At 17, Rachel Donelson of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, married a man named Lewis Robards in Nashville, Tennessee, not the ideal husband.
Some say he disappeared, others she ran away making her sound less than noble, meeting Andrew Jackson on a trip to Natchez, Florida where he lived practicing law.
Smitten from the start with each another, embarking on a love affair only rivaling Liz and Dick’s.
Some say Rachel thought Lewis had divorced her, others claim she didn’t, living flagrantly in adultery even before marrying Andrew in 1791. When Lewis came back out of the blue, Rachel, still legally his wife, made her a bigamist.
At once the proper papers were filed, a divorce granted and the Jacksons this time were remarried in propriety in 1794.
Many historians want to judge her, not to mention Henry Clay I’ll get to in a second. Who knows how much is true since even back then stories were meanly spinned.
It’s a good thing there was no social media in the late 1700s.
Fox would have had Rachel pole dancing.
I will tell you in layman’s language…
Lewis Robards was a shit. He was mean-spirited, ran around with other women including sleeping with his slaves, so if Rachel ran for her life, who could blame her?
Wouldn’t you?
She then meets a man that, yes was far from perfect, but who was loving and strong protecting her in a way no one else ever did.
He was her knight for better or worse.
Kentucky Senator Henry Clay loathing Andrew Jackson, allegedly gave their story to the press without fair edit.
In those days, if you got a newspaper every few weeks you were lucky, so the rampant slander, unbeknownst to Rachel who already had a weak heart, after reading what was said about her, had a fatal heart attack dying at 61, leaving Andrew in a state of everlasting mourning and eternal hatred for Clay.
When he took his oath of office not long after on March 4, 1829 as the 7th President of the United States, he stood alone carrying Rachel’s bible wearing a black weeper, much like an armband you weave around the brim of your hat.
So you see, that magnolia tree he planted on the White House lawn bloomed not only in memory of a cherished wife, but in defense of a sweet woman whose only crime may have been, what she did for love. ![]()
On December 12, 2017, First Lady Melania Trump, had the 200 year-old tree claiming it was damaged, cut down.
Alas, one more affront and hopefully the last to Mrs. Rachel Donelson Jackson. ![]()
(1767-1828)
SB