Andrew Jackson Birthplace, South Carolina

Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the USA, was the first president to be born in a log cabin, in 1767, and two locations claim to be the site of that cabin. One is located near Waxhaw, North Carolina, where a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution first built a monument in 1858, on what was believed to be the base of the original home’s chimney. The other is two miles away, in South Carolina, where a monument erected by another local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution claims this as the site of the log cabin Jackson was born in. This monument was erected in 1928, weighs three tons, and has a much more specific claim of authenticity carved into it, citing Jackson’s statement that he was born at his Uncle James Crawford’s farm, which was located around here. To further assert his South Carolinian origins, the state established the Andrew Jackson State Park around the birthplace monument in 1953. A log cabin-y museum and visitor center were built, as well as other rustic recreations, such as an imagined log cabin school like the one he might have attended in the area. Part of the uncertainty is due to the fact that the border between North and South Carolina was not fully established until the 1800s.