Trail of Tears

Examples of Trail of Tears in the following topics:

• Racial Prejudice in the Jackson Era

  • Although the Jackson presidency witnessed an expansion of liberty for some, it also saw the continued suppression of freedom for others.
  • Jacksonian Democracy drew its support from the small farmers of the West, and the workers, artisans and small merchants of the East.
  • In order to avoid expulsion, a faction of Cherokees signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, obtaining money in exchange for their land.
  • Along the way, many died of disease and deprivation in what became known as the "Trail of Tears".
  • Identify the demographic groups in which Jacksonian ideals found most favor and describe the Trail of Tears

• American Indian Policy and the Trail of Tears

  • Two years prior, the state legislature of Georgia enacted a series of laws that stripped the Cherokee of their rights under the state law with the hope of forcing tribe members off of their fertile and gold-sprinkled land.
  • This abrupt and forced removal resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 Cherokees on what became known as the "Trail of Tears."
  • In 1987, about 2,200 miles of trails were authorized by federal law to mark the removal of seventeen detachments of the Cherokee people.
  • Called the "Trail of Tears National Historic Trail," it traverses portions of nine states and includes land and water routes.
  • This map illustrates the route of the Trail of Tears.

• Expansion and the Mexican-American War

  • With the end of the wartime alliance between Britain and the Native Americans east of the Mississippi River, American settlers moved in great numbers into the rich farmlands of the Midwest.
  • In the 1830s, the federal government forcibly deported the southeastern tribes to the Indian territory (now Oklahoma) via the "Trail of Tears. "
  • Other significant events included the opening of the Oregon Trail; the Mormon Emigration to Utah in 1846–47; the California Gold Rush of 1849; the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859; and the completion of the nation's First Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.
  • American Progress is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west.
  • The different stages of economic activity of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation.

• In the West: The Native Americans

  • The newly formed Democratic Party under President Andrew Jackson sought removal of the Indians out of the southeastern states to new lands in the west.
  • This law, on paper, provided for voluntary displacement of Indian tribes to the West and had safeguards for the rights of Indians.
  • In 1821, independent Mexico assumed control over Spain's northern possessions that stretched from Texas to California (including the lucrative Santa Fe trade routes that saw the transportation and exchange of manufactured goods, silver, furs, and mules and connected Mexico to California via the Old Spanish Trail).
  • The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded the territories of California and New Mexico to the United States for $18.5 million.
  • Analyze the waves of westward movement in the early 19th-century and the displacements of native peoples that movement brought about

• The Adams Presidency

  • John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was the son of former President John Adams.
  • However, opposition from the states'-rights faction of a hostile Congress limited many of his proposals.
  • By signing into law the Tariff of 1828 (labeled by critics as the "Tariff of Abominations" and quite unpopular in parts of the South), he further antagonized the Jacksonians.
  • In contrast, Jackson and Martin Van Buren instigated the policy of American Indian removal to the West, later leading to the Trail of Tears.
  • During his tenure as secretary of state, Adams was the chief designer of the Monroe Doctrine.

• Oregon and the Overland Trails

  • The eastern part of the trail spanned part of the future state of Kansas and nearly all of what are now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming.
  • The western half of the trail spanned most of then future states of Idaho and Oregon.
  • The beginnings of the Oregon Trail were laid by fur trappers and traders from about 1811 to 1840; these early trails were only passable on foot or by horseback.
  • The eastern half of the trail was also used by travelers on the California Trail (from 1843), Bozeman Trail (from 1863), and Mormon Trail (from 1847), who used many of the same trails before turning off to their separate destinations.
  • The path of the Oregon Trail, spanning the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon.

• The Migratory Stream

  • The actual migrants looked beyond fears of the unknown.
  • Wagon trails were cleared further and further west, eventually reaching all the way to the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
  • The eastern half of the trail was also used by travelers on the California Trail (from 1843), Bozeman Trail (from 1863), and Mormon Trail (from 1847), up to the respective locations at which the migrants on each turned off to their separate destinations.
  • In the "Wagon Train of 1843," some 700 to 1,000 migrants headed for Oregon.
  • These "go-backs" were a major source of information and excitement about the wonders and promises—and dangers and disappointments—of the far west.

• The Mormon Exodus

  • The Mormon Trail was the 1,300 mile route that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon pioneers, traveled from 1846 to 1868.
  • Today the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.
  • From Council Bluffs, Iowa to Fort Bridger in Wyoming, the trail follows much the same route as the Oregon Trail and the California Trail; these trails are collectively known as the Emigrant Trail.
  • The trail was used for more than 20 years, until the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.
  • Also shown are a portion of the route followed by the Mormon Battalion and the path followed by the handcart companies to the Mormon Trail.

• The Wilderness Road

  • Daniel Boone created the route in 1775, when he created a trail for the Transylvania Company from Fort Chiswell in Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky.
  • Over time, this trail was lengthened to reach the falls of the Ohio at Louisville.
  • To build a road to this territory, Henderson hired Daniel Boone, an experienced hunter and explorer, to carve out a trail through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky .
  • Beginning on March 10, 1775 Boone, along with thirty-five men, cut a trail from Kingsport, Tennessee through the forests and mountains to Kentucky.
  • It was a rough mud trail, hardly more than a path; however, they were successful in carving out a road for settlers while staving off numerous Indian attacks.

• Gradual Withdrawal

  • Vietnamization of the war, however, created a dilemma for U.S. forces: the strategy required that the U.S. troops fight long enough for the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) to improve enough to hold its own against Communist forces.
  • The U.S. authorized the ARVN to carry out an offensive operation aimed at cutting off the Ho Chi Minh Trail in southeastern Laos .
  • On September 10, the South Vietnamese flag once again flew over the ruins of the Citadel of Quảng Trị City, but the ARVN offensive ran out of steam, conceding the rest of the occupied territory to the North Vietnamese.
  • Meanwhile, the withdrawal of American troops, who numbered less than 100,000 at the beginning of the year, continued as scheduled.
  • Nixon's policy of Vietnamization was tested when the South Vietnamese army launched Operation Lam Son, attacking the North Vietnamese supply line known as the Ho Chi Minh trail.