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Trail Of Tears Essay Thesis

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What was the Trail of Tears? The Trail of Tears started back in the 1800s, white people began to settle in the Native American lands leaving them with nothing in the end. People who lived on the western frontier feared the Natives, to them the natives wanted what the whites wanted and disserved, George Washington though the only way to solve this problem to get what each wanted was to “civilize” the Indians. This idea was to make the Indians as much like the whites as possible, meaning they would have to convert to Christianity, learn to speak English and to be civilized and not live like savages. However what Washington didn’t take into consideration is that they have been living this way for generations long before the whites came to their …show more content…

The law required that the government to negotiate removal treaties fairly, however Jackson and his associates ignored the law and forced the natives from their lands homes and divided their families up tortured them and cut them down right in front of their faces. Federal government drove the Creek tribe from their land for the last time, 3,500 of the 15,000 Creeks who set out for the long journey to Oklahoma never made it they died from starvation exhaustion and diseases the whites brought with them. In 1835 Cherokees negotiated a treaty called the New Echota, all land east of the Mississippi was sold off for 5 million dollars in return for the Indians, also relocation assistance and compassions of lost property. The federal government agreed to these terms, the Indians on the other hand had thought they were cheated and signed a potion, by 1838 only about 2,000 Cherokee Indians had their Georgia home land left for “Indian Territory”. President Martin Van Buren sent General Winfeild, Scott and 7,000 soldiers to drive the Natives from their their land, this started the Removal process. Soldiers forced the Indians into stockades at bayonet point while whites looted their homes and

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