Summary Of Andrew Jackson And His Indian Wars By Robert Remini

Robert Remini’s Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars is a book that makes you question Jackson's character. Remini addresses the long-standing debate of historians and scholars over whether or not Jackson was barbaric or whether he was a merciful savior that prevented the Native Americans from going extinct. Remini instead argues the opinion that Jackson was simply a man of his time.

Despite this, Remini does show Jackson's inexcusable cruelty towards the Native Americans. He learned to fear and hate Indians from an early age. Jackson conducted a successful campaign that broke the back of the Creeks in 1813 and 1814, earning the nickname “Sharp Knife” from his Indian foes. When Jackson uprooted Native Americans west of the Mississippi River,

"He always addressed Indians as though they were children, irrespective of their age, education, or intellectual maturity." When negotiating, Jackson would often use bribery or the threat of violence if his demands were rejected. It’s this kind of cruelty that makes people think of him as a relentless enemy of Indians. Remini follows Jackson into Tennessee where he develops into "a bold and resourceful Indian fighter, thirsting for encounters with savages.”

Throughout the book we discover the life of a young man who "learned to fear and hate Indians from an early age," Jackson always remembered his childhood. When the Native Americans joined with the British to wage war against the Americans it was clear that "In his mind, and the minds of most frontiersman, the Indians were just used by powers like Britian to gain an advantage over the American colonists.

Remini thinks Jackson is at fault for his desire to speed up the process of moving Natives. "He lacked patience, and by his pressure to move things along quickly he caused unspeakable cruelties to innocent people who deserved better from a nation that prided itself on its commitment to justice and equality." “So thousands of men, women, and children suffered not only the loss of their property but physical agony and even

Remini displays a different message. He says “To his dying day on June 8, 1845, Andrew Jackson genuinely believed that what he had accomplished rescued these people from inevitable annihilation. And although that statement sounds monstrous, and although no one in the modern world wishes to accept or believe it, that is exactly what he did. He saved the Five Civilized Nations from probable extinction.” This is a complete turnaround from what he said he was not going to do at the start of the