Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Trail of tears history
Essays on the trail of tears
Analysis of trail of tears
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Trail of tears history
To many the trail of tears has no meaning or relevance in their life, but for some the Trail of Tears has great meaning since many of the native ancestors endured the hardships of this time. In the 1830s, Native Americans occupied many acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida. The main reason for the Trail of Tears was because the Americans wanted the Indians’ land for themselves so they could raise their cattle, and because of the good soil so they could grow and harvest crops. Their ancestors had lived on and cultivated this land for generations, and by the end of that generation very few Native Americans remained anywhere in the Southeastern United States. Many think that The Trail of Tears was just the “Five Civilized Tribes”, but there were many other smaller tribes involved too. Some tribes agreed to sign, and others were forced into it, but either way it went they all had to leave. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation on their way to their destinations, making The Trail of Tears one of the greatest hardships in Native American history. In 1830, the President of the United States Andrew Jackson issued an order for the removal of the Native Americans, which passed through both houses of Congress. “When Andrew Jackson became president (1829–1837), he decided to build a systematic approach to Indian removal on the basis of these legal precedents.” (William. Pg 5). It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. “Thomas Jefferson was the original instigator of the idea of removing a... ... middle of paper ... .... 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. In Conclusion, The Trail of Tears was a very low point in Native Americans history. Works Cited De Rosier, Arthur H. Jr. The Removal of the Choctaw Indians. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville; 1970 Gloria Jahoda. The Trail of Tears. New York: Wing Books. 1975 Herman A. Peterson. The Trail of Tears. Lanham: The Scare Crow Press, Inc. 2011 Hicks, Brain. The Holdouts. Smithsonian 41.11 (2011): 50-60. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Nov. 2013 Trail of Tears. History.com. A&E Television Networks. Nov. 8, 2013. www.history.com. 2013 William T. Hagan. Taking Indian Lands. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 2003
Throughout Jackson's two terms as President, Jackson used his power unjustly. As a man from the Frontier State of Tennessee and a leader in the Indian wars, Jackson loathed the Native Americans. Keeping with consistency, Jackson found a way to use his power incorrectly to eliminate the Native Americans. In May 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act. This act required all tribes east of the Mississippi River to leave their lands and travel to reservations in the Oklahoma Territory on the Great Plains. This was done because of the pressure of white settlers who wanted to take over the lands on which the Indians had lived. The white settlers were already emigrating to the Union, or America. The East Coast was burdened with new settlers and becoming vastly populated. President Andrew Jackson and the government had to find a way to move people to the West to make room. In 1830, a new state law said that the Cherokees would be under the jurisdiction of state rather than federal law. This meant that the Indians now had little, if any, protection against the white settlers that desired their land. However, when the Cherokees brought their case to the Supreme Court, they were told that they could not sue on the basis that they were not a foreign nation. In 1832, though, on appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokees were a "domestic dependent nation," and therefore, eligible to receive federal protection against the state. However, Jackson essentially overruled the decision. By this, Jackson implied that he had more power than anyone else did and he could enforce the bill himself. This is yet another way in which Jackson abused his presidential power in order to produce a favorable result that complied with his own beliefs. The Indian Removal Act forced all Indians tribes be moved west of the Mississippi River. The Choctaw was the first tribe to leave from the southeast.
The Trail of Tears was one of the examples of when America treated Native Americans terrible. This event was absolutely terrible. We forced the Indians to walk to the West because white settlers wanted to grow more cotton. There was actually a law that let America remove all indians to the West, so that they can get more land to grow cotton. Now this wasn’t just a normal peaceful walk. These people were dying of starvation, most of them wasn’t able to keep their belongings, and there was many sicknesses. This 1,200 mile walk led to over 5,000 Cherokees dying.
Andrew Jackson signed the indian removal act in 1830. This act allowed him to make treaties with the natives and steal their lands. The Trail of Tears was a forced relocation of more than 15,000 cherokee Indians. The white men/people gave the natives 2 options: 1. Leave or 2. Stay and Assimilate (learn our culture). The natives couldn’t have their own government. There were 5 civilized tribes including the cherokees. They learned english and went to american schools and when the cherokees went to court they won.
The tragedy of the Cherokee nation has haunted the legacy of Andrew Jackson"'"s Presidency. The events that transpired after the implementation of his Indian policy are indeed heinous and continually pose questions of morality for all generations. Ancient Native American tribes were forced from their ancestral homes in an effort to increase the aggressive expansion of white settlers during the early years of the United States. The most notable removal came after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee, whose journey was known as the '"'Trail of Tears'"', and the four other civilized tribes, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, were forced to emigrate to lands west of the Mississippi River, to what is now day Oklahoma, against their will. During the journey westward, over 60,000 Indians were forced from their homelands. Approximately 4000 Cherokee Indians perished during the journey due to famine, disease, and negligence. The Cherokees to traveled a vast distance under force during the arduous winter of 1838-1839.# This is one of the saddest events in American history, yet we must not forget this tragedy.
In May 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which forced Native American tribes to move west. Some Indians left swiftly, while others were forced to to leave by the United States Army. Some were even taken away in chains. Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, strongly reinforced this act. In the Second State of the Union Address, Jackson advocated his Indian Policy. There was controversy as to whether the removal of the Native Americans was justified under the administration of President Andrew Jackson. In my personal opinion, as a Native American, the removal of the tribes was not in any way justified.
The trail of tears was a hideous harsh horrible time that the Native Americans will not forget the 1830s about 100,000 Native Americans peacefully lived on 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of akers. They have been on this land generations before the wight men arrived. There was gold found in Gorga and the land was for ital. They used huge cotton plantations because the people would get rich off of them. In 1830 Andrew Jackson privily sinned the removal act. Te removal act gave the Government the power to trade the land for the land that the Native Americans were on. The Native Americans did not want to move, but the precedent sent troops to force the removal. Solders who looted there homes traveled 15,000 Cherokees, and gunpoint marched over 12,000
The United States government's relationship with the Native American population has been a rocky one for over 250 years. One instance of this relationship would be what is infamously known as, the Trail of Tears, a phrase describing a journey in which the Native Americans took after giving up their land from forced removal. As a part of then-President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act, this policy has been put into place to control the natives that were attempting to reside peacefully in their stolen homeland. In the viewpoint of the Choctaw and Cherokee natives, removal had almost ultimately altered the culture and the traditional lifestyle of these people.
A report by Major William M. Davis, a white man, showed sympathy for the Cherokee indians in regard to the indian removal
In 1830, President Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act. This let him negotiate with the Native Americans for their lands. Although the si...
Before the beginning of the Trail of Tears in 1838, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived across the East coast of the US. Native Americans inhabited millions of acres of land across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. By the time White Europeans encountered Native Americans, they had already developed a complex society. This society was built on intricate languages, alphabets, number systems, and other numerous means of communication. However, During and after the trail of tears it was a widely and strongly implicated myth that Native Americans were mentally inept, and virtually incapable of creating such a society. False propaganda was heavily used against Native Americans. Native Americans were labeled
I walked into the room on New Year’s Day and felt a sudden twinge of fear. My eyes already hurt from the tears I had shed and those tears would not stop even then the last viewing before we had to leave. She lay quietly on the bed with her face as void of emotion as a sheet of paper without the writing. Slowly, I approached the cold lifeless form that was once my mother and gave her a goodbye kiss.
Jackson argued that the current Indian removal plan was ruining the natives’ lifestyle and diminishing the tribes. Consequently, Congress passed Jackson’s Indian Removal Act in 1831, allowing him to negotiate treaties with the Natives to remove them. However, the treaties possessed several flaws, permitting the harsh removal of the Indians, harsh being an understatement. As a result of such bitter treatment, a great amount of Natives perished from lack of food and supplies or the procedure itself. The removal gained the title the Trail of Tears for its tremendous effects on the Native population. The Act was conceivably the most controversial act of Jackson’s presidency. In the entirety of American history, very few actions came close to the severity of the Trail of Tears (American
During the 1830s, President Andrew Jackson developed the Indian Removal Act, which forced all natives living in the US to be displaced to Oklahoma. Before this act, the natives lived on territory that land-hungry southerners desired. Eager to please his supporters, Jackson decided that the natives needed to be moved, regardless of their rights. Even though this was damaging to the natives, Jackson believed that he was giving them a fair choice: submit to state laws or move. The reasoning behind Andrew Jackson’s decision clearly shows his superior and condescending attitude toward the Indians and their lifestyle.
The “Trail Of Tears”, as it has come to be known, is a story of extreme sadness and sorrow. The trail of tears is about the Cherokee Indians and their failed attempt to assimilate with the white man. Could the Trail Of Tears have gone differently, or was it all doomed from the start? Before we dive into the story we need to get a little background on the situation to fully “appreciate” the whole story. It all begins when a man named Christopher Columbus invades a land he thinks to be somewhere else, and decides to claim the land for himself.
The Trail Of Tears was the result of the Indian Removal Act where one of America’s largest forced migrations took place. The Indians had to endure a long journey in order to move to present day Georgia and through this journey, approximately four thousand were killed. The event took place after the law was ratified by seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, in 1830. The migration relocated five civilized Native American tribes consisting of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. This act was passed so Andrew Jackson could take over the land in the west that was occupied by the Indians. Andrew Jackson saw this as a beneficial opportunity for the Native Americans as well. Nonetheless, through different perspectives, that was wrong. The Indian Removal Act was not justified because the Indians did not give the United States permission to pass the law.