Possible Cemetery of People Enslaved by Andrew Jackson Found at The Hermitage

The Andrew Jackson Foundation (AJF) announced yesterday that it believes it has located the site of a cemetery for the African Americans enslaved by Andrew Jackson on the property of his Hermitage plantation.

Photo credit: Andrew Jackson Foundation (https://thehermitage.com/enslaved-cemetery)

As I have argued for a long time, for a variety of reasons, both scholars and the general public have paid far too little attention to Jackson as an enslaver and the people whom he enslaved. For a long time, Jackson’s identity as an enslaver was either ignored or he was presented as a kind, benevolent master who treated enslaved African Americans like family.  In reality, the historical evidence shows that he was a typical enslaver who did not give a second thought about treating the people he held in bondage as property and had no qualms about using violence to keep them obedient.

Over several decades, The Hermitage and other entities have invested in archaeological digs on the property that have provided important evidence for scholars to build on. Unfortunately, most historians have ignored this scholarship, to the detriment of our understanding of who Jackson was and what his identity as an enslaver meant for him economically, socially, and politically, not to mention a lack of understanding about the lives and communities of those he held in bondage. Hopefully, this new discovery will encourage historians to take a second look at the primary source evidence (available in places like the free editions of the Papers of Andrew Jackson) and the scholarship, most of which has been produced by archaeologists. Only then will it be possible to change the standard narratives presented to the public.