Essay On Indian Removal

India Removal Act of 1830 In the early 1800s, while the fast growing country of the United states urged its people to expand to the south, on what was home to many Indian nations including the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chicasaw and Seminole. In search for land to grow cotton, white settlers considered these tribes an obstacle that stood in the way of progress. Pressures to the federal government to take over this land increased as more and more people tried settled in the south. This led to many treaties and compromise attempts between the federal government and the people of each tribe, to try to come to an agreement. Andrew Jackson, the president at the time, found himself in a tough situation, having to make decision for his country’s people.
The Cherokees' march was a forced one under the direction of the United States army. “The Trail of Tears was the most sorrowful legacy of the Jacksonian Era”, (ushistory.org n.d.). Over 4,000 Cherokees died in 1838 and 1839 on their way to present-day Oklahoma, during Andrew Jackson's Indian removal (The Trail of Tears 1942). Missionaries who had invested their time and money teaching Indians about Christianity were against the removal of the Indians, many of whom lobbied Congress to oppose the act (Kidwell n.d.). The Trail of Tears marked the movement of the Indians to their soon to be home, west of the river. The unfair treatment towards these nations emphasized that Americans where hungry for land and there was nothing that could stop them from getting it. Americans felt the need to control communities through the creation of laws that would inevitably discourage others from helping the native tribes succeed in a civilized world. To the point where it was a crime for non-natives to attempt to reside in Indian communities, in hopes to prevent further adaptation among