Trail Of Tears Research Paper

In Jackson’s mind, he expected the Indians to thrive as they did in their current home, except there would be no white men. Three chiefs, each one from the Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Ottawa tribes, came forward to the White House and told about their suffering. They said they were promised land as fertile as Illinois, but received land that a snake couldn’t live on. They could not live in the prairie when they were from the woods. Thousands of Indian people suffered because Jackson heard what they said

When one hears the name Andrew Jackson, there are many feelings that are conjured up by an individual. Some of these emotions include fear, disgust, and comedy. These sentiments are of reason for substantial evidence exists to prove these emotions plausible. Andrew Jackson was the seventh president under the Constitution of the United States of America who presided from 1829 until 1837. However, he was the first president to be impeached. With his controversial presidency, Andrew Jackson implemented many policies that continue to impact the United States in the modern era. His most controversial contribution was the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act prompted the infamous Trail of Tears that killed many Cherokee Native Americans and moved them westward to confined reservations. Of course, to implement such grand policy, Jackson had to unduly convince Congress of those actions. In Andrew Jackson’s speech given February 22nd, 1831 entitled “Message Regarding Indian Relations,” he tries to vindicate the Indian Removal Act, outline the benefits of such legislation, and explain why such it was indeed important. Rhetorical strategies such as ethos, pathos, and logos are effectively utilized by Jackson to persuade Congress to believe in the merits of upholding the Indian Removal Act which then lead to westward expansion and Native American migration from their homelands.

In 1835, President Andrew Jackson proclaimed that the Native Americans were to be removed from their homeland. Jackson claimed that the Native Americans were “savage hunters” among the “civilized population.” Also, during this time Jackson was preparing for his second term where he refused to help the Native Americans for then he would be conflicting against the whites.

We the People The mere definition of the word “democracy” derives from the universal knowledge that democracy is lead by the people and for the people. The phrase, “the people” refers to the common man, which in America is any man born on American soil. Though, this was not exactly the case in the Age of Jackson.

I picked the topic “The Trail of Tears” because it seems if you asked a typical teenager today what the Trail of Tears means to them, you would more than likely get a simple shoulder shrug. Probably the same response you would receive upon asking an adult of an event that occurred in the fifth grade. If you asked a Native American what the Trail of Tears means to them, you would have a vivid picture of pain, heartache, and disappointment painted for you. It started when President Andrew Jackson wanted the Indian’s land and the Indians believed the land was not just something to be given away or sold, it was really something to embrace and love. With that being said, Jackson came up with “The Indian Removal Act”. In the early to late 1830’s,

In May of 1830 President Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act. This act was intended to expand the Americas into Indian territory and then relocate them west of the Mississippi. The “Five Civilized Tribes,” that included the Seminoles, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and the Cherokees. All these tribes went voluntarily except for the Cherokee.

A native stated, “We wish to remain on the land of our fathers.” (Doc 9: Memorial of the Cherokee Nation). Andrew Jackson’s treatment of the Natives was undemocratic. He forced the Natives out of the land of their fathers. The Natives had their whole lives in that land and moving them into unfamiliar territory was unfair and undemocratic. The Natives also stated, “All our neighbors… would speak a language totally different from ours, and practice different customs…” (Doc 9: Memorial of the Cherokee Nation). Jackson was undemocratic because he forced the native to adjust new and different customs and new languages than everyone else around them. Andrew Jackson was undemocratic because he forced the Native Americans to move. Another reason he was undemocratic was because of the spoils

To begin, Andrew Jackson was a racist to the Indians which was bad enough in our modern standards, but not only was he racist to the Indians he also was known for the infamous Trail of tears. The Trail of Tears was Andrew Jackson’s way of saying to the Cherokee get out. Andrew Jackson moved the Cherokees

Even preceding his fame from presidency, Andrew Jackson was known for his opposition to American Indians. And although this connotation is assigned to Jackson’s attitude towards the Natives during the decades before he became President, his dominant goal was to maintain the security of the United States. As a military man, he was depicted as a zealous supporter of the removal of the Indians. Once he was in Office, the story goes, he utilized his newly acquired power to extract the Natives from their ancestral homes. One the contrary, during his terms, Jackson proved that upheld the rights of the Natives. However, what is considered to be the most controversial action of his presidency, the removal of the “Five Civilized Tribes” resulted in an abundance of criticism toward Jackson. Although alternatives to this removal were present, some being executed before, the American mindset was simply Natives could nither be assimilated to the “white” society nor requisite protection was possible. The removal, as Jackson concluded, seemed the only possible answer.

Andrew Jackson fueled his troops by describing the Native Americans as “savage bloodhounds” and “blood thirsty barbarians.”(Brinkley, 212) The General made every attempt to depict the Indians as the enemy, who should be suppressed for the benefit of the white man. After the triumph at Horse Shoe Bend, Jackson told his troops:

Jackson mistreated and harmed the Native Americans which was oppressive and undemocratic. In Andrew Jackson’s message to Congress, he lied when he stated that, “This emigration should be voluntary… (but) if they remain within the limits of the states they must be subject to their laws,” (Doc 8). The Native Americans had adapted and begun to resemble a civilized society with town meetings, public education, and an alphabet. Less than six months later, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act and would soon take military force to push the Native Americans west into a reserved territory for them in what is present day Oklahoma (Doc 10). It was very undemocratic of Jackson to lie to the Native Americans and oppress them by forcefully moving them to the reserved Indian Territory. The Cherokee however, did not give up easily and took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Their plea to remain on the land of their ancestors without interruption was upheld and clarified that the Cherokee had the right to establish their own nation within the state of Georgia (Doc 9). Jackson ignored the ruling of the Supreme Court and ultimately

Andrew Jackson, The United States seventh president, was possibly one of the worst human beings to be president and treated the Native Indians horribly. He, was a bully and used his position to get acts and petitions like the Indian Removal Act passed, to help push Native Indians around so he could get his own way. The Indian Removal Act in and of itself seemingly doesn’t contain that much power, however it was all the power Jackson needed. The circumstances of Jackson’s character and the debates surrounding the Act also lend and interesting lens to examine what Jackson intentions were. When looking at Jackson and how he managed to relocate the Native it becomes substantially more integral to examine all the documents with a wide scope to see how he even managed the relocation of Natives.

One of the many subjects of critical importance in American history was the relocation of American Indians, known as the Indian Removal. President Andrew Jackson favored the rapid settlement of Western and Southern lands by whites, therefore he wanted to make a drastic change, and he certainly did. In his two terms as president, Jackson worked to implement his vision of a politics of opportunity for all white men (The American Promise, 285). He held the belief that previous efforts to promote the assimilation of Indian peoples had failed. In his 1830 letter to Congress, Jackson announced the benefits resulting from the relocation of the native people, and the “pecuniary advantages” that such movement would bestow on the Anglo American population

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.

never given a chance to succeed. In particular, Native Americans, African Americans, and Catholics, were depicted as lazy, combative, untrustworthy, traitorous. Each group was a perceived as a threat to Americanism in different ways, yet their treatment and exclusion was quite similar. In the pre Jacksonian Era there were attempts by White Americans to “civilize” Natives. These efforts ended up back firing for Whites when the Native Americans began to become prosperous and started to become more resolute in keeping their tribal autonomy (Howe 343-345). White Americans began to fear that Natives were becoming too strong and that they were infringing on the presumed American right to expansion and occupation of rich land. Therefore, when Jackson