The Keys of Territorial Expansion: The Trail of Tears

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The 1800’s in the history of the united states of American highlight a time when the industrial revolution was gaining momentum, production and other forms of economic growth were vibrant then. At the height of this, there came a time when the American economy needed to further expand in territory so as to accommodate productivity and domesticate the production in the land that was originally theirs’ as their very own. To do this, a series of legislations ensued; cold wars, hatred and animosity plus even death came followed.

There arose the deliberate and conscious move by the United States through its allies around the regions they wanted to have occupied to force them the smaller communities to yield. They forged treaties, agreements and other documents they could have to show for their actions, and further more to validate their actions, but then again these were always to their advantage as these were totally different societies with different classes of people, as such the superior class always had the upper hand dealing in official matters and drafting these “legal treaties”.

The need for expansion triggered the west ward expansion. This move intended to capture a region traditionally known to belong to Indians. The debate that came about as a result of that move much of the time focused on relationship between the United States and these Indian communities that had occupied these regions for centuries. This debate was torn between the clamors for delivery of rights equally to individuals within the confines of democracy.

Those who opposed this move argued that the United States should follow precedents from other colonial masters in Europe that had initially settled within North America in the first century around the 1400’s. Other colonies that had resisted their being colonized by Britain continued to grow and expand due to their increasing need to get land to settle their people in.

These debates to remove the Indians were to a great length discussed in details in the US congress. Many of the proponents were of the opinion that the whole agenda for their removal is expansion. Their negotiations bordered on the policies of the United States pooled together with the packs they were bringing to the table as compensation. They came to the table pretending to be equals with the Indians, yet at the back of their minds they considered them savages, primitive and devoid of free thought and civility (Shaw, 199).

There was a flip side to the whole thing altogether, nationally there developed resistance to the removal of these people. This was at a high note particularly those of the Cherokee community. This resistance combined both forms such as polemics, petitions, general communal gatherings and public debates whose main motions centered on this.

The parties opposing the removal were advancing their arguments around the following points; one of them is that the US should implement policies that were applicable to the cases of the affected and that they should be in tandem with their past agreements that would ensure the ties and terms of the agreement are upheld as pertains to honoring the rights of the Indian community.

The second one is that in their quest to expand, they should regard the Indian communities as humans with human needs, as such the only difference between them and the Americans is only their habitat and way of life. The proponents of the removal were in support of Georgia’s campaign to rid these people off their land, and expel them off their own land in total disregard of their ways of life.

The then American president in every way supported Georgia’s campaign to expel these communities, not that Georgia would benefit but his own country was strategic and would gain more. While making a presentation and arguments on the subject, Jackson “continually said that he was convinced that he was in the right in advancing Georgia’s interests.

He also maintained that he was not being mean spirited in exiling the Indians, but instead was working for the interests of all concerned in his endeavors, as he had: …the conviction that I was laboring in the cause of humanity, and to promote the best interest of the Indian, as well as the white race”(Lamar, 39).

He pegged his support on the expulsion of the Indian community on two main points, that he was “relieving his own state from the encumbrance of her Indian population, and … other states in like condition”. His second reason was a build up on the first statement, that he was anxious improve the living conditions and standard of life of the Indians by raising them up above the knuckles of the influence of the state government (Lamar, 40).

The move began with Georgia’s legislature passing a law that allowed the federal government to control all the land in the western side; as such they were only required to make a pledge of nullifying all the Indian titles within the region. In this part, the Cherokees were the vast majority with big chunks of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia. Georgia executed brutality and denial one of the most fundamental basic human right- the right to justice.

They made it illegal and against the law and even factored it in their newly written constitution that it was illegal for a member of the Cherokee community to file a case in their legal systems against a white person. This was a response to the Cherokees’ Nation decision to proclaim the sovereignty of their land and exercise total jurisdiction over the land that was originally theirs. The communities at loggerheads in this sense were the Seminoles, who had differences with those who were staying in Florida.

The creeks were entangled severally in military confrontations with the federal government’s army in Alabama and the state of Georgia. The Chickisaw were in confrontation with the Choctaw tribe, of whom altogether had disputes against the aliens that had migrated and settled along Mississippi.

The United States president, Andrew Jackson came up with the solution that would see all these communities moved to Oklahoma. When he ascended to presidency, he engineered congress to pass the Indian removal act in 1830. His reason for doing this had been that it would ensure the white invaders got land, would bar foreign invasion through provision of security and also encourage civility among the Native Americans that dwelt in these regions.

In a speech during his first tenure as president, he stated that this move “will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the government and through the influences of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community.”

The Native Americans in Oklahoma were compensated though. They were allocated land in an area that later came to be referred to as the Indian Territory. Other tribes chose to use the money to buy land and do other communal activities such as building infrastructure. In 1835, a part of the leadership of the Cherokee signed another treaty called the treaty of new Echota.

The treaty gave up all the land that traditionally belonged to them to the United States, in exchange to some chunk of land within the Indian Territory. Most of them opposed this move by their leaders but they were forced to trek.

In October 1838, almost 15000 people began the trek that was later to be called the Trail of tears. The journey was about 800 miles, people travelled on foot. An estimated amount of 4000 people died in the journey due to hunger, cold weather and other barbaric conditions they were exposed to during the trek. In general, it is assumed that close to 70,000 Native Americans were forced out of the five states of Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama and Georgia (Limerick, 51).

Works Cited

Lamar, Howard. The Frontier in History North America and Southern Africa Compared. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. Print.

Limerick, Patricia. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987. Print.

Shaw, Bill. Paying homage to a brutalized people, a wagon train follows the infamous Trail of Tears. The People Weekly (Dec. 1988): 199. Print.

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The Keys of Territorial Expansion: The Trail of Tears

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