FRONTIERSMAN AND SOLDIER 229 



rickfergus, son of Hugh Jackson, linen-draper. An- 

 drew's wife was Elizabeth Hutchinson, and her family 

 were linen-weavers. They came to America in 1765, 

 the year of the Stamp Act, and before two years had 

 passed Andrew Jackson died, only a few days before 

 the birth of his famous son. 



The log cabin in which the future President was 

 born, on the i5th of March, 1767, was situated within 

 a quarter of a mile of the boundary between the two 

 Carolinas, and the people of the neighbourhood do not 

 seem to have had a clear idea as to which province it 

 belonged. In a letter of the 24th of December, 1830, in 

 the proclamation addressed to the nullifiers in 1832, 

 and again in his will, General Jackson speaks of him- 

 self as a native of South Carolina ; but the evidence 

 adduced by Parton seems to show that the birthplace 

 may have been north of the border. Three weeks 

 after the birth of her son, Mrs. Jackson moved to the 

 house of her brother-in-law, Mr. Crawford, just over 

 the border in South Carolina, near the Waxhaw Creek, 

 and there Andrew's early years were passed. His 

 education, obtained in an " old-field school," consisted 

 of little more than the "three R's," and even in that 

 limited sphere his attainments were but scanty. His 

 career as a fighter began early. In the spring and 

 summer of 1780, after the disastrous surrender of 

 Lincoln's army at Charleston, the whole of South 

 Carolina was overrun by the British. On the 6th 

 of August Jackson was present at Hanging Rock, 

 when Sumter surprised and destroyed a British regi- 

 ment. Two of his brothers, as well as his mother, 

 died from hardships sustained in the war. In after 

 years he could remember how he had been carried as 



