Mark R. Cheathem Andrew Jackson, Jacksonian popular culture, Major Jack Downing, Seba Smith

The Age of Jackson’s Forrest Gump

I'd come across Major Jack Downing before this article, but I'd never given him much thought. Downing, created by American humorist Seba Smith, was a "Gump"-like character, according to Aaron McLean Winter. Smith created Jack in 1830 while editing the Portland Courier. An ambitious but naïve young man who abandons his family farm in rural Maine … Continue reading The Age of Jackson’s Forrest Gump