Human Cargo Analysis

526 Words2 Pages

Could a connection be made to things I have learned elsewhere? Two of the essays we have read in class, The Trail of Tears by Dee Brown, and Human Cargo: From Africa to America, by Ira Berlin, both deal with the mistreatment of racial minorities, those who were here before the English, and those the English dragged across an ocean to be slaves. The Native Americans and the Africans are completely different peoples, but the oppression set up centuries ago forms connections between the two. The displacement of southeastern Cherokees is a tragedy, and the factors that went into it are even more so. Brigadier General Winfield Scott, on May 10th 1838, issued a proclamation. The very end is the most striking for me: “The blood of the white man or the blood of the red man may be spilt, and if spilt, however accidentally, it may be impossible for the discreet and humane among you, or among us, to prevent a general war …show more content…

Africans were taken from their homes and held in slave ships for an indeterminate amount of time, in despicable conditions, and at least one in seven Africans died on the trip (Berlin 48). The Cherokees on the Trail of Tears, from children to elders, walked through cold weather, with disease everywhere, and an estimated one in four tribe members died on the way (Brown 167). Disease and mistreatment were everywhere in their journeys, along with cruel conditions and overcrowding. Now, both groups of people are discriminated against, put at higher risks, and paid less.
Connections can be drawn between the mistreatment of two racial minorities centuries ago, because they went through similar struggles then and today. This is important to remember, because then the origins of white supremacy and institutional racism can be analyzed. Plus, as the quote from George Santaya goes, those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat

Show More
Related

  • Olaudah Equiano And Phillis Wheatley's View On Religion

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    The origin tale of the African American population in the American soil reveals a narrative of a diasporic faction that endeavored brutal sufferings to attain fundamental human rights. Captured and forcefully transported in unbearable conditions over the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, a staggering number of Africans were destined to barbaric slavery as a result of the increasing demand of labor in Brazil and the Caribbean. African slaves endured abominable conditions, merged various cultures to construct a blended society that pillared them through the physical and psychological hardships, and hungered for their freedom and recognition.

    Read More

  • Worchester v. Georgia

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    The case Worcester v. Georgia (1832) was a basis for the discussion of the issue of states' rights versus the federal government as played out in the administration of President Andrew Jackson and its battle with the Supreme Court. In addition to the constitutional issues involved, the momentum of the westward movement and popular support for Indian resettlement pitted white man against Indian. All of these factors came together in the Worcester case, which alarmed the independence of the Cherokee Nation, but which was not enforced. This examines the legal issues and tragic consequences of Indian resettlement.

    Read More

  • Wounded Knee And The Battle Of Tippecanoe

    547 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Trail of Tears was one of the examples of when America treated Native Americans terrible. This event was absolutely terrible. We forced the Indians to walk to the West because white settlers wanted to grow more cotton. There was actually a law that let America remove all indians to the West, so that they can get more land to grow cotton. Now this wasn’t just a normal peaceful walk. These people were dying of starvation, most of them wasn’t able to keep their belongings, and there was many sicknesses. This 1,200 mile walk led to over 5,000 Cherokees dying.

    Read More

  • The Removal of the Cherokee

    5744 Words  | 12 Pages

    The cries from Americans did not stop President Van Buren from giving General Winfield Scott orders to remove the Cherokees. The Cherokees, despite their grossly horrific predicament, still were proud. They were once a great people, and they maintained that they would remain that way.

    Read More

  • DBQ on Jackson and the Indian Removal

    1646 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... the unwilling tribes west of the Mississippi. In Jackson’s letter to General John Coffee on April 7, 1832, he explained that the Cherokees were still in Georgia, and that they ought to leave for their own benefit because destruction will come upon them if they stay. By 1835, most eastern tribes had unwillingly complied and moved west. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was created in 1836 to help out the resettled tribes. Most Cherokees rejected the settlement of 1835, which provided land in the Indian territory. It was not until 1838, after Jackson had left office, that the U.S. Army forced 15,000 Cherokees to leave Georgia. The hardships on the “trail of tears” were so great that over 4,000 Cherokees died on their heartbreaking westward journey.     In conclusion, the above statement is valid and true. The decision the Jackson administration made to remove the Cherokee Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River was a reformulation of the national policy. Jackson, along with past Presidents George Washington, James Monroe, and Thomas Jefferson, tried to rid the south of Indians This process of removing the native people was continuous as the years went on.

    Read More

  • Manifest Destiny and the Genocide of the Native American Indian

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... I firmly believe that the betterment of one group of people is not worth the destruction of another. Works Cited Anderson, William L. Cherokee removal before and after. Athens: University of Georgia, 1991.

    Read More

  • THE TRAIL OF TEARS

    1787 Words  | 4 Pages

    Prior to 1830 the Cherokee people in the Southern states were land and business owners, many owned plantations and kept slaves to work the land, others were hunters and fishermen who ran businesses and blended in well with their white neighbors, but after Andrew Jackson took office as President, the government adopted a strict policy of Indian removal, which Jackson aggressively pursued by eliminating native American land titles and relocating American Indians west of the Mississippi. That same year, Congress passed the Indian R...

    Read More

  • Andrew Jackson Villain

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Indian Removal Act drove thousands of natives off their tribal lands and forced them west to new reservations. Then again, there are those who defend Jackson's decision stating that Indian removal was necessary for the advancement of the United States. However, the cost and way of removing the natives was brutal and cruel. The opposition fails to recognize the fact that Jackson’s removal act had promised the natives payment, food, and protection for their cooperation, but Jackson fails to deliver any of these promises. Furthermore, in “Indian removal,” an article from the Public Broadcasting Service, a description of the removal of the Cherokee nation is given.

    Read More

  • The Cherokee Victory

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    The federal government proceeded to find a way around this decision and had three minor Cherokee chief’s sign the “Treaty of New Echota” in 1835 giving the Cherokee lands to the government for 5.6 million dollars and free passage west. Congress got the treaty ratified by only one vote. Members of their tribes murdered all three chiefs who took part in the signing of the treaty. After this event there was not much the Cherokee’s could do and were forcibly moved west on what they called and are known today as the ‘Trail of Tears,’ which became a constitutional crisis in our history. In this instance the lack of cooperation between the branches of the government was the downfall for the Cherokee nation. The way the Cherokee’s were forced west caused losses of up to twenty percent of the nation. This figure is only a guess and scholar’s think it was more a third of the nation was lost. The ‘Trail of Tears’ was also a morale issue in the United States, later having an impact on our history the way other Native American races in general are treated in the future.

    Read More

  • The Southeast Native Americans: Cherokees and Creeks

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ew western home.” More than 13,000 Cherokees were forcefully moved by the American military. They traveled over 800 miles by steamboat, train cars, and mostly by walking. During this trip known as the Trail of Tears, the Cherokees suffered from starvation, exposure, disease, and hardship. “No report was made of the number of Cherokee who died as the result of the removal. It was as if the Government did not wish to preserve any information.” However, it is estimated that at least 4,000 may have died and some believe that as many as 8,000 died.

    Read More

  • Cherokee Removal Orders Summary

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    Covering an estimated 2,200 miles, the Cherokee tribes currently inhabiting the Southeastern United States were forcibly evacuated to modern day Oklahoma in the Western part of the country. The Cherokee Removal Orders is a document that was presented by Major General Scott of the United States’ Army in 1838. An order to for the phase of forced removal of all Cherokee people for additional white settlement began the projected 7,000 soldiers to march with them to ensure the migration. All of General Scott’s staff received this information as direction for their next moves with the continuous issue that had been going on for a few years. The previous two had given the Cherokee Indians the opportunity to leave voluntarily, but only about 500 actually

    Read More

  • The Extreme Cruelty of the Middle Passage

    1719 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is no other experience in history where innocent African Americans encountered such a brutal torment. This infamous ordeal is called the Middle Passage or the “middle leg” of the Triangular Trade, which was the forceful voyage of African Americans from Africa to the New World. The Africans were taken from their homeland, boarded onto the dreadful ships, and scattered into the New World as slaves. 10- 16 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic during the 1500’s to the 1900’s and 10- 15 percent of them died during the voyage. Millions of men, women, and children left behind their personal possessions and loved ones that will never be seen again. Not only were the Africans limited to freedom, but also lost their identity in the process. Kidnapped from their lives that throbbed with numerous possibilities of greatness were now out of sight and thrown into the never-ending pile of waste. The loathsome and inhuman circumstances that the Africans had to face truly describe the great wrongdoing of the Middle Passage.

    Read More

  • Treachery for Cherokees in The Trail of Tears” by author Dee Brown

    625 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the essay, “The Trail of Tears” by author Dee Brown explains that the Cherokees isn’t Native Americans that evaporate effectively from their tribal land, but the enormous measure of sympathy supported on their side that was abnormal. The Cherokees process towards culture also the treachery of both states and incorporated governments of the declaration and promises that contrived to the Cherokee nation. Dee Brown wraps up that the Cherokees had lost Kentucky and Tennessee, but a man who once consider their buddy named Andrew Jackson had begged the Cherokees to move to Mississippi but the bad part is the Indians and white settlers never get along together even if the government wanted to take care of them from harassment it shall be incapable to do that. The Cherokee families moved to the West, but the tribes were together and denied to give up more land but Jackson was running for President if the Georgians elects him as President he agreed that he should give his own support to open up the Cherokee lands for establishment.

    Read More

  • The Impact of Westward Expansion on The Cherokee Nation

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...

    Read More

  • African American History in America

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    From Slavery to Freedom: African in the Americas. (2007). Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Retrieved October 7, 2007 from Web site: http://www.asalh.org/

    Read More

More about Human Cargo Analysis

Open Document