Trail Of Tears Research Paper

In 1830, the Jackson administration instated the Indian Removal Act. This act removed the Native Americans from their ancestral lands to make way for an increase of additional American immigrants. This act forced many Native American tribes from their homes including five larger tribes, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creek, and Seminole. These tribes had populations were estimated to be around 65,000 people strong that lived in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. (Foner, 2012) The American Indians fought for their rights and beliefs through the American court system. Their other objective other than fighting for their rights was but in the end, they were forced out of their homes to move

The Cherokee Removal is a brief history with documents by Theda Perdue and Michael Green. In 1838-1839 the US troops expelled the Cherokee Indians from their ancestral homeland in the Southeast and removed them to the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. The removal of the Cherokees was a product of the demand for land during the growth of cotton agriculture in the Southeast, the discovery of gold on the Cherokees land, and the racial prejudice that many white southerners had toward the Indians.

The Natives did not leave at the same rate and in the same group, because only 2,000 agreed to leave at the desired time and the rest refused. Their refusal caused the president to send in soldiers to move them out. While the soldiers moved them out on a route known as “The Trail of Tears,” a vast majority of the population of Natives contracted diseases and died on their movement to their designated lands. After the first group moved, in 1840 tens of thousands of Natives had been driven off their land in the South and were then forced to move across the Mississippi Indian territory. Even though the federal government had promised that the Natives could still continue to own their land, it ended up being a lie. As the Indian settlement traveled further to the West the “Indian Country” got smaller and smaller over time. It resulted in Oklahoma becoming a state and the Indian Territory gone

The Trail of Tears played a part in what is known as the Manifest Destiny, which was the expansion of the colonists to the west. Gold was found on the Cherokee land during the Georgia Gold Rush. The greed that it created was one of the leading causes of the Trail of Tears where thousands of Native Americans were forcibly relocated from their native lands (Cherokee.org). Little did the Native Americans realize that the new nation that was going to be forming around them would affect not only their lives but the lives of their descendants. Even though the Cherokee made efforts to keep their land through the court system and even attempted to assimilate to the American way of life it was to no avail. They tried to agree to treaties with the United States Government. Even though, they were eventually forced to leave their lands. By forcing the Native Americans to abandon their homes, robbing their lands, taking their freedom, and forcing them to adapt and to assimilate into a new land and culture showed how vindictive President Andrew Jackson was regarding the Native Americans. The Trail of Tears was an instance of the United States Government committing genocide against the Native Americans

On May 28, 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed. It stated that the Native American were to be removed from the Southern states (Indian Removal Act). The act ended the Native American’s right to live in the states under their own traditional laws (Indian Removal Act). They were given the options to assimilate and acknowledge the United States’ laws or leave (Indian Removal Act). They were forced to leave their land, their homes, everything they ever knew or face the consequences. They were forced to go to a land that they knew nothing about, and hope that they would be able to survive where ever they ended up. When the Cherokee were forced to leave, out of the 18,000 that left 4,000 died on the way (Primary Documents) As a result of all of the death on the trail, it was named the Trail of Tears (Primary Documents).

The Trail of Tears is no exaggeration as to what happened when the Indians were forced to abandon their home. Having to move to a completely different state with no real explanation as to why, one must wonder, how could this happen? It is hard to imagine how someone could justify uprooting thousands of people. Treated unfairly with all claims being ignored, the Indians were forced to move. With legalization by the government it is clear to see how easy it is for history repeats itself.

The Trail of Tears was a controversial yet pivotal event in American history. The 116-day forced march that removed Indians from Georgia caused 1 in 4 Cherokee Indians to die of cold or disease. There were many arguments made about the Trail of Tears, showing the benefits and detriments of the march. The political and military arguments for the removal of Cherokee Indians from Georgia were that it would prevent attacks on the U.S., and that it was required by the Treaty of New Echota.

At the start of 1830s, about 125000 Native Americas were living on more than 25 million acres of land on Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Florida, the region that would be referred to as the Deep South. However, by the end of the decade, only a few of these Native Americans remained in this region . While following the interests of the white settlers, who wanted to cultivate cotton on Indian Lands, president Jackson and the federal government forced the natives to vacate their homeland and have thousands miles walk to a designated “Indian territory” which was at the west of the Mississippi river. The journey and the route that they travelled was hindered with many adverse and sometime deadly challenges and it came to be referred to as the trail of tears from the Cherokee phrase “Nunna daul Tsuny” that directly translates into “The Trail Where They Cried” . This Population transfer led to the removal of many members of the tribes that did not want to assimilate into the European lifestyles.

The Trail of Tears is a tragic event that is still remembered today, just like the Holocaust in Germany. First of all, The Holocaust did not start out as the Holocaust. It started out as just being the hatred of Jews, but this ended up getting out of hand and many Jews were killed/murdered. The Jews were sent to concentration camps and had no choice of what they wanted to do. As, Adolf Hitler hated the Jews and wanted them killed. These same events happened in The Trail of Tears, The Trail of Tears started out as just the movement of The Cherokee to Oklahoma, but this soon changed. Many of The Cherokee ended up being killed or died. The Cherokee had absolutely no choice, they were to be forced out of their homes and sent to Oklahoma.

Trail of Tears - The route which several tribes of Native Americans were forced to walk, they didn’t want to leave their homes so they shed many tears

The Trail of Tears was a method of forcing many Indians in abandoning this home lands and relocating within the United States.

All the hardships the Cherokees had to endure ultimately led to the Trail of Tears, which was the journey from the Cherokees’ homeland of Georgia to present-day Oklahoma. During the entire trip, the Cherokees were treated as prisoners by the soldiers. The Indians were not allowed to take anything with them except the clothes they had on. Women and children were all weeping, as their property and identities were being stripped. When rounding up the Cherokee families, the Cherokee daily life was interrupted. Families were stopped in the middle of their dinner, men were taken out of the fields, women were seized from the wheels, and children were dragged out of their play. The “orderly” removal soon became a mess, as children were often separated

The Trail of Tears was the result of the United States government’s treatment of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee was the last tribe to fight for their home in the Appalachian region of North and South Carolina, as well as in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. The Cherokee developed a republican government ruled by a constitution in 1820, much like that of the U.S. Despite their organization, they could not stop the settlers push for possession of the Cherokee territory, especially when gold was discovered on their lands in Georgia. To keep the land in their own hands, the Cherokee passed a law that made any sale of Cherokee lands punishable by death. The state of Georgia then challenged the Cherokee assembly and declared their rule null and

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.

Imagine your mother, father and other siblings having to be forced by the government nevertheless to move away from the only home you have ever known. This is not fiction, but actually what happened to many Native Americans in the United States. The Trail of Tears had a huge impact on Native Americans all across the South, moreover their journey often hard with many cruelties, but they persevered and eventually settled in new places.