7 Things You Never Knew About Andrew Jackson

5) Jackson is the only President to have been a P.O.W. 

In 1781, Andrew Jackson, still a child, was captured by a British officer. When ordered to shine the officer’s shoes, Jackson refused, earning slashes from a sword for his troubles. Andrew and his brother Robert would contract smallpox and nearly starve in British captivity.

After their mother secured their release, Robert would die of his disease quickly. Jackson’s mother would die after contracting cholera as a nurse, leaving Andrew Jackson without parents or his brothers. He would despise the British the rest of his life.

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