Jackson was born in 1767. Eight years later was 1775. What happened on July 4, 1775?
14 year old Andrew Jackson and his older brother Robert were captured by British soldiers in the Battle of Hanging Rock.
Though the Fourth of July is almost iconic to Americans, some claim the date itself is somewhat arbitrary. New Englanders had been fighting Britain since April 1775.
Ooops -- I was off by a year. Of course, the Revolutionary War started when Jackson was 8.
To find out what happened to Andrew Jackson when he was eight years old, we can look into his biography or historical sources that document his early life. One reliable source is "The Life of Andrew Jackson" by Robert V. Remini. According to this book, when Andrew Jackson was eight years old, both of his parents passed away. His mother, Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, died from an illness contracted while nursing prisoners during the American Revolution. His father, Andrew Jackson Sr., died shortly after, likely due to hardships and grief. This event forced young Andrew Jackson to become an orphan at a young age, being raised by relatives and friends until he eventually became a self-made man.
