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Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson
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Rachel Jackson never lived to serve as Andrew Jackson's First Lady. The President believed that he was partly responsible for her death just seven weeks after the election of 1828. Rachel Donelson was married to Captain Lewis Robards when she met Andrew Jackson. The marriage was not a good one and eventually she left Robards and married Jackson. But the vengeful Captain Robards gave Rachel the impression that the divorce had already been granted by the time she married Jackson. This was not the case; Robards declared that Rachel was living adulterously with Jackson and only then gave the official divorce. Rachel was vilified by the press over and over. Jackson, too, came in for his fair share of attention as a man who seemingly would steal another man's wife and marry a woman not yet divorced. Jackson believed that had he checked the records more diligently, Rachel would have been spared this humiliation. After the election, Rachel stated that she did not want to live in the White House; she got her wish, dying of an apparent heart attack. She was buried in her Inaugural gown. |
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