Let’s be honest. You’re here because you heard Andrew Jackson was, to put it mildly, a bit of a wild man, and you want the goods. Forget the dry textbook entries about the Bank War or tariffs. You want the real, unfiltered stories. You’re in luck. “Old Hickory” was less “7th President” and more “human bar fight who somehow got elected.”
He was a man of intense, almost unbelievable contradictions, legendary toughness, and a temper that could (and frequently did) start duels. We are about to dive into the top 10 Andrew Jackson fun facts that prove he was one of the most bizarre, terrifying, and endlessly fascinating figures in all of American history. We’re talking swearing parrots, a 1,400-pound block of cheese, and taking a bullet to the chest like it was a mosquito bite.
Key Takeaways
- Andrew Jackson was a prolific duelist who famously took a bullet to the chest, which remained lodged near his heart for the rest of his life.
- His pet parrot, Poll, had to be removed from his funeral because it wouldn’t stop swearing loudly.
- He was the target of the first-ever presidential assassination attempt and, when both the attacker’s guns misfired, Jackson (at age 67) charged and beat the man with his cane.
- He once hosted a party at the White House where the main attraction was a 1,400-pound block of cheddar cheese that was devoured by the public in two hours.
- He is the only president in history to have paid off the entire national debt.
Fact 1: His Pet Parrot Was Kicked Out of His Funeral for Swearing
You can’t make this stuff up. This is, without a doubt, the most hilarious and perfectly “Jackson” fact on the list. Andrew Jackson owned a pet African Grey parrot named Poll. Like many parrots, this one was a talker.
Unfortunately for the mourners at Jackson’s funeral in 1845, Poll the parrot had apparently spent a little too much time with the famously foul-mouthed general.
According to the account of Reverend William Menefee Norment, who presided over the funeral, the parrot got agitated by all the people and commotion. It began to shriek a stream of truly shocking obscenities. The reverend noted that the bird was “swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house.”
The guests were reportedly horrified and shocked into silence, not by grief, but by the colorful string of curses coming from the presidential pet. Poll was, in short, the only funeral guest who had to be forcibly ejected for profanity.
Fact 2: He Survived the First-Ever Presidential Assassination Attempt (And Then Attacked His Assailant)
Andrew Jackson was the target of the very first assassination attempt on a U.S. President. The story of what happened is pure, 100-proof Jackson.
On January 30, 1835, Jackson was leaving a funeral service at the U.S. Capitol. A man named Richard Lawrence, a house painter who believed he was the rightful King of England and that Jackson owed him money, stepped out from behind a pillar. He raised a pistol and fired at Jackson from point-blank range.
- The first gun misfired. The percussion cap fired, but the gunpowder didn’t ignite.
- The second gun also misfired. Lawrence, unfazed, dropped the first pistol and pulled a second, identical one. He aimed and fired again. The cap fired, but it also failed to ignite.
The statistical odds of two different, properly loaded pistols misfiring in the humid D.C. weather were later calculated as one in 125,000.
Jackson’s reaction? He didn’t hide. He didn’t flinch. At 67 years old, the president, enraged, charged his would-be assassin and began beating him senseless with his heavy wooden walking cane. He had to be pulled off Lawrence by several congressmen, including the legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett.
Fact 3: He Fought in So Many Duels He Lived with a Bullet in His Chest
When we say Jackson had a temper, we’re not kidding. He was a product of a frontier “honor culture” where any perceived slight could be grounds for a duel to the death. While historians debate the exact number, it’s estimated Jackson took part in anywhere from 13 to over 100 duels, affairs of honor, and brawls.
His most notorious duel was in 1806, long before his presidency. It was against a man named Charles Dickinson. The dispute started over a horse-racing bet but escalated when Dickinson insulted Jackson’s wife, Rachel, which was a fatal mistake.
Dickinson was known as one of the best marksmen in all of Tennessee. Jackson knew he would be outmatched in a fair fight. So he made a cold, hard calculation.
| Duelist | Reputation | The Shot |
|---|---|---|
| Charles Dickinson | Considered the best shot in Tennessee. | Fired first and hit Jackson square in the chest. |
| Andrew Jackson | A seasoned duelist, but known for toughness, not aim. | Took the shot, stood bleeding, then calmly aimed and killed Dickinson. |
When the command was given, Dickinson fired first, as Jackson expected. The bullet slammed into Jackson’s chest, breaking two ribs and lodging itself just inches from his heart. Witnesses said Jackson just stood there, bleeding through his coat.
Because Dickinson had fired, duel etiquette required him to stand still and await Jackson’s shot. Jackson, clutching his chest, slowly and deliberately took aim. His first shot misfired. He re-cocked the hammer (a serious breach of dueling etiquette, but no one was about to argue with him) and fired again, killing Dickinson.
The bullet from Dickinson was so close to his heart that surgeons refused to remove it. Jackson carried that bullet in his chest for the next 39 years, and it’s believed the lead poisoning from it and another bullet in his shoulder caused the chronic pain and illness he suffered for the rest of his life.
Fact 4: The Legendary White House Block of Cheese
As a “man of the people,” Jackson often received… unusual gifts. None was more famous than the one he got from a New York dairy farmer named Colonel Thomas S. Meacham. In 1835, Meacham sent the president a 1,400-pound wheel of cheddar cheese.
That is not a typo. It was four feet in diameter and two feet thick.
The cheese sat in the White House foyer for two years, aging. Finally, Jackson decided to get rid of it during his final public reception in 1837. He invited the public to come to the White House and eat the cheese.
An estimated 10,000 people swarmed the executive mansion. The scene was pure chaos. Men and women with pocket knives carved off huge chunks of the cheddar. The cheese was reportedly gone in two hours, but the smell was not. The carpets were so thoroughly ground with cheese that the building allegedly stank for weeks, and the ruined carpets had to be ripped out.
Fact 5: He Was a 13-Year-Old Prisoner of War (And Got a Famous Scar)
Jackson’s legendary toughness and his lifelong hatred of the British were forged in the fire of the American Revolution. He wasn’t a general—he was a child.
At just 13 years old, Jackson and his brother Robert served as couriers for the local militia. In 1781, they were captured by British forces. A British officer, in a show of contempt for the young rebel, ordered Jackson to clean his muddy boots.
Jackson, full of the same defiant pride he’d have his entire life, flatly refused. He stated he was a prisoner of war and demanded to be treated as such, not as a servant.
The officer was enraged. He drew his sword and slashed at the boy. Jackson raised his left hand to block the blow, which cut him to the bone and left a deep gash on his head as well. He carried those scars—and a burning, personal hatred for the British—for the rest of his life. This hatred would later fuel his relentless campaign against them in the War of 1812, culminating in his famous victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
Fact 6: He Is the Only President to Pay Off the National Debt
This isn’t just a “fun” fact; it’s one of the most unique and astounding Andrew Jackson fun facts of his entire presidency. He is the only president in American history to ever pay off the entire national debt.
Jackson despised the very idea of a national bank and national debt. He saw it as a source of corruption and a tool for the “monied elite” to control the government and, by extension, the common man. He made its elimination a central goal of his presidency.
Through a combination of aggressively cutting federal spending, vetoing infrastructure projects he felt were wasteful, and using the proceeds from massive federal land sales in the West, his administration accomplished the unthinkable.
On January 1, 1835, the United States national debt was officially zero. It was the first and only time this has ever happened.
Here’s the kicker: This “success” was short-lived. His war against the national bank and his hard-money policies (demanding gold and silver for land payments) are widely blamed by historians for helping to trigger the “Panic of 1837,” a massive financial depression that tanked the economy just as he was leaving office.
Fact 7: He’s on the $20 Bill… But He Hated Paper Money
Here is perhaps the greatest irony of Jackson’s entire legacy. The man whose face stares back at you from the $20 bill would have hated it.
Jackson was a “hard money” man. He believed that the only real, honest currency was gold and silver (known as “specie”). He distrusted banks and was utterly convinced that paper money was a dangerous, unstable, and corrupt system designed to swindle farmers and laborers.
His biggest political battle, the “Bank War,” was a crusade to destroy the Second Bank of the United States. Why? Because that bank was the institution responsible for issuing and regulating the nation’s paper currency. He successfully vetoed its re-charter, effectively killing it.
The irony is thick. He is now the face of the $20 Federal Reserve Note—the very concept of a national paper currency backed by a powerful central bank that he fought his entire political life to destroy. You can find more about the current $20 bill on the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s website.
Fact 8: His First Inauguration Party Trashed the White House
Jackson’s 1829 inauguration was seen as a massive victory for the “common man.” He was the first president not from the Virginia or Massachusetts elite. To celebrate, he opened the doors of the White House to the public for a reception.
He got what he asked for, and then some. A mob of thousands of supporters—farmers, frontiersmen, laborers, and clerks—descended on the White House.
The scene was absolute bedlam. Men with muddy boots stood on priceless, silk-upholstered chairs to get a better look at the president. Fights broke out over refreshments. Thousands of dollars in fine china and glass were smashed as the crowd pressed in.
The crush of people became so intense that Jackson himself was pinned against a wall and was in physical danger. Aides had to form a human chain to “rescue” him, and he reportedly escaped out a side window or a back door. The staff, desperate to get the mob out of the house, finally had a brilliant idea: they hauled massive tubs of whiskey-laced punch out onto the White-House lawn. The crowd stampeded outside, and the building was saved.
Fact 9: He Was the First President to Ride a Train
For all his “Old Hickory” frontier persona, Jackson was president during a time of incredible new technology. On June 6, 1833, he added another “first” to his name: he became the first sitting U.S. president to ride a steam locomotive.
He took a 12-mile trip on the new Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, traveling from Ellicott’s Mills to Baltimore, Maryland.
It’s a fantastic image to picture: the same tough-as-nails guy who fought duels and lived by a rugged frontier code of honor was also the very first president to embrace the new, steam-powered age of travel. He was, in many ways, the bridge between America’s old, rough-and-tumble past and its new, industrial future.
Fact 10: He Had a “Kitchen Cabinet” (And It’s Not a Piece of Furniture)
Andrew Jackson was deeply suspicious of the “official” Washington political class. He distrusted insiders and the established government bureaucracy, and that included his own formal, Senate-approved Cabinet.
Instead, he relied on a close-knit group of his most loyal friends, newspaper editors, and political allies for his real advice. His opponents, disgusted by this, nicknamed this group the “Kitchen Cabinet” because they would supposedly meet with him informally, sometimes in the White House kitchen or back rooms, to make the real policy decisions.
This was a massive shift in presidential power. It demonstrated that Jackson valued personal loyalty and his own popular mandate far more than the established structures of government. He was, in effect, the first president to govern with a shadow cabinet of unelected personal advisors, a practice that many presidents have followed since.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What was Andrew Jackson’s nickname?
His most famous nickname was “Old Hickory.” He earned it as a general during the War of 1812. His soldiers said he was “as tough as old hickory” wood on the battlefield, a testament to his ruggedness and refusal to ever give up.
How many duels did Andrew Jackson actually fight in?
No one knows the exact number. The estimates range wildly from 13 to over 100. The key takeaway is that he was involved in many, and was willing to defend his (and his wife’s) honor with his life, as was common (though often illegal) in his time.
Why is Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill?
He was first placed on the $20 bill in 1928. The decision was made by the Treasury Department, largely to honor his military legacy (especially the Battle of New Orleans) and his populist image as a “people’s president.” The deep irony that he hated paper money is a frequent point of historical humor and debate.
Why is Andrew Jackson considered so controversial?
While he was incredibly popular in his day as a “man of the people,” his legacy is severely stained by his actions and policies. He was a lifelong slave owner who owned a large plantation. Most infamously, he was the architect of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This policy led directly to the forced and brutal relocation of thousands of Native Americans (including the Cherokee, Choctaw, and others) from their ancestral lands, an event known as the “Trail of Tears,” which resulted in the deaths of thousands from disease, starvation, and exposure.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. Andrew Jackson wasn’t just a president; he was a walking, talking, dueling, cussing ball of pure, unadulterated contradiction.
He was a celebrated war hero who was also responsible for one of America’s most tragic policies. He was the “common man” who famously trashed the White House, a financial hawk who paid off the entire national debt, and a tough-as-nails brawler who reportedly cried when his parrot swore at his funeral.
He was the first president to be attacked and the first to fight back with his cane. He carried a bullet in his chest, hosted a cheese party for 10,000 people, and hated the very money that now bears his face. Love him or hate him, you have to admit: the man was anything but boring.
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