How History Shapes Our Lives

History is what shapes our daily lives. All the past events such as fights for justice and freedom make it possible to survive in today’s day and age. In the past many people were discriminated against because of the color of their skin while others were forced and bullied to move off of their own premises just because others had that authority. A lot of history that is learned about and recognized is because of the works and writings available for us to read. Through literature we learn a lot of untold stories. With literature we can learn about events from the past in more debt. It helps us understand and analyze what they felt and went through. In the poem Georgia 1838 we can learn how the Cherokees were forced out of their lands and “When the Cherokees refused to leave the state set up a lottery to rid them of their lands” he also speaks about how they were “roust from their tables and beds” and “stripped of everything they owned”. The “Trail of Tears” was a time in the past when there were ten million Native Americans on this continent when the first non-Indians arrived. Over the course of 300 years, almost all of the Native American original population was either wiped out by disease, famine, or warfare imported by the whites. They had to walk for months, days and years in seek of a new home and along the way many died due to different diseases and infections. They faced many obstacles on this journey with “dark clouds massing thunder splitting lightning forking” (The Trail page 11). These works of art help us better understand what the Native Americans were facing when they were being forced off the land not only by others but by nature. As they walked many were wounded, sick, a few new born babies has joined, and old men were at the point of death. They had no protection, no medication and nothing to save them. In the poem the crossing he says “I felt ill and sensed that cholera has set in” a disease given to him by the people who came and intruded on