Andrew Jackson Buys The Hermitage
Andrew Jackson purchased this property as a 425-acre farm from his neighbor Nathaniel Hays on July 5, 1804. Called “Rural Retreat,” he eventually used the French term “Hermitage.” Jackson then expanded The Hermitage land into a plantation with one goal in mind: To produce cotton as a money-making enterprise.
The first farm Jackson purchased in the Nashville area was named Poplar Grove. He and wife Rachel resided there from 1792-1796. They then moved to the 640-acre Hunter’s Hill on the Cumberland River. To be more financially secure, Jackson sold Hunter’s Hill to purchase the smaller Hermitage farm.
The Hermitage As A "King Cotton" Plantation
By definition, The Hermitage was a plantation during Andrew Jackson’s life and made cotton its business. Cotton plants covered about 200 of the 1,000 or so acres.
A plantation is a large farm devoted primarily to growing a singular type of crop for profit. Although a minor sector within larger southern society, the elite plantation aristocracy controlled the majority of wealth and power in a primarily agricultural-driven landscape. Their cash crop was cotton, and “King Cotton” ruled with a heavy hand throughout southern plantations.
The expansion of cotton production into the interior American South by 1800 was fostered by the insatiable demand for cheap cotton by the textile mills of Great Britain and New England. Native American tribes had practiced agriculture for more than 1,000 years in these fertile lands. This fertile, dark soiled “Black Belt” through Alabama and Mississippi became the center of King Cotton’s realm.
However, planters stretched the ecological limits of the land as they sought their fortunes. Tennessee was the northernmost outpost of cotton production in the antebellum South, but the climate allowed for only a narrow window of success in planting this cash crop.
Andrew Jackson knew he would eventually have to cease depending on cotton for income. The land was wearing out, the price of cotton was falling and the limited growing season made it a great risk. By 1845, the year of Jackson’s death, he described the price of cotton as “ruinous.” By 1860, only 12 percent of farms in the slave states of the American South could be classified as plantations.
Prior to the American Civil War (1861-1865), enslaved workers performed the demanding labor required of a plantation. The perpetual process of planting, weeding and then picking required by “King Cotton” dictated the daily lives of the enslaved.
By the time of Andrew Jackson's death, it took more than 160 enslaved workers--about 100 for the cotton alone--to conduct the daily work of the plantation and to satisfy the needs of the Jackson family, including cooking, cleaning, gardening and driving the carriages.
Plantation & Diverse Agriculture
Though cotton was the cash crop at The Hermitage, other produce was also grown. Corn was raised primarily to provide basic sustenance for the enslaved. Oats, wheat, barley and other grains were produced to feed the Jackson family and the enslaved as fodder for livestock. In the garden, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas and beans were also planted and tended by the enslaved.
The Hermitage had orchards with diverse varieties of apples, pears, peaches, quince, cherries and other fruits. Hogs supplied the basic allotment of protein. Milk cows, beef cattle and sheep also provided food for The Hermitage residents, enslaved and free. Hay from the pastures fed animals, and trees from the woodlot heated the mansion.
Following Jackson’s Death
Andrew Jackson, Jr. inherited The Hermitage following General Jackson’s death in June 1845. Falling cotton prices, bad financial decisions and natural disasters sunk Junior deeper into the debt he had accumulated. Junior sent some enslaved to the family Halcyon Plantation in Mississippi during the late 1840s, where many died during the 1849 cholera epidemic. Junior sold Halcyon the same year. The Census of Agriculture of 1850 shows a record of 94 bales of cotton being produced at The Hermitage, the same year he purchased ironworks in Kentucky. After a fire in 1853, the ironworks was sold, along with the enslaved working there.
Dairy products, especially butter, became increasingly important products for sale. In 1850, The Hermitage produced 1,000 pounds of butter.
Andrew Junior began to sell most of The Hermitage farmlands to individuals, and in 1856, hoping to move operations to new locations in Mississippi and Louisiana, he sold The Hermitage to the State of Tennessee. The new plantation was under construction, so the family leased The Hermitage back from the state for two years. By 1858, Junior and Sarah lived in the South and brought most of the enslaved with them.
Once the family left, agriculture at The Hermitage nearly came to a halt in the years just before the Civil War. There is no entry for The Hermitage in the Census of Agriculture for 1860. In early 1861, as the Civil War progressed, Andrew Junior and Sarah returned to The Hermitage. The state allowed them to live as tenants for the remainder of their lives.
The Civil War and Aftermath
The plantation in Franklin Parish, Louisiana was the location of some 40 enslaved during the Civil War. A few made their way back to Davidson County, but most stayed in the South after Emancipation. Unfortunately, their freedom stories are unknown. Only a handful of enslaved house servants remained at The Hermitage along with the family by the Civil War period. The site had already been converted from a plantation to a small farm. The residents maintained subsistent amounts of resources, such as vegetables, fruit and livestock.
The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to The Hermitage slaves in Tennessee because Nashville was under occupation by the United States Army in 1863. But in the summer of 1863, Nancy Fulton escaped to Nashville at night. A few days later, Hannah Jackson, her daughter Martha and Martha’s children also left. There, they joined the hundreds of slaves who had freed themselves and taken refuge in the Union-occupied city.
Andrew and Sarah’s son Samuel died from wounds suffered at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863.
Andrew Jackson, Jr. died in April 1865 from a hunting accident. Sarah Jackson and her son, Andrew Jackson III, were left to manage The Hermitage. They were assisted by a few day laborers and now freemen like Alfred Jackson as tenant farmers.
The Jacksons reported no cotton production at all in 1870 and 1880. Livestock and grain output were greatly reduced. Additionally, they only produced 500 pounds of butter in 1870. Alfred Jackson produced one bale of cotton in 1870 and two bales in 1880. Most of his 40 acres were devoted to subsistence farming for his family.
The few who remained cared for themselves, and the legacy of Andrew Jackson until Sarah Jackson passed away in 1887, and Andrew III left The Hermitage in 1893. Alfred Jackson shared stories with visitors until his death in 1901.
The Hermitage Today
The Ladies’ Hermitage Association (LHA), renamed the Andrew Jackson Foundation (AJF) in 2014, acquired from the state the core 25-acre site with existing key buildings of The Hermitage in 1889, and it has been welcoming guests ever since. The same year, the Tennessee Confederate Soldiers’ Home was established on state-owned Hermitage property to the south. The able-bodied Civil War veteran residents assisted in farming the land in order to supply food for the home. When the Soldiers’ Home closed in 1933, the LHA hired workers to farm the land in order to help support the museum.
The Hermitage is still a functional farm today. During your visit to the historic site, you are able to explore more than 1,100 acres of land featuring buildings, structures, garden, a nature trail, a modern farming operation (corn, wheat and soybeans grown in rotation), a seasonal small cotton patch, and you can experience the beauty of trees, shrubs and flowers dotting the formal and informal landscape.
