trail of tears essay intro

Trail Of Tears - Essay Examples And Topic Ideas For Free

The Trail of Tears refers to the forced relocation of Native American tribes in the 1830s, resulting in significant suffering and death. Essays could discuss the events leading up to the Trail of Tears, its impact on Native American communities, or its legacy in U.S. history. We’ve gathered an extensive assortment of free essay samples on the topic of Trail of Tears you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Trail of Tears: Indian Removal Act

Historians today are still divided on President Andrew Jackson’s actions toward Native Americans in the 1830s, which included the Indian Removal and The Trail of Tears. Despite alternate ideas upon this matter, his actions toward Native Americans benefited them in the long term. That is not to say that that Jackson’s policy did not cause suffering, loss and even death for the Native American tribes who were impacted by his policy. It clearly did, in what was a turbulent time […]

Research Paper #1 – the Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears. One of the darkest periods in the history of the United States. It all started with the Indian Removal Act signed by Andrew Jackson in the year of 1830 (History). This Act, along with the pride of the still young independent country led by Manifest Destiny fueled this massive ordeal that caused thousands of Native Americans to die during this period. The first victims were the Choctaw Indians when they were completely forced to vacate their […]

Controversies Durong Andrew Jackson Presidency

I have chosen to write about the controversies before, during and after the Andrew Jackson presidential elections in the United States from 1824 - 1832. This period was considered to be unique in American history because Jackson was considered by many to be the first “non elitist” to be elected to the nation’s highest office. My search for primary sources on this topic for has been effective and wide reaching in scope. Ultimately, many historians come down to three questions […]

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“Trail of Tears” : a Deadly Journey Across the Mississippi River

In the early year of the 1830s, Native Americans lived across the U. S, including places like Georgia and North Carolina. By the end of this time, few were left around, since the natives were now sold and worked for white settlers. To settlers, the Natives were simply people they did not know or see as equals; the settlers just saw them as strangers who lived on land they wanted. This led to the relocation of the Natives by a […]

Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears

On December 6th, 1830, President Andrew Jackson addressed the members of Congress regarding the Indian Removal Act. He began his speech: “It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed […]

The Treaty of Indian New Echota

Introduction The 18th and 19th centuries saw the population of Georgia grow by six folds. Westerners were beginning to press on the Indian settlers, which led to the eruption of many conflicts. Europeans and Americans continued to invade the American-Indian land forcing the Cherokee India’s and the Creek Indians to the periphery. Towards 1825, almost the entire Lower Creek had been displaced from Georgia following the signing of the Treaty of Indian Springs. By the year 1827, the whole Cleek […]

The Trail of Tears History

"The Trail of tears was the removal and march of indigenous people off their land to a designated location assigned by the United States government. This was one of the most tragic events that happened to natives on US soil, between the inhuman and unethical treatment as well the overuse of power for the gain of other. Many don’t know about the trail of tears and it is very important to understand how the governmental power was abused, what lead […]

Andrew Jackson – Presidency, Facts & Trail of Tears

Think back into U.S. history the crossing of paths between Andrew Jackson and his role in the Indian Removal Act. There have been many historical events that have impacted American history, more importantly between two groups of people directly the white man and the removal of the Native Indians. The American people at the time wanted the lands of the Natives to grow additional settlements for american citizens. Andrew Jackson who spent the majority of his military career fighting against […]

Andrew Jackson – Presidency, Facts & Accomplishments

Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States and was put into presidency in the year 1829. He was a man with a short temper and no fear to duel anyone that he wish. Jackson had sadly more than 100 duels in his presidency and there is no real marking on how much people he killed in battle. One of his infamous sayings were he’d fight you to the drop of the hat. Another thing to know from that […]

Internet Project: Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears Westward Expansion is a key part of how the United States became what it is today. However, the story getting here is not all sunshine and roses and Westward Expansion effected the lives of many Native Americans. The story of what happened during Westward Expansion is still controversial in society today. The facts and statistics of this event would cause any logical person to see that this story is full of more negatives than positives. Native Americans […]

The Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears - occurred between 1838 to 1839. It was part of Andrew Jackson’s removal policy of the Indians (Native Americans). The nation of the Cherokees had been forced to give up their land that was east of the Mississippi river and to move to an area in todays Oklahoma. This journey was called the “Trail of Tears” by the Natives, because of its catastrophic effects on over 4000 of the 15000 migrating Cherokees that lost their lives […]

Thomas Jefferson V. Andrew Jackson

In this paper we will discuss the differences of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson during their presidency,challenges, and accomplishments. Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd president of the United States.Thomas Jefferson was president from 1801-1809 and Vice President from 1797-1801. John Adams lost the 1800 election to Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson saw his election as a turning point. He wanted to reduce the size of the army,and end naval expansion, and lower the government cost. Thomas Jefferson was a democratic-republican so […]

About the Trail of Tears

After the American Revolution, and the creation of the United States, the Native Americans were thought of as a separate nation within a sovereign country even though they wanted a peaceful coexistence with the white settlers. Eventually the white settlers became more concerned with the resources that the Native Americans sat on, then with the people themselves. This American greed led to the formation of events that led to the Trail of Tears. During the time of the Trail of […]

History of Trail of Tears

We the American people have a terrible past that we all share together. They forced many innocent Native Americans of this land, the land they shared with us and helped us live on. They even forced them to the brink of death. We told them sweet words and fed them many lies and nearly wiped them out all in one year. This was a terrible time in our history and changed the course of our nation. We had multiple important […]

Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office

Four days after the inauguration of Trump, on January 24th, 2017 he put a picture of Andrew Jackson beside his desk. With this painting, controversy sparked. In both of their campaigns, they tried to appeal to the “common man”. Andrew Jackson being against John Quincy Adams which was born into a political lifestyle. John Quincy Adams dad being John Adams the second president of the United States, knew how to read or write, was the Secretary Of State and, was […]

Andrew Jackson Biography

Andrew Jackson was a man of the people. He was born in the back woods of Tennessee in a wooden cabin. At a very young age he was left as an orphan. He helped soldiers fight. At a young age he was a troublemaker. Jackson served in the years of 1829-1837. When he served there was a lot of question about if he was democratic or not. Even though he was not the greatest president he had still democratic thoughts. […]

Civil War was not about Slavery

Some people that experienced the Civil War and some who did not experience it like to say that the Civil War was not about slavery, but instead about defending rights that states had. President Lincoln even tried to offer a deal to the southern states saying if they returned to the union they could keep their slaves, but they denied his offer. The Civil War was started when Fort Sumter was attacked by the confederates. In return to this, Lincoln had […]

The Cherokee Nation – the Origins and Beginnings

Native Americans, the forefathers of our nation. The ones who inhabited this beautiful land we call our home long before the European settlers came and officially put it on the map. Most importantly the ones who showed us a new way of life and the meaning of being abundant, caring, and spiritual. This is why I chose to do this paper on one of the most important tribes in our country. The Cherokee Nation is one of the most refined […]

The Issue of Immigration and Refugees in Society

My current event is on the issue of Immigration and Refugees that is going on in our society. Immigrants have been the back bone of what made America great. This country is supposed to be the land of opportunity. For the people that come here that is all that they hear. Wanting a fresh start from whatever country they came from. The NASW (2015) said that “Immigration has increased rapidly in the 1990s, with more than 13 million people moved […]

The Seminole Native Americans

My essay is going to be about the Seminole Native Americans. The Seminole Native Americans originated in North Florida. Researchers claim that the Seminole tribe can be traced back at least 12,000 years. Research proves that they had Native American ancestors living there that long ago. The large territory of Florida already was home to about “200,000” Seminole ancestors, by the time the Spaniards “discovered” it. Europeans migrated to Florida, not too long after, carrying diseases that killed thousands of […]

The Impact of Native American Relocation in the United States of America

During the 19th Century A Good Indian is a Dead Indian! This is how many white Americans felt in the 1800s when greed and racial prejudice forced the relocation of Native Americans. The Trail of Tears refers to the forceful relocation of the Native American communities from the South Eastern regions of the United States as a result of the Indian Removal Act in the year 1830. In the year 1838, the Cherokee community was forced to surrender its land […]

A Lifetime of Injustice for the Native Americans under American Colonization

In 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed, and President Andrew Jackson began negotiations to acquire native land and move the Indians to the west. From 1838 to 1839, Cherokee and Choctaw natives were forced to march 1,000 miles to present-day Oklahoma in what is called the Trail of Tears. While traveling, several thousand Native Americans died and many were mistreated. Since the start of American colonization, the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians, among other tribes, faced numerous hardships. Research demonstrates […]

The Plight of Seeking Rights, and Domestic Terrorism on U.S. Soil

According to the United States, domestic terrorism is defined as “activities that - involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the United States or of any State… to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping…”. The U.S. has not, however, ever explicitly admitted to utilizing terror on its own soil, but it has […]

Life Way of Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson lived in his home called “The Hermitage” in Tennessee. Some people believed that Andrew Jackson was the best President since the Founding Fathers. Jackson was a very controversial President. His opinion on Native American removal from their own lands and African American slaves is still controversial to this day.  Jackson’s parents immigrated to the Carolinas in the 1760’s from Ireland. Jackson never met his father. Andrew Jackson’s father died while his mother was pregnant with him. Jackson grew […]

Forgotten – the New World was not New

The New World was not new. It was inhabited by Native Americans of different Tribal Nations. Although Native Americans are often misinterpreted to have been savages, they were not. Native Americans were successful in agriculture, and some had their own governments. The first Natives that the Spaniards encountered were the Taino, found in the chain of Islands under the Florida peninsula. The establishment of the colonies was also started in Native American land. The genocides of the Taino people and […]

Andrew Jackson’s Role of Dueling

Dueling in the life of Andrew Jackson was based on honor. Honor was Jacksons trademark and what his mother had raised him to believe was most important to a man. He was known for his thin-skin and violent pride. Andrew Jackson challenged many people throughout history to duels based on petty grievances or things that he thought were outright slander to his character. Despite his thin-skin and prideful attitude, he had a code of honor that he was bound to abide. […]

Indian Removal Act of 1830

Well, speaking of the specifics of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 this law was passed by the United States Congress, and it was signed by President Andrew Jackson. From previous readings I saw that George Washington also had a strong input about Native Americans being a problem, and agreed with President Andrew Jackson to extract their land. George Washington wanted to civilize the Natives by changing their beliefs in life, and converting them over to Christianity. Therefore the Removal […]

The Seminole Tribe

Later in the 1830s, Jackson became the President of the United States, and he pushed through Congress the Indian Removal Act. This was to move Indians out of the Southeast and use the opened land for the settlers, also for the military enforcement policy to increase. This policy began in 1835 and those 7 years were tragic in US Indian history in the relations east of the Mississippi River. This was also known in history as the Second Seminole War. […]

History of Women’s Rights

Throughout history, women, Spanish-speaking peoples’ and American Indians have struggled for many years to obtain their rights as citizens and gain equality. They faced deeply entrenched prejudices against the involvement of these minorities in political life as they sought to claim their rights as citizens. Women, Spanish-speaking peoples’ and American Indians did not have many rights, their power as a citizen was limited, and they could not speak out against the problems they faced. In the 1900s, Women, Spanish speaking […]

Manifest Destiny and the Indian Removal Act

Indian Relocation The Indian Relocation was a removal of several Indian tribes known as the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, and Cherokee. The Indian Removal Act was passed by the Congress of the United States and signed by Andrew Jackson. Although meanwhile, the Indians were strongly against their decision to force them off their land, they made an attempt to prevent the act from affecting them. Unfortunately, the Congress was successful in forcing the Indians from their land to Oklahoma. As the […]

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Trail of Tears

By: History.com Editors

Updated: September 26, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. But by the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States. Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk hundreds of miles to a specially designated “Indian Territory” across the Mississippi River. This difficult and oftentimes  deadly journey is known as the Trail of Tears.

The 'Indian Problem'

White Americans, particularly those who lived on the western frontier, often feared and resented the Native Americans they encountered: To them, American Indians seemed to be an unfamiliar, alien people who occupied land that white settlers wanted (and believed they deserved).

Some officials in the early years of the American republic, such as President George Washington , believed that the best way to solve this “Indian problem” was to simply “civilize” the Native Americans. The goal of this civilization campaign was to make Native Americans as much like white Americans as possible by encouraging them convert to Christianity , learn to speak and read English and adopt European-style economic practices such as the individual ownership of land and other property (including, in some instances in the South, enslaved persons).

In the southeastern United States, many Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Creek and Cherokee people adopted these customs and became known as the “Five Civilized Tribes.”

Did you know? Indian removal took place in the Northern states as well. In Illinois and Wisconsin, for example, the bloody Black Hawk War in 1832 opened to white settlement millions of acres of land that had belonged to the Sauk, Fox and other native nations.

But the Native Americans’ land, located in parts of Georgia , Alabama , North Carolina , Florida and Tennessee , was valuable, and it grew to be more coveted as white settlers flooded the region. Many of these whites yearned to make their fortunes by growing cotton, and often resorted to violent means to take land from their Indigenous neighbors. They stole livestock; burned and looted houses and towns; committed mass murder ; and squatted on land that did not belong to them.

Worcester v. Georgia

State governments joined in this effort to drive Native Americans out of the South. Several states passed laws limiting Native American sovereignty and rights and encroaching on their territory.

In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the U.S. Supreme Court objected to these practices and affirmed that native nations were sovereign nations “in which the laws of Georgia [and other states] can have no force.”

Even so, the maltreatment continued. As President Andrew Jackson noted in 1832, if no one intended to enforce the Supreme Court’s rulings (which he certainly did not), then the decisions would “[fall]…still born.” Southern states were determined to take ownership of Indian lands and would go to great lengths to secure this territory.

Indian Removal Act

Andrew Jackson had long been an advocate of what he called “Indian removal.” As an Army general, he had spent years leading brutal campaigns against the Creeks in Georgia and Alabama and the Seminoles in Florida–campaigns that resulted in the transfer of hundreds of thousands of acres of land from Indian nations to white farmers.

As president, he continued this crusade. In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act , which gave the federal government the power to exchange Native-held land in the cotton kingdom east of the Mississippi for land to the west, in the “Indian colonization zone” that the United States had acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase . This “Indian territory” was located in present-day Oklahoma .

The law required the government to negotiate removal treaties fairly, voluntarily and peacefully: It did not permit the president or anyone else to coerce Native nations into giving up their ancestral lands. However, President Jackson and his government frequently ignored the letter of the law and forced Native Americans to vacate lands they had lived on for generations.

In the winter of 1831, under threat of invasion by the U.S. Army, the Choctaw became the first nation to be expelled from its land altogether. They made the journey to Indian Territory on foot (some “bound in chains and marched double file,” one historian writes), and without any food, supplies or other help from the government.

Thousands of people died along the way. It was, one Choctaw leader told an Alabama newspaper, a “trail of tears and death.”

The Indian-removal process continued. In 1836, the federal government drove the Creeks from their land for the last time: 3,500 of the 15,000 Creeks who set out for Oklahoma did not survive the trip.

How Native Americans Struggled to Survive on the Trail of Tears

Severe exposure, starvation and disease ravaged tribes during their forced migration to present‑day Oklahoma.

At Least 3,000 Native Americans Died on the Trail of Tears

Check out seven facts about this infamous chapter in American history.

Why the War of 1812 Was a Turning Point for Native Americans

The conflict was their last, best chance for outside military help to protect their homelands from westward expansion.

Treaty of New Echota

The Cherokee people were divided: What was the best way to handle the government’s determination to get its hands on their territory? Some wanted to stay and fight. Others thought it was more pragmatic to agree to leave in exchange for money and other concessions.

In 1835, a few self-appointed representatives of the Cherokee nation negotiated the Treaty of New Echota, which traded all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi — roughly 7 million acres — for $5 million, relocation assistance and compensation for lost property.

To the federal government, the treaty (signed in New Echota, Georgia) was a done deal, but a majority of the Cherokee felt betrayed. Importantly, the negotiators did not represent the tribal government or anyone else. Most Cherokee people considered the Treaty of New Echota fraudulent, and the Cherokee National Council voted in 1836 to reject it.

“The instrument in question is not the act of our nation,” wrote the nation’s principal chief, John Ross, in a letter to the U.S. Senate protesting the Treaty of New Echota. “We are not parties to its covenants; it has not received the sanction of our people.” Nearly 16,000 Cherokees signed Ross’s petition, but Congress approved the treaty anyway.

By 1838, only about 2,000 Cherokees had left their Georgia homeland for Indian Territory. President Martin Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott and 7,000 soldiers to expedite the removal process. Scott and his troops forced the Cherokee into stockades at bayonet point while his men looted their homes and belongings.

Then, they marched the Indians more than 1,200 miles to Indian Territory. Whooping cough, typhus, dysentery, cholera and starvation were epidemic along the way. Historians estimate that more than 5,000 Cherokee died as a result of the journey.

Legacy of the Trail of Tears

By 1840, tens of thousands of Native Americans had been driven off of their land in the southeastern states and forced to move across the Mississippi to Indian Territory. The federal government promised that their new land would remain unmolested forever, but as the line of white settlement pushed westward, “Indian Country” shrank and shrank. In 1907, Oklahoma became a state and Indian Territory was considered lost.

A 2020 decision by the Supreme Court, however, highlighted ongoing interest in Native American territorial rights. In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that a huge area of Oklahoma is still considered an American Indian reservation .

This decision left the state of Oklahoma unable to prosecute Native Americans accused of crimes on those tribal lands — only federal and tribal law enforcement can prosecute such crimes. (A later 2022 Supreme Court decision rolled back some provisions of the 2020 court finding.)

The Trail of Tears — actually a network of different routes — is over 5,000 miles long and covers nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Today, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail is run by the National Park Service and portions of it are accessible on foot, by horse, by bicycle or by car.

Trail of Tears. NPS.gov . Trail of Tears. Museum of the Cherokee Indian . The Treaty of New Echota and the Trail of Tears. North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources . The Treaty That Forced the Cherokee People from Their Homelands Goes on View. Smithsonian Magazine . Justices rule swath of Oklahoma remains tribal reservation. Associated Press . Justices limit 2020 ruling on tribal lands in Oklahoma. Associated Press . 

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The Trail of Tears

Written by: bill of rights institute, by the end of this section, you will:.

• Explain how and why American foreign policy developed and expanded over time

Suggested Sequencing

This Narrative can be used alongside the Responses to the Cherokee Removal Mini DBQ Lesson and the Native Americans in American Art Lesson.

The technological innovations of the cotton gin and weaving looms in early factories in Great Britain and New England led to the mass production of manufactured textiles. The worldwide demand for cotton soared, and the American South provided almost half that cotton, amounting to 400 million pounds by the 1820s. Southern planters and farmers had an insatiable desire for land on which they and their enslaved workers grew the lucrative crop. Tens of thousands of white southerners and their enslaved workers moved into Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. The owners were guided by the idea of Manifest Destiny and believed they had a right to land that was supposedly unimproved by American Indians.

However, members of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations lived on those lands in the Southeast. Whites called them the “Five Civilized Tribes” because they had adopted some of the cultural ways of whites, such as by using whites’ methods of agriculture and animal husbandry, wearing whites’ style of clothing, and attending English-speaking missionary schools. The Cherokee leader Sequoyah created a syllabary to write down stories from the Cherokee oral tradition, and the Cherokee adopted a republican constitution with a bicameral legislature and three branches of government. Still, the tribes were split over whether to follow this policy of cultural assimilation in which they gave up their traditional ways of living. They were also deeply divided over whether to cede land to whites after the War of 1812. Several treaties were made ceding tens of millions of acres in the southeastern states when Andrew Jackson and other negotiators appealed to those Indians who wanted to sell.

During the 1820s, Jackson and many southerners in Congress and state governments embraced a policy of removal of the American Indians living in the Southeast to west of the Mississippi River. Settlers and land speculators pressured all levels of government to support removal. The congressional House Committee on Indian Affairs considered a removal bill in 1825, but it died in committee. The removal policy coincided with proposals for a giant Indian reservation that would comprise different tribes. These also failed.

Jackson was another prominent supporter of Indian removal in the 1820s. He had fought in several battles against American Indians in the Southeast during and after the War of 1812. He also served as a treaty commissioner and persuaded tribes to surrender millions of acres of land. He and the southerners who later formed the nucleus of the emerging Democratic Party advocated removal.

In his first inaugural address as president in 1829, Jackson vaguely promised “to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy.” In his annual message to Congress that December, he summarized government policy much more extensively. Despite his view that the southeastern Indian nations had “made some progress in the arts of civilized life,” Jackson said, “I suggest for your consideration the propriety of setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any state or territory now formed, to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it, each tribe having a distinct control over the portion designated for its use.” Removal to the West, he argued, was actually beneficial to “preserve this much-injured race.”

In February and March 1830, the debate in Congress over the Indian removal bill was acrimonious. Mostly northerners, influenced by the ideals of justice and Christian morals, submitted hundreds of petitions protesting the removal. New Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen delivered a three-day speech excoriating the removal policy as a violation of federal treaties and “oppressive encroachments upon the sacred privileges of our Indian neighbors.” Georgia Senator John Forsyth retorted by defending removal as a matter of states’ rights and declared that American Indians would be better off on western hunting grounds. The bill narrowly passed by a vote of 28 to 19 in the Senate and 102 to 97 in the House. Jackson signed it into law in late May. The act provided for voluntary removal to lands held by Indians in perpetuity west of the Mississippi provided they surrendered lands to the east. The federal government promised provisions and protection during the journey to the west.

The Choctaws were the first to sign a removal treaty in September, and some of the tribe began emigrating during a terrible winter without federal troops or adequate provisions. Hundreds perished during the journey, and the survivors straggled to their destination in small groups.

In the icy winter chill of a December day in 1831, French chronicler Alexis de Tocqueville was present to witness the forlorn and destitute Choctaw cross the partially frozen Mississippi River. Tocqueville looked upon the injustice with mixed disgust and pity. Though he had come to the United States ostensibly to study its prison system, he had spent the majority of his time, instead, studying his real passion: the functions and trappings of the institutions of the first modern republic, which he believed represented the future of humanity. But the coerced removal of entire American Indian nations and the denial of their natural rights contradicted the ideals of American democracy. Tocqueville believed “the Indian race [was] doomed to perish.”

He described the scene:

At the end of the year 1831, whilst I was on the left bank of the Mississippi at a place named by Europeans, Memphis, there arrived a numerous band of Choctaws (or Chactas, as they are called by the French in Louisiana). These savages had left their country, and were endeavoring to gain the right bank of the Mississippi, where they hoped to find an asylum which had been promised them by the American government. It was then the middle of winter, and the cold was unusually severe; the snow had frozen hard upon the ground, and the river was drifting huge masses of ice. The Indians had their families with them; and they brought in their train the wounded and sick, with children newly born, and old men upon the verge of death. They possessed neither tents nor wagons, but only their arms and some provisions. I saw 373 of them embark to pass the mighty river, and never will that solemn spectacle fade from my remembrance. No cry, no sob was heard amongst the assembled crowd; all were silent. Their calamities were of ancient date, and they knew them to be irremediable. The Indians had all stepped into the bark which was to carry them across, but their dogs remained upon the bank. As soon as these animals perceived that their masters were finally leaving the shore, they set up a dismal howl, and, plunging all together into the icy waters of the Mississippi, they swam after the boat.

Alexis de Tocqueville, shown in an 1850 oil portrait by Théodore Chassériau, traveled extensively throughout the United States during the early days of the republic while writing his famous book Democracy in America

Federal troops and private companies helped more than nine thousand Choctaws settle in Indian Territory by 1833. However, the summers of 1832 and 1833 saw devastating outbreaks of cholera among the Choctaws. Thousands of them perished from the disease.

This map shows the removal of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes from their homelands.

The other nations followed the Choctaws to the Indian Territory in the West throughout the 1830s and early 1840s. Secretary of War Lewis Cass was responsible for providing military protection and ensuring the tribes had adequate provisions and medical care through federal troops or private contractors. The Chickasaws decided to sign a treaty in 1832, and more than six thousand of the tribe emigrated by 1838. The Creeks resisted for a few more years, but the encroachment of an estimated ten thousand white settlers seeking land and gold without much hindrance from the federal government persuaded the Creeks to sign a treaty in 1834. When violence erupted in what were termed the First and Second Creek Wars, federal troops subdued the Creeks and forcibly removed three thousand of them, followed by thousands of others. By 1838, thousands of Creeks had died during removal.

The Cherokee stayed in Georgia and were harassed by the state government and private citizens who wanted their land. Chief John Ross refused to sign a removal treaty, but other chiefs were more willing and signed the Treaty of New Echota. Writer Ralph Waldo Emerson and Texan Sam Houston were among those who publicly denounced the treaty as a miscarriage of justice. It passed by a single vote in the Senate. In the fall of 1838 and the harsh winter that followed during the presidency of Martin Van Buren, the Cherokee were forcibly removed by federal troops. Private companies failed to deliver food and supplies, and about four thousand Cherokee died of starvation and disease during the journey along the “Trail of Tears.”

The Seminoles were victims of a fraudulent treaty some of the chiefs signed in 1832, so most the nation refused to leave Florida. A Creek named Osceola led a band of warriors who attacked and killed more than one hundred U.S. troops to start the Second Seminole War in December 1835. The two sides engaged in several battles, though the Seminoles retreated to the nearly impenetrable swamps of the Everglades from which they launched raids on neighboring forts. The war lasted several years, with more than one thousand casualties on each side from the fighting and diseases such as malaria. The U.S. Army fought bitterly to remove approximately four thousand Seminoles by force, but a truce was signed in 1842, allowing about five hundred to remain.

Within the first few years of arrival in what is now Oklahoma, the resettled American Indian population was decimated by cholera, malaria, smallpox, and influenza. “We did not visit a house, wigwam, or camp,” wrote a distressed missionary, “where we did not find more or less sickness, and in most instances the whole family were prostrated by disease. Great numbers of them have died.” The sickness hit the children hardest, and child death rates soared.

With similar results, the U.S. government forcibly removed the Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole. Twice, the Cherokee took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), Marshall’s court ruled that the Cherokee constituted a “domestic dependent nation” and therefore had no standing to challenge Georgia’s sovereignty within Cherokee lands. A year later, in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the Marshall court ruled in the favor of the Cherokee, noting that Georgia, as a state, had no jurisdiction over independent and sovereign Indian nations. The Court thereby invalidated the Georgia laws claiming Cherokee lands because they were protected by federal treaty and the Commerce Clause of Article I, section 8.

The five American Indian nations of the southeast were dispossessed of their lands by white settlers and speculators, state governments, and the federal government. The treaties they had made respecting their lands were superseded by new treaties endorsing the idea of Indian removal and resettlement west of the Mississippi, supposedly forever. Nevertheless, within a few decades, the pressure of continued American migration to the West resulted in a series of Indian wars and additional injustices.

At their peak, the Cherokee controlled land in the present-day states of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. By the end of the 1830s, most Cherokee had either relocated voluntarily or were forced to move to Indian Territory, as shown in a modern artist’s rendition of the Cherokee relocation journey on The Trail of Tears.

Review Questions

1. In his 1829 first inaugural address, President Jackson laid out his belief that the best policy toward American Indians was to

• assist American Indians in the adoption of agriculture
• set aside land west of the Mississippi for American Indians’ control and use
• declare war on the Five Civilized Tribes
• allow the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of their claim to land in the southeast

2. The five southern tribes removed and forced upon the Trail of Tears were

• the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Creek, the Choctaw, and the Seminole
• the Cherokee, the Kiowa, the Creek, the Choctaw, and the Seminole
• the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Shawnee, the Choctaw, and the Seminole
• the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Sioux, the Choctaw, and the Seminole

3. Who witnessed the policy of Indian Removal in 1831, claiming “the Indian race [was] doomed to perish”?

• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Sam Houston
• John Forsyth
• Alexis de Tocqueville

4. The initial ruling of the Supreme Court in regard to American Indians stated

• American Indians were citizens and had full protection under the Constitution
• the various states had authority over American Indian nations within their jurisdiction
• the Supreme Court had no authority over American Indian groups
• Indian tribes were “domestic dependent nations” and had rights to their own land

5. The first major expulsion after the Indian Removal Act of 1830 occurred in

• Mississippi

6. The greatest impetus for whites pushing American Indians off their traditional territory was the

• belief that American Indians were inferior and had no ability to work the land
• desire for the land for development and the acquisition of wealth
• belief that North America was destined to be a white continent, where enslaved African persons would work the land
• belief that American Indians would be safer and happier in land west of the Mississippi River

Free Response Questions

• Explain Andrew Jackson’s words and actions related to American Indians.
• Explain how the U.S. government failed to protect American Indians during the 1820s-1840s.

AP Practice Questions

“And be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the President to have the same superintendence and care over any tribe or nation in the country to which they may remove, as contemplated by this act, that he is now authorized to have over them at their present places of residence: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed as authorizing or directing the violation of any existing treaty between the United States and any of the Indian tribes.” Indian Removal Act , signed by Andrew Jackson May 28, 1830

1. The Indian Removal Act was a

• formal acknowledgement of the president’s power to direct relocation of American Indians
• radical departure from previous presidents’ policies regarding Indian ways of life
• formal and specific assurance of protection of American Indians’ individual constitutional rights
• repudiation of all previous treaties between the United States and American Indians

2. The main idea expressed in the excerpt from the Indian Removal Act was most likely motivated by

• an overwhelming demand from Congress for new treaties that would protect American Indians’ rights, culture, and economic survival by relocating them to rich farmlands in the west
• a desire by the state of Georgia to remove the Cherokee from their land
• Andrew Jackson’s demand that American Indians be protected by enforcement of all treaties between the United States and the tribes
• the request by American Indians that they receive territory free of U.S. government interference

Primary Sources

Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America . Vol. 1. Translated by Henry Reeve. (1835). http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/LojkoMiklos/Alexis-de-Tocqueville-Democracy-in-America.pdf

Suggested Resources

Ehle, John. Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation . New York: Anchor Books, 1988.

Perdue, Theda. Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 . Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 1998.

Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears . New York: Penguin, 2007.

Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents . Boston: Bedford Books, 1995.

Remini, Robert V. The Legacy of Andrew Jackson: Essays on Democracy, Indian Removal, and Slavery . Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University, 1988.

Thornton, Russell. The Cherokees: A Population History . Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.

Wallace, Anthony. The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians . New York: Hill and Wang, 1993.

Woodward Grace Steele. The Cherokees . Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

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