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how did andrew jackson justify the indian removal act

by Kaden Weissnat Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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Jackson declared that removal would "incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier." Clearing Alabama and Mississippi of their Indian populations, he said, would "enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power."May 10, 2022

How was the Indian Removal Act of 1830 justified?

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 caused incalculable damage to Native American culture and heritage and led directly to the appalling man-made tragedy of the Trail of Tears. President Andrew Jackson justified Indian removal by pointing out the benefits that would result for both parties.

What prompted the Indian Removal policy of Andrew Jackson?

The Indian Removal policy of President Andrew Jackson was prompted by the desire of white settlers in the South to expand into lands belonging to five Indian tribes.

What did Andrew Jackson do to help the Native Americans?

As a president, Jackson's support was strongest in the west, and frontiersmen were belligerent to the Indians. Southeastern states were determined to deny Indians their rights and move them west of the Mississippi River.

How did the Indian Removal Act lead to the trail of Tears?

Andrew Jackson's Policy of Indian Removal Led to the Notorious Trail of Tears. After Jackson succeeded in pushing the Indian Removal Act through Congress in 1830, the U.S. government spent nearly 30 years forcing Indians to move westward, beyond the Mississippi River.

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How did Andrew Jackson relate to the Indian Removal Act?

The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders.

How did President Jackson justify the Indian Removal Act quizlet?

How did President Jackson justify the Indian Removal Act? Jackson believe that the government had the right to regulate where Native Americans could live. He viewed them as concord subjects who lives within the borders of the United States.

What influenced the Indian Removal Act?

This Act was influenced by the ideology of manifest destiny because it was based on a racial hierarchy with Americans at the top. According to the racial hierarchy Americans were superior to all other races because they were the chosen ones.

What was the purpose of the Indian Removal Act?

It authorized the President to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River. The goal was to remove all Native Americans living in existing states and territories and send them to unsettled land in the west.

What was the purpose of the Indian Removal Act quizlet?

What was the Indian Removal Act of 1830? It gave the president the power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their land east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to be west.

Why did the Indian Removal Act happen quizlet?

Why did the Indian Removal Act happen? It was thought that the Indian nations were standing in the way of progress for the whites. What role did Andrew Jackson play in this? From Tennessee, in 1814, he commanded the U.S. military to take charge of moving the Indians.

What was the purpose of the Indian Removal Act of 1956 quizlet?

What was the Indian Relocation Act of 1956? United States law that encouraged and paid for moving expenses for Native Americans to move to urban settings to obtain vocational training.

How did Andrew Jackson respond to the nullification crisis?

Andrew Jackson regarded the South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification as a clear threat to the federal union and to national authority. He reacted by submitting to Congress a Force Bill authorizing the use of federal troops in South Carolina if necessary to collect tariff duties.

Why did Jackson argue that the removal of Indians would benefit them?

Jackson argued that removal of the Indians would benefit them because they would be allowed to govern themselves under their native laws. He affirmed that American laws would present serious challenges to the Indian system. In addition, Indians would also get an opportunity to conserve their culture and tradition far from white interference. The Jackson administration also offered the Indians protection and financial assistance in their new settlements.

What did Jackson say about clearing Indians out?

Jackson emphasized that clearing the Indians out would be good for white settlers whose actions would, in turn, be good for the country. White settlers would come in and densely populate an area that had previously been sparsely populated by Indians. They would bring more economic activity to the area and make the country richer. This, clearly, would be good for the country and the settlers.

How did Jackson help Native Americans?

Jackson attempted to sugar the pill for Native Americans by promising them compensation for their land. In reality, however, such compensation wasn't always paid in full, and, in any case, proved woefully inadequate even when it was. Indian Removal was supposed to allow tribes to govern themselves peacefully. In actual fact, it led to large numbers of Native Americans being herded onto unproductive land far away from their ancestral homes. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 caused incalculable damage to Native American culture and heritage and led directly to the appalling man-made tragedy of the Trail of Tears.

How did Jackson's personal experience on America's frontier help shape his hostile view of Indians?

Jackson's personal experience on America's frontier helped shape his hostile view of Indians. On the frontier, the Indians were viewed as a perpetual menace. They also occupied land that settlers wanted to develop, so the Indians stood in the way of progress.

What did Jackson say about the Indians?

However, Jackson also argued that the Indians would benefit. He argued that it would be good for them to be removed from contact with whites. He said that it would allow them to avoid being annihilated. He said that it would allow them to preserve their native culture. He said that it would allow them to perhaps become civilized at their own pace.

Why did Andrew Jackson remove the Indians?

In his speech on Indian removal, Jackson pointed to the urgent need of freeing up more land for development purposes. He believed the Indians were incapable of pursuing or achieving the same progressive agenda as the white settlers. Thus, it was imperative for the Indians to cede their lands to pave way for progress and development of the States. By removing the Indians, the whites would have access to more land for economic expansion and settlement.

Why were white settlers important to the Indians?

White settlers would come in and densely populate an area that had previously been sparsely populated by Indians. They would bring more economic activity to the area and make the country richer. This, clearly, would be good for the country and the settlers. However, Jackson also argued that the Indians would benefit.

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Transcript

It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation.

What were Jackson's opponents' views on the Indians?

Many opponents of Jackson’s policy agreed that the Indians were in the process of becoming extinct, but in their eyes the solution did not lie in segregation. Instead, they insisted that the process of civilization had been successful. They pointed to the Cherokee nation as their prime example.

What was Jackson's policy?

Supporters of Jackson’s policy agreed with the arguments he made in 1830, when he stated: “Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines of this country, and philanthropy has been long busily employed in devising means to avert it, but its progress has never for a moment been arrested, and one by one have many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth.”

How many people died in the Cherokee?

Supplies were short, winter was near, and more than 4,000 people, or 25 percent of the Cherokee nation, died on the journey. Another 1,000 are said to have perished soon after resettlement. Some 15,000 individuals were placed in detention camps, where they faced starvation and disease.

How many Native Americans were forced to migrate?

From 1830-40, about 60,000 Native Americans were forced to migrate, which resulted in such tragic episodes as the Seminole Wars from 1835-42 and the Trail of Tears from 1838-39.

What was the only hope for Indian survival?

Thus, the only hope for Indian survival was to be moved outside the bounds of civilization.

What did Jackson say about the West?

As Jackson said: “My friends, circumstances render it impossible that you can flourish in the midst of a civilized community. You have but one remedy within your reach, and that is to remove to the west. And the sooner you do this, the sooner you will commence your career of improvement and prosperity.”

What was Jackson's approach to sovereignty and land ownership?

He maintained that those choosing to remain east of the Mississippi were subject to the laws of the state and federal governments. Indian sovereignty and land ownership existed only if it could be ceded to the U.S. government.

How many Cherokees died on the Trail of Tears?

This forced relocation became known as the “Trail of Tears” because of the great hardship faced by Cherokees. In brutal conditions, nearly 4,000 Cherokees died on the Trail of Tears.

What were the five tribes that were located on the land that would be highly sought for settlement?

The tribes on the land were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole.

What did Jackson believe about Indigenous peoples?

Jackson also believed them to be like children who needed guidance. And by that way of thinking, Jackson may well have believed that forcing Indigenous peoples to move hundreds of miles westward may have been for their own good, since he believed they would never fit in with a White society.

What was the role of the Cherokee in 1828?

In 1828, Ross was elected the tribal chief of the Cherokee. In 1830, Ross and the Cherokee took the audacious step of trying to retain their lands by filing suit against the state of Georgia.

How many Cherokee people were forced to walk from their homes in the Southern states?

In the most notorious example of this policy, more than 15,000 members of the Cherokee tribe were forced to walk from their homes in the Southern states to a designated territory in present-day Oklahoma in 1838. Many died along the way.

Why did Andrew Jackson push the Indian Removal Act through Congress?

The American Indian Removal policy of President Andrew Jackson was prompted by the desire of White settlers in the South to expand into lands belonging to five Indigenous tribes. After Jackson succeeded in pushing the Indian Removal Act through Congress in 1830, the U.S. government spent nearly 30 years forcing Indigenous peoples to move westward, beyond the Mississippi River.

What conflict led to the American Indian Removal Act?

Conflicts With Settlers Led to the American Indian Removal Act. There had been conflicts between Whites and Indigenous peoples since the first White settlers arrived in North America. But in the early 1800s, the issue had come down to White settlers encroaching on Indigenous lands in the southern United States.

How many Indians were forced to march westward?

Many of these Indians had homes, representative government, children in missionary schools, and trades other than farming. Some 100,000 tribesmen were forced to march westward under U.S. military coercion in the 1830s; up to 25 percent of the Indians, many in manacles, perished en route.

What was the first major legislative departure from the U.S. in 1830?

United States [1830] Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Indian Removal Act, (May 28, 1830), first major legislative departure from the U.S.

What was the Indian Removal Act?

Indian Removal Act, (May 28, 1830), first major legislative departure from the U.S. policy of officially respecting the legal and political rights of the American Indians.

Which tribes refused to trade their cultivated farms for the promise of strange land in the Indian Territory?

The problem lay in the Southeast, where members of what were known as the Five Civilized Tribes ( Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Creek) refused to trade their cultivated farms for the promise of strange land in the Indian Territory with a so-called permanent title to that land.

Who was the first person to advocate for the Indian Removal Act?

Andrew Jackson (1829–37) vigorously promoted this new policy, which became incorporated in the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

What was the effect of the racism and ethnocentrism of the 1830s?

The racism and ethnocentrism of the 1830s created the perception that Native Americans were racially and culturally inferior and incapable of properly utilizing the land that they occupied, and that it was the best course to remove Native American nations from their lands to give them to European Americans to ensure that the land would be “properly” utilized.

What was Jackson's ultimate goal?

Indeed, Jackson believed that removing Native Americans from their ancestral lands would benefit them in the long run, with the ultimate goal being that they would assimilate into European-American culture.

Why did Jackson want to separate the two cultures?

As a politician, Jackson sought to ease tensions between state and local governments and Native American nations, and he believed that separating the two conflicting cultures was the most effective way to mollify conflicts between the two cultural groups.

What was the impact of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 on Miami County?

Miami County’s history and cultural life was dramatically affected by the Indian Removal Act of 1830 due to the forced emigration of Native American nations such as the Pottawatomi and other Native American nations to Miami County during the 1830s.

When did Native Americans arrive in Miami?

Before the Native Americans arrived in Miami County during the 1830s, missionaries arrived, and when Native Americans were forcibly resettled in Miami County, they found missionaries waiting for them to convert them to Christianity and to European culture.

Who was the author of the Indian Removal Act of 1830?

Andrew Jackson outlined his justification for the Indian Removal Act of 1830 in a statement that argues that both Native American nations and European Americans will benefit from the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Jackson argued that by removing Native American nations from their lands east of the Mississippi River, ...

Who is the administrator of the John Brown Museum?

Grady Atwater is site administrator of the John Brown Museum and State Historic Site.

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