Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, Andrew Johnson received an informal education and was largely self-taught. He trained to become a tailor, working as a tailor’s apprentice in North Carolina before moving to Tennessee in 1826. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 10 years beginning in 1843. Johnson served a four-year term as governor of Tennessee. In 1857 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1862. During the Civil War Johnson remained loyal to the Union, serving as military governor of Tennessee and rising to the rank of brigadier general. He was elected vice president for Abraham Lincoln’s second presidential term and became president upon Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. During his presidency, Johnson came into conflict with Congress over Reconstruction policies. As a result, Congress began impeachment hearings against him in 1868. In his Senate trial Johnson was acquitted. Johnson left the presidency in 1869 but served in the U.S. Senate briefly before he died in 1875.
