Andrew Jackson, Southerner
- ISBN-10
- 0807162310
- ISBN-13
- 9780807162316
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-09-28
- Publisher
- LSU Press
- Author
- Mark R. Cheathem
Description
Winner of the 2013 Tennessee History Award Many Americans view Andrew Jackson as a frontiersman who fought duels, killed Indians, and stole another man's wife. Historians have traditionally presented Jackson as a man who struggled to overcome the obstacles of his backwoods upbringing and helped create a more democratic United States. In his compelling new biography of Jackson, Mark R. Cheathem argues for a reassessment of these long-held views, suggesting that in fact "Old Hickory" lived as an elite southern gentleman. Jackson grew up along the border between North Carolina and South Carolina, a district tied to Charleston, where the city's gentry engaged in the transatlantic marketplace. Jackson then moved to North Carolina, where he joined various political and kinship networks that provided him with entre into society. In fact, Cheathem contends, Jackson had already started to assume the characteristics of a southern gentleman by the time he arrived in Middle Tennessee in 1788. After moving to Nashville, Jackson further ensconced himself in an exclusive social order by marrying the daughter of one of the city's cofounders, engaging in land speculation, and leading the state militia. Cheathem notes that through these ventures Jackson grew to own multiple plantations and cultivated them with the labor of almost two hundred slaves. His status also enabled him to build a military career focused on eradicating the nation's enemies, including Indians residing on land desired by white southerners. Jackson's military success eventually propelled him onto the national political stage in the 1820s, where he won two terms as president. Jackson's years as chief executive demonstrated the complexity of the expectations of elite white southern men, as he earned the approval of many white southerners by continuing to pursue Manifest Destiny and opposing the spread of abolitionism, yet earned their ire because of his efforts to fight nullification and the Second Bank of the United States. By emphasizing Jackson's southern identity -- characterized by violence, honor, kinship, slavery, and Manifest Destiny -- Cheathem's narrative offers a bold new perspective on one of the nineteenth century's most renowned and controversial presidents.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson
By Mark R. CheathemWeaver, Herbert, Wayne Cutler, Tom Chaffin, and Michael David Cohen,
-
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times
By H. W. BrandsLook for H.W. Brands's other biographies: THE FIRST AMERICAN (Benjamin Franklin), THE MAN WHO SAVED THE UNION (Ulysses S. Grant), TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS (Franklin Roosevelt) and REAGAN.
-
The Legacy of Andrew Jackson: Essays on Democracy, Indian Removal, and Slavery
By Robert V. ReminiThoughtful and illuminating, these essays will be of great interest to historians of the Jackson era and to all students of American history.
-
The Passions of Andrew Jackson
By Andrew BursteinWhat transformed a frontier bully into the seventh president of the United States? A southerner obsessed with personal honor who threatened his enemies with duels to the death, a passionate...
-
The Shaping of Southern Culture: Honor, Grace, and War, 1760s-1890s
By Bertram Wyatt-BrownMercer University Press , 1985 ) ; John McKivigan , The War against Proslavery Religion : Abolitionism and the Northern Churches , 183o-1865 ( Ithaca , N.Y .: Cornell University Press , 1984 ) . 4. Sydney Ahlstrom , Religious History of ...
-
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
By Jon MeachamThe definitive biography of a larger-than-life president who defied norms, divided a nation, and changed Washington forever Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this remarkable book ...
-
Andrew Jackson and the Rise of the Democratic Party
By Mark Renfred CheathemThe book explores the concept of politics and its effects on the national government of the early American republic.
-
In Defense of Andrew Jackson
By Bradley J. BirzerIn this brilliant new book, Bradley Birzer makes the case that Jackson was… The epitome of the American frontier republican. Passionately devoted to individual liberty. A staunch proponent of Christian morality.
-
Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History
By Samuel Gordon HeiskellAndrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History
-
Southern Encounters: Southerners of Note in Ralph McGill's South
By Ralph McGillFor over forty years Ralph McGill wrote and spoke about politics, religion, economics, the military, poetry, Southern history, bees, art, Greece, the press, education, blacks, tenant farming, Andrew Jackson, poker,...