Cherokee Removal and the Trail of Tears: Historical Background
This paper traces the historical background of the Cherokee removal and the Trail of Tears, examining the complex chain of events that led to the forced displacement of the Cherokee Nation in 1838. Beginning with post-Revolutionary land negotiations and early U.S. "civilization" policies, the paper follows the rising pressure from Georgia settlers, the passage of the Indian Removal Act, the Supreme Court's defense of Cherokee rights, and the Treaty of New Echota. It also highlights Anglo-American opposition to removal and firsthand accounts of the removal's brutal conditions, ultimately characterizing the episode as a racist and immoral act with lasting historical significance.
- Introduction: The Trail of Tears and Its Legacy: Overview of removal, its toll, and complexity
- Post-Revolutionary Policy and Early Cherokee Relations: Post-war land transfers and peaceful negotiation policy
- The Civilization Policy and Cherokee Adaptation: Knox's civilization policy and Cherokee partial adoption
- Georgia's Pressure and the Indian Removal Act: Georgian land hunger and Jackson's removal legislation
- Anglo-American Opposition and the Treaty of New Echota: Missionary opposition and Cherokee Treaty Party's agreement
- The Removal: Firsthand Accounts and Human Cost: Eyewitness accounts of suffering during the march
- Conclusion: A Tragic Moment in American History: Moral judgment: removal as racist, immoral, and historic
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- Integrates primary source quotations — from federal treaties, missionary letters, and survivor recollections — to ground historical claims in direct evidence.
- Acknowledges complexity by presenting multiple perspectives: U.S. government policy, Anglo-American opposition, and the Cherokee Treaty Party's controversial decision to negotiate.
- Maintains a clear chronological narrative that moves from post-Revolutionary relations through the forced march, making a multi-decade story accessible and coherent.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses contextualization effectively: rather than treating the Trail of Tears as an isolated atrocity, it builds a layered historical context — ideological, legal, and political — that explains how removal became possible. Each primary source quotation is introduced and then analyzed for its significance, demonstrating how to use documents as argumentative evidence rather than mere decoration.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an overview and thesis, then moves chronologically through post-Revolutionary policy, early "civilization" efforts, rising Georgian pressure, legislative action, legal challenges, the Treaty of New Echota, and finally eyewitness accounts of the removal itself. A brief conclusion reaffirms the moral judgment established in the introduction. This structure mirrors a standard historical essay arc: context → causation → event → consequence → evaluation.
Introduction: The Trail of Tears and Its Legacy
In the spring of 1838, U.S. troops began to round up members of the Cherokee Nation and imprison them for eventual removal from their land. With the exception of a few Cherokee individuals who remained in North Carolina under agreements with that state, most Cherokees were forcibly displaced. Poor logistics, extreme heat, and the hardships of removing people against their will took a devastating toll, causing thousands of deaths and spreading disease among the Cherokee people. The process of removal came to be known as the "Trail of Tears" and has remained a blot on the conscience and memory of the United States.
As one of the strongest advocates of Indian removal, President Andrew Jackson is frequently condemned by historians for carrying out what was essentially a racist act. Yet the Indian removal was a more complex process: there were defenders of the Cherokee among Anglo-Americans, and some Cherokees themselves agreed to the withdrawal. To understand the full complexity of the removal, it is important to examine the events that led up to the Trail of Tears.
Post-Revolutionary Policy and Early Cherokee Relations
When the United States won its revolutionary war against Britain, British claims to lands and territories in North America were transferred to the government of George Washington. In the wake of the Revolution, many Americans believed they had the right to dispossess Native Americans of their land because many tribes had allied themselves with the British during the war — and indeed, many American Indians were driven off their land by force. However, with the establishment of the U.S. Constitution and a growing awareness of the power and resilience of Native American tribes, the government began to advocate peaceful negotiation. This led to a series of agreements that placed the Cherokee Nation under the sovereignty of the U.S. Constitution.
The Civilization Policy and Cherokee Adaptation
Washington and his Secretary of War, Henry Knox, believed that the Cherokee people could be "civilized" through proper education. Knox held that the Cherokee were only culturally "backward," not racially inferior. To Knox and many Americans of the era, "civilization" meant living, speaking, dressing, and behaving like European-Americans. Knox also believed that Native Americans needed to be "saved" from corrupting contact with frontier settlers. Accordingly, the government advocated a policy of gradually "civilizing" the Cherokee through education and encouraging the adoption of American ways of life.
The Treaty of Holston, signed in 1791, reflected this policy: "That the Cherokee nation may be led to a greater degree of civilization, and to become herdsmen and cultivators, instead of remaining in a state of hunters, the United States will, from time to time, furnish gratuitously the said nation with useful implements of husbandry" (Perdue & Green 11). The Cherokee signed these agreements but embraced "civilization" only partially. They welcomed new schools, for example, but rejected Christianity. Nevertheless, many Cherokee people began to adopt American forms of agriculture, dress, and language; some even began to own African slaves. Many Americans came to regard the Cherokee as the most "civilized" of all Indian nations.
Conclusion: A Tragic Moment in American History
The Indian Removal was not an event that occurred suddenly or without precedent. A series of political, legislative, and social developments over several decades ultimately led to the forceful removal of the Cherokee Nation. But the removal was, at its core, a racist and immoral act — one opposed at the time by conscientious Americans — and it remains one of the most tragic episodes in the history of the United States.
Works Cited
Perdue, Theda, and Michael D. Green. The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: St. Martin's Press, 1995. Print.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.