Andrew Jackson's Hermitage

Andrew Jackson bought the Hermitage in 1804 as a 425-acre farm and made it a cotton plantation. He enslaved ten people when he moved here, 95 when he was elected president in 1828 and about 150 when he died in 1845. Across 77 years the family enslaved at least 325 people on this and other properties, and researchers have found the names of more than 500 people enslaved here or descended from them. The brick mansion went up in 1819 and was rebuilt in Greek Revival style after a fire in 1834.

Much of what makes the place worth the trip lies outside the mansion. Alfred Jackson, a formerly enslaved man, farmed Hermitage land after emancipation and told visitors stories until his death in 1901; his cabin is where the enslaved-life tour begins. Archaeologists have recovered nearly 800,000 artifacts connected to the enslaved community. The Enslaved Cemetery lies a quarter mile from the quarters, with a limestone marker at each known grave and the names of twenty-six people who may be buried there, among them "Old" Hannah, who cooked for the family until 1820, and Polidore, who died in 1846 at about six.

Jackson's presidency is the other half of the record. Most nations fiercely resisted his policy of Indian removal. The Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole and Chickasaw eventually agreed to relocate, and in 1838 troops and militia forced more than 16,000 Cherokee from their homes; an estimated 4,000 died on the way.