“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.” -― Martin Luther King Jr. The Trail of Tears is a historical title given to an event that happened in 1838.In this event, the Cherokee community of Native Americans was forced by the USA government to move from their native home in the Southern part of the contemporary America to what is known as the Indian territories of Oklahoma. While some travelled by water, most of them travelled by land. The Cherokees took 6 months to complete an 800 miles distance to their destination. The Cherokee marched through, biting cold, rains, and snow. Many people died during this trip from starvation, diseases, exposure, and vagaries of unknown terrains. Those who recounted this journey in later years spoke of a trip that was filled with tears borne of immense suffering and deaths during this trip and thus the name Trail of Tears. Modern scholars and champions of human rights have described this event as one of the most notorious genocides during the 19th Century. This paper will therefore attempt to prove that, the Cherokee community suffered human right atrocities from the American government shortly before and during the Trail of Tears. The Cherokee lived in the present day United States of America hundreds of years before its occupation by the Europeans. History proclaims that members of this community migrated from the Great Lakes and settled in the Southern Appalachians. When the Europeans started settling down in America, the Cherokee decided to co-exist peacefully with her foreign neighbors. The Cherokee lands consisted of Alabama, parts of Virginia, Kentucky, North and South Carolina and Georgia. ... ... middle of paper ... ...Tears: removal in the South. New York: InfoBase Publishing, 2007. Burgan, Michael. The Trail of Tears. Minneapolis: Compass Point book, 2001. Byers, Ann. The Trail of Tears: A Primary Source of History of the forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2003. Gilbert, Joan. The Trails of Tears across Missouri. Missouri: University of Missouri. Hook, Sue. Trails of Tears. New York: ABDO, 2010. Marsico, Katie. The Trails of Tears. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2009. Rozema, Vicki. Voices from the Trails of Tears. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, Publisher,2003. Salas, Laura. The Trails of Tears,1838. Mankato: Capstone Press, 2003. Sioux, Tracee. Native American Migration. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004. Sturgis, Amy. The Trails of tears and Indian Removal. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group,2007.
From the removal of Native Americans in Georgia to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, the crime of greed affected millions. Condemned men, women and children suffered cruelty, starvation and being raped and beaten in a brutal way. Although dissimilar by geography and time, the pain and torment experienced by the Native Americans in a route that became known as, "The Trail of Tears", unite them with their Jewish brothers. Prejudice, race, politics, and powers are strong similarities and differences between the Holocaust and the Trail of Tears.
The tragedy of the Cherokee nation has haunted the legacy of Andrew Jackson"'"s Presidency. The events that transpired after the implementation of his Indian policy are indeed heinous and continually pose questions of morality for all generations. Ancient Native American tribes were forced from their ancestral homes in an effort to increase the aggressive expansion of white settlers during the early years of the United States. The most notable removal came after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee, whose journey was known as the '"'Trail of Tears'"', and the four other civilized tribes, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, were forced to emigrate to lands west of the Mississippi River, to what is now day Oklahoma, against their will. During the journey westward, over 60,000 Indians were forced from their homelands. Approximately 4000 Cherokee Indians perished during the journey due to famine, disease, and negligence. The Cherokees to traveled a vast distance under force during the arduous winter of 1838-1839.# This is one of the saddest events in American history, yet we must not forget this tragedy.
Democracy can be traced back before the coming of Christ. Throughout Greece during the sixth century democracy was in its earliest stages and as the millenniums would pass the power of government by the people would show distinct alterations. This is evident when analyzing The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green. These authors illustrate how the U.S government adjusts policies from that of assimilating the Native American Indians to that of removing them from their homelands and forcibly causing the Cherokee nation to relocate themselves west of the Mississippi. In further depth Perdue and Green portray though vivid description how the government would show disloyalty and how that caused division between the tribal members of the Cherokee people. This endeavor of travel and animosity of the Indians would become known as the Trail of Tears.
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.
During the earlier years of the 1800’s many Native Americans were relocated to the west of the Mississippi. This event was known as The Removal of 1838. In the book, “Voices from The Trail of Tears,” by Vicki Rozema, there are many stories and journals by a range of people that were involved in the removal of the Native Americas. The pictures that emerge about the Trail of Tears vary depending on who the document is written by.
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...
The trail of tears was a hideous harsh horrible time that the Native Americans will not forget the 1830s about 100,000 Native Americans peacefully lived on 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of akers. They have been on this land generations before the wight men arrived. There was gold found in Gorga and the land was for ital. They used huge cotton plantations because the people would get rich off of them. In 1830 Andrew Jackson privily sinned the removal act. Te removal act gave the Government the power to trade the land for the land that the Native Americans were on. The Native Americans did not want to move, but the precedent sent troops to force the removal. Solders who looted there homes traveled 15,000 Cherokees, and gunpoint marched over 12,000
Ellis, Jerry. Walking the Trail: One Man's Journey along the Cherokee Trail of Tears. New
The Trail of Tears started in 1838 and ended in 1839. The Native Americans were forced out of their homes and weren’t allowed to get much of their belongings because of the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act was forced because of Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson created the Indian Removal Act because he felt that land was his to take.
The Cherokees lived in the valleys of rivers that drained the southern Appalachians (Perdue, 1). The British first came into Cherokee country in 1700. They came for two major reasons: deerskins and war captives. They brought guns and ammunition, metal knives, hoes, hatchets, fabrics, kettles, rum, and trinkets. They took the Cherokee and made them slaves. The British built two forts to protect the Cherokees while they were fighting the enemies of the British. The Cherokees entered the French and Indian War on the side of the British (Perdue, 6). Attacks on Cherokees by white frontiersmen and duplicity by colonial officials caused the Cherokees to shift their allegiance to the French. During the war, the British destroyed many Cherokee towns.
The Trail Of Tears was the result of the Indian Removal Act where one of America’s largest forced migrations took place. The Indians had to endure a long journey in order to move to present day Georgia and through this journey, approximately four thousand were killed. The event took place after the law was ratified by seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, in 1830. The migration relocated five civilized Native American tribes consisting of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. This act was passed so Andrew Jackson could take over the land in the west that was occupied by the Indians. Andrew Jackson saw this as a beneficial opportunity for the Native Americans as well. Nonetheless, through different perspectives, that was wrong. The Indian Removal Act was not justified because the Indians did not give the United States permission to pass the law.
“We are on the eve of leaving that country that gave us birth, it is with sorrow we are forced by the white man to quit the scenes of our childhood...we bid farewell to it and all we hold dear.” These powerful words were uttered by vice chief Charles Hicks of the Cherokee about how he and his people faced the imminent threat of removal. The people who lived on these lands for thousands of years were forced off their ancestral lands, “out of the disagreement between the state of Georgia and the Cherokee regarding the right to rule certain areas within the state” (Flaherty). This path they followed to the west is known infamously as the Trail of Tears. Numerous laws, orders, ethics and morals were destroyed in the process for the Native Americans’
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.
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...
The Cherokee Indians first began in the Tennessee and Carolina regions of the United States. However, they did not live there forever, as many were soon forced out by the “white people”. The Cherokees first came in contact with Europeans when Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto explored the region. Later, in 1673, Colonial traders begin coming in contact with the Cherokee tribe. Several years later, in the early 1700, the Cherokees waged war against the southern colonists; however, in the end the Cherokees suffered several losses as a result of smallpox. The population of the Cherokee Indians was estimated at 35,000 in 1685, but in 1760 the population was estimated at seven thousand. Also, the Cherokee had an established democratic government in which each clan governed itself separately. Overall, there were seven Cherokee clans that created the Cherokee nation. Although they had a well-established society and government, they were soon forced from their homes. In 1838, President Jackson and an army forced Cherokee Indians to migrate west. This forced migration later became famously known as “The Trail of Tears”, as 4,000 natives died of hunger or disease. Today it is viewed as one of the darkest moments in American history, and the “trail” remains as a memorial to the Indians who perished. The Cherokee Indians currently reside in Oklahoma, where