Rachel Jackson

Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson ( born June 15, 1767 Today's Halifax County, Virginia; † December 22 1828 in Nashville ) was the wife of the seventh U.S. president, Andrew Jackson. Since Jackson held the office of President until the March 4, 1829 after his election victory on December 3, 1828, she could never take over the activities of the First Lady, because she died in the meantime. Therefore, their niece Emily Donelson considered as First Lady during the reign of Andrew Jackson.

Life

Rachel Donelsons father was the explorer and adventurer John Donelson. At the age of seventeen she married Lewis Robards, from whom she separated in 1790. 1791 she married Andrew Jackson in the faith, to be divorced from Robards. Two years later it became public that this was not the case. Her first husband had only received permission to bring an action for divorce, but the method is not performed. Then she raised herself successful lawsuit. After her divorce, the legal force Jackson married in 1794 again in silence. But the scandal and the rumors of adultery and bigamy hurt Andrew Jackson in his professional and political career, which was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of the nascent State of Tennessee as a young lawyer and member of the Democratic- Republican Party and the Office of the deputies sought in the House of Representatives. There were a number of duels; at a Jackson was seriously injured.

The couple lived on a cotton plantation near Nashville, which they called The Hermitage. The marriage remained childless; In 1809 they adopted a nephew Rachel and named him Andrew Jackson Jr.. Other nephews they took on as a foster sons, among them Andrew Jackson Donelson, who later married his cousin Emily Donelson.

Rachel Robards Jackson died at the age of 60 years in the preparations for the family's move to Washington of a heart attack. She was buried in the garden of their plantation.