Andrew Jackson was known as the “Man of the People” or the “People’s Ticket” when he was running for President of the United States. Unfortunately this does not apply to all the people living in the United States. Andrew Jackson was a complex and controversial person throughout his life, especially with the Native American issue. Andrew Jackson was defiant with his superiors about direct orders; doing things his own way to further his objective which was to improve society in the United States. Andrew Jackson was most notable for his play against the Native Americans to win military campaigns for the purpose of gaining new land for the expansion of America. Most of his controversy came from the fact that he was forcing the Native Americans, …show more content…
Andrew Jackson had a good rapport with the Native Americans, however with the increasing demand for land for white settlers, he put his love of his country over his personal feelings to better society. Historiography of Andrew Jackson and his treatment of Native Americans changed throughout the centuries. There were protests of the Indian Removal Act and how the government was treating them, but some authors justified it as a way to put them in the West causing them to survive and live there peacefully. In the 19th and 20th century we see a turning point of the opinion of the Indian Removal Act. In the 19th Century, historian Frederick Jackson Turner wrote a paper called “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” at the Chicago Fair in 1893. In the paper he wrote, “The frontier area, he argued, represented ‘free land,’ and since the land was unused, this justified white settlement of the land.” The “free land” that Turner was talking about was the land the Native Americans gave up from the treaties before, during, and after the Indian Removal Act. Turner seemed in favor of this and applauded when he said, “great historical movement,” and “The existence of an area of free land…explain[ed] American development.” Even historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, who wrote,