Andrew Johnson Birthplace
Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Andrew Johnson 1808 1875. President of the United States, 1865-69. Born near here in a kitchen now located 1 mile N.E.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Andrew Johnson was born in humble circumstances near this spot in 1808, in a small kitchen dwelling that still survives. A self-taught tailor who never attended school, he rose through Tennessee politics to the vice presidency and then, after Lincoln's assassination in 1865, to the White House. His stormy presidency during Reconstruction ended in the first impeachment of an American president.
Why it matters
Johnson's rise from poverty to the presidency is a striking American story, and his clashes over Reconstruction shaped the bitter struggle over the postwar South and the rights of freed people.
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