Did Rachel Jackson Deserve to Die for Bigamy?
(1767-1828). Miniature by Louise C. Strobel.
Forward with our scandal series…
The campaign of 1828 was marked by large amounts of nasty mudslinging that left no stone unturned. When Jackson married his wife Rachel in 1791, the couple believed that she was divorced; however, the divorce had not yet been finalized. In 1794 Jackson remarried Rachel to remedy the situation. But it would resurface 35 years later when Jackson ran for President in 1828. One newspaperman asked, “Ought a convicted adulteress and her paramour husband be placed in the highest offices of this free and Christian land?” Jackson’s wife Rachel suffered a heart attack and died before Jackson’s inauguration. He blamed his political enemies for her death.