Andrew Jackson was the seventh president to serve our country, having previously made his name as a congressman and general. He has a complicated legacy, largely due to the fact that he sat idly as U.S. treaties made with Native Americans were broken and 15,000 indigenous peoples were relocated during the Trail of Tears, leading to thousands of deaths. He was also a slave owner who opposed attempts to abolish slavery. On a lighter note, he also owned a parrot who learned how to swear—one of the most famous pets to live in the White House.
This president was a famous Civil War General before he entered into politics. In his post-presidential years, he founded a financial firm that subsequently went bankrupt around the same time he learned he had throat cancer. He sold his memoirs for $450,000 and successfully managed to complete them just before he died. He was known for having a dry sense of humor—in fact, he told one of the funniest jokes told by a U.S. president.