Probably the first of many

So I'm reading Jon Meachem's new autobiography/hagiography of Andrew Jackson, and it's really good. I wish I were further into it, but it takes a while to absorb so much awesomeness. Also, torts. A lot of stories about Jackson are fairly well known: his duels, attacking a would-be assassin, and the Battle of New Orleans. Some of them, however, are interesting and pretty unknown, at least to me, so I figured I would share some of them. Maybe turn it into a recurring feature, because Andrew Jackson is just that cool. If you disagre, you're wrong.

This first one, the one that prompted this whole idea, isn't actually about Jackson, but a member of Congress from while he was President, and Martin Van Buren's VP, Colonel Richard M. Johnson. For one, Johnson claimed that he personally killed Tecumseh during the War of 1812, making him either a badass or delusional. Either would be cool. He was also kind of a dick.

At various times in his life, Johnson had common law marriages with three different slaves of his. The first died in a cholera epidemic, not an especially uncommon occurence in the first half of the nineteenth century. The second, however, was a pretty hilarious case. This wife/slave was unfaithful to Johnson. Rather than handle this maturely, Johnson took an alternative route: he sold her and got with her sister.

It's stories like this that make me wonder how anyone can say that they don't like history. There's so much crazy stuff going on that it's impossible to find something you don't like.