The Hermitage: Andrew Jackson's Cotton Kingdom
Tennessee
About twelve miles east of Nashville sits the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home from eighteen oh four until his death in eighteen forty-five. Jackson bought the original four-hundred-and-twenty acre farm to build a self-sustaining cotton plantation and spent the next four decades expanding it. After winning national fame at the Battle of New Orleans in eighteen fifteen, he directed a major renovation; a chimney fire in eighteen thirty-four destroyed that version, and he rebuilt again in Greek Revival style.
At its height the plantation held over a hundred enslaved people working two hundred acres of cotton. Jackson returned here after two presidential terms and died in the mansion in June eighteen forty-five. Today the estate spans over a thousand acres and is one of the best-preserved presidential homes in the country.
