WHAT I'M READING

A BEING SO GENTLE: THE FRONTIER LOVE STORY OF RACHEL AND ANDREW JACKSON by Patricia Brady (2011)

About the book:
     The love story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson is one of the greatest in American history.  The young lawyer met the daughter of one of Nashville's founders in 1788, while Rachel was still married to a jealous, abusive husband.  At the time, the American frontier was a wild and adventurous place, where pioneers risked their lives on the edge of the law.  So it was that with the blessing of her family, the young couple followed the common practice of self-divorce and eloped.  An exciting new era was dawning, and the Jacksons were making history at the forefront of that revolution.

     When Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans catapulted him into national politics, his opponents began attacking his personal life, calling into question Rachel's virtue and the respectability of their marriage.  Unusual for a woman of her times, she had the courage to stand firm against her detractors, while Andrew fought for her honor as best he could.  But like many great love stories, this one ended tragically when Rachel died only a few weeks after Andrew was elected president.  Lines from her epitaph -- "A being so gentle and so virtuous slander might wound, but could not dishonor" reflect Andrew's enduring love for his wife and his bitterness toward his political enemies.  The president moved into the White House alone and never remarried.

     Andrew and Rachel's devotion to each other is inspiring and here, for the first time, their story of love and loss is told in full, played out against the dramatic backdrop of a major turning point in American history.

My thoughts:
This was a very informative, but very difficult book to read.  It took me three weeks to get through it and that's with taking it on vacation!  But I did learn a lot.  I learned about the War of 1812 and how the American public felt about it.  (They considered it a second War for Independence from Great Britain.)  I learned about the customs and morals of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  I learned about the types of homes people lived in, the rise of cities in the South, and the view of the common man towards family, politics and war.  But most of all I learned about the great and true love and devotion between Andrew and Rachel Jackson.  Even though a lot of their married life was spent separated from one another due to General Jackson's military duties, he hated being apart from her.  Although Rachel ran their home, The Hermitage, well, she was at her best when Andrew was around and pined for him when they were apart.  This is a true love story.