The Indian Removal Act was also very controversial, while Native American removal, in theory, was voluntary. In reality, vast amounts of pressure were put on Native American leaders to sign removal treaties. Most observers’ weather they were in favor of the policy or not, were aware that the passage of the act would mean the inevitable removal of most Indians from the state. From 1820 to 1824, Jackson was instrumental in negotiating 11 treaties; which deprived the eastern tribes of their land in exchange for land in the west. As a result of the treaties, the United States gained control of over three-quarters of Alabama, and Florida, as well as parts of Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, and North Carolina.
The Indians suffered many casualties during this period; there were estimates that thousands of Indians lives were lost due to exposure, disease and malnourishment. This paper will discuss how the greed of the US government forced the Cherokee people from their lands for gold and cotton. Background: Early in the 19th century, while white settlers were claiming lands in the South for growing cotton, the area was home to the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole nations. These Indian nations, in the view of the settlers and many other white Americans, were standing in the way of progress. Eager for land to raise cotton, the settlers pressured the federal
The Cherokee had their own government, their own writing system, and they had translated the New Testament into Cherokee. This showed that the Whites had influenced the Cherokee Indians in one way, and they took that and turned it into their own. According to Boudinot’s An Address to the Whites, he says that their written language could not be read or written by just anyone, but it allowed for the unification of the natives. The Cherokee Indians created their own government. The Cherokee nation was divided into eight different districts and there was a court in each of the districts that had their own courts to try cases.
The seeds of a removal program were sown in the series of negotiations with southeastern tribes that began with the first Treaty of Hopewell in 1785. Many citizens of the southeastern states, especially Georgia, believed that the federal government too often made concessions to powerful, well-organized tribes such as the Creeks and the Cherokees. In 1802, when Georgia was asked to cede the lands from which the states of Alabama and Mississippi would later be created, it did so only after extracting a promise from federal officials to "peaceably obtain, on reasonable terms," the Indian title to all land within Georgia's borders. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson saw an opportunity to both appease Georgia and legitimize his controversial Louisiana
After differences of opinion within the government as to how to go about rebuilding and readmitting the South were agreed upon, it was decided that the Southern states would be coerced to ratify the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment extended citizenship rights to freed slaves, and the 15th amendment gave freed male slaves the right to vote. Even though slavery had been defeated, racial prejudice thrived in post war America. Democrats unleashed anti-black sentiments to rally fellow whites to assimilate under their banner. Thomas Nast’s cartoon, “This is a White Man’s Government”, satirizes the Democratic Party in 1868, depicting the Democrats as the oppressors of the black race, represented by the black Union soldier who fell while carrying the ballot box.
Reconstruction Congress took action in 1867 of reconstruction and tried to reconstruct and bring together our divided nation. They did this by applying certain requirements for the Confederate states to become part of the Union again, and trying to protect the citizenship right of freedom. But, Reconstruction ended by 1877 and the government’s efforts of equal rights were soon gone. Congress’ Reconstruction efforts to confirm equal rights to the freedmen failed. After president Abraham Lincoln died and the failure of President Johnson, Congress tried to take responsibility of the plans to reconstruct the divided nation that they had before.
The African Americans, united in their quest for creating ‘a perfect union’ which at its very earliest ended when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. Barker (2013), in his book, recollects the autobiographical notes and personal anecdote of various events from the black and white slaves who played an integral part in the American war against slavery. A socio political approach is used by Barker to engage his readers in how the African Americans continued their battle in middle 1800s. There are eight cases of the fleeing bondsmen included in the books who were pursued by their owners and in some cases, by the federal allies who claimed ownership of these slaved under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In the chapters that follow, along with the well reclaimed fugitive slaves, Barker also introduced their abolitionist allies including Theodore Parker, Lewis Hayden, Frederick Douglas, Wendell Phillips and Samuel Joseph May who are proclaimed as the Revolutionary war heroes.
As Americans moved west, Jackson supported the process of removal and relocation. A major event during the removal process was the Trail of Tears, the march of the Cherokee Indians in 1838. Before this event, Jackson followed every law to the letter, and was in the process of negotiating treaties with southern Natives. However, the process was moving along too slowly for southern settlers, as states passed laws regulating Natives within their states. Congress was forced to pass the Removal Act of 1830, which appropriated funds for removal.
Vanessa AP US History Period 3 Mr. Catalinich 31 January 2012 Events in the 1850’s that Contributed to the Causes of the Civil War In order to get back their “property”, the South pushed Congress to pass the Fugitive Law of 1850 as a part of the Great Compromise that postponed war between the North and South for four years. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was mostly aimed at the Northern States, requiring all citizens of America to find runaway slaves, regardless of their moral beliefs. The South viewed slaves not as human beings, but as property to be kept, sold, or even killed. It forced the North to become a part of the “slave system” even though they had clearly taken no part in any ownership. Those who tried to help slaves escape
Jim burg Dr.Thibeault English 1101 February 5, 2001 The Unanswered Question Reparation is an individual proposal from the federal government to pay for the unpaid labor of slavery. The U.S. government’s original plan to repay African Americans for slavery was “40 acres and a mule”. To show faith from the government, General Sherman set aside land on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia for freedmen to settle. But, in 1865, after the Confederates States of America were defeated, and the death of Lincoln; President Andrew Johnson returned the land back to its previous owners. The effects of slavery hurt African Americans in many aspects of life due to the unresolved question on reparations.