The Removal of the Cherokee from their land in the 1830 ’ s remains a national shame today. How could our great painstaking state have done such a thing? The Cherokee were viciously moved west with neglect for the Torahs that existed. It showed that the United States authorities felt it had the power to make as it wished ( Wright 280 ) . The destiny of the Cherokee was to bechance most of the other Indian states The U.S. encountered ( Hudson 460 ) .
It is nevertheless, unfortunate that the Cherokee were herded together like animate beings because they had adopted many European ways ( Wright 280 ) . This did non fulfill the colonists ’ hungriness for land. The growth of cotton quickly depleted the dirt, so much land was needed to turn ( Kehoe 182 ) . The demand for land became even worse with the innovation of the cotton gin in 1793 ( Kehoe 183 ) . Along with the competition between Cherokee husbandmans and local husbandmans ( Kehoe 183 ) and the find of gold ( Spicer 63 ) in Cherokee land made it evident that the Cherokee would hold to be moved if the white adult male was to thrive ( Kehoe 183 ) .
The United States was non the first power to coerce themselves upon the Cherokee. The British had been tring to colonise the Cherokee ’ s land in the 1700 ’ s ( Kehoe 181 ) . Although this was different in the regard that the Cherokee state resorted to force. Involved in a dearly-won and destructive war that started in 1759, the Cherokee were forced to accept farther colonisation of their hereditary lands in 1762 ( Kehoe 181 ) . With the eruption of the Revolutionary war in 1775, most Cherokee sided with British ( Kehoe 181 ) . Equally bad as the British might hold been, the idea of holding anarchic Rebels rolling the countryside bothered the Cherokee ( Kehoe 181 ) .
In the early 1800 ’ s, Georgia ceded land in what is now Mississippi, to the Federal authorities. In return, the federal authorities would assist take the Indians from Georgia ( Spicer 58 ) . Then, on December 19, 1829, Georgia passed a jurisprudence that incorporated a big portion of Cherokee land. It stated that: -All Cherokee Torahs were void and nothingness. -Unlawful for anyone to promote the Cherokee to defy the province of Georgia. – Illegal for any Indian to attest against a white individual in tribunal ( Hudson 462 ) . The jurisprudence gave whites a licence to steal and do problem, without any effect to Whites, since no Indian could attest against a white ( Hudson 462 ) . While the province of Georgia was Tring to sabotage the Cherokee ’ s rights to their land ; President Jackson subscribing the remotion act of 1830 puting aside land for the Indians in exchange for their eastern lands ( Kehoe 185 ) .
The Cherokee besides had protagonists. The most effectual were Protestant missionaries populating in Cherokee state ( Hudson 462 ) . Georgia ’ s solution was in 1830, made it illegal to shack on Cherokee land without a licence from the governor ( Hudson 462 ) . In order to acquire a licence, they signed an curse of commitment to Georgia. Many of the missionaries refused, and were arrested. Among those arrested was Samuel Worcester ( Hudson 462 ) .
The charges would be dropped if they signed the curse of commitment. Worcester refused and was sentenced to four old ages hard labour ( Hudson 462 ) . Worcester so appealed to the Supreme tribunal. In the controversial instance, Worcester vs. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that they had violated Worcester ’ s rights and that some of Georgia ’ s Torahs ere unconstitutional. Marshall hence ordered his release ( Hudson 463 ) .
In the Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia, Marshall ruled that because the Cherokee state was independent of Georgia, through old pacts, Georgia Torahs did non use ( Wright 280 ) . President Andrew Jackson was ferocious, and reportedly remarked, “ John Marshall has rendered his determination ; now let him implement it ” ( Hudson 463 ) . The consequences of the two determinations were that the Cherokee were non protected under the Constitution, and they did non own they land, merely simply utilizing it ( Kehoe186 ) . The gimmick was that the Cherokee could non be moved because of bing pacts ( Spicer 63 ) .
The Supreme Court would non let Jackson to travel the Cherokee lawfully ; Jackson, along with the Georgia governor, would pull up a pact so that the Cherokee would hold to removal ( Spicer 63 ) . A little cabal within the Cherokee ’ s ranks signed the pact. John Ross argued in Congress that the signatures on the pact were null because they did non stand for the whole Cherokee state ( Spicer 63 ) . However, it was all in vain, remotion now seemed inevitable. The Cherokee still refused to go forth their fatherland ( Hudson 462 ) .
Since the Cherokee were stripped of their land rubric, white colonists started to prehend their land. Some Whites, when they were in control of the land, sued the Cherokee for what small money they had left ( Hudson 463 ) . Since no Indian could attest against a white, any Indian automatically lost ( Hudson 463 ) . Other Whites merely came in and crush the Cherokee work forces and adult females with cowskins or anything else they could utilize ( Hudson 463 ) .
The General who was in Charge of intimidating the Cherokee, General Ellis wool tried to protect the Cherokee, but was Court-martialed for treading the rights of Alabama ’ s citizens. He was subsequently cleared of all Charges ( Hudson 463 ) . Although some Cherokee had voluntarily left in the 1700 ’ s, it was clip for the staying Cherokees to relocate ( Hudson 462 ) . General Winefield Scott was put in Charge of taking the Cherokee. He and 7,000 work forces came into Cherokee district and put up central offices in New Echota, the Cherokee capital. General Scott besides set up concentration cantonments to set the Cherokee until they were ready to be moved ( Hudson 463 ) .
After the soldiers arrested the Cherokee, they looted their small towns, burned their houses and even delve up their Gravess in hunt of the Cherokee ’ s valuables ( Hudson 463 ) . Some Cherokee managed to get away to the mountains of western North Carolina and remain at that place even today, but the remainder were to travel to Indian district in present twenty-four hours Texas and Oklahoma ( Hudson 464 ) . The conditions in the cantonments began to decline. They were cramped and filthy. Cholera broke out from clip to clip, killing a little figure of Cherokee ( Hudson 464 ) .
About 2,000 Cherokee had already moved, approximately 5,000 left in the June of 1838, an remarkably hot and dry summer ( Hudson 463 ) . A larger party waited until autumn to travel, but they suffered from rubeolas, whooping cough and exposure. It took some Cherokee six months to make Indian Territory ( Hudson 464 ) . About 4,000 Cherokee of 16,000 died in the remotion, known as the “ trail of cryings ” ( Spicer 63 ) .
The conditions were non much better out at that place. After the civil war, the land held by the Cherokee was once more desired and swindled by white colonists ( Hudson 470 ) . So how could the United States be so barbarous to the Indians, and the Cherokees in peculiar? Was it that hapless white husbandmans needed land to turn their harvests on, to get down households? The reply is no, the demand for land came non from the hapless husbandman, but from rich plantation owners who needed plentifulness of dirt to works cotton on ( Hudson 451 ) . It so became popular onion that we should travel the Indians west.
It was one of the major grounds why Andrew Jackson was reelected in 1832, on his place to travel the Indians west of the Mississippi river ( Wright 280 ) . Jackson hence defeated the Indian ’ s last hope, Henry Clay ( Hudson 463 ) . Even Thomas Jefferson thought the Indians should give manner to the demands of the white adult male ( Hudson 452 ) . Why? Because it was believed that the white adult male could break utilize the land that the Indians ( Hudson 452 ) . Jefferson even said that the hapless Whites should blend with the American indians and go one people ( Hudson 452 ) .
It is really unfortunate, because the Cherokee and the other “ five civilized folk ” had adopted many of the white adult male ’ s ways. The Cherokee had their ain newspaper, The Phoenix, ratified a fundamental law written by the CHEROKEE ( Kehoe 186 ) . They gave adult females of import functions in authorities, such as councils ( Kehoe 180 ) . Yet the white adult male did non care, for the Cherokee stood in the manner of his hungriness for land. Andrew Jackson and the province of Georgia were in clear misdemeanor of the jurisprudence when they foremost tried to travel the Cherokee, but that did non halt them. When their jurisprudence stood in their manner, they merely went around it by signing a pact that was evidently deceitful ( Spicer 63 ) .
The remotion of the Cherokee showed small regard for human life and human rights, doing the gratuitous decease of about 4,000 people ( Spicer 63 ) . Although the Cherokee kept a deputation in Washington, D.C. to contend remotion, it was without success ( Spicer 63 ) . Once the Cherokees were out in Indian district, they were forced from it besides. Texans ran them out of eastern Texas ( Hudson 470 ) .
In decision, I find scaring that the United States perceive person as 2nd category people, and have the power to make as they wish. Given the United States ’ stand on human rights today, I find it dry because our yesteryear, in peculiar the “ trail of cryings ” we did non care at all of human rights what so of all time. Although, under the remotion act of 1830, compensated the American indians for resettlement ( Kehoe 185 ) , it was non nevertheless, able to pay for the 4,000 dead Cherokee. It remains a national shame that will everlastingly stain our record of human rights how we so viciously and unlawfully removed the Cherokee from their places.
