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Liberty is a word that is as central to today’s life as it was to the American Republic. What does it mean? Quite simply it means: “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.” Liberty has played a key role in civilization in various ways. There are many written documents and books that explain and define liberty and what it means to each member of a society. Liberty was the cause of battles, protests, and some of the most important documentation in America’s history, and even in the present time of 2016. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s The Seneca Falls Declaration (1848), Thomas Jefferson’s The Final Text of the Declaration of Independence (July 4th …show more content…
One documental example of how liberty impacted life during the American Republic is The Seneca Falls Declaration by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Canton, along with fellow feminist Lucretia Mott, initiated the very first women’s rights convention in America’s history. Canton believed that both men and women should have equal rights. She modeled her argument after Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Canton used Jefferson’s Declaration as her archetypal for basing her argument because America wanted freedom from a tyrant king and women wanted freedom from tyrant men. She gave both the problems and the solutions to all of the discourtesies and injustices imposed upon women of that time. She used her declaration as a means to proclaim women’s liberty from men and to be treated as equals under the grounds of the original Declaration. Canton claimed “… in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation-in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because …show more content…
The Cherokee simply wanted the liberty that was their birthright, to stay on their land and to continue life as they knew it. The Cherokee people had even been promised their own land in several treaties they had signed with the United States federal government, but the United States president refused to acknowledge them. The Cherokee people tried to appeal to the fact that they were being driven from the land they had inhabited for many years. They tried to follow the regulations that were put upon them. They set up schools and constructed a written constitution similar to the United States, they became farmers and even owned some slaves, yet still they were not awarded liberty. The new land they were being made to move to was unknown to them. It also did not have the aspect of being close to the dead members of their tribe and family was extremely important to the Cherokee people. The Cherokee claimed, “we cannot endure to be deprived of our national and individual rights and subjected to a process of intolerable oppression. We wish to remain on the land of our fathers. We have a perfect & original right to claim without interruption or molestation.” Unfortunately, the Cherokee were never bestowed with liberty and several thousand Native Americans died on the forced move from their
In 1845, Ebenezer Carter Tracy published a book titled, Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts. Within this book is a statement from the Cherokee people from 1830 called, “Appeal of the Cherokee Nation.” In this statement, The Cherokee Indians refuse to move west of the Mississippi River. They made this refusal for two main reasons. The Indians believed that they had a right to remain in the lands of their ancestors and they also insisted that their chances of survival would be very low if they moved west. Their survivability would be impacted by their lack of knowledge of the new lands, and by the Indians that were already living in the western lands, and who would view the Cherokee as enemies.
In the essay, “The Trail of Tears” by author Dee Brown explains that the Cherokees isn’t Native Americans that evaporate effectively from their tribal land, but the enormous measure of sympathy supported on their side that was abnormal. The Cherokees process towards culture also the treachery of both states and incorporated governments of the declaration and promises that contrived to the Cherokee nation. Dee Brown wraps up that the Cherokees had lost Kentucky and Tennessee, but a man who once consider their buddy named Andrew Jackson had begged the Cherokees to move to Mississippi but the bad part is the Indians and white settlers never get along together even if the government wanted to take care of them from harassment it shall be incapable to do that. The Cherokee families moved to the West, but the tribes were together and denied to give up more land but Jackson was running for President if the Georgians elects him as President he agreed that he should give his own support to open up the Cherokee lands for establishment.
America is well known for many things, and one of the main qualities is the idea and practice of freedom and liberty. When thinking of the United States, one would probably say “Land of the free, Home of the brave.” America is a place where citizens have rights, can have happiness, and are free to live the life they choose. Although America is so free now, have citizens always had the rights that they have today? The founding fathers of the United States of America made the way to freedom when the Declaration of Independence was written, but even though it was written down, not all citizens had freedom. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote The Declaration of Sentiments, she used The Declaration of Independence as a guide. Freedom was still freedom, of course, but Stanton used it for a purpose that was different from how the founding fathers used it. When Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, she not only included the way Americans believe in freedom and liberty, she also included the way the beliefs can change and be interpreted in different ways.
“To deny political equality is to rob the ostracised of all self-respect.” - Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
In 1783, the American Revolution ended. Since most of the Cherokees helped the British in the Revolutionary War, the Americans needed to make peace with them. Then in1785, the treaty of Hopewell was signed (Perdue 8). This was a peace treaty between the Cherokee and the Americans. This treaty defined the Cherokees’ boundaries and it gave them the right to get rid of unwanted settlers. The states of Georgia and North Carolina ignored this treaty. The people of these states expanded into Cherokee land, and the Cherokees continued to resist.
As Americans sought to expand their settlements into Cherokee land, the Cherokee faced three choices: assimilate, leave their native land, or defend their sovereignty. The Cherokee Indians had lived on these lands of thousands of years before the colonist claimed it for the United States. Five million acres of land in Georgia was trying to be peaceably obtained from the Indians. The Cherokee Indians having already given portions of their lands in numerous Georgia treaties wanted to hold onto what little land they had left. When the Americans continued to occupy land that they believed they deserved the Cherokee Indians were left with no alternative but to try to defend their sovereignty.
First, the Cherokees don’t want to move to their new territory. According to Joan Marshall in the article “Allow the Cherokee To Stay” that, they were treated horrible, and they didn’t get the treaties said when they moved. The Cherokees decided to ring their problems to the U.S. Supreme Court which is just fair. The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t really favor on the Cherokees but
The Cherokee Trail of Tears resulted from the execution of the Treaty of New Echota (1835), an “agreement” signed under the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (The Cherokee and the Trail of Tears). With the expansion of the American population, the discovery of gold in Georgia, and the need for even more land for American results in the push to move the Natives who were “in the way”. So with the Indian Removal Act of 1830, Congress acted to remove Natives on the east coast of the United States to land west of the Mississippi River, something in which was never embraced or approved by them (The Cherokee and the Trail of Tears). Many state governments, such as Georgia, did not want Native-owned land within their boundaries, while the Natives did not want to move. However, under the Removal Act, the United States Congress gave then-President Andrew Jackson the authority to negotiate removal treaties.
The federal government proceeded to find a way around this decision and had three minor Cherokee chief’s sign the “Treaty of New Echota” in 1835 giving the Cherokee lands to the government for 5.6 million dollars and free passage west. Congress got the treaty ratified by only one vote. Members of their tribes murdered all three chiefs who took part in the signing of the treaty. After this event there was not much the Cherokee’s could do and were forcibly moved west on what they called and are known today as the ‘Trail of Tears,’ which became a constitutional crisis in our history. In this instance the lack of cooperation between the branches of the government was the downfall for the Cherokee nation. The way the Cherokee’s were forced west caused losses of up to twenty percent of the nation. This figure is only a guess and scholar’s think it was more a third of the nation was lost. The ‘Trail of Tears’ was also a morale issue in the United States, later having an impact on our history the way other Native American races in general are treated in the future.
Sixty- nine years after the Declaration of Independence, one group of women gathered together and formed the Seneca Falls Convention. Prior and subsequent to the convention, women were not allowed to vote because they were not considered equal to men. During the convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered the “Declaration of Sentiments.” It intentionally resembles the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal…” (Stanton, 466). She replaced the “men” with “men and women” to represent that women and men should be treated equally. Stanton and the other women in the convention tried to fight for voting rights. Dismally, when the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced to the Congress, the act failed to be passed. Even though women voiced their opinions out and urged for justice, they could not get 2/3 of the states to agree to pass the amendment. Women wanted to tackle on the voting inequalities, but was resulted with more inequalities because people failed to listen to them. One reason why women did not achieve their goals was because the image of the traditional roles of women was difficult to break through. During this time period, many people believed that women should remain as traditional housewives.
Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...
.... White settlers began to resent the Cherokees. Pressure was put on the tribe to voluntarily move, but their homeland, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama they have lived here for generations and they did not want to move.
There has always been a big debate on whether the Cherokee Indians should have or should not have been removed from the land they resided on. Although the common consensus of the whites was for removal, and for the Cherokees it was against removal, there were some individuals on each side that disagreed with their groups’ decision. The Cherokee Indians should have been removed from their homeland because the Cherokees would not have been able to survive on their own with the way they were living, they would not have been able to exist amidst a white population, and if they were removed, the whites would have helped them create a new and prosperous civilization.
The Trail of Tears was a horrific time in history for the Cherokee Indians. May 18, 1830 was the beginning of a devastating future for the Cherokee Indians. On that day, Congress officially passed Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act. This policy granted President Andrew Jackson the right to force the Cherokee tribe consisting of about 13,000 people off of their reservations consisting of about 100 million acres east of the Mississippi River in the Appalachian Mountains and to attend a long and torturous journey consisting of about 1,200 miles within nine months until they reached their new home, a government-mandated area within present-day Oklahoma. They left their land which was home to the “Five Civilized Tribes” which were assimilated tribes including, the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminoles.
The cries from Americans did not stop President Van Buren from giving General Winfield Scott orders to remove the Cherokees. The Cherokees, despite their grossly horrific predicament, still were proud. They were once a great people, and they maintained that they would remain that way.