Trail of Tears: An Enthralling Guide to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Removal, the Seminole Wars, Creek Dissolution, and Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Tribe by Wellman Billy & History Enthralling

Author:Wellman, Billy & History, Enthralling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9: Historical Legacy

While all the key decisions that led to the Trail of Tears and their outcomes could fill multiple books, there are a few that had a lasting impact on the American landscape, which at the time was rapidly expanding westward.

We can start by looking at the Spanish settlers who settled in the territory of modern-day Florida in the 1500s and how these explorers clashed with the Seminoles who occupied the territory. Ponce de León was killed when he returned to Florida in 1521 to search for the mythical Fountain of Youth, but he was followed by Hernando de Soto, who died of one of the diseases the settlers brought with them.[58]

We are told that smallpox, measles, malaria, and yellow fever killed over 90 percent of the Native Americans in North America, and this was, in a way, one of the causes of the Trail of Tears. Diseases wiped out settlements and entire tribes, leading to groups banding together or fighting against each other for more territory. Siding with the colonists ended up becoming essential in some cases because the Native Americans did not have the numbers to deal a decisive victory on their own. And with their decline in numbers, it became easier and easier for the white settlers to dictate decisions since they were the majority.

Spain finally ceded Florida to the US after signing the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. By this point, Andrew Jackson had already made incursions into the territory to stop the Seminoles from raiding settlers outside of Florida. Jackson was told to invade Florida to go after the Native Americans but to leave Spanish forts alone. The primary reason for the Seminole attacks on the Florida-Georgia border was retaliation for Southern militia coming into their territory to capture escaped slaves. The Seminoles also wanted to prevent settlers from stealing land and cattle.

The Southern states, particularly Georgia, put pressure on the US government, urging it to subdue the Seminole. And this was when Jackson entered the picture. The Treaty of Payne’s Landing in 1832 urged the Seminoles to move west if they could find good land, but the scouts could not find livable territory. The treaty was signed, but many chiefs were bullied into doing it, so they continued to resist relocation. After the Adams-Onís Treaty, the US, which had full control of Florida, used the idea of Manifest Destiny to relocate the Seminoles. Ultimately, the decision was made to remove all the Seminoles from Florida, paving yet another path on the Trail of Tears.

In 1820, General Andrew Jackson and Thomas Hinds oversaw the Treaty of Doak’s Stand, in which the Choctaw of Mississippi agreed to give up one-third of their land for a million acres in the west. The Choctaw removal began, and the point of no return was reached by the Native American tribes, who were losing the fight against the US government. Before this, one-fourth of the Cherokee Nation had voluntarily agreed to relocate to Arkansas territory, settling between the Arkansas and White Rivers.

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