Thomas Jackson's Response To The Indian Removal Act

Can you imagine strange men invading your land, forcing you to convert to their way of living or being killed? Then after adapting, being forced to leave your home forever? This is exactly what Thomas Jackson required of the Indians after passing the Indian Removal Act. In the Removal Act, he portrayed the migration to their new home, the reserves, to be a positive thing. The Indians were led to believe they would be escorted to their new homes free of charge. Jackson also reassured them that his forefathers left their lands and had created a new life in America. By the Indians leaving their ancient lands, Jackson would be able to develop the forests and fields into cities for larger populations and increased safety from future invasions. The

What Jackson was hiding from the Indians was the treacherous journey ahead of them. Jackson stated, “He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population. To save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the General Government kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the whole expense of his removal and settlement” (Jackson) . In May of 1838, the Cherokee were taken from their homes. One soldier wrote, “witnessed the execution of the most brutal order in the History of American Warfare. I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point into the stockades” (Burnett). He also wrote, “Many of these helpless people did not have blankets and many of them had been driven from home barefooted” (Burnett). The Cherokee, who followed the legal laws of staying on their land, could have never imagined the trials they would

Jackson wrote, “By opening the whole territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the settlement of the whites it will incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power” (Jackson) and continued on to say, “It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters” (Jackson). However, the Cherokee weren’t savages. They were different from the white man, but many Cherokee had converted to Christianity. A soldier wrote this about the chief’s wife, “Among this number was the beautiful Christian wife of Chief John Ross. This noble hearted woman died a martyr to childhood, giving her only blanket for the protection of a sick child” (Burnett). That statement alone shows the Cherokee did not deserve the treatment they