...respect to American Indians, in which tensions between the federal government and natives created a complex trust relationship. The election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 ushered in an era marked by a growing demand to expand westward for political and economic opportunities for the common, white man. By the early 1830s, the U.S. government’s relationship with Indian tribes had changed and President Jackson had come to view the tribes as obstacles to American expansion. Consequently, President Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830, authorizing him to negotiate with the Indians for their removal to federal territories west of the Mississippi in exchange for their homeland. While most historians are in...
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...The importance and influence of the Kansas-Nebraska Act is largely understated in American history concerning the outbreak of the civil war, the birth of the Republican party, and the ongoing struggle over states’ rights versus a consolidated federal power. Three such classic American struggles all relate to the principle of popular sovereignty brought into question by the legislation introduced and designed by the Democratic Senator of Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas. (Joy article) The Kansas-Nebraska Act was introduced to congress on January 4, 1854. The sponsor, Stephen Douglas, proposed the act with all intents and purposes to clinch a transcontinental railroad route that would run northbound and directly benefit his constituency of Illinois,...
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...Understand the circumstances that led to the Louisiana Purchase The circumstances that led to the Louisiana Purchase were the transcontinental railroad that would connect Atlantic to the Pacific that allowed settlers a faster and safer way to California and the West. It led to the now famous Lois and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean. We championed westward expansion and exploration which doubled the size of the landscape. He fanned fundamental disagreement about the spread of slavery to the western territories. Jefferson learned that Spain had transferred title to the entire region to France. Congressmen urged Jefferson to prepare for war against France. When he heard that Napoleon had become impatient for his money, Jefferson rushed the treaty to a Senate eager to ratify it. Know the function of cities in Jeffersonian America The function of cities in Jeffersonian America became important commercial ports. They became deports for international trade. Only about 7 percent of the nation’s population lived in urban centers. Most of these people owed their livelihoods either directly or indirectly to the carrying trade (major port cities of the early republic—New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore). Understand Jefferson’s views on economy and federal debt A top priority of the new government was cutting the national debt. Jefferson also wanted to diminish the activities of the federal government. He urged Congress to repeal all direct taxes, including the tax...
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...2014 Will Palmer Trail of Tears Long before Amerigo Vespucci and other European explorers reached the New World, Native Americans successfully inhabited the land. There has been much debate as to how many people were here. It has been documented as high as 16 million to as low as under four million (Brinkley, 2008). The Europeans’ relationship with the Native Americans was that of give and take. Both taught each other techniques for cultivating crops, the introduction of domestic livestock and basic survival. The Europeans not only bought with them diseases that killed millions of Native Americans, but also their conviction that their own civilization was greatly superior to that of the natives (Brinkley, 2008). This discussion will include Andrew Jackson’s opinion and policy concerning Native Americans, white Americans’ opinion of Native Americans, the “Five Civilized Tribes,” and the Trail of Tears. Before becoming the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson had already made a name for himself in history. He was a lawyer, politician and judge, wealthy planter and merchant, and in 1801 received the appointment of the commander of the Tennessee militia. During the War of 1812, white settlers near the Spanish owned Florida border were under attack by the Creek Indians. According to Brinkley (2008), on March 27, 1814, in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Jackson and his men retaliated and slaughtered Creek women, children, and warriors. Jackson received a commission...
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...in American history have always been a fascinating subject. There have been reading assignments on Native American’s removal and resistance, Black Hawk and his rebellion, and Emerson’s letter to President Van Buren. These pieces gave us a brief overview of America’s goals at the time, the action they took to achieve these goals, the Native Americans’ reaction, and the opinions held by the American people. These readings only scratched the surface of Native Americans and the role they have played in American History. The main cause of the interaction between Americans and the Native Americans was an increase in demand for land by Americans. As they pushed west and south, the frequency of interactions with Native Americans increased and so did hostility. I am aware that land demand issues were normally approached at first with peaceful negations. The American government would meet with the tribes and develop a treaty that resulted in less land for the Native Americans and more land for Americans. This would satisfy the Americans for a period of time but demand for land would just continue to increase. At this point Indians would either get restless and rebellions would ensue or Americans would violate the treaties and make moves on the Native’s land. In either situation the superior force of the American troops would result in them defeating the Indians. The Indians would then be forced to comply with American demands, meaning less land. Although this is a broad and brief overview...
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...legal to own slaves for the southern border only. This will be the beginning of the debate over slavery that led to the civil war. 12. Chapter 11 Page 430 The Indian Removal, 1820-1840- After the election of 1828, one of Andrew Jackson’s goals was to remove the Indians. Jackson wanted the Indians to move westward toward Oklahoma, so he passed the Indian removal act. Most tribes including; Choctaws, Seminoles, and Chickasaws did not argue and agreed to move west. The Cherokees however believed that they had a right to a state government and saw Georgia’s new law as unconstitutional. Therefore the Cherokees had to be forced to move. This began the trail of tears where four-thousand Cherokees died of hunger, cold temperatures, and diseases. After the act took place, more than fifty-thousand Indians had been removed and twenty- five million acres of land were now open. 14. Chapter 14 Page 539 Wagon Trails West- The western wagon trails started out as settlers heading west for new trade opportunities with Mexico. An example of a wagon trail in the west was the Santa Fe Trail. Here travelers sought to go to Oregon and California. Like the other settlers traveling different western trails, those on the Santa Fe Trail road in wagon caravans. The discovery of gold in California had a great effect on the growth of travelers on the Oregon Trail in 1849. There were times where Indians attacked the settlers demanding for food. 15. Chapter 14 Page 559 Major Campaigns...
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...The Indian Removal policy of President Andrew Jackson was prompted by the desire of white settlers in the South to expand into lands belonging Indian tribes. 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. In the most dishonorable 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 designate Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma in 1838. This became known as the “Trail of Tears” because of the great suffering faced by Cherokees. In brutal conditions, nearly 4,000 Cherokees died on the Trail of Tears. Jackson called for, and the United States government implement, the removal of thousands of American Indians from the southeast in the 1830’s because the Indian Removal Act cleared people out of areas in the southeastern United States, so that it could be settled by white Americans. Andrew Jackson held a disrespectful attitude towards Native Americans ever since the Creek Wars and the War of 1812. The Cherokees in Georgia took steps in an attempt to avoid "removal" and hold onto their traditional lands. The Cherokee, whose ancestral tribal lands overlapped the boundaries of Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and...
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...and decadent. Another social consequence of westward expansion was the extermination of Indians from their lands. Americans were pushing to remove the Five Civilized Tribes Indians from land the United States had granted them in previous treaties. Finally, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which provided for the resettlement of all Native Americans residing east of the Mississippi to a newly defined Indian Territory. This removal was intended to be voluntary, but various groups of Indians were physically forced to leave. Although the Indians were to be free to pursue their lives without interference in this new territory, Americans did not account for harsh and unfamiliar conditions of the land the Indians were forced to inhabit. Additionally, the slavery debate was a glaring social issue demanding to be addressed. In 1819, Missouri asked Congress to enter the union, but with one caveat, an end to slavery. This was the Tallmadge Amendment, which called for the end of slavery in Missouri within the next generation; it proposed the gradual emancipation of children born to slave parents...
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...Hawkeye and Chingachgook are proof of this. Hawkeye is a white man that prefers to live and follow the code of the Indians, rather than that of the white settlers. It is as if he is playing both sides of the field which works to his advantage and also lets the reader see how open minded Hawkeye seems to be. He is best friends with Chingachgook, the chief of the Mohicans. This alone shows that Hawkeye has a certain kind of appreciation for individuality and clearly shows that he is able to make sensible decisions without regard to race. He can see Chingachgook for who he really is and does not let silly things like race or cultural background come between their friendship. One interesting quote was in Chapter III when Hawkeye says, “There is reason in an Indian, though nature has made him with a red skin! I am no scholar, and I care not who knows it; but judging from what I have seen, at deer chases and squirrel hunts, of the sparks below, I should think a rifle in the hands of their grandfathers was not so dangerous as a hickory bow and a good flint-head might be, if drawn with Indian judgment, and sent by an Indian eye.” (Baym 1003) This quote comes from a debate that Chingachgook was having with Hawkeye. I found this quote to be a little intriguing because it shows how Hawkeye himself feels towards the Native Americans. In the quote he states that Indians can reason, although nature has made them with “red skin”. He says “red skin” which can be substituted to mean...
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...President Jackson reaction to the nullification controversy was a one of force. Jackson wanted Congress to pass a bill through making the army comply with the tariffs when South Carolina convention declared the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void. The state nullified the bill after Clay compromised a new tariff with South Carolina, who accepted the bill. The act of nullification was now put into place, and a state belief. - 4. The Indians living to the east of the Mississippi river during the 1840s had to move west. The relocation of the Indians to lands west of the Mississippi river was authorized by the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The Cherokees tried to stop their relocation by using the federal court, but federal troops forced them to leave, even though the Supreme Court ruled the case in the Indians' favor. The trail or route the Indians used to move west was called the Trail of Tears. Few Cherokees and Seminoles remained east of the Mississippi by the 1840s, and were usually hidden in the...
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...The international community has not legally admonished the United States for genocidal acts against Native Americans, yet it is clear that examples of genocidal acts and crimes against humanity are a well-cited page in U.S. history. Notorious incidents, such as the Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek Massacre, and the massacre of the Yuki of northern California are covered in depth in separate entries in this encyclopedia. More controversial, however, is whether the colonies and the United States participated in genocidal acts as an overall policy toward Native Americans. The Native-American population decrease since the arrival of Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus alone signals the toll colonization and U.S. settlement took on the native population. Scholars estimate that approximately 10 million pre-Columbian Native Americans resided in the present-day United States. That number has since fallen to approximately 2.4 million. While this population decrease cannot be attributed solely to the actions of the U.S. government, they certainly played a key role. In addition to population decrease, Native Americans have also experienced significant cultural and proprietary losses as a result of U.S. governmental actions. The total effect has posed a serious threat to the sustainability of the Native-American people and culture. Ideological Motivations Two conflicting yet equally harmful ideologies significantly influenced U.S. dealings with Native Americans. The first sprang from...
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...U.S. History and Constitution HIS120 Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) At the end of the course, students will be able to: SLO1. Describe the cultural, geographic and climatic influences on Native American societies. SLO2. Compare and contrast religious, social and cultural differences among the major European settlers. SLO3. Describe the events that helped create American nationalism and lead to the American Revolution. SLO4. Explain the Constitutional Convention, the Articles of Confederation, and the emergence of a democratic nation. SLO5. Explain the U.S. Constitution as it related to the separation of powers, checks and balances, the Bill of Rights, and the major principles of democracy. SLO6. Evaluate the Jeffersonian dream of expansion and its effect on Native Americans SLO7. Describe Jacksonian democracy and the creation of a two party system SLO8. Explain slavery and associated issues that led to the Civil War and its aftermath. Module Titles Module 1—Early American exploration and colonization (SLO1) Module 2—British colonies (SLO2) Module 3—Road to the Revolution and the American Revolution (SLO3) Module 4—Early Republic (SLO4 and SLO5) Module 5—Jacksonian America (SLO 6 and SLO7) Module 6—Road to the Civil War (SLO8) Module 7—Civil War (SLO8) Module 8—Shaping American history: Signature Assignment (all SLOs) Module 1 Early Exploration and Contact with Native Americans Welcome to HIS 120: U.S....
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...undisputed. In October of 1803, a congressional debate was held. The Federalist delegates from New England territory greatly opposed the expansion. The party believed in strict interpretation of the constitution so they argued that the acquisition of territory by treaty was unconstitutional. Their concerned also touched on the fear they had for potential repercussions from other nations, such as Britain and Spain. Federalists argued that their defenses would not hold, and that the new frontier required militia presence. Overall they feared that the eastern states would loose influence in Congress and would suffer economically and politically (Doc A). Despite the dispute, Jefferson was reelected in...
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...Chapter 7: The Rise of Manufacturing and the Age of Jackson (1820–1845) THE GROWTH OF THE FACTORY Economic growth was a key component of Henry Clay’s American System, and in the aftermath of the War of 1812, measures were taken to expand American industry. American industries were protected by the Tariff of 1816, which raised import tariffs by 25 percent. At the same time state governments began improving road, river, and canal transportation systems. Before 1820 almost all products made in America were completed using a system borrowed from Europe called the putting-out system. Under this system merchants would buy the raw materials, recruit dozens, or in some case hundreds, of farm families to do the work, and then sell the finished product. Many shoes in New England were made in this manner; women and children would make part of the shoe, which would be finished by experienced shoemakers. Beginning in the late 1780s the textile industry started to use power-driven machines and interchangeable parts. All power in these early factories came from water, so the early factories all were located along rivers. Most were located in New England or the Middle states. In the 1790s factories like those in Lowell, Massachusetts, began to weave cotton imported from the south. With the introduction of the cotton gin in the same decade, more cotton became available, and production boomed. By 1840 the textile industry employed nearly 75,000 workers, with almost half of...
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...France’s possessing herself of Louisiana is the embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both sides of the Atlantic and involve in its effects their highest destinies” (Zurn 101). Without the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. would not have grown and prospered into the nation it is today without the territory’s exploration, discovery, mobility, and political debate. To begin, after months’ of negotiation, the acquisition of the Louisiana territory led to the largest enthusiasm for expansion the U.S....
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