At the beginning of the 19th, the United States was looking for an expansion of land. The white settlers wanted the lands used by the Indians for their own economic gain. By 1830, President Jackson issued the Indian Removal Act; allowing state officials to override federal protection of Native Americans. Most Indian tribes left their homelands in Georgia during the early 1830s. However, the Cherokees remained. In 1838, the experiences the Cherokee Indians endured on the Trail of Tears could best be described as brutal. Lower social classes were non-existent to the higher social classes. General Winfield Scott states, “Or will you, by flight, seek to hid yourselves in mountains and forest, and thus oblige us to hunt you down? Remember that, in pursuit, it may be impossible to avoid conflicts” (General Scott). Any hope of resistance was taken away from the Cherokees. They were given two options; suffer the journey with a chance of surviving, or be hunted and most likely killed. Either option was not favorable, and made them feel inferior. People need be treated as humans not animals. Private John G. Burnett states, “I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep” (Private Burnett). The Cherokees were not viewed at humans, but as livestock. Seeing them as livestock, meant that the white settlers did …show more content…
Elizabeth Watts states, “It was death, sorrow, hunger, exposure, and humiliation to a civilized people as were the Cherokees” (Watts). The Trail of Tears was more than just tears. Tears symbolized all of the pain that was endured. However, the Trail of Tears was more than just tears; there was pain and suffering that white settlers neglected. The trial was described with tears because there were so many crying with what they were forced through. They were treated like slaves; as if they were property. Cherokee Indians had no say in what happened to them, and when they would try to resist, they were met with brute