Rachel Jackson | |
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 Portrait byRalph E. W. Earl, 1823 | |
| Born | Rachel Donelson (1767-06-15)June 15, 1767 |
| Died | December 22, 1828(1828-12-22) (aged 61) |
| Resting place | The Hermitage (Nashville, Tennessee) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Andrew Jackson Jr. |
| Parent(s) | John Donelson Rachel Stockley |
| Relatives |
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| Signature | |
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Rachel Jackson (néeDonelson; June 15, 1767 – December 22, 1828) was the wife ofAndrew Jackson, the seventhpresident of the United States.[1][2] She lived with him at their home atthe Hermitage, where she died just days afterhis election and before his inauguration in 1829—therefore she never served asfirst lady, a role assumed by her niece,Emily Donelson.[3]
Rachel Jackson was married at first toLewis Robards inNashville. In about 1791, she eloped with Andrew Jackson, believing that Robards had secured the couple a divorce. It was later revealed that he had not, meaning that her marriage to Jackson wasbigamous. They were forced to remarry in 1794 after the divorce had been finalized.
She had a close relationship with her husband. She was usually anxious while he was away tending to military or political affairs. APresbyterian, Rachel was noted for her deep religious piety. During the deeply personal prelude to the 1828 election, she was the subject of extremely negative attacks from the supporters of Andrew Jackson's opponent,John Quincy Adams. Jackson believed that these attacks had hastened her death, and thus blamed his political enemies.
Rachel Donelson was born near theBanister River, about ten miles fromChatham, Virginia, inPittsylvania County on June 15, 1767.[1][2] Her father was ColonelJohn Donelson (1718–1785), co-founder ofNashville, Tennessee, and her mother was Rachel Shockley Donelson (1730–1801).[1] Her great-grandfather Patrick Donelson was born inScotland about 1670.[1] She had seven brothers and three sisters:[1]
From about 1770 to 1779, her father operated theWashington Iron Furnace atRocky Mount,Franklin County, Virginia.[4] With her family, she moved to Tennessee at the age of 12.[2] Her father led about 600 people from Fort Patrick Henry, inNortheast Tennessee, toFort Nashborough, down theCumberland River.[1] The Donelson family were among the first white settlers in Tennessee.[2]
Rachel attracted much attention from suitors because she was very beautiful as a young woman, described by a contemporary as having "lustrous black eyes, dark glossy hair, full red lips, brunette complexion, though of brilliant coloring, [and] a sweet oval face rippling with smiles and dimples."[3] Later in life, her country manners and full figure were severely in contrast with Jackson's tall, spindly form and developed genteel manners. However, her love for her husband was unmistakable: she languished when he was away for politics, fretted when he was away at war, and doted on him when he was at home.[3] Unlike Jackson, Rachel never liked being in the spotlight of events. She would consistently warn her husband not to let his political accomplishments rule him; for example, after Jackson's victory at theBattle of New Orleans, she warned Jackson that his subsequent popularity (on the scope ofGeorge Washington) would tempt him to value his glory over his own family.[5]
She was aPresbyterian.[1] She was also an avid reader of theBible and religious works as well as poetry.[1]
According to a letter written in 1828 by her sisterJane Donelson Hays from her new home inMadison County, Tennessee, Rachel was close to her sisters, many of whom had lived in close proximity to each other inMiddle Tennessee: "How does my dear sister Jackson do? I cannot take up my bonnet and meet you at sister Betsy's or sister Mary's...smoke our pipes, laugh and talk over occurrences of former days, each one taking the words out of the others mouth...It was a pleasant neighborhood."[6]
Rachel Donelson's first marriage to CaptainLewis Robards ofHarrodsburg, Kentucky, a landowner and speculator, was not happy, and the two separated in 1790.[1][2] According to Marcia Mullins of the Hermitage in Nashville, Tennessee, there were rumors that Lewis Robards was cruel and jealous.[7] Believing that her husband would file a petition for divorce, she returned to the Donelson family home.[8]
In contrast, Ann Toplovich, executive director of the Tennessee Historical Society, writes that Rachel Donelson Robards knowingly left her husband for Andrew Jackson in late 1789, eloping to Spanish-controlled Natchez.[9][a]
When Andrew Jackson migrated toNashville, Tennessee, in 1788, he boarded with Rachel Stockley Donelson, the mother of Rachel Donelson Robards. The two became close, and shortly after, they married inNatchez, Mississippi. Rachel believed that her husband had obtained a divorce,[1][2] but as it had never been completed, her marriage to Jackson was inadvertently bigamous and therefore invalid.[2]
Rachel's marital status was complicated by the distances involved and the changing governmental authorities.[12] During the process of Rachel and Robards's divorce, Kentucky became a state instead of a territory of Virginia, and North Carolina turned over management of the territory including Tennessee to the federal government.[12] These complicating factors were understood by locals and the unusual circumstances of the Jackson marriage were not greatly discussed in Nashville society.[12]
In 1793, Andrew and Rachel Jackson learned that although Lewis Robards had filed for divorce, the divorce had never been granted.[8] This made Rachel a bigamist and an adulteress, as well as making General Jackson, soon a politician on the rise, an adulterer.[8] On the grounds of Rachel's abandonment and adultery, Lewis Robards was granted a divorce in 1794. At about the same time, the legitimacy of the Jackson marriage was questioned because they were married in then-Spanish-controlled Natchez, Mississippi.[8] The Jacksons were Protestants, and only Catholic marriages were recognized as legal unions in that territory.[8] After the divorce was legalized, Andrew and Rachel were married in Davidson County, Tennessee byRobert Hays, Rachel's brother-in-law and a justice of the peace.[13]
Ann Toplovich of the Tennessee Historical Society argues that the above narrative, of unintentional bigamy and unintentional adultery, has concealed the fact of Rachel's agency and exercise of self-determination, and doesn't "give this strong woman credit for choosing a better husband".[9] Toplovich explains that this narrative was concocted during Andrew Jackson's candidacy for president in the 1828 election: in order to "combat the attacks on Jackson’s character and Rachel’s virtue, the Jackson campaign formed the Nashville Committee [...][which] published a story with a new timeline and circumstances of the Jackson marriage — the alternative facts of the Jackson campaign were that Rachel thought she was already divorced when she joined her fate to Andrew Jackson in 1791."
Although the Jacksons never had biological children, they adopted her nephew in 1809 and named himAndrew Jackson Jr.[2] When his father became president, Andrew Jr. assumed management of the Hermitage farm.[14] He marriedSarah Yorke ofPhiladelphia on November 24, 1831.[14]
In 1813, the Jacksons adopted aMuscogee infant who had been orphaned by troops commanded by Rachel's niece's husbandJohn Coffee at theBattle of Tallushatchee.[14]Lyncoya was one of three Indigenous children brought to live at the Hermitage during theCreek War; Lyncoya,Theodore, andCharley were characterized as "pets" for the white adoptees and wards who lived there.[15][16][17] Lyncoya was educated along with Andrew Jr., and Jackson had aspirations of sending him to West Point, as well.[14] Political circumstances made that impossible, and he instead trained as a saddle maker in Nashville. He died of tuberculosis on June 1, 1828.[14][18]
Around 1817 the Jacksons adoptedAndrew Jackson Hutchings who was the grandson of Rachel's sister and the son of Jackson's slave-trading partnerJohn Hutchings.[14] He attended school with Andrew Jr. and Lyncoya.[14] He then attended colleges in Washington and Virginia while Jackson was president. In 1833, he married Mary Coffee, daughter of Jackson's friendJohn Coffee, and moved toAlabama. Hutchings died in 1841.[14]
Andrew Jackson served as the guardian for the children of CaptainEdward Butler, Adjutant General and Inspector General of the United States Army from July 1793 until May 1794, and the children of Rachel's brother Samuel Donelson's son.[14] These children did not live with the Jacksons full time.[14]Andrew Jackson Donelson, son of Rachel's brother Samuel, became Jackson's protégé, and served as personal secretary to Jackson during his presidency.[14]
According to Toplovich, John Quincy Adams' presidential campaigns targeted Jackson's "passion and lack of self-control" in both1824 and1828, "making it central to the argument that he would devastate the integrity of the Republic and its institutions."[7] One newspaper ran an article asking, "'Ought a convicted adulteress and her paramour husband to be placed in the highest offices of this free and Christian land?'"[8]
The publicity surrounding her and the public knowledge of what was considered a very private matter[why?] caused Rachel to sink into depression.[8] She reputedly told a friend "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than live in that palace in Washington."[12][19] Adding to her stress, in 1828, Lyncoya Jackson died at the Hermitage.[8] Between the scandal, her son's death, and a heart condition, she spent much of the campaign depressed and crying.[8]
She died suddenly on December 22, 1828, at the age of 61 of aheart attack, given her symptoms according to Jackson: "excruciating pain in the left shoulder, arm, and breast.";[3] symptoms that are typically on par forheart attacks in women. That her death came immediately before Jackson left for Washington was more than an inconvenience; it was crippling. He held her body tightly until he was pulled away, and he lingered at the Hermitage until the latest possible date.[3]
Even though her maladies began as early as 1825, and she was a cigar smoker,[20] Jackson always blamed his political enemies for her death.[12] "May God Almighty forgive her murderers", Jackson swore at her funeral, "I never can."[21]
She was buried on the grounds at the Hermitage wearing the white dress and shoes she had bought for the inaugural ball.[8] Her epitaph, written byJohn Eaton, who would later become involved in thePeggy Eaton scandal during the Jackson Administration, reads: "A being so gentle and so virtuous slander might wound, but could not dishonor."[22]
TheRachel Jackson State Office Building, in Nashville, Tennessee, built in 1985, was named for her.
Rachel Jackson was the title character of a 1951 historical novel byIrving Stone,The President's Lady, which told the story of her life with Andrew Jackson. In 1953, the novel was made into afilm of the same name starringSusan Hayward andCharlton Heston as the Jacksons.[23][24] In the 1936 filmThe Gorgeous Hussy (a fictionalized biography ofPeggy Eaton), Rachel Jackson was portrayed byBeulah Bondi, who was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.[25] In December 1956, she was portrayed byMaureen Stapleton in theStudio One episode "Rachel".[26] She also appears as a character in the stage musicalBloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which includes multiple jokes about bigamy.
