Petticoat Affair

Amazon. The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House by John F. Marszalek. Also available in hardcover. See the Publishers blurb.

Review by Kenneth R. Stevens, Civil War History (Dec, 1998).

"In this excellent book, Marszalek tells the story with flair and due attention to the intersection of the politics, personalities, and social issues involved."

"Andrew Jackson's 'Petticoat Affair'" by J. Kingston Pierce, American History magazine (June 1999). A good summary of the affair.

The Margaret O'Neil Eaton Affair from the White House Historical Association. High-quality background, sources and activities for students.

Summary of the Peggy Eaton Affair by Henry J. Sage. Includes the sad denoument of Eaton's life:

"[A]t age 61 she married twenty-one year old Antonio Buchignani, her granddaughter's dancing teacher and deeded all her belongings to him. Less than a year later he eloped to Italy with her granddaughter, and Peggy was forced to work as a dressmaker to support herself.

Selections from the letters of Margaret Bayard Smith discussing Peggy Eaton and her ostracism by polite society.

Mississippi Writers: John F. Marszalek. Bibliography.

Amazon. Love, Lust, and Longing In the White House by Webb Garrison. I haven't read this book; it looks kinda trashy. Can't find any reviews online.

Letter: Amasa J. Parker to Harriet Parker describing the boardinghouse where he and two future presidents resided (December 31, 1837). This wasn't Peggy Eaton's boarding house, of course, but it does shed light on the boarding-house culture of official Washington. Includes a drawing of the table (page two). For some inexplicable reason the Library of Congress thinks we want images of the letter without a transcript. From the Library of Congress' "American Memory" project.