Andrew Johnson was born on December 1808. He was the 17th president of the United States. Johnson had been born into extreme poverty and had no formal education. Yet with determination and hard work, he had risen rapidly through politics, to state government and on to national office. He married Eliza McCardle, who was a school-teacher and was a big part of Johnson’s education, she helped him learn how to write and do arithmetic. He had three sons and two daughters. Andrew Johnson was a democratic and had served in the Senate from 1857- 1862. In the early months of the Civil War, Johnson was forced to flee his own state to avoid arrest. When federal