

35. 1798 c. April-June

    Takes leave of absence and then resigns his U.S. Senate seat.

36. 1798 Sept.

    Elected circuit-riding judge of Superior Court of Tennessee. The Jackson marriage is marked throughout by his frequent absences due to his legal, business, political, and military careers.

37. 1799 Aug. 25

    Andrew Jackson Donelson (1799-1871) born. The son of Rachel Jackson's brother Samuel and Mary Smith Donelson, he will move to the Hermitage as a small child, after the death of his father and remarriage of his mother. A ward who is like a son to the Jacksons, he will serve as an aide-de-camp to Major General Jackson during the Seminole War and accompany Jackson to Washington.

38. 1799 Dec. 14

    George Washington dies, to the shock of the young nation.

39. 1800 Aug.-Sept.

    Rachel and Andrew Jackson vacation at Mineral Springs, Virginia.

40. 1801 Mar. 4

    Thomas Jefferson inaugurated as the nation's third U.S. President. Aaron Burr is vice president.

41. 1802 Feb. 16

    Jackson establishes business association with John Hutchings and Thomas Watson (Jackson, Watson & Hutchings mercantile).

42. 1802 Apr. 1

    Commissioned Major General of the Tennessee militia.

43. 1803 Aug.

    Dissolves his business partnership with Thomas Watson.

44. 1803 Oct.

    Has major public falling out with John Sevier (1745-1815), governor of Tennessee, whom he accuses of land fraud, "ungentlemanly Expressions, and gasgonading conduct," and challenges to a duel. Sevier accepts, but mishaps and the intervention of others diffuse the heated situation, and the two men's direct confrontation ends without bloodshed.

45. 1804 Apr. 19

    Licensed to operate retail store Andrew Jackson & Co.

46. 1804 July 11

    Vice President of the U.S. Aaron Burr (1756-1836) kills Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton (ca. 1755-1804) in a duel in New Jersey. Secretary of the Treasury in the Washington administration, Hamilton was a proponent of a system of tariffs and a national bank.

47. 1804 July 24

    Jackson resigns as judge of the Superior Court of Tennessee.

48. 1804 Summer

    Moves to the Hermitage property near Nashville. He and Rachel Jackson will develop "the farm" into a cotton-growing plantation based on slave labor. Jackson owns 9 slaves at the time he takes up residence at the Hermitage. By his death in 1845 approximately 150 enslaved persons lived and worked on the Hermitage property.

49. 1805-1806

    Jackson entertains former vice president Aaron Burr at the Hermitage and in Nashville. Burr has a popular reputation in Tennessee. He is soon arrested on rumor of mounting a conspiracy for a patriotic war with Spain, but will be acquitted in 1807.

50. 1805 May 11

    Purchases Truxton, a stud race horse, from John Verell. Jackson will run Truxton against Ploughboy in a match race the following April (1806).

51. 1806 Jan. 13

    Canes Thomas Swann in Nashville.

52. 1806 May 30

    Kills Nashville lawyer Charles Dickinson in a duel. Dickinson wounds Jackson in the chest.

53. 1807 June 1

    Emily Tennessee Donelson (1807-1836) is born at her family's farm in Tennessee. The daughter of Rachel Jackson's brother John and Mary Purnell Donelson, she will study at the Nashville Female Academy and grow up to play a significant role in the Jacksons' lives.

54. 1807 June 25

    Jackson gives testimony at Aaron Burr's grand jury hearing in Richmond.

55. 1807 Sept. 1

    Burr found not guilty of treason.

56. 1808 April

    Jackson campaigns for James Monroe.

57. 1809

    The Jacksons adopt the infant son of Rachel's brother Severn Donelson (1773-1818) and his wife Elizabeth Rucker Donelson (1782-1828), dubbed Andrew Jackson, Jr. (1809-1865), he is the twin of Thomas Jefferson Donelson (b. Dec. 4 1809).

58. 1809 Sept. 20

    Willie Blount (1768-1835) (the younger brother of William Blount) is elected governor of Tennessee, succeeding John Sevier. He serves as governor until 1815.

59. 1811 Dec. 16

    Severe earthquakes occur in the Mississippi River Valley, Louisiana Territory.