Trail Of Tears Essay Thesis

The Cherokee lived at the border of the Carolinas and Tennessee on both sides of the Appalachian mountains. Creek Indians had been divided into two tribes, the upper and lower, their members lived either in southern Georgia or Northern Alabama. The Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes lived on either side of the Mississippi (Foreman 548). The Indian Removal Act was put into place in 1830 by president Andrew Jackson, in order to move the tribes into the unowned territory. Initially, the removal was intended for the purchase of the land of the willing tribes, but it turned into forcibly removing these people from their homes.

During 1607-1611, early Jamestown colonists died to many reasons like starvation, occupations, and drought. Colonists did not have many resources to live a long life. That is why they died so fast through 1607-1611. Colonists died because they tried to find a new settlement for more land so they can have more resources and for a stronger defense, but instead they got attacked and there was not a lot of food there to feed them all. Colonists died by attacks by Indians.

“Their (Mississippi, South Carolina, or Louisiana) framers intended and did disfranchise a majority of their citizenship [deprived them of the right to vote] because of “race and color” and “previous condition”..” [Doc. 7] This lead to the ratification of 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment protects the right to vote of the emancipated slaves as it says on the document, “the right to vote shall not be denied on the basis of race, color, or previous condition.” The aftermath of civil war, resulted with good economical changes. The slaves used to work on their master’s plantation. However, when they were freed they spread out and became independent.

government passed the Indian Removal Act which forced members of the of the Five Civilized Tribes -- the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Seminoles from their ancestral lands in the Deep South. This was to make room for white settlers who wanted the rich soil. The tribes along with their black slaves were forcibly marched west of the Mississippi River to the new Indian Territory during the "Trail of Tears" of 1838 and 1839, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Native Americans. Some Native Americans refused to register with the Bureau of Indian Affairs or to allow them to be "removed" to "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma during the 1800s. They also refused to decide for the Blacks whether they would relocate or not.

According to “The Trail of Tears,” Andrew Jackson enforced the Indian Removal Act which ordered the U.S army to force American Indians out of their land. The Indians had no say in this even if they started adapting to American life. They were forced to walk many miles until they reached Oklahoma. Many of them suffered from certain illnesses or they died along the way. Many civilians living in the United States were ashamed of what was happening, but Andrew wanted to fight for what he thought was right.

The Genocide: Trail of Tears/The Indian removal act During the 1830s the united states congress and president Andrew Jackson created and passed the “Indian removal act”. Which allowed Jackson to forcibly remove the Indians from their native lands in the southeastern states, such as Florida and Mississippi, and send them to specific “Indian reservations” across the Mississippi river, so the whites could take over their land. From 1830-1839 the five civilized tribes (The Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, and Chickasaw) were forced, sometimes by gun point, to march about 1,000 miles to what is present day Oklahoma. While making this gruesome travel more than 4,000 Indians died from disease, starvation and treacherous conditions. This travel became known as the “trails of tears”.

The jury did not take long in their decision. The came back and found them not guilty because “the state had failed to prove the identity of the body ”. They were also found not guilty on the kidnapping charges. Because of the decision of Emmett Till case, it showed the truth on “Jim Crow segregation in the South” and promoted the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement . After all of these drama in the south, a lot of African Americans decided it was time to move on to the North.

She describes the journey as, “all who lived to make this trip, or had parents who made it, will long remember it, as a bitter memory” (Whitmire). The three accounts show that either if you lived through the dangerous trek or not, you still witnessed and felt the grief and misery the Cherokees went through. The effects that Andrew Jackson had on the Cherokees, were brutal, and unnecessary taking place in the bitter cold providing an abundance of death for the

The black death had affected Europe by killing ⅓ of its people within 4 years. The black death also known as the black plague had given people black boils that had oozed blood and puss. It also withheld them from keeping food down as they became overcome with fever and delirious pain. The plague had not only affected humans, it also affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens (“Black Death”). The living conditions in Europe of the time were very harsh.

Wars, struggle and oppression have constrained more refugees than at any other time since records began to escape their country to seek refuge and safety , according to a new report from the UN refugee agency (News Stories, 18 June 2015).Refugees are people who are outside of their country of citizenship. These people were affected by so much tragedy, they cannot depend on their country for aid or assurance. They are simply being pushed around by militants and war fighters who force them to move from place to place. What is worst, it is that these people are not responsible for all that is happening. Refugees’ lives are at stake and they are simply forced to leave their homes just to survive as long as they can.