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Pros and cons of Andrew Jackson
Historical context of jackson's presidency
Positive impacts Andrew Jackson gave
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Andrew Jackson—our country’s seventh President and a decorated army general—is one of the most controversial figures in American history. Many praise him for his role in bringing about popular democracy and individual rights; however, Jackson’s role in the Indian Removal Act, his extreme racism, and his support for slavery cause many to question his legacy. Jackson’s involvement in the Seminole Wars is particularly disturbing since he not only authorized but actively encouraged the use of force against the women and children of the Seminole tribe. While Jackson was by no means the first leader to target civilian populations as a means to winning wars, the Seminole Wars are a particularly brutal example of this approach. The Seminole Wars exemplify the trend prevalent in American military history of using force against civilian populations as a tool for winning wars.
The primary cause of the First Seminole War was the instability of Florida following the War of 1812. The Spanish were unable to prevent black slaves from running away from Georgian slave-owners and joining the Seminole tribe in Florida. The slaves who escaped and joined the Seminoles became known as “Black Seminoles.” The presence of the Black Seminoles angered American slave owners who feared the acceptance of the Black Seminoles would encourage more slaves to run away and join the Seminole forces. Further, the Creeks who lost their land following the War of 1812 also found refuge with the Seminole tribe. The principal source of conflict was a fort built by the British during the War of 1812, which was situated on the Apalachicola River. The fort was taken over by a force of 350 Black Seminoles and became known as “Negro Fort.” The United States viewed the newly-c...
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...ecca, and Self, Robert O. America: A Concise History Boston: Bedford 2012.
History Channel. “Sherman’s March,” History Channel, www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/shermans-march (Accessed April 17, 2014).
International Committee of the Red Cross “1949 Conventions and Additional Protocols, and their Commentaries,” ICRC, http://www.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/vwTreaties1949.xsp (Accessed April 20, 2017).
Mahon, John. “The First Seminole War, November 21, 1817-May 24,1818.” Florida Historical Quarterly (1998) (Accessed April 16, 2014).
Ralph, William W., “Improvised Destruction: Arnold, LeMay, and the Firebombing of Japan,” War In History (2006). (Accessed April 20, 2017).
Rosen, Deborah A. “Wartime Prisoners and the Rule of Law: Andrew Jackson’s Military Tribunals During the First Seminole War.” University of Pennsylvania Press (2008) (Accessed April 16, 2014).
Andrew Jackson believed that the only way to save the Natives from extinction was to remove them from their current homes and push them across the Mississippi River. “And when removal was accomplished he felt he had done the American people a great service. He felt he had followed the ‘dictates of humanity’ and saved the Indi...
In the year of 1824, tempers were flaring and insults were being exchanged as politicians argued over who would be the sixth president of the United States. John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were the two major candidates in the election. However, this would be an election that would be remembered in history for its unique result. Despite being the more popular candidate, Andrew Jackson would not become the president. The presidential election of 1824 is remembered as one of the most controversial elections to have ever occurred in the history of the United States.
Andrew Jackson was like no other president before him. The previous presidents had one thing in common, they were all part of the founding fathers or in John Quincy Adam’s case was the son of a founding father. However Jackson was a plantation owner from the west who had no connections with the government. He also had different views from other presidents that made his presidency unique. Two things that separated Andrew Jackson’s presidency from previous presidencies were he reached out to the common people and he was disapproving of the Bank of United States.
Jackson remained in the military after the war. Late in 1817,he received orders to subdue the Seminole Native Americans, who were raiding across the border from Spanish Florida itself. He captured its bastions at St. Marks Pensacola and arrested, tried, and executed two British nationalists whom he charged with abetting the Native Americans.
The Indian removal was so important to Jackson that he went back to Tennessee to have the first negotiations in person. He gave the Indians a couple simple alternatives. Alternatives like to submit to state authority, or migrate beyond the Mississippi. Jackson Offered generous aid on one hand and while holding the threat of subjugation in the other. The Chickasaws and Choctaws submitted quickly. The only tribe that resisted until the end was the Cherokees. President Jackson’s presidency was tarnished by the way the U.S. government handled the Native Americans. Although financially, and economically Jackson truly was a good leader, some people view him in a negative way because of the “Indian Removal Act.”
Natural Fort served first as the site of a battle between the Blackfeet and Crow Indians. On November 21, 1834 rival tribes, the Crow and Blackfeet, came across one another. Taking refuge within Natural Fort, the B...
The Powhatan were such a large group, they were known as the Powhatan Confederacy. The confederacy consisted of almost 14,000 Algonquian speaking people inside of thirty different tribes. The Powhatan confederacy was ruled by one person whom Helen Rountree refers to as mamanatowick or “Great Kinge.” Chief Powhatan had weroance who were in charge of individual tribes under his control. In English terms, a weroance means petty chief or commander. The weroance achieved their title through matrilineal kinship. Most all of them were sons of Powhatan. This paper provides insight on the impact the English settlers, called Tassantassas by the Native Americans meaning, “strangers or foreigners,” demonstrated on the Powhatan losing their land. The clash of these two completely different cultures led to the demise of the Powhatan confederacy. In due course, how the English were ordered by Queen Elizabeth I who established the Virginia Company, to colonize the Chesapeake area without regards to the hardships placed on the Powhatan. ...
Andrew Jackson, Southerner, by Mark Cheathem, is an in-depth book on President Jackson’s life and ideologies. Cheatham is a professor at Cumberland University, which is located thirty minutes away from the Hermitage, Jackson’s mansion. His knowledge of the period, lifestyle, and specifically Andrew Jackson’s life while at the Hermitage is astounding. The bulk of his works and article dove into the Jacksonian period and America’s early republic. From the rise of the Democrats to the life of Andrew Jackson’s nephew, Cheathem is a historian who studies ninteenth century history. However, bias was present in the book, since he depicted the South in a positive light. Perhaps, it is because he is from the South. At any rate, slight bias is present within the book, and should be noted when taking into account Jackson’s background, and its effect on Jackson’s
The U.S. Government sponsored solution to the “Indian Problem” started in the early nineteenth century among the southern s...
Beginning this thirty-year period in 1860, the Navaho tribe headed by Chief Manuelito is among the first to feel the pressure of western American movement. The Americans steal their natural resources and livestock and soon build Fort Defiance on their land. The angry Indians raid the fort and skirmishes broke out between them. The Army decids to settle the quarrel with a rigged horse race that sent the Navahos to the Bosque Ronodo reservation. After a struggle, ...
Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, can be listed among the United States’. the greatest leaders of the world. He had many different personal skills which in turn helped him to become one of the presidents of our nation. Some of these skills include being a lawyer, judge, politician, war hero, and most importantly, a great leader. Andrew Jackson can be listed among the great men that formed this country to what it is today.
Shortly after the American Revolution, the United States entered an era of profound economic and social change that was dominated first by the Market Revolution and subsequently by Andrew Jackson’s skillful use of the power of the presidency to crack down on capitalist exploitation. Jackson’s first biographer, James Parton, however, describes the legacy of the seventh President’s administration as one fraught with controversy, “Andrew Jackson was a patriot, and a traitor. He was the greatest of generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. He was the most candid of men, and capable of the profoundest dissimulation. He was a democratic autocrat, an urbane savage, an atrocious saint.” Many people argue that Jackson, having turned the federal
To some people Andrew Jackson is remembered as the, metaphorically speaking, “People’s King” and is accused of dictator-like political moves. However, Andrew Jackson was quite the contrary, he was exalted amongst the people for being the new era of democracy: instilling a political revolution, the protection of the American people, and social equality among the masses. Therefore, Andrew Jackson was a precedent of democratic rule in the United States.
The Seminoles tribe “A fierce, proud tribe of Florida, let neither three wars with the United States Army or the harsh Everglade swamps defeat them.” Seminole mean “wild men” in Spanish, a name given when they escaped slavery. In Florida, Seminole Indians were called Creeks Indians; mostly Lower Creeks were of Seminoles. By the early 1700’s, the Seminoles were ruined by battles or
Scattered throughout the Southwest and into Northern Mexico, descendants of the Black Seminoles and Maroons are living in this modern world today. Over one hundred years ago, the U.S. government seemed determined to systematically eliminate the Native Americans and manipulate the descendants of the Black slaves. That imperialistic attitude allowed the policies of the U.S. government to treat groups of people with less respect and concern than they treated their livestock.