Andrew Johnson

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Andrew Johnson

The day was April 15, 1865. The American Civil War had just ended a week ago when the Confederacy surrendered to the Union. Just six weeks before, Abraham Lincoln was reelected for his second term as president, and helped lead the North to victory. However, on April 15, President Lincoln was tragically assassinated in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. A new President would have to step up and lead the country. If the assassin’s plan had been completed, Vice President Andrew Johnson would have also been killed. Fortunately, the plan did not go through, and Andrew Johnson would soon be elected President to help the United States out of it’s worst time.

Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina. His parents, Jacob and Mary Johnson, were both illiterate. His father made a living as a hotel porter and a bank janitor in Raleigh. When Andrew was only three, his father died while trying to save two of his wealthy employers from drowning. “His mom worked as a spinner and weaver to try to feed Andrew and his brother William. She then married Turner Daugherty, though he did not make much money either.”(Trefousse)

At fourteen, his parents apprenticed Andrew and William to a local tailor shop. The two boys worked at the shop for several years, until they decided to run away together. After being on the run for two years, Andrew decided to return home to Raleigh in 1826 and reunite with his family. Andrew and his family then moved west to Greeneville, Tennessee, where seventeen-year-old Andrew set up his own tailor shop.

Andrew had tried to teach himself to read before from a book he got as a gift, but he never learned the basics of English, until he met his wife, Eliza McCardle. Andrew firs...

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Bausum, Ann. Our Country's Presidents. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2001.

Johnson, Andrew. 2011. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. 18 April 2011.

Kennedy, Robert C. The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson. 2011. HarpWeek. 18 April 2011.

President Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Library of Congress. 8 Apr. 2011.

Summers, Robert S. Andrew Johnson. 1996. IPL2. 11 Apr. 2011.

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Trefousse, Hans. American President: An Online Reference Resource. 1998. University of Virginia. 8 April, 2011

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