As the 19th century began, land-hungry Americans poured into the backcountry of the coastal South and began moving toward and into what would later become the states of Alabama and Mississippi. Since Indian tribes living there appeared to be the main obstacle to westward expansion, white settlers petitioned the federal government to remove them. Although Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe argued that the Indian tribes in the Southeast should exchange their land for lands west of the Mississippi River, they did not take steps to make this happen. Indeed, the first major transfer of land occurred only as the result of war.
In 1814, Major General Andrew Jackson led an expedition against the Creek Indians climaxing in the Battle of Horse Shoe Bend (in present day Alabama near the Georgia border), where Jackson’s force soundly defeated the Creeks and destroyed their military power. He then forced upon the Indians a treaty whereby they surrendered to the United States over twenty-million acres of their traditional land—about one-half of present day Alabama and one-fifth of Georgia. Over the next decade, Jackson led the way in the Indian removal campaign, helping to negotiate nine of the eleven major treaties to remove Indians.
Depiction of William Weatherford surrendering to Andrew Jackson after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend
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By the end of his presidency, he had signed into law almost seventy removal treaties, the result of which was to move nearly 50,000 eastern Indians to Indian Territory—defined as the region belonging to the United States west of the Mississippi River but excluding the states of Missouri and Iowa as well as the Territory of Arkansas—and open millions of acres of rich land east of the Mississippi to white settlers. Despite the vastness of the Indian Territory, the government intended that the Indians’ destination would be a more confined area—what later became eastern
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
In August, 1814 Jackson and chiefs from the Creek nation signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson. The Creeks gave 23 million acres of land. This is half of the state of Alabama as well as a large portion of southern Georgia. Without the victory at Horseshoe Bend, Andrew Jackson may not have become president, the Indians may have been allowed to maintain their land and western expansion would have become stagnant. The treaty of Fort Jackson increased our southeastern and western agriculture base by 23 million acres and opening up and cleared an open path to the west. This also will later be a catalyst for the western railroad expansion to transport people and goods to western territories. With Andrews Jackson’s victory at Horseshoe Bend and other Indian war successes, he became a national hero. His popularity helped him win the election as President. Andrew Jackson, being unsympathetic to Indian culture, was instrumental in implementing the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This Act forcibly moved Indians from the Southern territories to the present states of Arkansas and Oklahoma; this was known as the Trail of
Andrew Jackson was declared president in 1828 immediately declaring the removal of eastern tribes. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which authorized the president to negotiate removal treaties. In 1831 combined army, militia, and other volunteer forces began to move the tribes along one of several routes to two forts located in Indian Territory; Fort Gibson and Fort Townson. The last tribe to be moved was the
But in 1829, Jackson said to Congress that if a state chose to advance it’s power and legislation on the indians that the federal government wasn't required to restrict it. So when the state chose to discontinue certain treaties, Secretary of War Eaton explained in the place of president Jackson to the natives that any of the assurances in the negotiations with the U.S. were nothing more than temporary grants from one power-the United States- to a weaker nation- the Cherokees. Therefore, he declared, there were no certainties in any arrangement that could be considered permanent. This led Jackson to eventually disregarded a key section of the removal act but he also but broke a number of federal treaty commitments to the Indians; some of which he personally negotiated(Cave, 215-216). The Indians thought that the documents that they were signing would actually protect them, but Jackson thought the only way to make his twisted dream come to pass was to make a sense of false security to a group of people who had done nothing to be
What would you do if you were offered millions of dollars for your land? Yes that right, the Indian tribes were moved out thanks to the Indian removal act of 1830. These Indian tribes were living in Louisiana. After the war of 1812 ended, the U.S. had purchased Louisiana from France. After exploring the land they chose to kick the Indian tribes forcefully because for the things they accomplished in the past. That’s what lead to the Indian removal act of 1830. The Indian removal act of 1830 was not justified because the Indians claimed their land first, the U.S. treated the Indians poorly, and it overall helped out the government.
During the presidency of Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. The proponents of removal including President Jackson believed it was in the best interest of the native people to be relocated west of the Mississippi. The debate for Indian removal included several arguments to justify the government’s actions.
Andrew Jackson, who was the 7th President of the United States, signed the Indian Removal Act in May 28th, 1832 and this policy granted Andrew Jackson the right to forcibly move the Native Americans to land west of the Mississippi. Even though “it is presumed that any explanation of Jackson’s purposes is an attempt to justify the mass killing of innocent people…” (Remini, 45) some would say his childhood affected him; seeing and hearing Indians Attacking places near his home. Or how he was the second President to make it into the business without an education. Some people thought that with gold being found in Georgia, this led many new white settlers looking to buy land from the Cherokee Indians. Although a lot could be said about Andrew
In December of 1830 President Jackson would submitted the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek to congress, it would be the first to win Senate approval. President Jackson wanted everything to go smoothly so that the American people would see that he was humane and that this Treaty would benefit both the Indians and the American nation at large. With Jackson located too far away to oversee the actual removal of the Choctaw Nation, they would endure mismanagement, theft, corruption, and inefficiency on a level that would lead to their destruction. Jackson would be deeply offended and the removal of the Choctaw Nation would become one of the worse horror stories of modem era.
As the 19th century started people were filling up the United States heading to what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Indians living here became an obstacle to the expansion. White settlers were upset and petitioned to remove the Natives. Although Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe argued that the Indian tribes in the Southeast should exchange their land for lands west of the Mississippi River, they did not take steps to make this happen. Indeed, the first major transfer of land occurred only as the result of war.
The Indian Removal Act, inspired by Andrew Jackson; the 7th president of the US and the enhanced ambition for American settlers to find more land in the southwestern regions of North America. The Indian Removal Act enabled Jackson the power of negotiating removal treaties with Indian tribes east of the Mississippi. Among these tribes were: Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaws and Seminoles. Very few authenticated traits were signed. The Choctaws were the only tribe to agree without any issues. All other attempts resulted in War and blood shed for both white settlers and Indians. The conflict with the U.S. and Indians lasted up until 1837. In 1838 & 1839 Jackson forced the relocation of the remaining Cherokee Indians;
Van Buren was firm in his craving to sidestep war. He comprehended that the American armed forces were not ready for war. The navy's fleet was ancient and the standing army only had 8,000 men of which many were poorly armed. A bulk of the army had been positioned to Florida on an assignment to force the Seminole Indians and their African-American allies, many of them fugitive slaves, to relocate in Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi River. Van Buren was unyielding when it came to carrying out Andrew Jackson's policy of Indian removal, even though the removal was sad and shattered the Indian people. The price of the Indian removal was in the range of $50 million during Van Buren's presidency, but it did deliver an economic spur to the
The act consisted of eight sections that defined, in detail, what could be expected. They let him maintain control over the tribes, even though they moved. Five tribes, the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creeks, and Seminoles, agreed to sign treaties to leave their homes and move west (Copeland 195). However, Andrew Jackson left a few pieces of information out:
ct of 1830. In cases where this strategy failed, the government sometimes violated both treaties and Supreme Court rulings to ensure the spread of Americans westward across the continent. As the 19th century began, many Americans poured into the backcountry of the South and began moving toward and into what would later become the states of Alabama and Mississippi. Since Indian tribes living there appeared to be the main obstacle to westward expansion, white settlers motioned for the federal government to displace them. This phenomenon was described by authors Robert V. Remini, in his article ‘Andrew Jackson Versus the Cherokee Nation’, and Chief John Ross, in his letter ‘To the Senate and House of Representatives’. They express the views of Andrew Jackson and the Cherokee Indians respectively.
They were bent on acquiring the valuable lands occupied by the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Indians. After the Louisiana purchase (an enormous acquisition of land west of the Mississippi in 1803), President Jefferson presumed that these Indians could be persuaded to give up their homes in exchange for land further west. Following Jefferson's lead, President Andrew Jackson pushed for the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The act provided funds for the United States government to negotiate removal treaties with the Indians. The federal government forced tribal leaders to sign these treaties. Factions arose within the tribes, as many opposed giving up their land. Cherokee Principal Chief John Ross even traveled to Washington to negotiate alternatives to removal and pleaded for the government to redress the injustices of these treaties. The United States government listened, but did not deviate from its policy. Although President Jackson negotiated the removal treaties, President Martin Van Buren enforced them. The impact of the removal was first felt by the
Andrew Jackson fervently believed that the key to American greatness was the small self-employed farmers and in order to continue this greatness, the expansion to the west was imperative so that each new generation could have farms of their own which made him a forceful proponent of Indian removal. In 1814 he commanded the U.S. military forces that defeated a faction of the Creek nation. In their defeat, the Creeks lost 22 million acres of land in southern Georgia and central Alabama. From 1814 to 1824, Jackson was instrumental in negotiating nine out of eleven treaties which divested the southern tribes of their eastern lands in exchange for lands in the west. The tribes agreed to the treaties for strategic reasons. They wanted to appease the government in the hopes of retaining some of their land, and they wanted to protect themselves from white harassment. As a result of the treaties, the United States gained control over three-quarters of Alabama and Florida, as well as parts of Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi,