The Trail Of Tears

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During the Trail of Tears, the American government singled out a particular race, the Native Americans, and forced them to move west of the Mississippi, killing thousands in the process. This has been referred to by many as the American Holocaust. The Trail of Tears, as mentioned above, was the forced removal of the Cherokee nation in 1838. So, who is responsible for forcing them off the land that was rightfully theirs? The parties responsible for guiltily stripping the civilized Cherokee of nation of their possessions and forcing them to bear a 2,200 mile journey that killed an estimate of 4,000 Cherokee people are the Founding Fathers, white settlers, and the white settler 's greed.

The Founding Fathers are partially responsible for the …show more content…

This little thing know as greed destroys many civilizations, and for what, riches?! According to John G. Burnett 's story, "a little Indian boy sold a gold nugget to a white trader, sealing the doom of the Cherokee." This one small nugget was probably the singlehandedly most important reason for the Trail of Tears. It wasn 't the nugget itself, it was the thought that came after. Everyone thought, if this small boy has a gold nugget, there must be plenty more, right? So, off went all the gold hungry folks to destroy civilizations in search of gold; stealing land and burning entire settlements. This greed was the backbone of the move; everyone preferred gold over the lives of innocent Indians that had settled in this land long before they had even arrived. Also referring to Burnett 's story, "Men were shot in cold blood, lands were stolen...by gold-hungry bandits." This shows the extent to which they would go for gold. If they would kill for gold, what makes you think they wouldn 't force the Indians across the …show more content…

So, the main causes for the Trail of Tears are the ideals of the Founding Fathers, who hated Indians, white settlers, that didn 't care for Indians, and greedy bandits that cared for gold and nothing else. Even today, this is a huge issue. At the time, the government singled out a particular race, the Indians, and forced them across the Mississippi by telling the American people that this was what was best for them, when it wasn 't! That 's like if you work for years and years on end to buy yourself a grand estate, but there is word that there is gold in your soil, so everyone arrives and all hell breaks loose. Now, the government comes and says, "Sorry, you have to move, but we 'll pay you." They offer you a fraction of what it cost, and you refuse. Now, they don 't give you any money and bring a small army to force you off your land! You wouldn 't like that would you? Well, that 's what happened to the Cherokee, and it was deemed proper because of the lies the government fed