19th Century Westward Expansion

Jackson Era & Indian Removal

Questions

• What were the ideological currents that influenced domestic & foreign policy during the mid 1800s?

• What are examples of United States Foreign policy during the 1800s?

Identifications

• Manifest Destiny

• Technological Progress

• Westward Expansion

• Indian Removal Act 1830

• Cherokee & Choctaw Removal

• Andrew Jackson

http://amhist.ist.unomaha.edu/module_files/Best%20Westward%20Expansion%20Map.jpg

Westward Expansion & Technological Progress

• The promise of technological “progress”– Labor– Expansion over

indigenous America

Slavery & “free” wage Labor

• Goal to abolish servitude among whites– Create virtuous

citizens– No slaves or hirelings– Small independent

producers

Manifest Destiny• Senator Thomas Hart

Benton Personified West & its expansionist spirit– While the “yellow” race

was far above the “Black” and the “red” races, it was still far below the “White” and like all the rest “must receive an impression from the superior race whenever they come into contact”

– Adams sons, the White race alone received the “divine command, to subdue and replenish the earth”

New Democratic Party1824-1828

• Vanguard of promoting white equality and unity• Strongly pro-slavery• Anti-black rights• Intensification of racism accompanied the

emergence of democracy in American life– Referring to free blacks

• “the policy and power of the national and state governments are against them, the popular feeling is against them- the interests of our citizens are against them. Their prospects…are dreary, comfortless.”

Jackson Era 1824-1845

• Extension of white male democracy

• The Second Great Awakening

• Rise of Jackson’s Democrats (1824-28)

• Jackson appeal – Indian removal

• Spoils System

African Americans

• Most Northerners lacks meaningful political rights– Five New England States allowed black men

to vote on equal terms as white men

• New York imposed property requirements only on black men

• NJ, PA, CT disfranchised African Americans, were previously they had the right

Jim Crow North

• Working man’s complicity in destruction of black rights and suffrage– New York 1825– Connecticut 1818– Columbia

Pennsylvania 1834– Rhode Island 1822

(attempt)

The creation of the anti-citizen• Rise of Popular Racism in the North

– Tools of working class repression• New industrial morality 1812 – 1860

Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy

Thomas Jefferson - 1st president to propose removal

James Monroe - 1st to propose a plan for removal

Andrew Jackson - 1824 began campaigning openly in favor of forced removal

Congress passed Removal Act of 1830

• Cherokee – The Treaty of Hopewell

in 1785– Sequoyah

• Choctaw• Chickasaw• Creek/Muscogee• Seminole

The Five “civilized” Southern Tribes

Indian Territory

Forced Removal & Legal Resistance

• Cherokee Nation V. Georgia 1831 & Worcester V. Georgia in 1832

– a domestic nation occupying its own territory and boundaries

– the Laws of Georgia did not apply – States could not pass laws conflicting with federal

Indian treaties – Federal government had an obligation to exclude white

intruders from Indian lands– citizens had no right to enter

• Jackson: “John Marshall had made his decision; now let him enforce it.”

Cherokee Removal

• The Treaty Party– sign a treaty removing them

from the lands– Treaty of New Echota

committed tribe to removal in 1835

• The Ross party – Chief John Ross opposed

removal at any cost. • Trail of Tears

– 25-50% of population died : disease, depression, starvation and exposure

Choctaw Removal

• Removal began in 1830 – Treaty of Dancing

Rabbit Creek

• Government guarantee – to educate 40

Choctaw per year – provide 50,000 for

public schools – 20,000/year for 20

years for supplies and moving expenses

Choctaw Removal• 1/4 chose to take allotments

– Agent William Ward defrauded the allotted– speculators and officials swindled resulting in

impoverished communities rampant with disease and death

– Those who removed thousands died from malnutrition and disease, as well as exposure.

Indigenous Resistance

• Sauk & Fox Nations led by Black Hawk re-crossed the Mississippi into Illinois in 1832, crushed by federal troops & Militia

• Seminole, led by Osceola held out in the Everglades of Florida until 1842, some never gave up or signed treaties with the United States

Labor Resistance

• Formation of Trade Unions– Courts called them

conspiracies to restrain trade, and therefore illegal

• Anti Renter Movement, Albany, New York, 1839

• Dorr’s Rebellion, Rhode Island, 1841– Movement for electoral

reform to change Charter rule that only land owners could vote