Escaped From Indentured Servitude

His father, Jacob Johnson passed away while Andrew Johnson was just three years old. His mother, Mary McDonough Johnson, later gave him and his brother to a tailor called James Selby as indentured servants after she got remarried. At the age of eleven, Andrew joined Selby's store as an apprentice, and he was required by law to work there until he turned 21.

After nearly five years at James Selby's, Johnson and his brother left because he was unhappy there. Selby published a newspaper ad on June 24 offering a prize of $10 to anyone who could bring the brothers back to him. They were never apprehended, though. The Johnson brothers traveled to Carthage, North Carolina, where Andrew Johnson spent many months working as a tailor. Johnson relocated to Laurens, South Carolina, out of fear that he might be detained and sent back to Raleigh. He promptly got employment, met Mary Wood, his first love, and made her a quilt as a gift. She declined his marriage proposal, nevertheless. He went back to Raleigh in the hopes of buying out his apprenticeship, but he was unable to reach an agreement with Selby. Unable to stay in Raleigh, where he risked being apprehended for abandoning Selby, he decided to move west.