The Trail of Tears

At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultured for generations. By the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States. Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk thousands of miles to a specially appoint “Indian territory” across the Mississippi River. This difficult and deadly journey is known as the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears had a huge impact on the Native of Americans.They lost many of their dear ones. The Indian Removal Act and the The Trail of Tears were two of the most heartrending moment in American history.

After demanding both political and military action on removing Native American Indians from the southern states of America in 1829, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830. Although it only gave the right to negotiate for their withdrawal from areas to the east of the Mississippi river and that relocation was supposed to be optional. All the tribal leaders agreed after Jackson’s landslide election victory in 1832. It is generally acknowledged that this act spelled the end of Indian Rights to live in those states under their own traditional laws. They were forced to assimilate and concede to US law or leave their homelands. The Indian Nations themselves were forced to move and ended up in Oklahoma. The five major tribes affected were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. These were called The Civilised Tribes that had already taken on a degree of integration into a more modern westernised culture, such as developing written language and learning to read and write.

The Indian Removal Act and the The Trail of Tears were two of the most heartrending moment the N.A went through.