In the Footsteps of President Andrew Jackson: Private Walking Tour of Nashville
Born in the wild frontier lands of South Carolina on March 15, 1767, to impoverished Irish immigrant parents, no one could predict Andrew Jackson’s meteoric rise to military and political fame – and eventually the presidency in 1828. Popular with some and polarizing for many, learn all about the life and times of ‘Old Hickory’ in his hometown of Nashville. On your private walking tour, you will:
- Enjoy the personal attention of your expert private guide.
- Learn about the fascinating life and times of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States of America, as you walk around his home city of Nashville, Tennessee.
- Begin your tour at the majestic Hermitage Hotel, and learn about Jackson’s plantation home of the same name just outside of Nashville.
- See the Masonic Grand Lodge of Tennessee and learn about the role of the freemasons in Jackson's life and his opponents.
- Marvel at the Downtown Presbyterian Church, with its Egyptian influenced architecture and where Jackson was a member.
- Walk around the Tennessee State Capitol, and hear about Jackson’s unlikely meteoric rise from an impoverished orphan, to a lawyer, to a war hero and finally to the president.
- Hear about his hot-tempered duels as a young lawyer and his military exploits and amazing victories against the British as an untrained General.
- Tour the Tennessee State Museum with your private guide and its superb collection of Jackson’s artefacts and learn about his divisive public life as ‘the people’s politician’, army general and lawmaker, and how he split off from the Republican Whigs to form the Democratic Party.
- Learn about the origins of Jackson’s accumulated wealth: he was a slave owner, with up to 150 slaves on his 1000-acre plantation at any one time.
- Deepen your understanding of the origins of American Democracy and the colonization of the lands of the indigenous tribes in relation to Jackson’s politics, which would have ramifications for generations to come.
- Finish your tour inside the museum after a guided tour of the highlights, where you are free to explore on your own.
Discover the life and times of Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, and the first to come from an impoverished background. He served in both houses and changed the face of democracy by extending the right to vote. He paid off America’s public debt for the first time in its history. He was known as the first true ‘people’s president’ to win the popular vote. His popularity was not universal, however, and he survived an assassination attempt in 1835 – by beating his would-be assassin with his walking cane.
Andrew Jackson became wealthy on the back of slavery, owning up to 150 slaves on his 1000 acre plantation, the Hermitage, and actively opposed abolitionists. It was Jackson's policies that led to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the displacement and massacre of thousands of Native Americans on what became known as the Trail of Tears, along which over 15000 members of the Cherokee were forced to march, and over 4000 died. The Indian Removal is a brutal legacy that would outlive him for generations to come.
Jackson left office in 1836, and retired to the Hermitage where he died nine years later of heart failure. His parrot, Poll, had to be removed from the funeral for cursing at the mourners.
