The early 1700’s saw the arrival of James K Polk’s lineage in America. Robert Bruce Polk (shortened from Pollock) moved his Scottish-Irish family to the shore of Eastern Maryland, establishing the one of the first Presbyterian congregations of the New World. In the late 1750’s the Polk’s (along with the family of seventh president Andrew Jackson) moved into the Carolinas as a part of a swarm of national migration. Several decades later on November 2nd 1795 James K Polk, future president of the United States, was born to Samuel Polk (slaveholder and farmer) and Jane Knox in a farmhouse in Mecklenburg, North Carolina. Though Sam and Jane Polk adhered to the Presbyterian religion James was not baptized. This was the outcome of a heated argument by his father and a Presbyterian minister regarding …show more content…
The wagon covered voyage provoked considerable health damage for the young boy and in 1812 he underwent the removal of urinary stones. As anesthesia had not been invented, Polk was fully conscious for the procedure and was appeased by the use of brandy. His illness also suspended his ability to attend formal schooling and was consequentially homeschooled for the majority of his life. His sickly nature prohibited farm work and after a brief stint as a merchant’s apprentice he was enrolled in school. Within three years, despite lack of previous formal education, Polk became the best student at his private school in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In his early twenties he was enrolled at the University of North Carolina where he would graduate president of the school’s debate society and top of his class. He eventually completed his legal studies under attorney Felix Grundy, established a law practice and was appointed Clark of the Tennessee State
Parsons, L. H. (2009). The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thomason, John. "Jeb Stuart." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 18, no. 1 (1931): 96-98. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1897460 (accessed November 13, 2013).
King’s stowaway status soon came to an end, and he was employed as a crewmember on steamboats. Captains taught him to navigate the boats on rivers in Florida and Alabama, and his acute sense of learning gave way to him becoming a captain (KING RANCH). Capt. King plied the waters of Alabama until 1842. In that year he served aboard boa...
John Rutledge was brought up through a wealthy family in Charleston South Carolina. In the year of 1739 his mother and father were gifted with their first of two sons that lead to sign the constitution.
John’s was born on January 16, 1736 in Braintree, Massachusetts. He was the middle child of three. He was the son of John Hancock, who was born on June 1, 1702 in Lexington, Massachusetts and child of Mary Hawke, who was born on October 13, 1711 in Hingham, Massachusetts. His mother was married once before she married Johns farther. Her marriage ended in her former husband’s death. John Hancock Sr was a “faithful Shepard.” He always kept an alert watch over the ethics and religious well-being of all members of the neighborhood. Ever since John’s (Jr.) birth, he was perceived to go to Harvard. When he was six, his parents sent him to a local dame school. Later he was sent to another institute, in where he met John Adams, whom became a friend of his. Like all the other children, John learned the basics of writing, figuring, and reading. All things appeared to be going well, until spring of 1774. His father had gotten sick, that later would kill him. His grief grew more because they would have to move. His mother’s parents were both dead and a very difficult choice would have to be made by her. Her anxiety to make that decision was diminished by the offer from the bishop and his wife, to live with them in Lexington. A year later, John was sent away to live with his uncle Thomas and aunt Lydia, and attend Boston Latin School. The move genuinely altered John Hancock’s life.
Andrew Jackson was born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1776. His parents, who were Scotch-Irish people. They came to America two years before Andrew was born. His mother was widowed while pregnant with him. At age thirteen, Andrew joined the patriotic cause and volunteered to fight the British. He and his brother were both captured and imprisoned together by the British. Their mother got them released by a prisoner exchange, but his brother died on the long trip home from smallpox. During his independent days, he lived in a tavern with other students.
During the years surrounding James K. Polk's presidency, the United States of America grew economically, socially, and most noticeably geographically. In this time period, the western boundaries of the Untied States would be expanded all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Many Americans in the 19th century believed that the acquisition of this territory to the west was their right and embraced the concept of "Manifest Destiny". This concept was the belief that America should stretch from sea to shining sea and it was all but inevitable. Under the cover of "Manifest Destiny", President Polk imposed his views of an aggressive imperialistic nation. Imperialism is the practice of extending the power and dominion of a nation by direct territorial acquisitions over others, and clearly America took much of this land by force rather than peaceful negotiations with other nations. Polk acquired three huge areas of land to include: the Republic of Texas, the Oregon Territory, and the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico under the Mexican Cession.
During the Mexican War, Grant served under both General Zachary Taylor and General Winfield Scott and distinguished himself, particularly at Molina del Rey and Chapultepec. After his return and tours of duty in the North, he was sent to the Far West. In 1854, while stationed at Fort Humboldt, California, “Grant resigned his commission because of loneliness and drinking problems, and in the following years he engaged in generally unsuccessful farming and business ventures in Missouri.”(Grant Moves South, 18) He moved to Galena, Illinois, in 1860, where he became a clerk in his father's leather store.
support the family of nine on his wages as a clerk. He earned only $4.00 a
America’s most influential political figure during the 1830s, Andrew Jackson left a permanent imprint upon American politics and democracy. Born on the border of North and South Carolina, Jackson was left to confront the world on his own after the death of his parents. By the age of 29, he got involved in law and politics as he was elected as Tennessee’s first representative in the U.S. Senate. Jackson’s first successes came from war, specifically when he commanded American forces in the defense of New Orleans against the British in 1815. In 1824, Jackson decided to make his first run for the President of the United States and won both electoral and popular votes. Jackson is often connected to a new spirit of democracy that swept over the United
On April 23, 1791, a great man was born; fifteenth president of the United States, James Buchanan.He was born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. His father, James Buchanan, and his mother Elizabeth Speer Buchanan, raised their son a Presbyterian. He grew up in a well to do home, being the eldest of eleven other siblings. His parents cared for them all in their mansion in Pennsylvania. They sent him to Dickinson College.
Andrew Jackson was one of the most controversial presidents that has governed the United States, both historically and while he was the leader of the country. Like many Americans during the time he was born, Andrew Jackson was born to Scottish and Irish immigrant parents on March 15, 1767. It is unclear for certain which, but Jackson was born in one of the Carolinas, which at the time were British colonies. Jackson was raised as a child of the frontier, and likewise received the type of sporadic education that most children got at the time, with formal primary education being years away. Jackson would become an orphan in the American Revolution, and gained early experience in battle, foreshadowing his future military career. In the years after the war, Jackson would study law for a time, becoming a traveling lawyer on the frontier. He would also rise in prominence and gain wealth through the purchase of land and slaves, becoming a planter as well as a merchant and lawyer. At the same time as he acquired affluence, Jackson delved into politics, becoming a delegate to the constitutional convention for the state of Tennessee, where he was living. In a quick timeframe, Jackson would go from this position to a representative in the House for his state to becoming a U.S. senator representing Tennessee (Tregle, Joseph G., Jr.).
Andrew Jackson also known as, “The people’s choice,” was a self made man. He represented the South and the Western frontier expansionism. He was a strong military leader, a superior Court judge, and an Indian fighter. Jackson represented the common man. The United States of America benefitted greatly from the actions of Andrew Jackson.
John Tyler was born on March 29, 1790 at Greenway Plantation, in Charles City County, Virginia. (Ed. Kelle S. Sisung and Gerda-Ann Raffaelle and from Encyclopedia of World Biography). He was the first president born after the Ratification of the Constitution. As well as being the second born out of eight children, he had five sisters and two brothers. (Donna Batten 144). He practiced the religion of Episcopalian throughout his life. ((Ed. Kelle S. Sisung and Gerda-Ann Raffaelle)
James K. Polk once said, “No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure.” According to the article titled, “James K. Polk,” Polk was born in North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in which he studied to become a successful attorney. Polk had a successful political career in which he held high ranks of authority in the Tennessee and federal government. He was also known as “Young Hickory” referencing his mentor and friend Andrew Jackson. He came into office at the age of 49 in 1845 in which his accomplishments would help make up the big picture known as America. James K. Polk was the determined and strong, eleventh president of the United States, who carried out all of his goals he set forth during his presidency, which included the expansion of the United States to the west, the settlement of the Oregon boundary, and the restore the Independent Treasury.