Andrew Jackson, born into a struggling immigrant family and orphaned at age fourteen, rose through persistence, ambition, and luck to become a respected lawyer, judge, businessman, politician, military officer, farmer, and president. Success marked his early years in Tennessee from 1788 until the early 1800s, when he fell on hard times. To pay his debts, he sold his fine riverfront farm, Hunter’s Hill, in 1804 and bought this neighboring farm, which he named The Hermitage to reflect his desire to retreat from public life. Although largely undeveloped, the farm included a comfortable but not luxurious two-story log farmhouse built between 1798 and 1800. By 1806, hired hands had added a two-room log kitchen and quarters for some of his nine enslaved workers a few yards from Jackson’s home. Andrew and Rachel Jackson, their adopted son Andrew Junior, and many wards, relatives, and other adopted members of the Jackson family lived here until moving into the new brick mansion in 1821.