Topic: Andrew Jackson and Indian Removal

Table of Contents
Overview Vocabulary Terms and Identifications	Biographies of Key Historical Figures Resources

 

Overview: As a politician, Andrew Jackson saw that removing Indians from their homelands would open up  opportunities for many southern and western farmers and small businessmen. (the people who had voted for him.) The Indian Removal Act allowed the president to make treaties with eastern tribes to exchange their lands for lands west of the Mississippi. Also, federal agents had gotten tribal leaders to sign these treaties by misleading them. The Act was passed by congress of May 1830. The Indians were moved from their ancestral homelands- present day Okalahoma. The Choctaws were the first nation to be removed under the Act.

The United States Army was placed in charge of the removal after the civilization who had organized the first winter migration were fired. There was much suffering coming from the Indians because the removals turned out to be poorly planed. The Indians were also threatened by armed settlers who had already begun to occupy their land. Even though the government agreed to pay the Indians for any land they left behind, and also promised to protect them in their new lands, and give them food and clothing for one year, the removals
rarely went smoothly.

 

Vocabulary and Identifications
 

DEFINITIONS~


1. TREATIES- The Indian Removal Act allowed the president to make treaties with eastern tribes to
exchange their land for land West of the Mississippi.

2. FEDERAL AGENTS- Agents that got tribal leaders to sign the treaties by misleading them.

3. SUFFERING-
When you have pain or misery.
The promises of the government agreed to pay the Indians for any property they left behind
and also to protect them in their new lands and give them food and clothing for one year. 
The removals rarely went smoothly and turned out to be poorly planned an caused much
suffering.

4. PROMISES-
To keep your word
The government promised the Indians many things but it caused much suffering.

5. MAY 1830-
When congress passed the Indian Removal Act which allowed the president to make treaties.

Biographies of Important People
 

(BIOGRAPHY) Andrew Jackson was the son of poor Scotch-Irish immigrants. His mother, Elizabeth, and  father, Andrew, died and he became an orphan at age 14. Andrew grew up on the frontier of  the Carolinas, then moved to Tennessee where he became a successful lawyer and landowner.  Andrew won fame as an Indian fighter and as a general in the war of 1812. Andrew was born  on March 15, 1767. He taught school for a short time near Waxhaw. in 1788 , john McNairy, judge of the Cumberland superior court, appointed Andrew solicitor, or attorney general,  for the region that now forms Tennessee.  Andrew married Rachel Donelson Robards, who died on December 22, 1828. The Jackson's had no children but adopted the 4day old nephew of Mrs. Jackson. Andrew made his money by selling land to new settlers. He bought land for as little as 10 cents an acre and later sold it for as much as $3 and acre. In 1796, he bought Hunter's Hill, a plantation 13 miles from Nashville. In 1804 he purchased a plantation that became known as the Hermitage where his wife was buried and in 1845, him too.  Andrew served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention that prepared for Tennessee's admission into the union. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1796. Andrew was 1 of 12 representatives who voted against a resolution praising  George Washington's Administration. He criticized Washington's Indian and foreign policies. He was also elected to the U.S. Senate in 1797.  Andrew had been a major general in the  Tennessee militia since 1802 and had fought in the war of 1812. By the election of 1812, his military career had ended. Andrew's friends and newspapers in Nashville called for his nomination as president. In 1822, the Tennessee legislature nominated him to run in 1824. In 1823, the legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate.  As a soldier, Andrew had fought Indians. After the war of 1812, he helped negotiate important Indian treaties and greatly influenced the government's Indian policy. He doubted that Indians and white people could live together, and therefore favored moving the Indians in the East to the West.  In 1828 Georgia passed laws that gave the Cherokee Indians no legal protection if the state seized their lands. The Cherokee protested that the federal government had guaranteed them this  land by treaty. They claimed that a state could not nullify a federal contract.  In this controversy, Andrew did not support the rights of the federal government as he had  done in the nullification crisis. Instead, he told the Cherokee that he had no power to  oppose the exercise of sovereignty of any state over all who may be within it's limits.

 Resources:

Bibliography
(Indian Removal)
 

 1. Encyclopedia 2000 CD Rom.
            pg: (Andrew Jackson)
 
 2. Northern American Indians
            pg: 1&2
 

 3.  Why we Remember, United States History           pg: 361
       Herman J. Viola
 
Academic American Encyclopedia
 
 
 

This page is part of a web project developed by Mr. Cassutto's 7th grade US History class.

Student authors:

BY: BRITTANY J.

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