One of the defining moments of President Andrew Jackson’s career, if not the most significant, was the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This was a controversial bill at the time and the impact from it is still felt today. The Indian Removal Act directly led to the displacement of thousands of Native Americans; including four thousand deaths during the Trail of Tears, the forced march from Georgia to Oklahoma. While overt racism played a clear role in relocating Native Americans past the Mississippi, it is possible that other factors were at play. The living conditions in many of the states were poor for Natives and Jackson hoped that giving them a new location to live could remedy these problems while opening the land up for white settlers. Jackson was a groundbreaking President in many regards. He was an orphan and did not come from the upper class. He was the first President to actively campaign for votes and when elected in 1828, he would continue the previous policies for moving Native Americans to the Indian Territory as he believed this is what the voters wanted. During this time, many Southern states restricted the rights of Indian Nations. Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi all stripped Native Americans of their civil rights, abolished the tribal unit, rejected ancestral land claims, and would not allow them to vote or testify in court. Before the Indian Removal Act, Native Americans signed various treaties with the federal government in regards to keeping their land.
Robert V. Remini shows that Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act benefits the Native Americans. Andrew Jackson made notice of the issue with the Indians in his inaugural speech on March 4, 1829. He declared that he wanted to give humane and considerable attention to the Indian’s rights and wants in respect to the government and people. Jackson knew that meant to get rid of all remaining tribes beyond the Mississippi River. He (Jackson) believed that the Indians would be better off in the west; without the influence from the white man or local authority. Jackson hired two Tennessee generals to go visit the Creeks and Cherokees to see if the Indians would leave voluntarily. In that, those who did not leave would be protected by the
Throughout Jackson’s presidency, Jackson was prone to making questionable decisions. One of Jackson’s most monumental blunders was when he decided to relocate tens of thousands of innocent Native Americans. Jackson was a huge fan of the idea of Americans moving westward to unsettled areas. The Native Americans occupied the areas that Jackson wanted to transform into American cities. That did not halt Jackson from doing what he desired. Jackson displayed his egocentric behavior and called for the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Jackson wanted to move the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole nations from their southeastern homes to Oklahoma. The Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole nations all somewhat cooperatively deserted their homes at the request of the Americans with little fight. These nations forfeited their land, homes and possessions to walk the Trail of Tears, an 850-mile path from the southeastern states to Oklahoma. American soldiers forcefully kept the Natives moving without breaks. Throughout the trek, thousands of Natives died from sickness and starvation. One tribe, the Cherokees from Georgia,
While Jackson has done wonders for America, he was not perfect. One of his flaws would be the Indian Removal Act of 1830. While the Cherokee’s march did not happen until after Jackson’s presidency, this can still be traced back to Jackson not upholding the rights of Native Americans during his presidency. This Act forced the Cherokee nation to give up their lands and travel to present day Oklahoma. During this journey, the Native Americans were faced with hunger, diseases and exhaustion because of these problems around 4,000 people died. This brutal movement of the Cherokee would become known as the Trail of
In the years leading up to the Indian Removal Act, which was the initial cause of the Trail of Tears, the United States was in a shift. The country was seeing an unrivaled influx of European settlers looking for careers and land. This caused population to skyrocket, in fact in the years 1790-1840, the United States saw a 350% increase in population. In other words, the need for fertile land and viable property was high. At the same time, attempts at assimilation of Indians into American society were proving to be futile. Americans saw the Indians as “noble savages”, who were uncivilized but able to be fit for society if they were converted to Christianity and adopted Anglo-European culture and behavior. With the growing need for land and the rise in tension between Natives and fearful white settlers, something needed to be done in the eyes of the American people. These two things combined is what really set up the foreground for what would become the Indian Removal Act. President Andrew Jackson, in
Andrew Jackson has gone down as one of the best presidents in United States history and that’s because he did many great things to improve the United States. Throughout his presidency he constantly abused his power as the president and did many things that expanded the powers of the president. One of the biggest things that President Jackson did while in office was pass the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was when Jackson forced all the Indians to move to the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, while the Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional. Many of the Indians went peacefully, but many of the Indians also decided to protest and take it to the Supreme Court (Darrenkamp). While the court did side with the Indians Jackson and Congress forced the Indians to give up their land. The federal troops were called in to escort the Indians to their new land. Fifteen thousand Indians were forced to move and while on their way about a third of the Indians died, and this event became to be known as the Trail of Tears (Darrenkamp). Jackson had
Jackson was re-elected with an overwhelming majority in 1832. He now pursued the policy of removing Native Americans from good farming land. He also refused to accept the decision of the Supreme Court to invalidate Georgia's plan to add the territory of the Cherokee.
Indian Removal (Zinn Chapter 7) Once the white men decided that they wanted lands belonging to the Native Americans (Indians), the United States Government did everything in its power to help the white men acquire Indian land. The US Government did everything from turning a blind eye to passing legislature requiring the Indians to give up their land (see Indian Removal Bill of 1828). Aided by his bias against the Indians, General Jackson set the Indian removal into effect in the war of 1812 when he battled the great Tecumseh and conquered him. Then General, later to become President, Jackson began the later Indian Removal movement when he conquered Tecumseh¹s allied Indian nation and began distributing
Historically, the people of the United States and the Native tribes couldn’t live together, they fought because the two sides competed for superiority. The United States Government sought to put an end to the violent clashes with the American people and the Natives tribes. A resolution was the Indian Removal Act, with this, the United States became safer, wealthier, and stronger; And the Natives, which they saw as inferior, would leave. This Act wasn’t easy for the Native tribes, they left the land their ancestors had built them, and experienced a long road ahead of them to rebuild again.
The early 1800’s was a very important time for America. The small country was quickly expanding. With the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, America almost tripled in size by 1853. However, even with the amount of land growing, not everyone was welcomed with open arms. With the expansion of the country, the white Americans decided that they needed the Natives out.
In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which allowed them to take over the Indians land in the west rather than the cotton kingdom that they had recent control over. Treaties were made to be fairly and they could not take over the Indian land unless the Indians wanted to. President Jackson ignored those laws and forced the Indians to turn over their land to the white people. Many Indians died during this time due to not having any food, supplies,
Jackson had problems with the Indian and started the “Indian Removal Act.” Even though the Supreme Court ruled that, the Indian had their own land and they do not have to follow the state laws. Jackson did not care and wanted to migrate somewhere else westward. In result, he started the “Trail of Tears” which was Jackson's Indian removal policy; the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. Jackson did not care about other people but the Jacksons and himself. Jackson did not care for the rights of women. He did not think that women were thinkers of the office and did have a serious role in life. Not only did he not care about women but he did care about blacks as well. “I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.” Some would say that Jackson removal of the Indian was a symbol of his being a guardian of economic opportunity. However, this act opened up more opportunity for jobs for farmers and the economic opportunity for men to increase. Therefore, it opened up more jobs for the lower working class. This helped equal opportunity by killing the monopoly of the Charles River Bridge Corporation. By
In 1830 Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act, also known as the Trail of Tears, gave the power to forcefully remove Indians from their land east of the Mississippi river to the west of the Mississippi. Though Jackson is now hated for this Act, in the 1830s it was seen the most necessary thing to do. In document 41 Jackson states, “It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites…” To average Americans, mostly white men, Indians took up the space needed to settle and stood in the way of American progress. It is obvious that the Mississippi River was beneficial to anyone who was looking for settlement for the purpose of transportation, trade, farming, etc,. With that being said, Jackson and other White settlers thought that it was necessary to gain ownership of the Indians’ land one way or another. For this reason, Jackson was someone who kept his word and was all for the common man. Citizens loved the fact that Jackson was able to take control and relate to the former president, George
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Jackson in 1830. President Jackson decided to have the Indians moved to lands west of the Mississippi River. Believing this offered the best hope to sanctuary peace and protect the Indians from being dispersed and demolished. This removal was intended to be voluntary but groups of Indians were strongly pressured to go. These migrations often turned into forced marches during which led to many perishing.
The Indian of Removal Act affected 5 Indian nations directly. Andrew Jackson made the Indians walk from Mississippi to present day Oklahoma which the Native Americans renamed the trail of tears. The Supreme Court voted that the Indian Removal Act was unconstitutional but Andrew Jackson went along with his plan. This act that Andrew Jackson committed affected our ties with the Native Americans and caused the Native Americans to show hatred to us. Many native american complied to being forced out of their territory but some of them fight back which started small battles.
Andrew Jackson, the democratic, seventh president of the United States, would propose an act, that would become infamous among future generations, as the genocide of the indigenous people of the Americas. Jackson was elected in 1828, two years before the passage of his Indian Removal Act, that would determine the fate of the Natives Americans in Georgia. Andrew Jackson, countering George WAshingtons views and past acts on the vatives will fight for a bill in 1830 that would forever change our stance with Native Americans (Jason Meyers 54).The reasons for such an act, was simple in the mind of Andrew Jackson. It was a matter of the notion “Manifest Destiny”, or the widely accepted belief that the settlers of the United States were to be the ones to settle the land all across the continent. Upon handling the Native Americans, Andrew Jackson showed early on, that he would have little tolerance to their reactions. Andrew Jackson, in favor of a more agressive route to depart the Natives farther West, rather than Congress’s treaty to negotiate with the Indians concerning land decided to take the matters into his own jurdiction (Alfred Cave 1333). Going past the legal realm that the Indian Removal Act provided, Jackson was often threatening the Native Tribes by saying he would revoked their rights (Alfred Cave 1390). When Jackson was trying to get this act passed, he was often met with differential views from the people. Congressmen in favor of Jackson often had to reassure the