After the
election of Andrew Jackson, significant changes to the nature of American democracy were
occurring. They were so momentous that the entire era was known as the Jacksonian era. For the
first time in American history common people were becoming more and more politically active.
This meant big changes for everyone, including Native Americans.
Starting
around 1820, voting was not longer relegated to just landed men. For the first time, poor tenet
farmers were now allowed to vote in major elections, which means their interests were now
becoming policy in Washington. The most common request was more access to cheap land, most of
which was controlled by Native Americans.
As a result, the 1820s saw a large
series of treaties and laws that were aimed at moving tribes east of the Mississippi off their
land so that white settlers and land speculators could get access.
The most
infamous of these was the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Championed by Andrew Jackson himself, this
law saw serious opposition in both the Supreme Court and the floor of congress itself. This act
relocated thousands and thousands of Native Americans off their land and onto a new Indian
Territory in Oklahoma. When tribes like the Cherokee and the Choctaw refused to move, the army
was sent in and they were forced marched to Oklahoma in an episode that was known as the Trail
of Tears. Thousands of Native Americans died along the way from exposure and starvation.
Using this example, one could easily argue that the Jacksonian Era
resulted in more violence towards native peoples.
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