This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed human.

And we return to our American stories.

Even today, officials in Kentucky must swear under oath before taking office that they have not

participated in any way, shape, or form in a societal relic commonly associated with our nation's

seventh president. We're, of course, talking about a duel. Here to tell the story of Andrew Jackson,

and his dueling is Keith Hardison,

the former director of interpretation at the Hermitage in Nashville, Tennessee.

Take it away, Keith.

Jackson was not born an aristocrat.

In fact, was born the child of Scotch Irish immigrants.

He was orphaned by 14 and then became arguably, if not America's first rags to riches story,

America's best known early rags to riches story.

And those who were in the aristocratic class understood and supported

concept of dueling themselves.

Dueling is an interesting phenomena that sort of peaked in America between around 1750 and 1850.

It came out of what's called a code of honor that evolved in Europe.

Some people will trace this back to a document called the Code Duello, which supposedly was put

together by representatives from several areas in Ireland.

The fact of the matter is there have been some question as to whether that document is as old as it was supposed to be.

But what we do know is that back as far as the Middle Ages, there was a form of dueling practiced by the upper classes

in Great Britain, France. There was some in Germany, and the thing that was most important

...