Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears (1838–39).In the late eighteenth century, the Cherokees led all other tribes in responding to George Washington's policy of assimilation, establishing a written constitution, a bicameral legislature, and a supreme court. White Americans, however, sought their removal in order to use their land “more efficiently,” and President Andrew Jackson asked Congress to remove them west of the Mississippi. The Removal Bill and the failure to enforce the Worcester v. Georgia (1832) decision sealed the Cherokees' doom. A few unauthorized headmen signed away the nation's remaining land at New Echota, in present day Georgia, in December 1835, and the government gave them two years to remove themselves.
By May 1838, only 2,000 of approximately 16,000 Cherokees had moved, and Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott entered Cherokee territory...
[The entire page is 328 words long]
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