Andrew Jackson, from Boy to Man
Andrew Jackson was just such a man. He too was an "other, an outsider, marginalized". His family had emigrated from Ireland in 1765 prior to his birth and settled near Indians in a place called Waxhaw, then located between the two Carolinas (2). The Irish were outsiders then. Although they came from a European country, they were viewed through the racial lens that Africans were. However, over time, the Irish became White. Of course Africans could never do that, But the Irish were Papists, under the Roman Catholic Church and to all outward appearances, were unfamiliar with the American idea or concept of liberty. And, because of their allegence to their religion, were viewed as a threat to our American Democracy and its institutions. Meanwhile, immigrants from England did not face these hostilities and were easily assimilated. So Andrew's parents settled near the frontier and the War for Independence was just a little over ten years away. The Proclamation Line of 1763 had already been "drawn in the sand".
Baby Andrew, (who was named for his father who died just prior to his birth) was born in 1767. His widowed mother, becoming financially distressed, struck a bargain with one of her sisters to perform housekeeping duties in return for lodging. This was a lower stature and Andrew felt it. In those days you clearly knew if you were poor or were the "lower sort". So Andrew, living in his auntie's house never felt as if he belonged because he didn't. Andrew was always trying to prove that he was not weak (possibly due to his fatherless state) and when crossed, would work himself into a raging frenzy so much so that he would commence to "slobbering" (3). Jon Meacham in his book, American Lion, writes, "His prospects were not auspicious: here was an apparently unbalanced, excitable, insecure, and defensive boy coming of age in a culture of confrontation and violence." (4)
Young Andrew's exposure to violence wasn't on some film, but up close and personal. When he was twelve he lost his brother who was fighting the British in the Battle of Stono Ferry. The lad was just sixteen. A bit later Charleston fell to the British. On May 29, that Monday afternoon around three o'clock, approximately three hundred British troops under the command of Lt. Colonel Tarleton, first killed 113 men and then massacred 150 wounded rebels who tried to surrender, but instead were bayoneted by the British troops, with swords run through anyone who exhibited any signs of life. This happened even as they were falling to the ground asking for quarter. The year was 1780. Andrew was thirteen years old. (5)
Mrs. Jackson took Andrew with her to the church meetinghouse where the wounded, the gashed, and the dying were being cared for. Some of the men had sustained thirteen gashes. Imagine the sights, the sounds, the smell of that place. Now, Mrs. Jackson's own father had fought the British back in Ireland and suffered greatly for it. This left an indelible mark on his daughter, Andrew's mother, who often told her children of how her father suffered at the siege of Carrickfergus where he had fought the British king. Andrew attributed to his mother the image of her instilling in her sons ideas of the natural rights of man and Enlightenment political thought. She also instilled in him "his love of country and of the common man". (6)
At fourteen, both Andrew and his brother were captured by the British and suffered severe wounds from their swords. Brother Robert did not survive the gashing but Andrew did. After Andrew was nursed back from the brink of death, his mother left to care for his two sick cousins in Charleston. That was the last time Andrew Jackson ever saw his mother, and after her death he was unable to locate her grave. (7)
So we see a childhood where he was always on the outside, always living in the homes of others, had to learn to "smile through it all", and not one kind word or condolence upon his mother's death. As an adult, where others could point to receiving gifts as children, Andrew could not. Later as a young man in Charleston, after the War for Independence, he became much more refined, fell in love with "the horses" enjoyed the gaming tables, and developed a taste for fine clothes. (8)
Andrew could quote Shakespeare (among others), but often returned to his earlier biblical teachings and the influence of his mother. At one time he said that he daily read chapters of the Bible, and his writings do reveal his reliance on Scripture. He saw himself as a hero, comparing himself with David who slew Goliath and later became King David. He truly envisioned himself as a hero and would rush to prove it on the battlefield even if he had to do it with a "shot up arm", an injury he received from an altercation with Jesse Benton, the brother of Thomas Hart Benton.
Jackson had a niggling worry that Indians would plot with England and Spain to halt Westward expansion, destabilize the Union and set the new nation back before the Revolution. Therefore, the "culprits" now would be the Creeks. So upon hearing that they had attacked Fort Mims and massacred Whites under the direction of Red Eagle, Jackson rode into battle. These settlers had previously attacked Red Sticks and then run back to the Fort for protection, which was provided for them. (Davy Crockett was on the scene and later reported how they shot the Indians like dogs).
Please Dear Reader, do not think that these attacks on either side were anything but horrific. Jackson believed that what he did at Fort Mims was justified and continued to win victories "from Talladega to Horseshoe Bend" (along with twenty-three million acres of land). The defining moment was the end of the Creek War in 1814.
Still, it was not over. With Jackson being the type of man who would stalk his enemy to the death (as he once intimated he would do to Charles Dickinson who previously had made a slur against Mrs. Jackson), Andrew believed hostile Indians were lurking about, being used by the British and the Spanish. His fears were not his alone. But he was able to allay the fears of many. He was ruthless against their enemies, and kept on winning! He became a renowned figure. Even priests were thanking God for him. (9) In terms of today, he was the Celebrity Star of his time (to Whites).
Strangely though, he found and adopted a small Creek boy, whom he thought of as "savage" but nonetheless brought him home after having utterly destroyed the child's entire family during a battle, which the child witnessed! Andrew saw a bit of himself in that child harkening back to his childhood during the Revolution. That boy lived at Hermitage for fifteen years until he died of an illness in 1828.
Although Jackson was not as polished as the other presidents, he did read and was influenced by those readings. His mother wanted so much for Andrew to be a clergyman but he felt that his service to the Lord was on the battleground —not the church, but service nonetheless.(10) By the time young Andrew became the nation's seventh president, he had become an "Indian Fighter", taking part in decisive battles against the Creeks, the First Seminole War 1817-1819, against the Seminole who wouldn't return fugitive slaves, and overthrew the Spanish governor in Florida, who wouldn't intervene on behalf of the Southern slaveholders wanting their "property" returned. In that war, Jackson fought much like the Indians did; he even had some of them fighting alongside him. They were a divided bunch, Red Sticks, fought with the British, White Sticks with the Americans. Jackson burned villages, destroyed crops, captured, killed and humiliated the Seminoles.(11) Soon after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend was over, the Americans thanked their White Stick Allies by forcing them to sign a treaty handing over most of their land. And the Red Sticks? Well, now they had no land at all. They hid in the woods. Whatever was left of the Tallasee tribe headed south. They crossed the border into at that time, Spanish Florida. Three years later they again faced General Jackson in war. (12)
Not all Americans agreed with Jackson's methods. Thomas Jefferson for one didn't think he was fit for the Presidency. He, being an aristocrat himself, was worried about the regression of American society. He thought of Jackson as a man of violent passions and unsuited to be President. (13) But Jackson did win the Presidency. He was widely received by the populace at his inaugural but was unsure of how deeply they cared for him. He knew that he had to keep it simple for the ordinary voter, being careful to express his ideas clearly. He knew that his image must be one of strength, yet simple, like the common man. Democracy was still in the process of taking form and shape and the first example of such an image as that was General George Washington, who made the people feel comfortable, in capable hands. Washington's bearing was a reassuring one. (14) Now, the elegant, genteel city of Washington had a new sheriff in town; and a provincial one at that! (Three days before he took possession of the White House his beloved wife whom he had dueled Benton over her honor, passed away).
By the time he assumed office, President Jackson already had almost fifty years of contact and conflict with the indigenous people of this land. Two years after he became President, the Indian Removal Act cleared the way for sending American Indians west of the Mississippi. Now one of his first acts was to concern himself with the clashing interests of Indians versus Whites and land was the issue, land needed for the expansion of Cotton. Five tribes were holding this rich land, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Seminole. If you now live in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi or Tennessee you are on that land. The tribes appealed to Washington since they had treaties guaranteeing them these lands.(15) One thing is clear: Jackson absolutely believed in removing the Indians. For him, there would be no peaceful coexistence. He refused to entertain any other possibilities. His hat was in the ring with the interests of white people. After all, they were Americans. His justification? The Indians would be better off, their survival would be guaranteed or they would face being wiped out. (16) Jackson "did not believe the Indians had title to the land nor would he tolerate competing sovereignties within the nation".(17) Following is the speech he made to the Creeks to convince them that they should go. This took place in 1829.
"Friends and Brothers - By permission of the Great Spirit above, and the voice of the people, I have been made President of the United States, and now speak to you as your Father and friend, and request you to listen. Your warriors have known me long. You know I love my white and red children, and always speak with a straight, and not with a forked tongue; that I have always told you the truth. I now speak to you, as my children, in the language of truth-Listen.
Where you now are, you and my white children are too near to each other to live in harmony and peace. Your game is destroyed, and many of your people will not work and till the earth.
Beyond the great River Mississippi, where apart of your nation has gone, your Father has provided a country large enough for all of you, and he advises you to remove to it.
There your white brothers will not trouble you; they will have no claim to the land, and you can live upon it you and all your children, as long as the grass grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty. It will be yours forever. For the improvements in the country where you now live, and for all the stock which you cannot take with you, your Father will pay you a fair price.
Where you now live, your white brothers have always claimed the land. The land beyond the Mississippi belongs to the President and to no one else; and he will give it to you for forever".. (18)*******
This is the reply:
"Brothers! When the white man first came to these shores, the Muscogees gave him land, and kindled him afire to make him comfortable. And when the pale faces of the south [the Spanish] made war on him, their young men drew the tomahawk and protected his head from the scalping knife.
But when the white man had warmed himself before the Indian's fire, and filled himself with the Indian's hominy, he became very large. He stopped not for the mountain tops, and his feet covered the plains and the valleys. His hands grasped the eastern and western sea.
Then he became our great father. He loved his red children; but said, 'You must move a little farther, lest I should by accident tread on you. With one foot he pushed the red man over the Oconee, and with the other he trampled down the graves of his fathers.
But our great father still loved his red children, and he soon made them another talk He said much; but it all meant nothing, but 'move a little farther; you are too near me.
I have heard a great many talks from our great father, and they all began and ended the same.
Brothers! When he made us a talk on a former occasion, he said, 'Get a little farther. Go beyond the Oconee and the Ocmulgee. There is a pleasant country.' He also said, 'It will be yours forever.'
Now he says, 'The land you live on is not yours. Go beyond the Mississippi. There is game. There you may remain while the grass grows or the water runs.
Brothers! Will not our great father come there also? He loves his red children, and his tongue is not forked..".........Speckled Snake, aged 100 years. Date: 1829 (19)
Ideas of "Who Are You, Anyway ?"
But what were the driving ideas that led to all of this? And for the Indians, what were they being removed to? Let us look back to an English Playwright, William Shakespeare. Written at a time when the British were busy colonizing and decimating the Irish, the character, Caliban, who represents the "other", reflects attitudes and ideas about non British people, the people who began British North America .The description of Caliban is that he is a savage, dark and deformed - a slave. His mother is an evil witch. He accuses Prospero of trying to be his friend so that he can take his land. Images of the strange people the settlers were to meet had already been circulating in Europe. These kinds of depictions helped the British to form ideas and notions about race and superiority and project them upon those who were different from them when they arrived on these shores. Kari Erikson speaks to defining identity for whole communities (individuals) by measuring what they are not. (20) Indians were viewed and referred to as "savages" "noble savages"; their women were called "squaws"—all highly offensive terms. Please teachers, if you have "squaw" on your Word Wall, remove it.
When The British arrived in Jamestown in 1607, they were hardly prepared for life on this side of the pond. It was Indians who helped them as the new settlers were doing so poorly. They had not found the gold they came for but soon discovered that "stinky weed"-tobacco and voila! The colony survived along with its ideas: Indians were not Christian. They were not British. They were like Caliban in Shakespere's play, The Tempest. They were the not. (21)
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