Presidents usually are born into wealthy families, but not for Andrew Johnson. Johnson began his life in poverty, while he worked his way up to president. During Andrew Johnson’s life, it brought in great possibilities while having consequences at the same time.
The early life of Andrew Johnson was rather sad at first. Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 at Raleigh, North Carolina. His parents, Jacob and Mary McDonough Johnson, were very poor. Johnson only had one brother to keep him company, whose name was William Johnson. At the age of three, the Johnsons’ were left fatherless due to an incident at their father’s work. Their father had jumped into a freezing river when a man had fell in. He saved the man, but died in the process. Since the Johnsons’ were very poor, Andrew Johnson didn’t have any formal, rock-solid education. At the age of fourteen, Andrew was approached by a tailor, who was willing to teach him about the ways of tailoring. The tailor gave Andrew some basic education, such as reading and writing, and left him to learn the rest. Then, when at the age of eighteen,
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In 1827, Andrew Johnson was married to Eliza McCardle. She helped further Johnson’s education and helped prosper his business. She gave him five children to take care of, whose names were Martha, Charles, Mary, Robert, and Andrew. They all moved Greeneville, Tennessee to start anew. Johnson continued his tailor career until the year 1829, when he moved to politics. Johnson managed to be elected to a couple political offices, such as governor and mayor. In the year 1861, the United States was in war with itself, which was the Civil War. Tennessee wanted to secede from the North because of how they supported slavery. Andrew tried to beg them not to secede from the Union, but they did anyways. Then, in the year 1862, Johnson managed to get military governor from the president at the time, which was Abraham