h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just thought I'd warn you that it was a duffer quiz, not an expert's.

But you may or may not be aware of the controversy over here about replacing Andrew Jackson's picture on the $20 bill with a likeness of Harriet Tubman. (Yay!) Good news for casinos and ATMs with Native American clientele: they won't use 'Jacksons', anyway.

David Crockett was a contemporary, and frankly, he didn't like Jackson at all. Lots of people didn't like Jackson, for lots of reasons. But what do you know about the US president from the Tennessee frontier? Are these statements true or false? Feel free to expand on your answers. I'll help out with 'fun facts' about Old Hickory, who might have said, 'By the Eternal, y'all better git this raight!'

1. Andrew Jackson's parents came from Yorkshire.
2. Andrew Jackson was not a citizen of the United States when he was born.
3. Andrew Jackson killed a man in a duel.
4. Andrew Jackson won the popular vote for president three times.
5. The term 'Old Hickory' referred to the hardness of Jackson's head.
6. Jackson is not the only president to have been targeted for assassination. He is, however, the only president who retaliated by beating up his would-be assassin.
7. Jackson's wife committed bigamy when she married him.
8. Andrew Jackson was the only US president to have been a POW.
9. Andrew Jackson's first inauguration was very dignified.
10. Andrew Jackson's picture should stay on the $20 bill because he was instrumental in creating a sound national currency.

I can sometimes answer Icy's quizzes, but I don't know any of these. Jackson was an American president - that's about all I know.

Ah, then watch this space for Baron Grim and Florida Sailor, who will know.

Seriously, it's a good point. I can't answer a lot of Icy's quizzes for the same reason - no data. And I learn a lot when you and KB talk Irish politics, because it's terra incognita.

But since this is a big topic over here right now - we don't change pics on our currency very often - I thought it might be useful if some of us got into why Andrew Jackson is such a huge embarrassment. And I say that as a native Tennessean - that man was a menace to society. Native Americans have been trying to get him off one of our most-used bills for years.

I don't know any of these either, but I'm going to guess that his parents weren't from Yorkshire - I suspect they were probably Ulster folk. I know the "Andrew Jackson cottage" is somewhere round Carrickfergus, so I presume they lived there.

I say near Carrickfergus - it's in the delightfully named "Boneybefore".

(...I don't know whether Boneybefore is preferable to a boney behind, before anyone asks! )

Right you are! Jackson's parents lived in Boneybefore. So we have to blame him on Ulster.

So what about question 2? Would Jackson 'birthers' have a leg to stand on?

Well, I'd say he *was* born in North America - but pre-"United States".

Again an educated guess - I don't have the exact dates off the top of my head, but I think he'd be about that age.

Right again - there wasn't a US in 1767.

The funny thing is, two states claim him - North and South Carolina - but even Jackson wasn't sure which side of the line he was born on. The Waxhaws region was pretty isolated territory back then. His father died before he was born, and his mother and brothers both died during the Revolution, so he didn't really have too many people to ask.

Very good

As this is one person who looms large in the history I specialize in, I will wait a few days before answering any of them (I did not know #1).

Might I offer a few of my own favourites

F S

Oh, please do.

Still True and False

11) Jackson offered amnesty to a group of wanted outlaws so they could fight for him.

12) Jackson rewarded the loyal Creek Indians who fought for him by giving them the lands of the hostile faction.

13) Andrew Jackson once adopted a Native American (Indian) boy and raised him with his family.

14) Jackson ordered the execution of a British citizen, on foreign soil, even though the court he appointed refused to endorse the sentence.

15) Jackson almost resigned the Presidency before he even took the oath of office.

16) Jackson is often credited as the founder of a major political party.

17) Jackson was succeeded in office by his Vice President.

That's enough for now.

F S

not yorkshire

11) I don't know about the amnesty, but it sounds like him.

12) False, I think - he stole land from everybody. Probably more land than anybody else, the scoundrel.

13) True. The poor kid only lived to about 17.

14) Definitely true. And this took place in your favourite place, Florida.

15) Hadn't heard that, but it might be true - he was trying to get over his wife's death at the time.

16) Yep. Try to keep track of how many times there's been a 'Democratic', 'Republican', and even 'Democratic Republican' Party. It gives you a headache. That's why I like the Whigs. Who went under in the 1840s.

17) True - but that was his second vice president, Matty Van Buren. Who edged out Jackson's first VP, the horrible John C Calhoun.

Fun fact: John C Calhoun's wife was his first cousin once removed. Her name was Floride Calhoun. She was responsible for totally messing with Jackson's cabinet over a former barmaid.

Brits, this stuff is funnier than you (or my students) could possibly imagine...

the last sentence funnier than you (or my students) could possibly imagine -



WE had a witch for prime minister

Very good, I thought you would get them all.

As for 11, I'll give a hint. Have you ever heard about Barataria?

F S

You said it, I didn't.

This is an actual photograph of John C Calhoun:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_C_Calhoun_by_Mathew_Brady,_1849.jpg

No, FS. Tell us about Barataria.

All in good time, The Baron probably knows.

F S

Good.

I started this because it's discouraging to find out how little Americans know about their history.

Some woman on The View said something about not knowing who those people were on the money, anyway, and I just lost it. They pay those people big money to talk on the TV, and they're even more ignorant than...well, take your pick.

Certain people who run for public office, maybe?

Not related, of course, but may I point out that Bernie Sanders used to write educational filmstrips? About US history?

Taking the first 10 questions in reverse order,

10. Nolo.

I realize this is an emotionally charged issue for some of the unrealistic and unthinking.

If it had been me, I'd have slipped out early with the Choctaw and later gone to Texas and joined up with Sam Houston.




9. The actual inauguration may have been reaßonably orderly, but the troops had to be called out to clear the White House grounds at the celebratory levee that followed and suppress the subsequent Washington D.C. riots.




8. He was a PW during his Revolutionary War service, received a monumentally deep sword cut in his skull during a PW camp riot, which in later life he cultivated his modestly flamboyant hair style to cover up.




7. True.

She had, though, been abandoned by her first husband, who'd fled interstate and except in the rather anarchic frontier conditions of the time, she should have been eligible for an annulment or divorce.

Marrying her was one of the soundest political moves Andrew Jackson ever made.




6. True.

Theodore Roosevelt later had a somewhat similar experience during his 'Bull Moose' Party campaign.



5. Wa'al, that may be one way of putting it.

Actually, its an allusion to sheer toughness.

Hickory is the wood preferred in the USA for tool making applications one would use ash wood for in Europe, things like axe handles and hammer handles, in the USA, also baseball bats.




4. True.

However, he lost in the Electoral College in his first run for the Presidency.

He then went home, hired himself a good campaign manager, inventing the office of campaign manager in the process* and then went on to win the next two elections for the Presidency.






3. True.

Since duelling was illegal in the State of Tennessee, they had to leave the state to fight the duel.

Jackson was gravely wounded in the duel himself.




2. True.

The USA didn't exist yet.




1. So I'd thought.

His Scotch**-Irish antecedants are not in dispute.




*This was later the root of the 'Kitchen Cabinet' controversy.




**The 'Scotch' construction may be discouraged by the present day Scottish, but is preferred by Americans of Scotch-Irish ancestry.