Facts about Rachel Jackson
Rachel Jackson Biography
Rachel Jackson was married to President Andrew Jackson for nearly four decades, but she died just after he was elected president in 1828 and before he was inaugurated.
Rachel Donelson was the daughter of pioneers who settled in Tennessee country when she was about 12. She married Lewis Robards of Kentucky in 1785, but after three years of a rollercoaster marriage — he has gone down in history as a jealous abuser — Robards left her in Nashville on her own. Andrew Jackson escorted her to Mississippi and they were married in 1791, having heard that Robards had secured a divorce.
It turns out he had only secured permission to file for divorce. Two years after Rachel and Andrew Jackson married, Robards sued on grounds of adultery. His divorce from Rachel was finally made official in 1793. Andrew and Rachel married again a few months later, in January of 1794.
While Jackson had his military and political career, Rachel stayed mostly at their home in Nashville, an estate called The Hermitage. Though they never had children of their own, the Jacksons helped rear several children; they adopted her nephew, Andrew Jackson Donelson, in 1808, and a Creek Indian boy, Lyncoya, came to live at The Hermitage in 1813.
The circumstances of Rachel’s first divorce were a favorite target of Jackson’s political opponents, who turned it into a scandal. After he lost the 1824 election to John Quincy Adams, Jackson undertook a public relations campaign to defend Rachel’s honor. Jackson won the presidential election of 1828, but before the family could leave for Washington Rachel died at home. Still, many outlets (including the official White House site and Wh02) list her as Jackson’s First Lady.
Extra credit
Although it is uncertain if Rachel Jackson’s birth was recorded correctly, most sources list the date as June 15, 1767… There is some disagreement over Rachel Jackson’s cause of death. Some sources, like Encyclopedia Britannica and the National First Ladies Library and Museum, say that Rachel Jackson died of a heart attack. However, Nashville Public Television reports, “It has been suggested that Rachel died due to a massive heart attack caused by the stresses from the dirty campaign of 1828 and by her heightened anxiety over the imminent move to Washington. However, the true cause of Rachel’s death is not known.”