Impact Of The Indian Removal Act

An Act With A Negative Impact The United States has undergone significant changes throughout its history, shaped by various events including wars, battles, acts, and laws. In the 1800s, several key events had a lasting impact on the country, such as the Mexican-American War, Fugitive Slave Act, Embargo Act, and Indian Removal Act. While some may argue that one event had a greater impact than others, it is undeniable that they all contributed to shaping the country as it is today. The Indian Removal Act, specifically, had a deep impact, particularly on southeastern tribes as it authorized the forced relocation of these tribes such as the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw, from their ancestral lands to Indian Territory in present-day

The Indian Removal Act of 1830, signed into law by President Andrew Jackson, authorized the negotiation of treaties to remove the southeastern tribes from their ancestral lands to make way for white settlers. This act violated the rights of Native Americans as it authorized the relocation of Eastern tribes without their consent and without just compensation. Although the act granted certain rights to the Native American tribes, such as the “right to negotiate treaties and the right to own and manage their lands”, the act was ultimately used as a tool for further infringement of the rights of Native Americans. Political cartoons about the Cherokee Nation were created in the 19th century that depicted their forced relocation and the harsh conditions they faced during the journey westward as the Trail of Tears. The Historical caricature of the Cherokee nation's political cartoon shows injustices and cruelty to Native Americans, including the Cherokee, Shawnee, and Delaware nations, by American

The exacerbation of the issue of slavery and the Indian land taken was given to white settlers and cotton planters, who in many cases were slaveholders. This further solidified the belief in the idea of manifest destiny, the idea of American expansion as inevitable and moral. The ideas of manifest destiny led people to believe they needed secure land which pushed slavery into regions' by bringing their enslaved laborers with them. This led to a huge expansion of slavery, “while ephemeral records make an accurate count impossible, historians estimate that close to 200,000 slaves traveled and worked the American frontier between 1830 and 1860”. By the time of the Civil War, the South had become a region heavily dependent on slavery, with a large proportion of the population held in bondage. The Indian Removal Act and the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation was a key step in the spread of slavery and therefore played an important role in the development of the nation and the course of the Civil War. The social aspect of this act had a lasting impact on the U.S. for its role in territorial expansion, the spread of slavery, and the belief in manifest destiny. This served as a justification for the government and individual settlers' actions leading to the displacement and oppression of indigenous peoples.