†

Cotton was Andrew Jackson's cash crop.

At the peak of operation, Jackson had more than 100 slaves working in the fields.† Since he based the amount of cotton on the amount the available labor force could pick, Jackson planted only about 200 of The Hermitageís approximately 1000 acres in cotton. A strong adult could pick between 200 and 300 pounds per day.† The remainder of the farm was planted in crops such as corn and oats to feed humans and livestock. Smaller crops of Irish and sweet potatoes, peas and beans, hogs, milk cows, beef cattle, and sheep also provided food for the Hermitage residents.† Hay from the pastures fed animals and wood from the woodlot heated the mansion.† Jackson raised and trained racehorses but this operation was mostly for pleasure, not profit.

†The insatiable demand for cotton by the textile mills of Great Britain and New England encouraged the expansion of cotton farming into the newly settled frontier areas of the South where the fertile land and longer growing season produced more cotton per acre than older areas of production.† Andrew Jackson knew he would have to quit depending on Hermitage cotton for his income.† The land was wearing out, the price of cotton was falling and the barely long enough growing season made it a great risk.† ì...We must change our culture in part from cotton and turn our attention to stock, hemp, and perhaps tobacco, as I am convinced from the change of the seasons we must not depend on the cotton crop entirely, for support.î† (Andrew Jackson to Andrew Jackson Jr.† Sept. 22 1836.) By 1845, the year of Jacksonís death, he described the price of cotton as ìruinousî.††

A typical nineteenth century cotton gin and press.

With the familyís absence, agriculture at The Hermitage came to a near halt in the years just before the Civil War. There is no entry for The Hermitage in the Agricultural Census of 1860. However, the new venture in Mississippi failed too and in the fall of 1860, the Jacksons returned to The Hermitage as tenants.† A few months later, the Civil War began.

By the 1870 Agricultural Census, agriculture at The Hermitage had changed radically.† The slaves had been freed and most had moved away.† Andrew Jackson Junior died in 1865 and his son Samuel died of wounds suffered at the Battle of Chickamauga. Sarah Jackson, her son Andrew Jackson III, tenant farmers, and a few day laborers farmed The Hermitage. The Jacksons reported no cotton production at all in 1870 and 1880.† Livestock and grain production were greatly reduced.† They produced 500 pounds of butter in 1870, half the production of 1850.† Alfred Jackson, a freed slave tenant farmer, produced one bale of cotton in 1870 and two bales in 1880. Most of his 40 acres were devoted to subsistence farming for his family.

A small herd of Belted Galloway cattle graze at The Hermitage.

†