Like third U.S. president Thomas Jefferson before him, seventh commander-in-chief Andrew Jackson entered the White House a widower. The woman to whom Jackson was married for 37 years had a controversial background that became fodder for his political enemies' smear cannons. This negativity, combined with virulent public personal attacks, would eventually lead to Rachel Jackson's death.
The Colonel's DaughterRachel Donelson was born on June 15, 1767, in Halifax County, Virginia. Her parents were Colonel John Donelson and Rachel (Stockley) Donelson. When daughter Rachel was 12 years old, Colonel Donelson moved his family to Kentucky. The family eventually settled in Tennessee.
Chaos Ensues
While still a teenager, Rachel married for the first time. She wed a Kentucky man named Lewis Robards in 1785. From the beginning, the marriage was troubled. Robards was extremely jealous and tyrannical. Feeling she had no choice, Rachel fled to her recently widowed mother's home, a boarding house that was located in Nashville. After her husband's death, Mrs. Donelson began taking in boarders as a means of supporting herself.
One of these boarders was a dashing young Tennesseean lawyer named Andrew Jackson. Andy was immediately taken with Mrs. Donelson's daughter, a striking woman with dark hair and eyes and an exotic appearance. Andy and Rachel fell madly in love with one another. There was just one hitch: Rachel was still technically legally married to Lewis Robards. As far as Rachel was concerned, however, she believed that she was officially divorced from Robards. Andy and Rachel got married in 1791, believing that their union was indeed legal. It was not until two years after the fact that Rachel would learn that her first husband had only filed for divorce. This would later come back to haunt Andy on his journey to the nation's highest office, for as a lawyer, he was expected to know the law backwards and forwards. Worse, Rachel was permanently labeled a bigamist. As Andy's career progressed, the public attacks against him and his wife escalated.
Andrew Jackson: Self-styled Knight in Shining Armor
Andy was fiercely devoted to defending Rachel's honor throughout their marriage. The war hero, who rose to national fame following the 1814 Battle of New Orleans, even went so far as to challenge men who defamed Rachel's character to duels and occasionally took bullets for her. If the attacks on Rachel's past behavior angered Andy, he was every bit as infuriated by cruel comments made about his wife's appearance. Rachel had put on a considerable amount of weight in her fifties and was referred to pejoratively as "dumpy" and "matronly" by the press. In addition, the "ideal" woman of the day was blonde and fair-skinned, and many of Andy's foes circulated untrue, racist rumors that Rachel was "mulatto (an archaic term for a person who is half-caucasian and half-African American). " Of course, Andy still viewed Rachel as the slim, lovely woman he had fallen in love with years before. Another misconception about Rachel was that she was ignorant, uneducated, and illiterate. This was completely false-- while Rachel was from the backwoods and had had no formal schooling, she was highly intelligent and very literate. Rachel found solace in her deep religious faith and her husband's unwaivering love and devotion.
The Final Straw
Despite all the negative press directed towards him, Andy managed to win the 1828 presidential election. In fact, he beat his opponent, John Quincy Adams, handily. Rachel prepared for life as First Lady, but it was not to be. Rachel did not like Washington, and the thought of moving to the city, filled with people who thought of her as a hillbilly adulteress, stressed her beyond her limits. Rachel Jackson died on December 22, 1828, in Nashville. The cause of death was a heart attack. Rachel was 61. Curiously, 10,000 people came to her funeral, which took place on Christmas Eve,1828.
Andy, who survived Rachel by 16 years and never remarried, blamed the press for his wife's demise and never forgave them. On the subject of this tragedy, Andrew Jackson said, "May God almighty forgive her murderers as I know she forgave them. I never can." Jackson was by no means a flawless man, but it appears he succeeded admirably at being a husband.
Reference:
Harris, Bill. The First Ladies Fact Book: The Stories of the Women of the White House from Martha Washington to Laura Bush, p. 123-33. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 2005.
