Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Individual
Group Discount
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews December 6, 2023 November 29, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan - Group Discount
Qty: 00
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Andrew Jackson never met his father, the man for whom he was named. The elder Andrew, son of a prosperous linen weaver, had emigrated to America from Ireland in 1765. The family–consisting of his wife, Elizabeth Hutchinson, and two sons, Hugh and Robert–landed in Pennsylvania and moved southward, ending up in the Waxhaws, a small settlement on the Carolina border where they settled on two hundred acres to begin their life in America. At this point, the Waxhaws consisted of little more than a Presbyterian church, a general store, and a few scattered houses. In February 1767, the elder Jackson died unexpectedly at the age of twenty-nine–just a few short weeks before his pregnant wife was to give birth again.
A small wagon bore the family patriarch to a nearby cemetery near the Waxhaw church. However, when the funeral procession arrived at the burial site, they discovered the casket had fallen off somewhere en route, and they were therefore forced to retrace their steps to find the body. After the funeral for Andrew's father, his mother moved in with relatives–most likely the Crawfords, the most prosperous of the Jacksons' relations. Elizabeth's grief soon brought on labor, and on March 15, 1767, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, naming him Andrew in honor of her deceased husband. In an odd note, both North Carolina and South Carolina claim that Jackson was born within their borders. North Carolina historians insist Elizabeth gave birth not at the home of her in-laws, the Crawfords, but at her brother-in-law's house just over the North Carolina border. Jackson, however, always believed he had been born at the Crawford house in South Carolina. Indeed, Jackson's mother raised him for the first decade of his life in the Crawford house, where she worked as a housekeeper.
Jackson was extremely bright and began reading at an early age–a hobby he would soon drop in favor of pastimes he felt more exciting. He studied Greek and Latin at the academy in Waxhaw, but never developed much talent in either field. Despite his intellectual promise, Jackson never showed much ability to write, and his poor spelling appalled his friends. Ultimately, his lack of interest in reading, coupled with his poor writing skills, left him poorly educated, even by eighteenth-century standards. He learned little about science or mathematics, and the only non-religious book he is known to have read cover-to-cover is the The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith. Whatever political intuition he later acquired came from his own experiences, as he never formally studied politics, law or history.
Though Jackson's mother hoped he would enter the ministry, from his earliest days he showed a proclivity for a rough-and-tumble, colorful lifestyle. According to many accounts, Jackson could out-swear just about anyone else in the Waxhaws, uttering a seemingly endless stream of obscenities when provoked. When he was not in school, Jackson passed his time by wrestling or racing other boys. He loved practical jokes and often gently teased his fellows. While he remained fiercely protective of those close to him, he would not hesitate to attack, either verbally or physically, anyone who opposed him. Jackson's temper, which would later become legendary, began to show early. Once, when some fellow boys dared him to fire a musket loaded to the muzzle with powder, he accepted the challenge, was knocked to the ground by the gun's recoil, and promptly jumped up to threaten to kill any boy who laughed at him. None did.
Physically, Jackson's build reflected his childhood on the frontier. Standing a hardy six feet tall, he weighed a lean 145 pounds and remained quite agile for most of his life. He had bushy blond hair and a sharp pronounced jaw. Many of his adversaries would later comment on his fiery blue eyes, which seemingly dared anyone to oppose him.
Please wait while we process your payment