Andrew Jackson

Old Hickory in Christian America

Jonathan M. Atkins (Professor of History, Berry College)

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Hardback

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English

Oxford University Press
01 May 2025

Biography: religious & spiritual; History of the Americas; History of religion; Christianity; Christian spirituality & religious experience

Series: Spiritual Lives

Few today think of Andrew Jackson, the American military hero and president, as a religious man. Nevertheless, Jackson considered himself a Christian throughout his life. Raised a ""rigid presbeterian,"" Jackson's mother wanted her son to grow up to become a clergyman, and despite suffering tragedies and losing his family in the American Revolution, Jackson never rejected the fundamental Christian teachings of his youth. Although he gained notoriety as a rakish young man, religion's influence on him ebbed and flowed as he established himself as part of the South's planter elite. With his devout wife, Rachel, he attended church and knew his Bible and religious subjects well, and while his determination to preserve his reputation involved him in numerous personal conflicts--including a duel that led to his killing a rival--he blended the principles of the antebellum South's honor-based culture with his belief in a traditional, orthodox version of Christianity. Likewise, he easily reconciled his religion with his ownership of slaves and his advocacy of Native American removal, and while he equated his enemies with the forces of evil, he always attributed his military and political accomplishments to the blessings of Providence. As he aged, Jackson became more devout, but he never experienced a dramatic conversion--contradicting the expectations of the leading revivalists of his era's Second Great Awakening--and he consistently promoted religious liberty and separation of church and state as core republican principles. Ultimately, Jackson's faith reflected a version of Christianity widespread in his era, and his frequent appeals for divine guidance and for God's blessing on his nation further encouraged the development of an American civil religion.

By: Jonathan M. Atkins (Professor of History Berry College)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 134mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 358g
ISBN: 9780198852353
ISBN 10: 0198852355
Series: Spiritual Lives
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 01 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1: ""I was brought up a rigid Presbeterian . . ."" 2: ""I think I would have made a pretty good saddler"" 3: ""May the great 'I am' bless and protect you"" 4: ""my reputation is dearer to me than life"" 5: ""the remarkable interposition of Heaven"" 6: ""God alone is the searcher & judge of hearts"" 7: ""providence will spare me untill my enemies are prostrate"" 8: ""I find myself a solitary mourner . . ."" 9: ""We want them . . . free from colision with the whites"" 10: ""My negroes shall be treated humanely"" 11: ""Providence . . . has chosen you as the guardians of freedom"" 12: ""I await with resignation the call of my god""

Jonathan M. Atkins is Professor of History at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, USA, and has published several works on politics and society in the early and antebellum American South. His most notable contributions include Parties, Politics, and the Sectional Conflict in Tennessee, 1832-1861, winner of the 1997 Tennessee History Book Award; an abridged edition of Pauline Wilcox Burke's Emily Donelson of Tennessee (2001); and From Confederation to Nation: The Early American Republic 1789-1848 (2016).