Known for the Trail of Tears, the Bank War and his advocacy of slavery, former U.S. President Andrew Jackson’s legacy is full of controversy.
Shedding some light on Jackson’s presidency, The University of Tennessee’s Center for Jacksonian America is hosting Jacksonian scholar Harry L. Watson on Tuesday, Oct. 24, in the Kefauver Room in James D. Hoskins Library at 6:15 p.m.
The lecture titled, “Freedom and Majority Rule: Andrew Jackson’s Complex Legacy” will help reveal whether President Jackson was a national hero or a national villain.
The center was established in 2004 as a means to promote research, interchange and education on Jacksonian America. It was a joint effort by Special Collections Library, the Department of History and two presidential papers projects housed at UT: “The Papers of Andrew Jackson” and “The Correspondence of James K. Polk.”
Daniel Feller, the center’s director and a history professor, has been with the center since its beginning and said he has high expectations for it.
“Building on our strong faculty and library resources, the center aims to position UT at the front rank of institutions nationally in Jacksonian studies,” Feller said.
Residing in Chapel Hill, N.C., Watson is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina. Regarded as one of the top scholars of Jacksonian America, his teaching revolves around the history of the Confederate states. He teaches classes with titles such as The Age of Jackson, The Old South, and Society and Power in the Old South.
The focus of his lecture will be centered around President Jackson’s contradictory rule.
“The contradiction I’m going to discuss is the tension between two core Jacksonian values: majority rule and the slogan ‘the best government is that which governs least’,” Watson said. “Jackson’s determination to defend ‘the many against the few’ inspired his most controversial policies. I feel that Jackson was important because he left such a deep impression on how Americans think about self-government.”
Andrew Jackson was the seventh U.S. president, and his main focus was for the common man. Born in the Carolinas in 1767, he received little education, but in his late teens he educated himself and became a lawyer in Tennessee.
He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives and served briefly in the Senate. Known for engaging in brawls and duels, he killed many men. He was adamant about slavery and purchased enough to build his mansion in Hermitage, Tenn.
The famously conflicted figure will be dissected at the lecture. With Watson’s help, Feller said, “the mix of scholarly and public endeavors will both serve Tennessee’s citizens by deepening their historical awareness and help cement UT’s stature as a national headquarters for scholarship in this field.”
