Question

HISTORY

in 200 words. Explain the reasons for the Indian Removal policy during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, and describe the Trail of Tears.  

Answer 1

During a time of inconsistencies the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was unveiled. While it was a time when democratic institutions were expanding, it also pointed to the obvious limitations of that democracy. States largely abolished voting restrictions on property and, with the expansion of the western frontier, this meant more opportunities for white settlement. The Western Promised Land, however, spelled disaster for the indigenous peoples living with the whites. No one understood better the contradictions of this age of democracy than the Cherokees, who adopted many white institutions to suffer only from the tyranny of the majority and were forced against their will to the West.

The negotiating tactics of Jefferson were far more aggressive than anything imagined by Knox as Jefferson ordered his agents to step up the pressure on tribes to sell more and larger land tracts. Soon, he let it be known that treatment, intimidation, and corruption were acceptable tactics for getting the job done. Jefferson, with his aggression, merely uncovered that the Native Americans did not benefit from these civilisation policies. The assimilation policy was instead a disguised policy of the American government 's removal of the Native Americans

Although not all Americans were convinced by Jackson's and his assurances that his motives and methods were philanthropic, in 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which permitted: 1) the federal government to relocate any indigenous Americans to the territory west of the Mississippi River in the East; 2) the president to establish districts within the Indian Territory for reception.

Nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived in Georgia , Tennessee, Alabama , North Carolina, and Florida on millions of acres of land at the beginning of the 1830s – their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. Very few natives existed anywhere in the southeast of the United States by the end of the decade. Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indian land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk thousands of miles across the Mississippi River to a specially designated "Indian territory." This difficult and sometimes deadly voyage is known as the Trail of Tears