Preview

Trail of Tears

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1103 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
The Indians of America lived mostly peacefully among the people in the states. Though to some they were only to ever be thought of as savages, people who would kill the whites. Others thought of them as less than whites. They were essentially in the same social status or class as the blacks were. Though the land in America more rightfully belonged to them than any persons living there, they were treated like immigrants in a foreign land. They weren’t given the same rights as the other people there. They were also taken advantage of because they did not understand what the Europeans were doing when they were making trades and other events similar to that. One of the main people that did not like the Indians, was Andrew Jackson. When Jackson became president he passed the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal was an unfair law towards the Indians that did not allow them their rights and was forced on them, some people were against it, most Indians were, and a rare few white people. It began the Trail of Tears, a sad time with many deaths for the Indians. On May 28th, 1830. President Andrew Jackson got the “Indian Removal Act” passed through both houses in Congress. In this act, it called for all Indians living East of the Mississippi, to relocate to the West of the Mississippi. Jackson would give land to the Indians that would move to the West. Some tribes agreed peacefully, others would not go. At this time, there was a great number of Cherokee Indians living to the East, but they weren’t the only tribe. There were many tribes needing to relocate. Tribes such as the, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles. In Cherokee alone there was close to twenty thousand Indians that needed to be moved. With the “Indian Removal Act” being passed, the Native Americans were very upset and did not want to move. With the Indians refusing to move Jackson responded with force and action. This started, what became later known as, the Trail of Tears.
It was

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The ‘Trail of Tears’ refers to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. At the time, America was rapidly expanding as a country. As new land was being sought after and westward expansion was in full swing, certain southern states were beginning to be valued and inhabited by white settlers. “But their land (Indians), located in parts of Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee, was valuable, and it grew to be more coveted as white settlers flooded the region.” The only problem was that these southern states were already inhabited by Native Americans. Andrew Jackson had a solution to this problem. Simply strong-arm the Indians off of their land. To quote a section of the Indian Removal Act, “It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters.” While tribes were ‘compensated’ with currency to relocate, they had no choice or say in the matter. They were forced to move westward in the midst of a brutally cold and unforgiving winter. The relocation of these people was dubbed ‘The Trail of Tears’ as so many Indians died during their travels west. There are always two sides to an argument. However, Jackson’s Indian Removal Act was perceived by many as unconstitutional, and an abuse of power, sparking heated political debate among American citizens at the time, and strong opinions within the American political…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Trail of Tears was caused by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The enforcement of this act was possible through the use of military forces. “The soldiers first erected internment camps and then rounded up the Cherokees. ‘Families at dinner were startled...and rose up to be driven with blows and oaths along the weary miles of trail that led to the stockade’”(Takaki 76). The Cherokees were gathered and forced to go on the trail. They were dragged out of their homes without notice and put on these trails unprepared, where they would face severe conditions of weather, sickness, etc.…

    • 2363 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One treaty of the time period including 1790 to 1880 was the result of a battle with the Shawnee, Wyandot, and other Native American tribes called the Battle of Fallen Timbers. This was the treaty of Greenville in 1795, in which the natives surrendered claims to the Ohio Territory. This particular treaty was never signed by the influential Native American Tecumseh who would be a key component in later Native American rebellions. Most diplomacy with the Native Americans did not include a true acceptance of an act or treaty by the Native Americans. In addition to unwilling acceptances by the Native American is the Indian Removal Act of 1830 passed during the office of Andrew Jackson. This act forced the resettlement of many thousands of Native Americans, by 1835 most tribes in the east reluctantly complied and moved out west. Fortunately the Natives were helped in their resettlement by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, created in 1836. Two years later in 1838, after Jackson had left office, the United States army forced fifteen thousand Cherokees to leave Georgia. Their trek to the west is known as the trail of tears in which four…

    • 1546 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    This act made thousands of Indians, mainly Cherokees, leave their home North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia so that white families could live in their homes because there wasn’t enough room for the both of them. The Indians were forced to walk to Oklahoma, an area designated for the Native Americans. This journey became widely known by “the trail of tears”, because it was a harsh journey, and it caused many diseases to spread, and many people died of starvation. Almost 2000 Indians died because of this Indian Removal Act, which can be considered the main reason Andrew Jackson was such a terrible president.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On May 28, 1830 the Indian tribes had another setback by the Untied States government, where there rights were stripped away even further. President Andrew Jackson signed into law “The Removal Act.” This new law gave the President of the United States the authority “to cause so much of any territory belonging to the United States, west of the Mississippi River, not including in…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Trail Of Tears Analysis

    • 1238 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Most people are conscious of the devastating effects The Trail of Tears had on the Cherokee people, some question its necessity and the mindset of President Andrew Jackson to not only let this horrific affair to take lace but to fight tooth and nail for this policy. Despite the plethora of writings in place regarding the injustices that the Native Americans endured during the Trail of Tears very little attention has been given to why the people of that time would allow this forced removal to take place. This paper will analyze the immoral, unconstitutional and illegal engagements that took place during the development of President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy as well as the actions instigating the trail of trails and the devastating…

    • 1238 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Removal Act DBQ

    • 1296 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Since the colonization of America, there have been tensions and confrontations between white settlers and Native Americans over territory and civilization. President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, allowing him to communicate with Native American tribal leaders in order to negotiate their voluntary relocation to Federal reservations west of the Mississippi River. When several tribes refused to relocate, the conflict turned violent and was conducted through the use of militias and military force. Due to this violent conflict and the subsequent relocation of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans, relations between Native Americans and the United States Government have since been strained. Native Americans continually experience higher rates of poverty, fewer opportunities for educational advancement, higher rates of physical and mental illness, as well as general discrimination through social systems and policy. Strained relationships, societal, and economic opportunities have weakened and are less readily available to Native Americans, all factors that can be traced back to the Indian Removal Act.…

    • 1296 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Trail of Tears, a gruesome event taking place in the mid 1800's. Andrew Jackson and his Indian removal Act, it costed the land of the Cherokees of the east Mississippi River to be taken away from them. Due to the land being stolen, the Cherokees had to migrate to the present-day of Oklahoma. With its devastating events such as, Hunger, disease, and exhaustion. Years later,…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cherokee Removal

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This caused there to be battles between settlers and Cherokee. There was a big racial issue when it came to battles though. Whenever the settlers would win a battle it was called an Indian war, but when the Indians would win, it was called a massacre.…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ever since we settled here on this land, we have pushed aside the Native Americans to make room for expansion. The Native Americans have been forced to deal with this new culture moving in by embracing the heritage, combining the two, or fighting back with violence. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson began his Removal Policy and attempted to force all Native Americans from their homes, to west of the Mississippi River. In an attempt to prevent the state of Georgia from taking their land from them, the Cherokee tribe went to court. In Worcester vs Georgia, the court ruled that the state of Georgia had no authority over the territory but Georgia ignored the ruling. The United States Army rounded up the Cherokee and forced them to march west in a movement called the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears is a movement that limited the rights of the Native Americans. The Declaration of Independence clearly states that every man has the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Forcing the entire tribe to relocate to a new land is denying the Native Americans of their rights of all three of these things; therefore limited their rights.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Native Americans have shed a river of tears, tears that have been forgotten only to end up written in history later on. The Chickasaw, a Native American tribe that first originated from Mississippi, was part many of many other tribes that suffered from the Indian Removal Act in 1830. President Jackson, demonstrated who his true colors were after he made the Chickasaw among four other groups walk in the middle of the winter into “Indian Territory”, also known as Oklahoma, “The United States promised to resume annuity payments and that the Chickasaw Nation would never become part of a new state. That promise was broken 40 years later” (Encyclopedia). With this said, after the Chickasaw injustice was brought up to the surface, they were finally…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Trail Of Tears

    • 2270 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The primary reason for the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was that the white settlers of this country discovered gold in the northern part of Georgia and became hungry for more land. This brought about a gold rush to most of the state and gave president Jackson a reason to push the Indians out of the area in order for more white Americans could come to Georgia (A Brief Histroy). President Jackson also felt a need to protect the United states from threats on the inside of our country in reference he was speaking about the Indians that lived in our country (Prucha, 528). After the American Revolution, the Americans wanted to act civilly toward the Indians and turn over a new leaf by trying to get along with and help the Indians. The Cherokee…

    • 2270 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, the Trail of Tears is a perfect explanation of the U.S. government’s act of ruthlessness towards the Indians. The Trail of Tears resulted in a devastating effect for the Indians who were forced to walk over 1,000 miles to Oklahoma in a trip where some of them walked without shoes or enough clothing (Perdue, 2008). The food provision was scarce, they suffered from severe diseases and a large number of the Indians died from the harsh conditions and diseases. The U.S. must never forget these shameful and sad moments in its long history with the hope that the country learns from the past, in order to prevent the occurrence of other atrocities similar to the Trail of Tears. And I pray that the United States or any other country in…

    • 145 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Under President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the Five Civilized Tribes from the east onto western reservations, primarily to take their land for settlement. The forced migration was marked by great hardship and many deaths. Its route is known as the Trail of Tears.…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race…From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population.”-Martin Luther King Jr. In this quote, King is referring to the policy that the United States encompassed to take hold of the land pertaining to the Native Americans, The Indian Removal Act. But even before “The trail of tears” occurred the Indians suffered at the hands of the early European discoverers. It was in the year 1492 that the newly kings of a centralized Spain sent forth an expedition that would result in the European…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays