Trail of Tears E-Book

History Encounters

• Herausgeber: Ched
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

History Encounters unearths the greatest stories with the major events from Topic to expand reader horizons for readers to be best informed.

Throughout the world, gross acts of cruelty have been enacted against many groups of people. Often it was with the mindset that there was promised land or a group that felt like they were divinely ordained to take over another group. In modern times it’s easy to forget how evil the human heart can be, but we must always look back and remember lest we forget and make the same mistakes again. 
The five great Native American tribes of the Deep South in the 19th century were victims of the wanton need to conquer and take over. The Trail of Tears refers to the removal of Native American tribes to make way for the European settlers. They refused to abide by the laws imposed by the pioneers and were forced to move from their land, traveling inhumane distances and killing thousands of members of their tribes. 

Learning about history will keep you perceptive and make sure to not repeat mistakes that others made in the past. The different stories in this series will show the readers that history should not just be seen from one perspective, but from the different eyes of the groups of people involved. You never know, you might finally understand their choices, their actions and their reactions.

In this historical series, you will discover:

• The history of different countries and cultures
• The inner workings of major historical turning points in different countries.
• Different perspectives of major events in history
• The reasons behind different wars or battles throughout history

These historical series are for anyone who wants to learn fun, exciting and influential facts of what happened years before their time. Do you want to learn history through a multitude of different eyes? 

Scroll up and click the “add to cart” button to grab your copy now!

Leseprobe

History Encounters

Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears: A Look Back At History’s Cruelest Acts

Copyright © 2024 by History Encounters

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First edition

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Contents

Introduction

The Cherokee People

How the Cherokee Men Were Reared

The White Settlers

The Indian Removal Act: Part 1

The Indian Removal Act: Part 2

The Indian Removal Act: Part 3

Forgotten Aspects of the Trail of Tears: Part 1

Forgotten Aspects of the Trail of Tears: Part 2

The Effect of the Trail of Tears on Modern America

Discussion Questions

True or False Questions

Conclusion

Introduction

The history of Native Americans is often not discussed when it concerns the history of the world. Considering that they once covered the entire territory of the United States, it should arouse more concern that they are now a minority in the land they once ruled. The genocide happened differently to different tribes. One of the cruelest genocides of Native Americans happened to the Cherokee tribes when the white settlers wanted to separate the land into white land and Native land. To be honest, they wanted access to the minerals found on land owned by the Native Americans.

At the end of the day, the Cherokees were forced to leave their lands according to unfair or just treaties. The journey from their homeland to the designated Indian lands would kill thousands of their people through disease, weather conditions, fatigue, hunger, and exhaustion. Even though it wasn’t technically a war, it was one of the grossest acts of inhumanity in American history. People who had fought in wars found their stomachs churning at the sight of the Cherokee making their way along the Trail of Tears. The dead of the journey were buried in unmarked graves against the tradition and sanctity of the Cherokee culture, but the people along the trail were weak and hungry, having to do what they could to survive and stay strong. The youngest and the elderly were the biggest victims along the way, being the most vulnerable of the group.

One of the white settlers that saw the Native Americans trudging along mentioned that they noticed that every Native American that looked at him looked at him with pure hatred. The Native American tribes were not against the idea of war and pillaging, but there were unspoken rules that they followed. You did not do anything to your opponent that you could not take. If you killed twenty of their people, the enemy was within their right to kill around the same amount of people. It was what kept a certain level of respect among the tribes. But with the white settlers, once there was death in their camps, they wanted to kill all of the Native Americans.

The Native Americans lost their land and all their property, including their possessions. Soldiers forcibly made the Cherokee leave their houses and leave behind everything they owned. Native women who came from affluence were striped and raped along with everyone else, forced into a strenuous journey when they had lived in comparative luxury. The rape of the people was not limited to just women. In order to carry on great acts of cruelty, one has to get rid of any compassion and completely dehumanize the other person. According to the belief system of that time that they claimed was Christian, the Native Americans were cursed, and the white settlers had a right to take their land and rule over them because of that curse.

Nonetheless, the Trail of Tears is a lesson in why even during the present day, there are so many racial tensions and unresolved issues in modern-day America.

The Cherokee People

“[Those tribes] have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement… Established in the midst of another and a superior race…they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear.”

A Modern Day Cherokee Man Contemplating the Trail of Tears

— Andrew Jackson, made as U.S. President at the Fifth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1833

The question of who was the worst American president can often lead to many debates, but for the Native Americans, they can almost unilaterally agree that Andrew Jackson, if not the worst, was the most despicable and inhumane of all the presidents. The Cherokee people had long been established in the Americas before the European pioneers settled there.

The Cherokee people had a distinctly different lifestyle from their European counterparts. The most notable thing was probably their higher degree of hygiene. The European Americans bathed sporadically and often didn’t bathe for weeks at a time, while the Cherokee made it a part of their routines to bathe at least a few times a week. This is important to note because the Native Americans were often referred to as savages or dirty whilst actually maintaining healthier ablutionary practices than their counterparts.

The Cherokee were quite liberal, and their women enjoyed rights that most women of European or Anglo-Saxon origin could only dream of. The woman chose who she married, and her betrothed would build her a house. If she had too many children or a disabled child she did not want, she had the right to kill it, but if the father did that, he would be judged for murder, and if she wanted a divorce, she simply packed his bags and put it outside the home. The Cherokee women had more freedom and less care, which intrigued many European men. European men had a habit of fetishizing the behavior of non-European women to justify their attraction toward them. They described Cherokee women as having the coquettishness and seduction of a French woman. Their skin was lighter than the other Native American tribes and had smaller features making them closer to the ideal Eurocentric features.

It wasn’t surprising then when many of the pioneers copulated with the Cherokee women. The Cherokee, as mentioned by some, was more welcoming of outside men than the other tribes. Their welcoming nature, though, would ultimately bring forth their destruction. Cherokees, even though they were a polite and peaceful tribe, were also proud. Their young men were known, in particular, to engage in violent battles when slit and trying to assert dominance, and they were intelligent. It is thought that the Cherokee were mixed with one of the Lost Tribes of Judah. James Adair, who lived with the Cherokee for more than forty years, concluded that they were because their language and way of doing things were directly in line with many religious observances mentioned in the Torah.

The Cherokees were proud of themselves and their people. They never bowed or nodded their heads at another man but shook their heads. They often referred to the pioneers as “ugly” and said that their features were inferior to their Cherokee features. Even though they were darker than the pioneers, they were lighter than their other Native American counterparts, the Choctaws, the Creeks, and the Iroquois. Despite the condescending attitude, they were still cordial and hospitable.