Thomas Jefferson

NAME Thomas Jefferson. He was often referred to by contemporaries as the "Sage of Monticello," a title that reflected his vast intellect and philosophical retirement. 

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third President of the United States. He is world-renowned as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He expanded the United States significantly through the Louisiana Purchase and championed the strict separation of church and state, declaring that there should be a "wall of separation" between the two.

BIRTH Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, at the family home, a one-and-a-half-story farmhouse in Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia. The third of ten children, most of whom died early in life. (1)

FAMILY BACKGROUND Jefferson's father, Colonel Peter Jefferson, was a land surveyor who was one of the surveyors who helped lay out the Virginia–North Carolina border. 

Jefferson's mother, Jane Randolph, was of old Virginian aristocracy, the daughter of Isham Randolph, a ship's captain and sometime planter. Jefferson and his mother did not have a close relationship. When her house burnt down, his first question was "what about my books?" — it never occurred to him to invite his homeless mother into his own home. (2)

CHILDHOOD Seven of Jefferson's first nine years were spent at Tuckahoe, the Randolph estate on the James River near Richmond. When Jefferson was nine, the family moved back to their Shadwell home. 

When not at school, young Thomas went with his father to hunt deer and turkeys along the Rivanna River. He also liked to go for long walks in the mountains. Colonel Jefferson died when Thomas was 14. (3)

EDUCATION Jefferson began his childhood education under the direction of tutors at the Randolph Tuckahoe estate, alongside the Randolph children. In 1752, at the age of nine, Thomas began attending the school of the Reverend William Douglas, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, where he studied Latin, Greek, and French. He also learned to ride horses and began to appreciate the study of nature.

At the age of 14, in 1757, Thomas was sent to the classical school of the Reverend James Maury, near Gordonsville, Virginia. While boarding with Maury's family, he studied history, science, and the classics.

At age 16, in 1760, Jefferson entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, where he studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy under Professor William Small. In 1762, Professor Small suggested to America's first law professor, George Wythe, that he supervise the legal training of the star student. Jefferson studied law with Wythe, who became his friend and mentor. Jefferson was admitted to the bar of the General Court of Virginia in 1767.

CAREER RECORD 1767 — Admitted to the bar of the General Court of Virginia. Lived with his mother at the Shadwell family home and practiced law up and down the Valley from Staunton to Winchester. His client list featured members of Virginia's elite families, including members of the Randolph family.

1769–1775 — Represented Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Burgesses, beginning May 11, 1769 and ending June 20, 1775.

1776 — Principally responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence, regarded as the strongest and most eloquent writer among the Founding Fathers.

1779–1781 — Served as Governor of Virginia.

1782 — Appointed a peace commissioner to assist Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in peace negotiations, but his ship was icebound in Chesapeake Bay and his appointment was withdrawn.

1783 — As chairman of the Currency Committee, devised the dollar and cents system still used to this day.

1784–1789 — Sent by the Confederation Congress to Europe to join Franklin and John Adams as ministers for purposes of negotiating commercial trade agreements with England, Spain, and France. Departed Boston on July 5, 1784. Served as United States Minister to France between 1785 and 1789. Was present in Paris during the storming of the Bastille and consulted with the Marquis de Lafayette while the latter drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

1790–1793 — Served as the first Secretary of State under President Washington. Resigned in 1793 in protest at Alexander Hamilton's attempts to centralize government and what Jefferson regarded as his financial impropriety. Retired to his Virginian farm for the next four years.

1791–1793 — Co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party with James Madison, organized to oppose Hamilton's Federalist Party. The party came to power in 1800 and dominated national and state affairs until the 1820s.

1797–1801 — Served as Vice President to President John Adams after coming second in the 1796 presidential election.

1801–1809 — Served two terms as the third President of the United States.

1819 — Co-founded the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. The university's first classes met on March 7, 1825. 

APPEARANCE Jefferson was six feet two and a half inches in height, large-boned, slim, erect, and sinewy, and was nicknamed because of his tall figure and spindly limbs. He had a very ruddy complexion, red hair that became sandy as he aged, hazel-flecked grey eyes, and a long, high nose. 

He had big feet, wearing size 12½ shoes. 

Jefferson stood and walked straight and, owing to his plentiful hair, with no need of a wig. 

The writer Gore Vidal once observed: "For those who believe the old saw that an honest man must have a direct gaze, I refer them to a contemporary's report that the shiftiest-eyed man he had ever met was Thomas Jefferson." (3)

A 48-year-old Jefferson in 1791, in a portrait by Charles Willson Peale

FASHION In the fashion of his time, Jefferson dressed in a long, dark coat — usually blue, and in summer generally of silk — a ruffled stock or cravat in place of the modern necktie, a red waistcoat, short knee breeches, and shoes with bright buckles. 

Except during his days of courtship and married life, Jefferson paid little attention to clothes. Never a fan of formal affairs, he was often reported to have worn his pajamas while meeting with foreign dignitaries. When he was President, Jefferson made a habit of plainness, both in dress and in matters of ceremony. (3)

CHARACTER Urban and cultivated, Jefferson was courteous, bowing to everyone he met. There was grace in his manners, and his frank and earnest address, quick sympathy, and vivacious, informing talk gave him an engaging charm. On the debit side, he was chilly and impenetrable and seemed cold to strangers. (3)

SPEAKING VOICE Jefferson was a poor public speaker with a thin, fine voice. He talked with his arms folded and hated public speaking so much that he gave only two speeches during his entire presidency — one per term. (2)

SENSE OF HUMOUR Though it is a biographical tradition that Jefferson lacked wit, Molière and Don Quixote appear to have been among his favourite reading, suggesting a taste for comic writing. (3)

RELATIONSHIPS Thomas Jefferson married a young widow, 23-year-old Martha Skelton (1748–1782), described as small and pretty, on New Year's Day, 1772, at the Forest, Charles City County. 

They had six children: Martha Jane, an unnamed son, Mary (called Polly by Jefferson), and two daughters both named Lucy. Four of their children died in infancy. After the death of the fourth child in 1782, Martha succumbed to grief and prolonged illness, dying on September 6, 1782. Jefferson vowed never to remarry. (3)

Mary died in 1804; Jefferson had inscribed on her tombstone two lines from the Iliad: "If in the house of Hades, men forget their dead, yet will I even there remember my dear companion."

Only Martha, his firstborn child, outlived him.

Portrait of Jefferson's daughter, Martha by Thomas Sully

Jefferson also had at least one child, a light-skinned boy called "yellow Tom," with his teenage black chambermaid, Sarah "Sally" Hemings. Sally Hemings was the daughter of widowed planter John Wayles and a mixed-race woman he kept as a slave, Betty Hemings. Sally and her siblings were three-quarters European and half-siblings of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton. She had olive skin and long straight auburn hair, coming to Monticello as an infant as part of Martha's inheritance. (3)

MONEY AND FAME In 1819, Jefferson's close friend Wilson Cary Nicholas carelessly defaulted on a $20,000 bank loan and then died shortly afterwards. Jefferson had co-signed for the loan and was now liable for the debts. Upset and embarrassed, he suffered from gross indigestion for several days. 

By the age of 83 he was completely broke and deeply in debt. He was allowed to sell lottery tickets, the winner receiving the former president's land, but the lottery was not a success and he died in debt. 

Jefferson's all-round genius was summed up by President John F. Kennedy, who once said to his Nobel Prize-winning guests: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House — with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." (3)

FOOD AND DRINK  After serving as ambassador to France, Jefferson brought back to America a taste for ice cream, which he delighted in serving to his guests. 

Thomas Jefferson presenting ice cream to guests

He also introduced Americans to fried potatoes, having sampled them in Paris; he described them as "potatoes, fried in the French manner" with beefsteak. He returned from France with a waffle iron and a pasta-making machine, which he used to serve macaroni or spaghetti. Jefferson helped popularize "Mac 'n' Cheese" by serving it to dinner guests during his presidency. (5)

Jefferson was an enthusiastic wine connoisseur. During his ambassadorship to France in the 1780s, he made several tours of European wine regions and sent bottles of the finest back to America. Following his return, he attempted to replicate these wines at Monticello by planting extensive vineyards, but a significant portion were destroyed by vine diseases native to the Americas. Jefferson installed a small, innovative shelved elevator at Monticello to carry wine from his cellar to his dining room.

Jefferson planted some of the first Brussels sprouts in America and also grew tomatoes at Monticello — not to eat, but as a curiosity. Not many colonists at the time realized tomatoes were edible; indeed, many Americans feared them to be poisonous. (3), 

MUSIC AND ARTS Jefferson liked to sing and tended to hum or sing as he walked or rode. He played the violin, sang pleasantly, and amassed over 500 pieces of music, including violin works by Corelli, Handel, and Vivaldi. Christmas celebrations at the White House and at Monticello included Jefferson playing the violin for family and guests. He also enjoyed attending operas. 

He supervised his daughter's music education, hiring Frances Alberti, an Italian immigrant, as a music tutor. Jefferson's oldest daughter, Martha, played harpsichord, and his other daughter, Maria, played guitar. (3)

LITERATURE A naturally succinct writer, Jefferson claimed "the most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do." He generally wrote with his "Polygraph," a machine in which an automatic pen inscribed a facsimile of a manuscript. 

Jefferson liked to invent words: "belittle" was one of his most famous coinages, appearing in his 1780 book Notes on the State of Virginia, in which he wrote: "So far the Count de Buffon has carried this new theory of the tendency of nature to belittle her productions on this side of the Atlantic." Surprisingly, Notes on the State of Virginia was the only book Jefferson published in his lifetime.

Jefferson could read and write in six languages — English, Spanish, French, Latin, Italian, and Ancient Greek — and was fluent in more languages than any other American president to date. He also studied and wrote on Old English and had a knowledge of German, Arabic, Irish, and Welsh.

Jefferson was largely responsible for drafting the 1776 Declaration of Independence, being regarded as the strongest and most eloquent writer among the Founding Fathers. He wrote it between June 11 and 28, 1776, from a floor he was renting in a home at 700 Market Street in Center City Philadelphia. Below in John Trumbull's painting Declaration of Independence, the five-man drafting committee presents its work to the Continental Congress. 

In retirement at Monticello, Jefferson gave up reading newspapers almost entirely, writing to John Norval: "I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it." He went further still, declaring: "The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."

The one exception to his contempt was the advertisements. Jefferson noted, with characteristic dry wit: "Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper." (6)

In January 1815, Congress purchased Jefferson's personal library for $23,950; the 6,500 volumes became the nucleus of the Library of Congress. (3)

NATURE Jefferson experimented with new varieties of grain at Monticello, introduced the threshing machine into the United States, and was one of the first Americans to employ crop rotation. 

He studied and classified fossils at a time when investigation of such objects was in its infancy. 

When exploring a Native American burial mound on his Virginia estate in 1784, Jefferson avoided the common practice of simply digging downwards. Instead, he cut a wedge out of the mound so that he could walk into it, examine the layers of occupation, and draw conclusions from them — one of the earliest significant works of archaeology in American history. 

When he was Secretary of State, a plant was named after him — the Jeffersonia diphylla — because "in botany and zoology, the information of this gentleman is equaled by few persons in the United States." (3)

PETS Jefferson kept a Shetland sheep among about 40 other sheep on President's Square in front of the White House. In the spring of 1808 it attacked several people, killed a small boy, and was referred to Jefferson as "this abominable animal." After being moved to Monticello, the ram was eventually killed, having killed several other rams. 

Jefferson had little tolerance for dogs that harmed his sheep and once ordered one of his sheepdogs to be hanged for mauling livestock. 

Jefferson once had a mockingbird that he taught to peck food from his lips and to hop up the stairs after him. (3)

Image by ChatGBT

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Jefferson was an avid collector and player of marbles. 

A good horseback rider, he often rode for pleasure. 

The dome on his Monticello home concealed a billiard room — in Jefferson's day, billiards was illegal in Virginia. (3)

SCIENCE AND MATHS In 1783, as chairman of the Currency Committee, Jefferson devised the dollar and cents system still used in the United States to this day. 

Jefferson invented many small practical devices; he is credited with inventing the lever-operated double door opener, still often seen on trains and buses, and the folding chair — both the common type and the shooting-stick type now used by sports spectators. He is also credited with the invention of the swivel chair, the first of which he created and used to write much of the Declaration of Independence. 

Jefferson introduced the threshing machine to the United States and was one of the first Americans to employ crop rotation. (3)

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Jefferson was a freethinker, influenced by Rousseau and a champion of religious freedom. Like many intellectuals of his era, he was a deist, replacing revelation and tradition with reason. He cut out of his Bible all supernatural elements — including the Resurrection and the Virgin Birth — because he did not accept them, though he approved of Jesus's moral philosophy. The closing words of the Gospels in Jefferson's Bible read: "There they laid Jesus and rolled a great stone to the mouth of the sepulchre and departed."

Jefferson was raised Episcopalian at a time when the Episcopal Church was the state religion in Virginia. Before the American Revolution he was a vestryman in his local church, but he later removed his name from those available to become godparents, as his Deist beliefs opposed Trinitarian theology. 

Convinced of the need to keep church and state separate, he believed unwaveringly in freedom of religion. Jefferson refused to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation and declared that there should be "a wall of separation between church and state." He wrote in his Notes on Virginia: "Millions of innocent men, women and children since the introduction of Christianity have been burned, tortured, fined and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites."

The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was drafted by Jefferson in 1777 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and adopted by the Virginia General Assembly on January 16, 1786. It became the basis for the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and led to freedom of religion for all Americans. It is one of only three accomplishments Jefferson instructed to be placed in his epitaph. (3)

PRESIDENCY Thomas Jefferson's path to the presidency began with one of those constitutional mishaps that make you wonder whether the Founding Fathers had tested their machinery before putting it into service. In the election of 1800, Jefferson and Aaron Burr each received 73 electoral votes, producing a deadlock that sent the decision to the House of Representatives. There, legislators spent seven days and 35 ballots proving that indecision can be every bit as strenuous as action. Finally, on February 17, 1801, the House cast a 36th ballot and elected Jefferson the nation's third president.

For his inauguration, Jefferson chose not to arrive in regal splendor but instead walked from his boarding house to the Capitol. This was intended to demonstrate what he called "Republican simplicity"—a refreshing concept in an age when European rulers were still rather attached to crowns, uniforms, and being carried about by other people.

As president, Jefferson presided over one of the greatest real-estate bargains in history. In 1803, he purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 50 million francs plus the cancellation of debts worth another 18 million francs. The transaction worked out to less than three cents an acre, a price so low that even today it would seem suspicious. The deal doubled the size of the United States and remains the largest land sale ever completed.

The expansion came at a cost for Native Americans. Jefferson's administration also began developing policies that encouraged the removal of Native tribes westward into the Louisiana Territory, setting in motion a process whose consequences would echo through American history.

Jefferson's record on slavery was similarly complicated. He signed the 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, ending the legal importation of enslaved people into the United States. Yet he refused to recognize Haiti after its successful slave revolution and supported trade restrictions intended to isolate the new nation. The prospect of enslaved people successfully overthrowing their masters was, from the perspective of many American slaveholders, precisely the sort of precedent they preferred not to advertise.

The federal government was also astonishingly small by modern standards. Jefferson had just one clerk and one messenger to assist him, and because Congress had not yet seen fit to fund presidential staff, he paid both men himself. Today, a White House intern probably receives more administrative support than the President of the United States did in 1801.

Jefferson nevertheless found time for home improvements. He expanded the White House by adding the colonnades that still connect the residence to what would later become the East and West Wings. Their original purpose was not grandeur but concealment: they were designed to hide stables, storage areas, and other practical necessities that might spoil the view. He also opened the White House to public tours, establishing a tradition that has endured ever since except during periods when the nation found itself occupied with the business of war. 

Jefferson carried his preference for simplicity into the White House. He disliked grand titles and preferred to be addressed as "Mr. Jefferson" rather than "Mr. President," a modesty that was easier to maintain in an era when the federal government consisted of roughly the number of people now employed to manage a medium-sized airport gift shop.

His dinner parties were conducted with similar care. Jefferson limited gatherings to about 14 guests, having concluded that this was the largest number that could comfortably sustain a single conversation. The goal was to ensure that everyone could participate without being stranded at the far end of the table discussing the weather with a distant cousin of someone's brother-in-law. At a time when formal dinners often fragmented into competing conversations, Jefferson preferred a more democratic arrangement.

POLITICS Between 1791 and 1793, Jefferson co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party with James Madison to oppose the Federalist Party led by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. The party came to power in 1800 and dominated national and state affairs until the 1820s when it faded away.

Jefferson and George Washington had a poor relationship. Their enmity stemmed from the last year of Washington's second term, when Washington suspected Jefferson of being responsible for scurrilous press attacks on him. Jefferson denied responsibility and Washington accepted his word, but a chill remained between them. Jefferson chose not to attend ceremonies marking Washington's death in 1799 and wrote no note of condolence to Washington's widow.

Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State in 1793 in protest at Hamilton's attempts to centralize government and what he regarded as Hamilton's financial impropriety. He retired to his Virginia farm for the next four years. (4)

SCANDAL Jefferson's presidency was dogged by persistent allegations that he slept with enslaved women. On October 19, 1796, the Gazette published an article accusing him of carrying on an affair with his enslaved chambermaid, Sarah "Sally" Hemings, noting they had "heard the same subject freely spoken of in Virginia, and by Virginia Gentlemen." Jefferson himself never publicly denied the allegation. DNA evidence published in 1998 strongly supported the conclusion that Jefferson fathered at least one of Hemings's children. (4)

Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that "all men are created equal," enslaved over 600 people across his lifetime, freed only five during his lifetime, and retreated from his early calls for gradual emancipation under pressure from Virginia's planter class — with the remaining enslaved people at Monticello auctioned off after his death to pay his debts. 

MILITARY RECORD As Governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War (1779–1781), Jefferson faced severe criticism for his handling of British raids on Virginia, including the near-capture of himself and the state legislature by British cavalry under Banastre Tarleton in 1781. A subsequent legislative inquiry was initiated but ultimately dropped, and Jefferson was exonerated. (2)

As US Minister to France between 1785 and 1789, he was present in Paris during the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, and sent detailed eyewitness accounts back to John Jay, the US Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Jefferson was deeply sympathetic to the revolutionary cause, though he deplored the violence even before the full horrors of the Reign of Terror became apparent. He left France in September 1789, before the Revolution descended into its bloodiest phase. (7)

As President, Jefferson was determined to keep the United States out of the Napoleonic Wars and laid out seven formal principles of neutrality before Congress, thanking Providence for keeping America from "hastily entering into the sanguinary contest." However, his attempts to enforce neutrality led to serious problems. When both Britain and France began seizing American merchant ships, Jefferson passed the Embargo Act of 1807, banning all trade with Europe. This proved catastrophic — it devastated the American economy, particularly the mercantile Northeast, and was widely regarded as a failure. Jefferson was forced to back down in the last months of his presidency. The trade tensions he left unresolved ultimately helped propel the United States into the War of 1812 under his successor, James Madison. (8)

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Jefferson was a chronic migraine sufferer. His migraines lasted about a month at a time and recurred roughly every seven years. Each time, he carried on working through the pain. 

Jefferson's health began to deteriorate in July 1825, from a combination of various illnesses and conditions, probably including toxemia, uremia, and pneumonia. By June of the following year he was confined to bed. (3)

HOMES In February 1770, his family house at Shadwell, Virginia burnt down, destroying his library, legal papers, and notes. 

A skilled architect, interior designer, builder, and furniture maker, Jefferson designed his 35-room replacement home at Monticello. Monticello had only two very narrow staircases, as Jefferson considered them a waste of space. 

Among the mechanical contrivances at Monticello was an interior weather vane connected to one on the roof. In its 13 bedrooms, all the beds were simply mattress supports hung on wall hooks. In his study, Jefferson had a revolving chair that enabled him to reach both a desk and a reading stand, and a chaise longue fitted with candlestick holders in both arms to provide light for reading. 

Monticello in 2013 by Martin Falbisoner -

On March 17, 1801, Jefferson moved to the White House as the third American President. Jefferson permitted regular public tours of the executive mansion, initiating a tradition that has continued ever since, except during wartime. (3)

Jefferson used a round table at both the White House and Monticello precisely so that no one sat at its head, eliminating any visible hierarchy among his guests. He deliberately seated his guests "pell-mell" — without assigned seats based on social or diplomatic rank — as a conscious rejection of the formal European court customs he had observed and despised during his time in France. (9)

TRAVEL In 1784, Jefferson departed Boston on July 5, taking his young daughter Patsy and two servants, to join Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in Europe as minister for negotiating commercial trade agreements. During his ambassadorship to France in the 1780s, he made several tours of European wine regions. He returned to the United States in September 1789. (2)

DEATH Jefferson was determined to survive until the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. At 12:45 pm on July 4, 1826, he mumbled "This is the fourth?" When he realized it was indeed the Fourth of July, he murmured "I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country," and died peacefully. Remarkably, the second President, John Adams, died a few hours later on the same day. Jefferson's remains were buried at Monticello.

Thomas Jefferson took care before he died to write out the inscription for his own tombstone. It listed his great accomplishments — "author of the Declaration of Independence," author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and founder of the University of Virginia — but conspicuously omitted the fact that he had once been President of the United States. (4)

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA  The Jefferson Memorial, a neoclassical monument in Washington, D.C., was dedicated on April 13, 1943, on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth. Situated in West Potomac Park at the southern end of the National Mall, the building is modeled after the Pantheon in Rome and features a 19-foot bronze statue of Jefferson inside. (10)

Jefferson has been portrayed in numerous films and television productions, most notably by Ken Howard in the 1972 Broadway musical 1776 and its 1972 film adaptation, and by Nick Nolte in the 1995 television film Jefferson in Paris. 

He appears on the U.S. nickel and the two-dollar bill. 

ACHIEVEMENTS Principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776)

As chairman of the Currency Committee (1783), devised the dollar and cents system still used in the United States

Served as the first Secretary of State (1790–1793)

Co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party (1791–1793) with James Madison

Completed the Louisiana Purchase as President, doubling the size of the United States

Drafted and signed the 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves

Authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1777), the basis for the First Amendment's establishment clause

Co-founded the University of Virginia (1819)

Assembled the personal library that became the nucleus of the Library of Congress (6,500 volumes purchased by Congress in 1815)

Credited with inventing the swivel chair, the folding chair, and the lever-operated double door opener

Introduced ice cream, french fries, waffles, and pasta-making to wider American audiences

Conducted one of the earliest scientific archaeological excavations in American history

Sources: (1) Wikipedia: Thomas Jefferson (2) Monticello.org: Thomas Jefferson (3) Encyclopaedia of Trivia (4) The White House: Thomas Jefferson (5) Food For Thought by Ed Pearce (6) University of Chicago Press — Founders' Constitution: Jefferson to John Norvell, June 11, 1807 (7) Revolution (8) State Of The Union History (9) American Essence (10) National Park Service: Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Andrew Jackson

NAME Andrew Jackson. He was affectionately known by his troops and the American public as "Old Hickory" due to his legendary toughness, and sometimes disparagingly by political opponents as "King Andrew I" for his assertive use of presidential power. 

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States (1829–1837) and the founder of the modern Democratic Party. He is famous for his victory at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, his fierce opposition to the Second Bank of the United States, and his controversial policy of Indian Removal. He was the first "frontier president" and the first to survive an assassination attempt.

BIRTH Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws region on the border of North and South Carolina, southwest of the Uwharrie Mountains. The exact location of his birth — whether on the North or South Carolina side of the border — has been disputed, and both states have historically claimed him. (1)

FAMILY BACKGROUND His parents were Andrew Jackson Sr. and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Scots-Irish Presbyterian colonists who had emigrated from Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland, approximately two years before his birth. Jackson's father died in a logging accident in February 1767, at the age of 29 — three weeks before his son Andrew was born. 

Jackson was raised by his mother and was the youngest of three sons. His brothers Hugh and Robert also served in the American Revolution; Hugh died from heat exhaustion after the Battle of Stono Ferry in 1779, and Robert died from smallpox contracted while a British prisoner of war in 1781. His mother Elizabeth died of cholera later that same year while nursing American prisoners of war in Charleston, leaving the fourteen-year-old Jackson an orphan. (2)

CHILDHOOD Jackson grew up in poverty on the Carolina frontier. 

As a boy, he served as a courier and messenger for the Continental Army during the American Revolution. At the age of thirteen, he and his brother Robert were captured by British forces. When a British officer ordered Jackson to clean his boots, he refused, and the officer struck him with a sword, leaving permanent scars on his left hand and head — an act Jackson never forgave. He was taken prisoner and held in harsh conditions before being released, partly due to his mother's intervention. (3)

Below is The Brave Boy of the Waxhaws, an 1876 Currier and Ives lithograph depicting the story of a young Andrew Jackson defending himself from a British officer during the American Revolutionary War

EDUCATION Jackson received only a rudimentary frontier education at local schools in the Waxhaws. He was taught to read and was known as a child to read newspapers aloud to illiterate neighbors. 

He later studied law in Salisbury, North Carolina, reading in the offices of local attorneys Spruce Macay and John Stokes. He was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1787. 

He was the first U.S. President who did not have a college education and was not born into a wealthy family. (2)

CAREER RECORD 1788: Appointed prosecutor of the Western District of North Carolina (now Tennessee); he moved to Nashville to begin his legal career.

1796: Served as a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention and was elected as the state’s first U.S. Representative.

1797–1798: Served briefly as a U.S. Senator before resigning to return to Tennessee.

1798–1804: Served as a judge on the Tennessee Superior Court.

1802: Elected major general of the Tennessee militia.

1814–1815: Led U.S. forces to victory in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the Battle of New Orleans, becoming a national hero.

1821: Served as the first military governor of Florida after its acquisition from Spain.

1823–1825: Returned to the U.S. Senate representing Tennessee.

1829–1837: Served two terms as the 7th President of the United States.

APPEARANCE Jackson was tall and lean, standing approximately 6 feet 1 inch, with a thin, angular face, a strong jaw, and piercing blue eyes. He had a shock of thick, silver-white hair that stood nearly upright, giving him a distinctive and commanding appearance. 

His face bore the scar on his forehead from the British officer's sword blow during his captivity as a boy. 

Jackson had a tomahawk tattoo on his thigh. (2), (4)

Formal portrait, c. 1835

FASHION Jackson was known for dressing in the style of a Southern gentleman planter — dark, well-tailored frock coats, high cravats, and tall hats. In his later years as President, his white hair and stately, formal dress gave him an almost aristocratic bearing that contrasted sharply with his rough frontier origins. He favored the fashions befitting a man of his hard-won social standing. (2)

CHARACTER Jackson had a fierce, volcanic temperament. He was quick to anger and slow to forgive, holding grudges for decades. He was intensely loyal to friends and allies and equally ferocious toward enemies. 

He possessed enormous personal courage and iron determination. Contemporaries described him as simultaneously warm and generous to those he loved and ruthlessly vindictive toward those who crossed him. His troops said he was "tough as old hickory" wood on the battlefield, and the nickname "Old Hickory" stuck for life. 

Jackson had an imperious streak and a deep conviction that his own judgment was superior — qualities that made him a decisive leader but also a polarizing one. (3)

SPEAKING VOICE Jackson spoke with a strong Scots-Irish frontier accent. He was not a polished orator in the classical tradition of earlier presidents but was known for direct, forceful speech that resonated with ordinary Americans. His communication style was blunt and personal, which helped forge his image as a man of the people. (2)

SENSE OF HUMOUR Jackson had a dry, sardonic wit. He was capable of warmth and humor in private company, particularly with close friends and family. However, he was also deeply sensitive to slights and insults, and humor at his or his wife Rachel's expense could provoke explosive fury. (4)

RELATIONSHIPS Shortly after arriving in Nashville in 1788, Jackson boarded with Rachel Stockley Donelson, widow of pioneer John Donelson. There he met her daughter Rachel Donelson Robards, who was in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards, a man subject to fits of jealous rage. The couple separated in 1790. Jackson and Rachel went through a marriage ceremony, but it was not legally valid because her divorce from Robards had not yet been finalized. They married legally on January 17, 1794, once the divorce was confirmed. The controversy over their marriage — with political opponents branding Rachel a bigamist and adulteress — was a lifelong wound for Jackson, who fought numerous duels defending her honor.

Rachel Jackson. Portrait by Ralph E. W. Earl, 1823

Rachel died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828, two weeks after Jackson's presidential election victory and two months before his inauguration. A distraught Jackson had to be physically pulled away from her body so the undertaker could prepare it. He never fully recovered from her death and wore a miniature portrait of her around his neck for the rest of his life. He blamed her death on the stress caused by his political enemies' attacks on her character during the campaign.  (2)

MONEY AND FAME Jackson rose from poverty to become a wealthy Tennessee planter and slave owner. He acquired his plantation, The Hermitage, near Nashville, and at the height of his prosperity owned over 100 enslaved people. 

His fame, particularly after the Battle of New Orleans, made him arguably the most popular American public figure of his era. 

He paradoxically opposed paper money and championed hard currency — gold and silver coins — yet his portrait has appeared on the U.S. $20 bill since 1928, replacing Grover Cleveland. (3)

FOOD AND DRINK Jackson was a man of the frontier in his eating habits, at least in theory. Breakfast at The Hermitage typically consisted of corn cakes with blackberry jam, chicken hash, and strong black coffee. He preferred plain American cooking over the French cuisine that was fashionable in Washington, which probably says as much about his feelings toward France as it does about his palate.

In practice, however, his tastes were broader than the frontier legend suggests. He was also fond of tenderloin, lamb chops, oysters, wild duck and goose, and fried ham, washed down with French wines — a detail his political image-makers presumably kept quiet. He was also known to enjoy whiskey.

His most celebrated food moment came when a New York dairy farmer sent him a 635-kilogram wheel of cheddar cheese as a gift. Jackson, in a characteristic act of populist generosity — or possibly because he had absolutely no idea what else to do with 635 kilograms of cheese — opened the White House to the public. Two thousand visitors arrived and consumed the entire thing in two hours, leaving the carpets and curtains smelling of cheese for weeks. 

At his 1829 inauguration, he invited the public to the White House for a "cup of grog," and they arrived in such numbers that the celebration descended into a drunken mob, with revelers standing on furniture and breaking china. The chaos was only dispersed when tubs of punch were moved to the White House lawn. (2)

1829 White House inauguration mob by Perplexity

MUSIC AND ARTS Jackson was not particularly noted for an interest in music or the fine arts. His tastes were those of a frontier-bred Southern gentleman rather than a cultured East Coast aristocrat. (2)

LITERATURE Jackson was a voracious reader of newspapers throughout his life and used the press skillfully as a political tool. He was not a literary man in the conventional sense but wrote extensively in the form of letters — his correspondence is voluminous and reveals a sharp, direct mind. He was reported to have had a poor grasp of spelling throughout his life. (2)

NATURE Jackson spent much of his life on the Tennessee frontier and was deeply connected to the land as a farmer and planter. The Hermitage plantation was his sanctuary and retreat throughout his life. 

PETS Jackson kept a pet parrot named Poll (also recorded as Pol), an African Grey parrot given to him by his wife Rachel. He taught the bird to curse fluently. At Jackson's funeral in June 1845, Poll caused a scene by swearing loudly and continuously at the mourners and had to be removed from the proceedings before the service could begin. (5)

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Jackson was passionate about horse racing and bred and raced thoroughbreds at The Hermitage. A duel with Charles Dickinson in 1806 grew partly out of a dispute over a wager on a horse race. 

He was also an avid hunter and enjoyed the outdoor pursuits typical of frontier Southern life. (2)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Jackson showed no particular interest in science or mathematics. His intellectual energies were directed toward law, politics, and military affairs. (2)

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Jackson was raised Presbyterian by his Irish immigrant parents and retained a broadly Protestant faith throughout his life, though he resisted formal church membership for much of his adult years, reportedly not wanting to appear politically opportunistic. He joined the Presbyterian Church formally only in 1838, in his retirement. 

His personal philosophy centered on concepts of honor, personal courage, loyalty, and the sovereignty of the common man over elite interests.  (2)

PRESIDENCY Andrew Jackson arrived at the White House in 1829 as perhaps the first truly self-made American president — a man born in a log cabin before the nation had quite decided whether log cabins were admirable symbols of rugged virtue or merely evidence of poor planning. His supporters adored him with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for victorious generals, miracle tonics, and unusually talented circus dogs.

For his inauguration, Jackson made the bold and catastrophically optimistic decision to invite the public into the White House for refreshments. This sounds charming in theory. In practice, it produced several thousand citizens stampeding through the presidential residence in muddy boots, climbing on furniture, smashing china, and consuming alcohol with the urgency of men preparing for prohibition a century early. One observer described the crowd as resembling a mob that had captured a palace in wartime. White House staff eventually restored order by placing tubs of whiskey punch on the lawn outside, thereby luring the masses away from the building with techniques still commonly employed in dealing with bears at American campgrounds.

Once in office, Jackson governed much as he had fought battles: aggressively, personally, and with a deep conviction that disagreement was a form of sabotage. He introduced what became known as the “spoils system,” cheerfully replacing experienced officeholders with loyal supporters under the comforting theory that government jobs were simple enough for any politically dependable person to perform. This was rather like deciding that because one can sit in a chair, one is qualified to build the chair.

Jackson’s war against the Second Bank of the United States became less a policy dispute than an extended blood feud. Jackson regarded the Bank as a nest of privilege and corruption; the Bank regarded Jackson as a barely housebroken cannonball in human form. Jackson vetoed its recharter, removed federal deposits, and effectively killed it altogether. The Senate censured him for exceeding his authority — still the only presidential censure ever formally issued — whereupon Jackson spent the next several years ensuring the censure itself was erased from the record, an act carrying the unmistakable energy of a man storming back into a saloon because he has just remembered a second insult.

Remarkably, Jackson also managed to eliminate the entire national debt in 1835, the only president ever to do so. Americans have since treated this achievement much as modern people treat the idea of walking to the Moon — technically possible, but not something anyone intends to attempt again.

Yet Jackson’s presidency contains one stain so enormous that no amount of frontier swagger or populist mythology can obscure it. In 1830 he signed the Indian Removal Act, which led to the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral lands. The resulting Trail of Tears brought disease, starvation, and death on a horrifying scale. It remains one of the darkest episodes in American history, carried out with bureaucratic efficiency and moral blindness so complete it is still difficult to comprehend.

And because Andrew Jackson’s life refused to observe ordinary standards of plausibility, he also survived the first attempted assassination of a sitting American president in 1835. The attacker fired two pistols at point-blank range. Both misfired. Statistically, this was astonishing. Jackson’s response was not to flee or seek cover, but to attack the would-be assassin with his cane while bystanders wrestled the man away. Which, in the end, tells you nearly everything about Andrew Jackson: a president who approached politics, warfare, insults, banking policy, and attempted murder with essentially the same emotional setting.

1835 lithograph of the attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson, published by Endicott & Co

POLITICS Jackson was the founding figure of the Democratic Party and championed what became known as Jacksonian Democracy — the expansion of voting rights to all white men, the dismantling of what he saw as corrupt elite institutions, and the supremacy of the will of the ordinary citizen. 

His major political acts included the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the forced displacement of Native American tribes from their ancestral homelands to territories west of the Mississippi River — a policy that resulted in the deaths of thousands along what became known as the Trail of Tears. 

He waged a fierce political war against the Second Bank of the United States, which he regarded as a corrupt institution serving the wealthy at the expense of ordinary Americans, ultimately vetoing its recharter and removing federal deposits from it.

On March 28, 1834, the U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for violating the Constitution by his removal of federal deposits from the Second Bank — the only time in U.S. history a sitting president was censured by the Senate. Jackson successfully had the censure expunged from the Senate record in 1837.

Jackson was also credited with the first use of a supporter's baby as a political prop, during an 1833 tour of the eastern states — a tradition that has never died. (2), (3)

SCANDAL The most persistent scandal of Jackson's life was the circumstances of his marriage to Rachel Donelson. Their first ceremony took place before her divorce from her first husband, Lewis Robards, was legally finalized, making the union technically bigamous. Though they married legally in 1794, political opponents used the issue relentlessly throughout his career, most viciously during the 1828 presidential campaign, accusing Rachel of adultery and bigamy. Jackson held these attacks responsible for the deterioration of Rachel's health and her death in December 1828. (2)

Jackson was involved in as many as 100 duels over the course of his life — a figure that raises the question of quite how much spare time he had — many fought over matters of personal and political honour, with defending Rachel's reputation among the most celebrated motivations. The most notorious was his duel with Charles Dickinson on May 30, 1806, which began over Dickinson's accusation that Jackson had cheated on a horse race wager, compounded by an insult to Rachel. Dickinson fired first, breaking two of Jackson's ribs and lodging a bullet approximately two inches from his heart. Jackson, in a detail that tells you everything about the man, stayed upright, took careful aim, and fired — only for his pistol to jam at half-cock. He re-cocked it and fired again, killing Dickinson. This second pull of the trigger was widely regarded as a violation of the code duello, and many contemporaries considered it a cold-blooded act rather than a fair fight. Jackson was unmoved by the criticism.

The bullet never came out. It sat two inches from his heart for 39 years, until his death in 1845 — a permanent reminder of the morning he was shot in a field in Kentucky and decided it was the other man's problem. He was never prosecuted for murder. (4)

Andrew Jackson's famous duel over a horse

MILITARY RECORD Jackson served as a teenage messenger for the Continental Army during the American Revolution and was captured by British forces at the age of thirteen. His refusal to clean a British officer's boots earned him a sword blow that left scars he carried for life.

His brothers both died as a result of the war, and his mother died of illness contracted while nursing prisoners — leaving him the sole survivor of his immediate family by age fourteen.

He rose through the Tennessee militia, being elected Major General in 1802. During the War of 1812 he led forces in the Creek War (1813–1814), defeating the Red Stick Creek faction at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814 — a victory that effectively ended the Creek War. He was subsequently given command of U.S. forces in the South.

His greatest military triumph came at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, where his forces — comprising regular army troops, militia from several states and territories, free Black soldiers, Choctaw fighters, and the pirates of Jean Lafitte — decisively defeated a veteran British army, inflicting devastating casualties while sustaining minimal losses. The battle made him a national hero, though it was fought after the Treaty of Ghent had already ended the war (news had not yet reached New Orleans).

He was a strict officer but was deeply popular with his troops, who gave him the lasting nickname "Old Hickory" for his endurance and toughness on campaign. (2) 

Colored wood engraving of Jackson rallying the troops at New Orleans

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Jackson's health was a long chronicle of injuries and illness. He carried two bullets in his body for most of his adult life — one lodged close to his heart from the Dickinson duel of 1806, which could never be safely removed; a second in his shoulder from a brawl with Thomas Hart Benton in 1813, which was removed without anesthetic after approximately twenty years. 

He suffered from chronic headaches, abdominal pain, and respiratory problems throughout his life, likely related to the bullets and to tuberculosis. 

Jackson was also afflicted by osteomyelitis (bone infection) and dysentery. Despite these ailments, he maintained a powerful physical presence and iron will throughout his public life. 

In his later retirement years his health deteriorated significantly. He died of chronic tuberculosis, dropsy (edema), and heart failure. (2)

HOMES Jackson's primary home was The Hermitage, his plantation estate located near Nashville, Tennessee, which he acquired in stages from 1804 onward. He expanded and improved it throughout his life, and it became a substantial cotton plantation. He retired there after his presidency and died there. The Hermitage is now a museum and National Historic Landmark. (6)

The Hermitage around 1831

Jackson lived briefly in various frontier lodgings in his early years, including as a boarder with the Donelson family when he first arrived in Nashville in 1788. 

During his presidency he resided in the White House in Washington, D.C.

TRAVEL Jackson's life was defined by constant movement across the American frontier, from his early trek from the Carolinas to Nashville to his extensive military campaigns across the South and Southwest. He never traveled to Europe, spending his life instead traversing the emerging American territories by horseback and carriage. 

As President, he conducted a notable tour of the eastern states in 1833, during which he made history on June 6, 1833: he became the first sitting U.S. President to ride a railway, boarding a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train at Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, for a pleasure trip to Baltimore.

DEATH Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845, at The Hermitage, at the age of 78. The cause of death was chronic tuberculosis, dropsy, and heart failure. 

He was buried in the garden of The Hermitage, beside his wife Rachel. 

His funeral was attended by family, friends, politicians, and enslaved members of his household — and was disrupted when his pet parrot Poll began swearing so loudly and persistently that it had to be removed before the service could proceed.  (2),

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Jackson has been portrayed in numerous films and television productions. He was portrayed by Charlton Heston in The President's Lady (1953) and The Buccaneer (1958). Brian Keith played him in The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987). 

He has also been portrayed in various historical documentaries. 

In the Broadway musical Hamilton (2015), Jackson is referenced as a successor to Aaron Burr's political legacy. 

Jackson famously appeared on the U.S. $20 bill from 1928 onward, though plans to replace his image with that of Harriet Tubman have been debated and delayed.

The first bronze equestrian statue of Jackson was unveiled in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., in 1853, sculpted by Clark Mills — notably the first equestrian statue cast in the United States. (6)

ACHIEVEMENTS Military hero of the War of 1812; victor at the Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815

Seventh President of the United States, 1829–1837; founder of the Democratic Party

First President from a non-wealthy, non-elite background; first from west of the Appalachians

Only President under whose administration the United States was entirely debt-free (briefly, around 1835)

Negotiated the Jackson Purchase of Chickasaw lands in western Tennessee (1818); co-founder of Memphis, Tennessee (1819)

Survived the first assassination attempt on a U.S. President (January 30, 1835), when both of Richard Lawrence's pistols misfired — odds estimated at approximately 125,000 to 1

His portrait has appeared on the U.S. $20 bill since 1928

Sources: (1) Wikipedia: Andrew Jackson (2) The White House: Andrew Jackson (3) Encyclopædia Britannica: Andrew Jackson (4) Encyclopaedia of Trivia: Andrew Jackson (5) Smithsonian Magazine: Andrew Jackson's Parrot (6) National Park Service: The Hermitage

Washington Irving

NAME Washington Irving. He often wrote under whimsical pseudonyms, most famously Dietrich Knickerbocker, Geoffrey Crayon, and Jonathan Oldstyle. 

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Irving is widely considered the "Father of American Literature." He was the first American author to achieve international fame and prove that the young United States could produce world-class prose. He is best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." Beyond fiction, he was a diplomat, a biographer of George Washington and Christopher Columbus, and a massive influence on American folklore.

BIRTH Born April 3, 1783, in Manhattan, New York City, the same week that New York City residents learned of the Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolutionary War.  He was the youngest of eleven children, eight of whom survived to adulthood. (1)

FAMILY BACKGROUND Irving's father, William Irving Sr., was originally from Quholm, Shapinsay, Orkney, Scotland, and had served as a petty officer in the Royal Navy before emigrating to America and becoming a successful merchant. 

His mother, Sarah (née Saunders), was originally of Falmouth, Cornwall, England. They married in 1761. 

According to holograph notes by Irving's nephew Pierre Munroe Irving, the family's lineage traced back to Clan Irvine of Drum Castle in Scotland — a heritage of which Washington Irving was proud, using the clan's holly leaf imagery as a personal emblem. 

Several of Irving's brothers became active New York merchants and regularly supported him financially as he pursued his writing career. 

CHILDHOOD Irving grew up in Manhattan as part of the city's merchant class. He was an uninterested student who preferred adventure stories and drama, and by age 14 was regularly sneaking out of class in the evenings to attend the theater. 

An outbreak of yellow fever in Manhattan in 1798 prompted his family to send him upriver, where he stayed with his friend James Kirke Paulding in Tarrytown, New York — a region whose Dutch customs and local ghost stories made a deep impression on him. 

He also made an extended visit to Johnstown, New York, passing through the Catskill Mountains, the future setting of "Rip Van Winkle." "Of all the scenery of the Hudson," Irving wrote, "the Kaatskill Mountains had the most witching effect on my boyish imagination." (1)

EDUCATION Irving was an indifferent student who never attended university. 

He studied law under Judge Josiah Ogden Hoffman in New York City, by his own admission barely passing the bar examination in 1806. 

His real education came from voracious reading, theater-going, and — crucially — an extended European grand tour from 1804 to 1806, financed by his brothers who were concerned for his health. Rather than following the conventional itinerary for a young gentleman, he used the trip to sharpen the social and conversational skills that would make him one of the most sought-after guests of his era. 

While visiting Rome in 1805, he struck up a friendship with painter Washington Allston and was almost persuaded into a career as a painter. 

CAREER RECORD 1802 Irving began his writing career with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle under the name Jonathan Oldstyle.

1806 Admitted to the New York bar, though he practiced law only sporadically and with little enthusiasm.

1807-1808 Co-published Salmagundi, a satirical periodical that mocked New York society and politics.

1809 Published A History of New York by "Dietrich Knickerbocker," a massive success that turned him into a local celebrity.

1815-1832 Lived in Europe, initially to help the family business in Liverpool. After the business failed, he turned to full-time writing, publishing The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819-1820).

1826-1829 Served as a diplomatic attaché in Madrid, Spain, where he conducted extensive research in the Spanish archives.

1829-1832 Served as Secretary to the American Legation in London.

1842-1846 Appointed by President John Tyler as the United States Minister to Spain.

1846-1859 Retired to his home, Sunnyside, to work on his multi-volume biography of George Washington.

APPEARANCE In his youth, he was described as handsome and charming with dark hair and a slight build. (2)

Portrait of Washington Irving in 1809 at about 26 years old, by John Wesley Jarvis

A daguerreotype (modern copy by Mathew Brady, original by John Plumbe) survives and shows a refined, composed, and somewhat patrician face in old age.( 3)

George W. Curtis, who knew him well, sketched him memorably: "Irving was as quaint a figure as Diedrich Knickerbocker ... Thirty years ago he might have been seen on an autumnal afternoon, tripping with an elastic step along Broadway, with low-quartered shoes neatly tied, and a Talma cloak — a short garment that hung from his shoulders like the cape of a coat." (4) 

FASHION Irving cut a notably elegant and quaint figure. Curtis's description of him "tripping with an elastic step along Broadway" in neatly tied low-quartered shoes and a Talma cloak suggests a man with an old-fashioned but carefully maintained sense of style. (4) 

His European years, particularly his time in Paris and London society, would have reinforced his taste for the fashionable dress of the era. Irving was feted in the drawing rooms of Europe and was regarded as an anomaly — an upstart American who could hold his own in the most polished company — suggesting an appearance and manner that was impeccably turned out. 

CHARACTER Irving was celebrated for his warmth, generosity, and encouragement of younger writers. As George William Curtis noted, "there is not a young literary aspirant in the country, who, if he ever personally met Irving, did not hear from him the kindest words of sympathy, regard, and encouragement." 

He was sociable, witty, and one of the most in-demand guests of his era, yet he could also be prone to depression, writer's block, and profound self-doubt — the poor reception of Tales of a Traveller in 1824 left him "hurt and depressed," retreating to Paris to lick his wounds. 

In old age, his four years as Minister to Spain soured his natural optimism: "I begin to have painful doubts of my fellow man," he wrote, "and look back with regret to the confiding period of my literary career, when, poor as a rat, but rich in dreams, I beheld the world through the medium of my imagination." 

SPEAKING VOICE His letters and the testimony of friends paint a picture of a man who was a captivating conversationalist. It was in Europe, during his grand tour of 1804–1806, that he "honed the social and conversational skills that eventually made him one of the world's most in-demand guests." 

His friend and sometime rival Walter Scott clearly found his company delightful, and the lifelong personal and professional friendship the two men struck up in 1817 speaks to Irving's ability to charm even the most formidable literary figures of his age. 

SENSE OF HUMOUR Irving's humour was satirical, absurdist, and characteristically American. His literary magazine Salmagundi (1807) lampooned New York culture and politics in a manner compared to the 20th-century Mad magazine. 

His masterpiece of comedy, A History of New York (1809), was a sustained burlesque of self-important local history and contemporary politics — and it was composed, with magnificent irony, while Irving was digging himself out of a black depression following the death of his fiancée Matilda Hoffman. (5) 

He was also a gifted hoaxer: before publishing A History of New York, he planted a series of fake newspaper advertisements claiming that a Dutch historian named Diedrich Knickerbocker had mysteriously gone missing from his hotel — fooling some New York city officials into offering a reward for the historian's safe return. 

RELATIONSHIPS He was a lifelong bachelor — described as "a content and rural old bachelor" in his later years at Sunnyside. (6)

Irving's great love was Matilda Hoffman, the 17-year-old daughter of his legal mentor Judge Josiah Ogden Hoffman. By the autumn of 1808, it was common knowledge that they were in love; the Judge gave his consent on condition that Irving provide financial security. (5) 

Before they could marry, Matilda died of tuberculosis in the spring of 1809 at the age of 17. Irving was devastated, and the loss haunted him for the rest of his life — decades later, the mere mention of her name was said to leave him speechless. (5) 

Matilda Hoffman, portrait by Anson Dickinson

Later in life, while residing in Dresden in the winter of 1822-23, the 39-year-old Irving became attracted to Emily Foster, an 18-year-old American living there with her family, but Emily refused his offer of marriage. 

Irving also learned through the playwright John Howard Payne that novelist Mary Shelley was romantically interested in him, though he never pursued the relationship. 

MONEY AND FAME Irving's financial life was turbulent. His brothers supported him financially during his early writing years, and he struggled greatly during and after the failure of the family business in England in the late 1810s. By the time of his return to the United States in 1832, however, he was a national celebrity, greeted in New York "warmly" and celebrated as America's first literary superstar. (2) 

He negotiated with publisher George Palmer Putnam a deal guaranteeing him 12 percent of the retail price of all copies sold — an agreement described at the time as "unprecedented." 

By 1859, author Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. noted that Sunnyside had become "next to Mount Vernon, the best known and most cherished of all the dwellings in our land." 

Irving was also a significant figure in the legal protection of writers, publicly advocating for stronger copyright laws. 

FOOD AND DRINK Direct records of Irving's food and drink preferences are sparse, though his writings hint at a man who enjoyed the pleasures of the table. His witty remark during his European tour — "I endeavor to take things as they come with cheerfulness, and when I cannot get a dinner to suit my taste, I endeavor to get a taste to suit my dinner" — suggests both a philosophical attitude and a genuine enjoyment of food. 

The word "doughnut" first appeared in print in his 1809 A History of New York: "An enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks." (7) 

Irving was also an enthusiastic promoter of old-fashioned Christmas customs, including the Christmas feast, which he helped revive in America through his five Christmas stories in The Sketch Book. (8)

MUSIC AND ARTS While visiting Rome in 1805, Irving struck up a friendship with painter Washington Allston and was, by his own account, almost persuaded into a career as a painter: "My lot in life, however, was differently cast." 

He was a devoted theatregoer from childhood, regularly sneaking out of school by age 14 to attend the theater. 

Irving also championed music and culture through his editorial work, being among the first to reprint Francis Scott Key's poem "Defense of Fort McHenry" — later set as "The Star-Spangled Banner" — when he edited Analectic Magazine. 

The parlor at Sunnyside contained a rosewood piano at which Irving's nieces accompanied him while he played his flute — a detail confirmed by the New York Times description of Sunnyside's preserved interiors. (9)

A letter held in the Atlantic archive also records him playing the flute as a young man while a companion played the harpsichord. Irving also famously used the flute as a personal metaphor for his literary ambitions, writing: "I seek only to blow a flute accompaniment in the national concert, and leave others to play the fiddle and the French horn." (10)

WRITING CAREER If American literature were a dinner party in its early years, it would have consisted largely of nervous colonials trying to sound like their English cousins while hoping no one noticed the accent. Then along came Washington Irving, who not only pulled up a chair but somehow managed to get paid for doing so — which, in the early 19th century, was rather like making a living today by whistling at pigeons. He is generally credited as the first American to earn his keep entirely by writing, and more impressively, to persuade people on both sides of the Atlantic to read it voluntarily.

At a time when the United States was still regarded by Britain as a sort of cultural outbuilding — charming, no doubt, but best not inspected too closely — Irving performed the remarkable trick of making American writing seem not only respectable but positively desirable. His style was genial, unhurried, and faintly amused, as though he had discovered the world to be slightly ridiculous and was too polite to say so outright.

He began, as many great writers do, by gently mocking his neighbours. In 1802, under the alias “Jonathan Oldstyle,” he wrote letters to a New York newspaper teasing the city’s social pretensions — a pastime that has remained popular ever since, though rarely with such good manners. By 1807, he was co-creating a satirical magazine called Salmagundi, which cheerfully skewered local politics and bequeathed to New York the nickname “Gotham,” proving that even insults can have excellent branding potential.

His first major book, A History of New York (1809), published under the splendidly improbable name “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” was a comic history that treated the past with the sort of reverence usually reserved for a slightly unreliable uncle. It brought Irving national attention and, for reasons no one has ever fully explained, helped introduce the word “doughnut” into print — a contribution to civilisation that arguably outweighs many others.

Then came the book that made him unavoidable: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819–1820), a title so leisurely it practically invites you to sit down before finishing it. Inside were “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” stories that have since become fixtures of American folklore, despite owing a good deal to German tales that had simply crossed the Atlantic and taken out new citizenship. In these pieces, Irving more or less perfected the short story as a form designed to entertain rather than improve you, which was a relief to readers everywhere and a cue for writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe to get productively gloomy. 

The front page of The Sketch Book (1819)

Having conquered England from the comfort of his writing desk, Irving did what many successful people do: he went to Spain. There, he immersed himself in archives and emerged with biographies of Christopher Columbus and evocative works about the Alhambra, where he even lived for a time — presumably enjoying the rare privilege of calling a medieval palace “home” without having to dust it. His Tales of the Alhambra (1832) remains one of those books that makes you feel you’ve travelled somewhere, without the inconvenience of luggage.

On returning to America, perhaps sensing that people were beginning to suspect him of becoming suspiciously European, he turned his attention westward, writing about prairies, frontiers, and hardy adventurers. This was partly a literary choice and partly, one suspects, a way of saying, “Look, I can do rugged as well as refined.”

In his later years, Irving continued to write industriously, producing biographies of figures as varied as Oliver Goldsmith and the Prophet Muhammad, and eventually embarking on a monumental five-volume life of George Washington — a project so ambitious it sounds faintly exhausting even now. He completed it just months before his death, which suggests a commendable determination to meet deadlines, even at the cosmic level.

Irving’s influence was considerable. Writers such as Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray admired him in Britain, while in America he helped clear a path for Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Poe. By blending the polite essay style of 18th-century Britain with the darker, more imaginative currents of German folklore, he effectively invented a literary voice that felt distinctly American — a voice capable of being humorous, eerie, and quietly self-aware all at once.

In short, Irving didn’t just write stories; he helped create the idea that America might have stories worth telling — and, perhaps more impressively, that people elsewhere might want to read them.

LITERATURE Irving is credited as the first American Man of Letters and the first American writer to earn his living solely by his pen.  He is considered to have perfected the American short story, and his two most famous tales — "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) — are often called the first great American short stories. 

He encouraged a generation of American writers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe, and was admired in Britain by Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, and Walter Scott. 

He wrote in a wide range of forms: short fiction, satire, travel writing, romantic history, and full biography, most notably his five-volume The Life of George Washington (1855–1859), completed just eight months before his death. 

NATURE The Hudson River Valley landscape had a profound influence on Irving's imagination from boyhood. "Of all the scenery of the Hudson," he wrote, "the Kaatskill Mountains had the most witching effect on my boyish imagination." The Catskill Mountains became the setting for "Rip Van Winkle," and the area around Tarrytown — including the region the Dutch settlers had called "Slapershaven" (Sleeper's Haven) — inspired "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." 

His home Sunnyside, purchased in 1835 on the banks of the Hudson River, was described as sitting on 10 acres with carefully orchestrated views that reflected Irving's own tastes, vision, and personality. (6) 

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Irving was a passionate theatregoer from boyhood, and the theater remained a lifelong interest. 

He was also an enthusiastic traveler throughout his life, journeying extensively through Europe, the American West, and the Spanish interior. (2) 

At Sunnyside, he enjoyed the pleasures of rural domesticity — socializing with his nieces, entertaining visitors, and corresponding with a vast network of literary and political friends. (6)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Irving's relationship with science was, if anything, one of mischief rather than inquiry. His 1828 biography A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus is the source of one of the most persistent scientific myths in history: the idea that medieval Europeans believed the Earth was flat, and that Columbus courageously proved otherwise. In reality, educated Europeans had known the Earth was round since antiquity; the debate at the time of Columbus was about the size of the Earth, not its shape. Irving appears to have invented the flat-Earth myth to make Columbus a more dramatic hero — and it has been taught as fact in American schools ever since. (8) 

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Irving's family were of the merchant class, and his upbringing appears to have been conventionally Protestant. 

His 1850 biography Mahomet and His Successors showed a willingness to engage with Islamic history and theology with some seriousness, though it was written in the romantic history style rather than as a work of religious scholarship. 

A minor theological controversy arose when a Catholic bishop objected to a passage in Irving's The Crayon Miscellany that appeared to misrepresent a medieval Catholic document; Irving responded promptly and offered to correct the passage in future editions. 

In old age, the cynicism bred by his years in Spanish politics left him with a briefly darkened view of humanity, though he appears to have recovered his characteristic good humor. 

POLITICS In 1789, when Irving was six years old, he was spotted by his Scottish nurse Lizzie in a shop in New York City, where President-elect George Washington was also present, shortly after his inauguration. Lizzie — recognising the connection between the boy's name and the great man — introduced young Washington Irving to his namesake. Washington placed his hand on the boy's head and gave him his blessing. The Washington Irving Society has suggested the encounter was a defining moment in Irving's life — the seed that eventually grew into his final and most ambitious work, the five-volume Life of George Washington (1855–1859), completed just eight months before his death. As the Society put it: "The Father of America met the Father of American Literature." (11)

Washington Irving's encounter with George Washington, painted in 1854 by George Bernard Butler Jr.

Irving's politics were shaped by his New York Federalist background, though he was not a strongly partisan figure. He served as a lobbyist for his brothers' hardware-importing firm in Washington, D.C., in 1811. (2) 

He served as United States Minister (Ambassador) to Spain from 1842 to 1846, appointed by President John Tyler. During his tenure in Madrid, he was required to monitor Spanish domestic politics, the fate of the 12-year-old Queen Isabella II, American trade interests in Cuba, and Anglo-American negotiations over the Oregon border — a remarkably broad diplomatic remit. (

He correctly predicted that the Senate's partisan refusal to confirm Martin Van Buren as Minister to Britain would backfire and help elevate Van Buren to the presidency. 

SCANDAL Irving's literary hoax surrounding the publication of A History of New York (1809) — in which he placed fake newspaper notices about a missing historian, "Diedrich Knickerbocker," causing genuine public concern — might be considered a minor scandal, though it was also celebrated as a comic masterstroke. 

MILITARY RECORD Irving initially opposed the War of 1812, like many New York merchants. However, the British burning of Washington in 1814 convinced him to enlist. He served on the staff of Daniel D. Tompkins, Governor of New York and commander of the New York State Militia, but saw no real action apart from a reconnaissance mission in the Great Lakes region. 

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Irving suffered health problems from a young age — his brothers financed his European tour of 1804–1806 specifically out of concern for his health. 

As a young man he suffered from a condition serious enough to prompt his extended recuperation. While serving as Minister to Spain in the 1840s, he was afflicted by a "crippling skin condition" that added to his general exhaustion. 

He was also prone throughout his life to episodes of depression and writer's block, particularly following the death of Matilda Hoffman in 1809 and after the critical panning of Tales of a Traveller in 1824. 

Despite all this, he lived to the age of 76 — well above average for his era — and continued socializing and corresponding actively into his final years. 

HOMES Irving was born and raised at the family home on William Street, Manhattan. 

For much of his adult life, during his 17 years in Europe (1815–1832), he lived in hotels, rented apartments, or as the guest in other people's homes — in England, Paris, Dresden, Madrid, and London.  In 1835, at the age of 52, he finally purchased his own property: a neglected cottage in Tarrytown, New York, which he named Sunnyside in 1841. (6) 

Situated on 10 acres on the east bank of the Hudson River, Sunnyside reflected a mixture of architectural styles — he later added a "Spanish Tower" in 1847, influenced by the Alhambra in Granada. 

It required constant repair and renovation, the costs of which compelled him to take on regular magazine writing. 

Sunnyside by en:User:Daderot- Wikipedia

TRAVEL Irving was one of the great literary travelers of his era. He made his first extended European trip from 1804 to 1806, touring France, Italy, and Sicily, though he preferred honing his social skills to following the conventional Grand Tour itinerary. 

From 1815 to 1832 he lived in England, France, Germany, and Spain. His Spanish years were especially productive: he worked in the archives of Madrid, stayed at the palace of the Duke of Gor, and famously lived for a period in the ancient palace of the Alhambra in Granada. 

After returning to America in 1832, he immediately set off on a frontier expedition into Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), later described in A Tour on the Prairies. 

He returned to Spain as U.S. Minister from 1842 to 1846, making his final return to America in September 1846. 

In later life, he traveled regularly to Mount Vernon and Washington, D.C., for his research on the George Washington biography. 

DEATH Irving died of a heart attack in his bedroom at Sunnyside on November 28, 1859, at the age of 76 — only eight months after completing the final volume of his biography of George Washington.  His last words were reportedly: "Well, I must arrange my pillows for another night. When will this end?" 

His funeral on December 1, 1859, was a massive national event: the crowd at Christ Episcopal Church in Tarrytown was so large that the floors were feared to be in danger of collapse, and thousands lined the streets. Flags were held at half-mast across the nation. 

Despite his immense fame, Irving chose a remarkably simple headstone with no epitaph, engraved only with his name and dates, in the family plot at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery — a name the cemetery adopted posthumously in honor of his request. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow commemorated him in his 1876 poem "In the Churchyard at Tarrytown." 

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Irving's stories have had a long and rich afterlife in popular culture. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was memorably adapted by Tim Burton as the film Sleepy Hollow (1999), starring Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane. The TV series Sleepy Hollow (Fox, 2013–2017) was also inspired by the story. 

Irving's fictional creation Diedrich Knickerbocker gave his name to the New York Knickerbockers basketball team (the New York Knicks), and his nickname "Gotham" for New York was adopted by the Batman franchise. (8)

In 1940, Washington Irving became the very first author to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp, the 1-cent stamp in the "American Authors" series. 

The village of Irvington, New York, was renamed in his honor in 1872, and his home Sunnyside is now preserved as a museum. 

ACHIEVEMENTS First professional American author and the first American writer to earn international literary acclaim. 

Wrote "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), widely called the first great American short stories. 

Coined the nickname "Gotham" for New York City (1807), the phrase "the almighty dollar" (1837), and helped create the word "knickers" via his fictional character Diedrich Knickerbocker. 

First introduced the word "doughnut" into print in A History of New York (1809). 

Helped shape the modern image of Santa Claus through his 1812 description of St. Nicholas flying over rooftops in a wagon — an important precursor to the 1823 poem "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." 

Helped revive Christmas traditions in America through his five Christmas stories in The Sketch Book, directly influencing Charles Dickens. 

Advocated for copyright protection for American authors, paving the way for stronger intellectual property laws. 

Served as United States Minister to Spain (1842–1846) and as first chairman of the Astor Library, a forerunner of the New York Public Library.

Elected to the American Philosophical Society (1829), the National Academy of Design (1841), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1855).

Awarded a medal by the Royal Society of Literature (1830) and an honorary doctorate of civil law from Oxford University (1831). 

First author honored on a U.S. postage stamp, in 1940. 

Sources: (1) Wikipedia — Washington Irving (2) Britannica — Washington Irving (3) Excellence in Literature — Washington Irving Biography (4) Kiddle — Washington Irving (5) Women History Blog — Matilda Hoffman (6) Sleepy Hollow Country — Sunnyside (7) EBSCO Research Starters — Washington Irving (8) Interesting Literature — Nine Facts About Washington Irving (9) New York Times — The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 150 Years Later (10) American Heritage — The Sunny Master of Sunnyside (11) Washington Irving Society — Founding Fathers: George Washington and Washington Irving