The History and Catalysts of The Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears refers to the forced deportation of the Cherokee group of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the southern and eastern areas of the United States, to areas west of the Mississippi. This forced migration occurred in the late 1830s, almost a century after the American Revolution, and it is one of the ugliest and most shameful episodes in the long American history of mistreatment of indigenous groups. The legal justification for the removal of the Native American peoples from their lands was highly questionable and was the result of simple racism and economic opportunism on the part of many white Americans, as well as the increasingly prevalent ideological concept of Manifest Destiny. This horrific development in American history underscores the intense persecution that Native American groups faced at this time, and the level of destruction that befell them, and how the effects on the Native American community can be seen even today. It is therefore extremely important to examine the exact political, economic, and social conditions that led to such a development so that we can ensure that such heinous actions never occur again.

The Trail of Tears refers to the forcible removal of Native Americans from the lands they had occupied for generations. As the Public Broadcasting Service states, “In 1838 and 1839...the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died.” Clearly, this act was nothing short of genocide, given the appalling number of individuals killed and the shocking brutality of these actions. The government was evidently extremely motivated to clear native Americans out of settled areas and away from the white population. The reasons for this are multiple and need to be explained in detail to fully grasp the horrendous nature of the situation.

Many of the most important reasons for the deportation of the Cherokee were economic in nature. As the official website of the Cherokee Nation states, “White resentment of the Cherokee had been building and reached a pinnacle following the discovery of gold in northern Georgia...Possessed by ‘gold fever’ and a thirst for expansion, many white communities turned on their Cherokee neighbors. The U.S. government ultimately decided it was time for the Cherokees to be ‘removed’; leaving behind their farms, their land, and their homes.” Clearly, the desire for the natural resources found within Cherokee territory was one of the prime motivating factors for the establishment of the Trail of Tears. In addition, the desire for expansion into new territory was another primary reason for the removal of Native Americans from their lands. This becomes even more clear when the Trail of Tears is viewed through the ideological framework of the emerging philosophy of Manifest Destiny.

Manifest Destiny, or the belief that expansion across the entire American continent was preordained by God and destined for white settlers, was a budding philosophy during this time period, and the influence it had on atrocities like the Trail of Tears cannot be overstated. As Amy H. Sturgis states, “Perhaps no event better captures the mid-nineteenth century shift in U.S. Indian policy, or the cost of the ideology of Manifest Destiny, the belief that it was the God-given right of white U.S. citizens to expand their power across the continent, than the forced removal of the Cherokee from its traditional homeland in 1838-1839.” Clearly, the mentality that white settlers had a divine right to the entire expanse of the continent was a driving factor in the subjugation and persecution of the Native Americans, particularly when expressed through such brazen and horrifying relocation of native peoples. Manifest Destiny certainly in large part provided the ideological justification for the inherently selfish and indefensible reasons for the desire to seize land from the Native Americans on the part of many American citizens. It is difficult to imagine the atrocities of the Trail of Tears occurring without the profound influence of Manifest Destiny on the mindset and mentality of the American people during this time period.

The Trail of Tears was one of the most blatantly genocidal, and incredibly horrific acts in American history. It refers to the forced expulsion of the Cherokee from the areas in the southeast that had been their home since long before the arrival of European settlers to faraway lands west of the Mississippi. This was driven by an economic desire on the part of many Americans to control the natural resources of the Cherokee homeland, as well the desire for expansion of territory and simple racism and bigotry against Native Americans. These ideas were embodied in the growing ideology of Manifest Destiny, which allowed many leaders and citizens to rationalize their barbaric treatment of Native American communities. Through a thorough examination of the circumstances surrounding the Trail of Tears, it is quite clear that the economic opportunism and extremely ethnocentric outlook of many white Americans during this time period resulted in the wholesale slaughter and abuse of the Native American population.

Bibliography

"A Brief History of the Trail of Tears." Cherokee Nation. http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/History/TrailofTears/ABriefHistoryoftheTrailofTears.aspx (accessed February 27, 2014).

Sturgis, Amy H.. The Trail of Tears and Indian removal. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007.

PBS. "The Trail of Tears ." PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.html (accessed February 26, 2014).