Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s November 1, 1777. I’m in a British prison camp with Elizabeth Jackson, the mother of future president Andrew Jackson.
JG: “Mrs. Jackson, aren’t you afraid that you’ll catch prison fever nursing these Yankee soldiers?”
EJ: “Mr. Gillespie, come what may, my life is in God’s hands. These valiant young boys, these angels for liberty, deserve no less.”
Elizabeth Jackson sacrificed her life to the cause of liberty. She did die of prison fever, while bringing back to life hundreds of young American soldiers.
On the east side of the Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson memorial, near Lancaster, South Carolina, it reads, “Elizabeth Hutchinson, wife of Andrew Jackson, Sr., of Larne, County Antrim, Ireland, settled in Waxhaws 1765. While nursing Waxhaw patriots on a British prison ship in Charleston, S.C., Elizabeth was stricken with small pox. Died November, 1781. Buried near Charleston S.C.”
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
