Born into poverty, Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) rose to become the
nation's seventh president and the founder of the Democratic Party. When
the War of 1812 broke out, Jackson's leadership earned him national fame
as a military hero, and during the 1820s and 1830s he became an
influential, and polarizing, political figure. Jackson is best known for
making America more democratic. The problem was that, for Jackson, "the
people" were white and male. So while he moved the United States toward
a true democracy, he also trampled on the rights of minorities,
appointing proslavery Supreme Court justices and giving America the
Indian Removal Act, which resulted in the Trail of Tears. The book
includes selections of Jackson's writings, endnotes, a bibliography, and
an index.