Trail Of Tears Essay, Research Paper
Trail of Tears
At the decision of the colonials & # 8217 ; War of Independence with Britain, during which the Cherokee had fought alongside the British, a pact was signed in 1786, set uping the boundaries of Cherokee district. As ever, invasions by European-American colonists continued in misdemeanor of this written understanding. A 2nd pact and another ceding of district was forced on the Cherokee people, approving both bing invasions every bit good as awaited land hungriness. In the War of 1812, nevertheless, the Cherokee indigens refused to fall in with Tecumseh and the Creek-dominated southern Confederacy of folks, taking alternatively to come to the assistance of the European-Americans. The Cherokee indigens were, in fact, instrumental in helping Andrew Jackson & # 8217 ; s forces against the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, in Georgia. Their trueness to the Union brought no benefit or protection once the struggle ended ( Odur, 8 May 00 ) . Consequently, in 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, supplying for the transplantation of all Indian folks so east of the Mississippi River, to what is present twenty-four hours Oklahoma.
During this semesters history category many subjects were discussed sing the transmutation of America between 1770 and 1870. There were legion interesting subjects discussed ; nevertheless, I found the subject of the deracinating the Native Americans the most interesting. This commentary will analyze the fortunes that instigated the unfairness better known as the Trail of Tears. Further, it this commentary will detail how the & # 8220 ; five civilized & # 8221 ; folks assisted in the legion battles the Americans faced, and how they assisted in the subsiding of present twenty-four hours America. In return, the Native Americans were & # 8220 ; sentenced & # 8221 ; to the American barren, better known as Oklahoma.
First and first, we must understand what the & # 8220 ; five civilized & # 8221 ; folks are and how they got coined with such a rubric. The folk: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole were coined & # 8220 ; civilized & # 8221 ; because they adapted rapidly to European ways. The European ways included Christianizing, English linguistic communication literacy, abandoning their semi-nomadic manner of life, adopted a system of settled agribusiness, and developed a impression of private belongings. ( Bailey, p. 280 ) .
How did the Native American land and manner of life come into hazard? It is simple, greed and & # 8220 ; Manifest Destiny, & # 8221 ; the theory that America must spread out to all ranges. Following, we will analyze how and why the American society became compelled to crowd the Native America & # 8217 ; s up similar cowss and transport them to foreign lands.
In 1609, the first lasting colony was formed at Jamestown, Virginia. In the old ages to follow other colonies were besides formed. When white & # 8217 ; s first arrived in America the indigens helped them accommodate to an barbarian manner of life by learning them
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how to farm harvests. In add-on to this the indigens were our trading spouses. We normally traded pots, covers, metal arrowheads, and intoxicant for pelts and the Native Americans land. ( Brinkley, p. 43 ) Europeans depended on the indigens in order to do the colonies in the New World profitable. Finally these colonies were non merely merchandising stations but besides existent colonies with adult females and kids, and shortly became little towns and even metropoliss. This is when everything started to alter. As more and more Whites moved to the New World, more and more land was needed to back up the colonisation. In Virginia, Sir William Berkeley set up a pact with the indigens that installed boundaries in the district. When these boundaries were broken by Whites the indigens attacked. Nathaniel Bacon worked up a reserves and attacked the indigens against Berkeley & # 8217 ; s orders. ( Brinkley, p. 35 ) This small skirmish is known as Bacon & # 8217 ; s Rebellion and it set the tone for dealingss between the Whites and the indigens. White persons wanted to maintain traveling westward into the Native American & # 8217 ; s land and they would interrupt understandings and put pacts to make so. In add-on, when the new colonists came to America, they carried many sources that the indigens did non hold unsusceptibilities to. These sources caused many epidemics that about wiped out whole folks and badly depleted others. In New England, the subsisters of these lands frequently sold their land to the English and even assimilated into their civilization by change overing to Christianity and following the Puritan Torahs of New England. ( Brinkley, p. 43 ) However, as the English and others settled America struggles continued to originate. In 1637, the English wiped out about the full Pequot folk over trading rights with the Dutch in New Netherland. This episode is known as the Pequot War. ( Brinkely, p. 44 ) Gradually, the Whites continued to travel West and the indigens kept giving up their land, most times for nil, sometimes for bead
s, intoxicant or the person’s word that they would populate in peace. In 1675, King Philip and his folk waged a war against the English because of English invasion onto their land. This bloody war lasted three long old ages. Armed Native Americans killed every bit many as 1000 English. Consequently, the English turned to the Mohawk folk for aid. The Mohawks killed King Philip and the English finally won the war. ( Brinkley, p. 44 )
During the Gallic and Indian War, the tenseness between the English and Native Americans began to farther develop. About all of the North American folk sided and fought with the Gallic against the English. The lone folk to help the English was the Iroquois. The Iroquois were hesitating to contend the Gallic for a known fright of them. The English proverb this as cowardly and idea of the indigens as enemies. Even the Iroquois were non English Alliess because of their involuntariness to contend. ( Brinkley, p. 100 ) In the old ages that followed, the American Revolution started. The indigens this clip allied themselves with the British. They favored the British because in the yesteryear, it was the British that set the boundaries but it was the colonists that broke the boundaries and caused struggles and disregarded the set boundaries. Therefore, the indigens fought against the American nationalists. The Cherokee & # 8217 ; s led continuos rebellions and onslaughts in Virginia and South Carolina during the Revolutionary War. After the American nationalists won the war, they ( Americans ) slaughtered 96 Delaware Indians for the onslaught on a white household. This folk nevertheless was composed of Christian pacificists. It is believed that
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they were slain for malice. ( Brinkley, p. 141 ) It didn & # 8217 ; Ts take long for Americans and the British to travel to war once more. In the War of 1812, the Native Americans took sides with the British once more. The Native Americans sided with the British for fright of the Americans ever-fast colonisation, broke promises and legion murders. Indians took Ft. Dearborn from the Americans and Tecumseh, an Indian, was promoted to Brigadier General in the British ground forces. During the war the Creeks attacked in the South but Andrew Jackson led an ground forces seeking retaliation against the folk and slaughtered the Creek warriors, and even adult females and kids. This act of retaliation made Jackson a Major General in the United States Army. It besides helped construct him a repute as an Indian hater. ( Brinkley, p. 210, 212 ) In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected to the Presidency of the Untied States. He adopted a policy of Indian remotion, Indian Removal Act, for the five & # 8220 ; civilized & # 8221 ; folks of the South. Jackson & # 8217 ; s program of remotion for the folks consisted of merchandising their present land for land & # 8220 ; set aside & # 8221 ; in present twenty-four hours Oklahoma. The Cherokee folk refused to go forth their land, which caused Jackson to direct 7,000 military personnels to Georgia. Jackson & # 8217 ; s ground forces escorted the folk at bayonet point to their new land. Unfortunately, the 15,000 Cherokee members who made the 116-day ocean trip in the freeze cold, with unequal nutrient supplies suffered about 4,000 casualties most died of little syphilis and famishment. ( Brinkley, p. 249-250 ) Hence, this ocean trip was named & # 8220 ; The Trail of Tears & # 8221 ; and was one of the grossest shows of
development that our state has of all time seen.
Throughout the history of our state, Native Americans gave up their land to Whites and their & # 8220 ; Manifest Destiny. & # 8221 ; Consequently, it crossed the & # 8220 ; line & # 8221 ; when the Whites really forced them there against their will, at gun/bayonet point. The coexistence of Whites and Indians started peacefully but shortly they grew into a relationship in which Whites would non portion and populate together peacefully. And, if there were of all time an rebellion by the Native Americans, the Whites would stamp down the rebellion and take the Native Americans land as a consequence, merely as the Whites did in 1774 after Lord Dungaree & # 8217 ; s War. The Shawnee revolted and lost and hence forced off their land. ( Brinkley, p. 140 )
In summing up, no book and/or paper could try to warrant or counterbalance the grave unfairness our county has done to the Native American & # 8217 ; s. I felt after taking this History category I learned an copiousness of information about American history, between 1770 to 1877 ; nevertheless, something was losing. Where were the true Americans-Native Americans during all this colonisation and subsiding of the Americas. After fixing this commentary I now know, they were being moved from their land by gunpoint and dramatis personae into the barren of present twenty-four hours Oklahoma.
Odur. & # 8220 ; Civilizations Under Siege & # 8221 ; ( 16 Apr 00 ) online @ hypertext transfer protocol: //odur.let.rug.nl/ ~usa/E/conquest/siege25.htm )
Brinkley. & # 8220 ; History of the United States, & # 8221 ; 2nd Ed. ( Washington D.C: R.R. Donnelley & A ; Sons Company, 1994 ) 35-280
Bailey, Kennedy and Cohen. & # 8220 ; The American Pageant, & # 8221 ; 11th Ed. ( Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998 ) 280
