Purpose
Expanding democracy and the franchise was defining characteristics of the Jacksonian Era, however, it is important to understand that expansion of the electorate applied only to white males. Women, African Americans, and Native Americans (among others) saw little progress in claiming increased rights for themselves and in the case of African Americans and Native Americans, saw their fortunes decline markedly.
The Trail of Tears was perhaps the most notorious example of Jacksonian Indian policy. Although the name “Trail of Tears” applied specifically to the removal of the Cherokee from their ancestral homelands in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was used to justify the forced removal of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeastthe Cherokee as well as the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole Indiansbecause they had begun to adopt certain facets of American culture like learning the English language and converting to Christianity. The Cherokee adopted their own written syllabary and wrote a constitution based upon the US Constitution. Jackson’s position on Native peoples was based upon the idea that they were unable to adapt to mainstream American society and therefore had to be removed out of the way to prevent their extinction. Jackson was not alone in this beliefa majority of Americans at this time believed that Indians had to be removed for the sake of the American Republic.
Persona Descriptions:
Pro-removal Cherokee citizen (John Ridge, Sept. 22, 1833: “Letter from John Ridge to Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin”)
Initial Post:
In your initial post, write a minimum of two paragraphs laying out your character’s argument for or against Cherokee removal from their ancestral homelands in the Southeast to a reservation in Indian Territory. Be sure to make direct references to the primary document for your assigned character.
Last Completed Projects
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