trail of tears essay conclusion

The Trail of Tears

Written by: Bill of Rights Institute

By the end of this section, you will:.

• Explain how and why American foreign policy developed and expanded over time

Suggested Sequencing

This Narrative can be used alongside the Responses to the Cherokee Removal Mini DBQ Lesson and the Native Americans in American Art Lesson.

The technological innovations of the cotton gin and weaving looms in early factories in Great Britain and New England led to the mass production of manufactured textiles. The worldwide demand for cotton soared, and the American South provided almost half that cotton, amounting to 400 million pounds by the 1820s. Southern planters and farmers had an insatiable desire for land on which they and their enslaved workers grew the lucrative crop. Tens of thousands of white southerners and their enslaved workers moved into Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. The owners were guided by the idea of Manifest Destiny and believed they had a right to land that was supposedly unimproved by American Indians.

However, members of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations lived on those lands in the Southeast. Whites called them the “Five Civilized Tribes” because they had adopted some of the cultural ways of whites, such as by using whites’ methods of agriculture and animal husbandry, wearing whites’ style of clothing, and attending English-speaking missionary schools. The Cherokee leader Sequoyah created a syllabary to write down stories from the Cherokee oral tradition, and the Cherokee adopted a republican constitution with a bicameral legislature and three branches of government. Still, the tribes were split over whether to follow this policy of cultural assimilation in which they gave up their traditional ways of living. They were also deeply divided over whether to cede land to whites after the War of 1812. Several treaties were made ceding tens of millions of acres in the southeastern states when Andrew Jackson and other negotiators appealed to those Indians who wanted to sell.

During the 1820s, Jackson and many southerners in Congress and state governments embraced a policy of removal of the American Indians living in the Southeast to west of the Mississippi River. Settlers and land speculators pressured all levels of government to support removal. The congressional House Committee on Indian Affairs considered a removal bill in 1825, but it died in committee. The removal policy coincided with proposals for a giant Indian reservation that would comprise different tribes. These also failed.

Jackson was another prominent supporter of Indian removal in the 1820s. He had fought in several battles against American Indians in the Southeast during and after the War of 1812. He also served as a treaty commissioner and persuaded tribes to surrender millions of acres of land. He and the southerners who later formed the nucleus of the emerging Democratic Party advocated removal.

In his first inaugural address as president in 1829, Jackson vaguely promised “to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy.” In his annual message to Congress that December, he summarized government policy much more extensively. Despite his view that the southeastern Indian nations had “made some progress in the arts of civilized life,” Jackson said, “I suggest for your consideration the propriety of setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any state or territory now formed, to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it, each tribe having a distinct control over the portion designated for its use.” Removal to the West, he argued, was actually beneficial to “preserve this much-injured race.”

In February and March 1830, the debate in Congress over the Indian removal bill was acrimonious. Mostly northerners, influenced by the ideals of justice and Christian morals, submitted hundreds of petitions protesting the removal. New Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen delivered a three-day speech excoriating the removal policy as a violation of federal treaties and “oppressive encroachments upon the sacred privileges of our Indian neighbors.” Georgia Senator John Forsyth retorted by defending removal as a matter of states’ rights and declared that American Indians would be better off on western hunting grounds. The bill narrowly passed by a vote of 28 to 19 in the Senate and 102 to 97 in the House. Jackson signed it into law in late May. The act provided for voluntary removal to lands held by Indians in perpetuity west of the Mississippi provided they surrendered lands to the east. The federal government promised provisions and protection during the journey to the west.

The Choctaws were the first to sign a removal treaty in September, and some of the tribe began emigrating during a terrible winter without federal troops or adequate provisions. Hundreds perished during the journey, and the survivors straggled to their destination in small groups.

In the icy winter chill of a December day in 1831, French chronicler Alexis de Tocqueville was present to witness the forlorn and destitute Choctaw cross the partially frozen Mississippi River. Tocqueville looked upon the injustice with mixed disgust and pity. Though he had come to the United States ostensibly to study its prison system, he had spent the majority of his time, instead, studying his real passion: the functions and trappings of the institutions of the first modern republic, which he believed represented the future of humanity. But the coerced removal of entire American Indian nations and the denial of their natural rights contradicted the ideals of American democracy. Tocqueville believed “the Indian race [was] doomed to perish.”

He described the scene:

At the end of the year 1831, whilst I was on the left bank of the Mississippi at a place named by Europeans, Memphis, there arrived a numerous band of Choctaws (or Chactas, as they are called by the French in Louisiana). These savages had left their country, and were endeavoring to gain the right bank of the Mississippi, where they hoped to find an asylum which had been promised them by the American government. It was then the middle of winter, and the cold was unusually severe; the snow had frozen hard upon the ground, and the river was drifting huge masses of ice. The Indians had their families with them; and they brought in their train the wounded and sick, with children newly born, and old men upon the verge of death. They possessed neither tents nor wagons, but only their arms and some provisions. I saw 373 of them embark to pass the mighty river, and never will that solemn spectacle fade from my remembrance. No cry, no sob was heard amongst the assembled crowd; all were silent. Their calamities were of ancient date, and they knew them to be irremediable. The Indians had all stepped into the bark which was to carry them across, but their dogs remained upon the bank. As soon as these animals perceived that their masters were finally leaving the shore, they set up a dismal howl, and, plunging all together into the icy waters of the Mississippi, they swam after the boat.

Alexis de Tocqueville, shown in an 1850 oil portrait by Théodore Chassériau, traveled extensively throughout the United States during the early days of the republic while writing his famous book Democracy in America

Federal troops and private companies helped more than nine thousand Choctaws settle in Indian Territory by 1833. However, the summers of 1832 and 1833 saw devastating outbreaks of cholera among the Choctaws. Thousands of them perished from the disease.

This map shows the removal of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes from their homelands.

The other nations followed the Choctaws to the Indian Territory in the West throughout the 1830s and early 1840s. Secretary of War Lewis Cass was responsible for providing military protection and ensuring the tribes had adequate provisions and medical care through federal troops or private contractors. The Chickasaws decided to sign a treaty in 1832, and more than six thousand of the tribe emigrated by 1838. The Creeks resisted for a few more years, but the encroachment of an estimated ten thousand white settlers seeking land and gold without much hindrance from the federal government persuaded the Creeks to sign a treaty in 1834. When violence erupted in what were termed the First and Second Creek Wars, federal troops subdued the Creeks and forcibly removed three thousand of them, followed by thousands of others. By 1838, thousands of Creeks had died during removal.

The Cherokee stayed in Georgia and were harassed by the state government and private citizens who wanted their land. Chief John Ross refused to sign a removal treaty, but other chiefs were more willing and signed the Treaty of New Echota. Writer Ralph Waldo Emerson and Texan Sam Houston were among those who publicly denounced the treaty as a miscarriage of justice. It passed by a single vote in the Senate. In the fall of 1838 and the harsh winter that followed during the presidency of Martin Van Buren, the Cherokee were forcibly removed by federal troops. Private companies failed to deliver food and supplies, and about four thousand Cherokee died of starvation and disease during the journey along the “Trail of Tears.”

The Seminoles were victims of a fraudulent treaty some of the chiefs signed in 1832, so most the nation refused to leave Florida. A Creek named Osceola led a band of warriors who attacked and killed more than one hundred U.S. troops to start the Second Seminole War in December 1835. The two sides engaged in several battles, though the Seminoles retreated to the nearly impenetrable swamps of the Everglades from which they launched raids on neighboring forts. The war lasted several years, with more than one thousand casualties on each side from the fighting and diseases such as malaria. The U.S. Army fought bitterly to remove approximately four thousand Seminoles by force, but a truce was signed in 1842, allowing about five hundred to remain.

Within the first few years of arrival in what is now Oklahoma, the resettled American Indian population was decimated by cholera, malaria, smallpox, and influenza. “We did not visit a house, wigwam, or camp,” wrote a distressed missionary, “where we did not find more or less sickness, and in most instances the whole family were prostrated by disease. Great numbers of them have died.” The sickness hit the children hardest, and child death rates soared.

With similar results, the U.S. government forcibly removed the Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole. Twice, the Cherokee took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), Marshall’s court ruled that the Cherokee constituted a “domestic dependent nation” and therefore had no standing to challenge Georgia’s sovereignty within Cherokee lands. A year later, in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the Marshall court ruled in the favor of the Cherokee, noting that Georgia, as a state, had no jurisdiction over independent and sovereign Indian nations. The Court thereby invalidated the Georgia laws claiming Cherokee lands because they were protected by federal treaty and the Commerce Clause of Article I, section 8.

The five American Indian nations of the southeast were dispossessed of their lands by white settlers and speculators, state governments, and the federal government. The treaties they had made respecting their lands were superseded by new treaties endorsing the idea of Indian removal and resettlement west of the Mississippi, supposedly forever. Nevertheless, within a few decades, the pressure of continued American migration to the West resulted in a series of Indian wars and additional injustices.

At their peak, the Cherokee controlled land in the present-day states of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. By the end of the 1830s, most Cherokee had either relocated voluntarily or were forced to move to Indian Territory, as shown in a modern artist’s rendition of the Cherokee relocation journey on The Trail of Tears.

Review Questions

1. In his 1829 first inaugural address, President Jackson laid out his belief that the best policy toward American Indians was to

• assist American Indians in the adoption of agriculture
• set aside land west of the Mississippi for American Indians’ control and use
• declare war on the Five Civilized Tribes
• allow the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of their claim to land in the southeast

2. The five southern tribes removed and forced upon the Trail of Tears were

• the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Creek, the Choctaw, and the Seminole
• the Cherokee, the Kiowa, the Creek, the Choctaw, and the Seminole
• the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Shawnee, the Choctaw, and the Seminole
• the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Sioux, the Choctaw, and the Seminole

3. Who witnessed the policy of Indian Removal in 1831, claiming “the Indian race [was] doomed to perish”?

• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Sam Houston
• John Forsyth
• Alexis de Tocqueville

4. The initial ruling of the Supreme Court in regard to American Indians stated

• American Indians were citizens and had full protection under the Constitution
• the various states had authority over American Indian nations within their jurisdiction
• the Supreme Court had no authority over American Indian groups
• Indian tribes were “domestic dependent nations” and had rights to their own land

5. The first major expulsion after the Indian Removal Act of 1830 occurred in

• Mississippi

6. The greatest impetus for whites pushing American Indians off their traditional territory was the

• belief that American Indians were inferior and had no ability to work the land
• desire for the land for development and the acquisition of wealth
• belief that North America was destined to be a white continent, where enslaved African persons would work the land
• belief that American Indians would be safer and happier in land west of the Mississippi River

Free Response Questions

• Explain Andrew Jackson’s words and actions related to American Indians.
• Explain how the U.S. government failed to protect American Indians during the 1820s-1840s.

AP Practice Questions

“And be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the President to have the same superintendence and care over any tribe or nation in the country to which they may remove, as contemplated by this act, that he is now authorized to have over them at their present places of residence: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed as authorizing or directing the violation of any existing treaty between the United States and any of the Indian tribes.” Indian Removal Act , signed by Andrew Jackson May 28, 1830

1. The Indian Removal Act was a

• formal acknowledgement of the president’s power to direct relocation of American Indians
• radical departure from previous presidents’ policies regarding Indian ways of life
• formal and specific assurance of protection of American Indians’ individual constitutional rights
• repudiation of all previous treaties between the United States and American Indians

2. The main idea expressed in the excerpt from the Indian Removal Act was most likely motivated by

• an overwhelming demand from Congress for new treaties that would protect American Indians’ rights, culture, and economic survival by relocating them to rich farmlands in the west
• a desire by the state of Georgia to remove the Cherokee from their land
• Andrew Jackson’s demand that American Indians be protected by enforcement of all treaties between the United States and the tribes
• the request by American Indians that they receive territory free of U.S. government interference

Primary Sources

Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America . Vol. 1. Translated by Henry Reeve. (1835). http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/LojkoMiklos/Alexis-de-Tocqueville-Democracy-in-America.pdf

Suggested Resources

Ehle, John. Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation . New York: Anchor Books, 1988.

Perdue, Theda. Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 . Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 1998.

Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears . New York: Penguin, 2007.

Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents . Boston: Bedford Books, 1995.

Remini, Robert V. The Legacy of Andrew Jackson: Essays on Democracy, Indian Removal, and Slavery . Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University, 1988.

Thornton, Russell. The Cherokees: A Population History . Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.

Wallace, Anthony. The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians . New York: Hill and Wang, 1993.

Woodward Grace Steele. The Cherokees . Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

Related Content

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

In our resource history is presented through a series of narratives, primary sources, and point-counterpoint debates that invites students to participate in the ongoing conversation about the American experiment.

(part 6 of 7) SCHOLARS DEBATE Native American Images Donald Vann (Cherokee artist), Men with Broken Hearts , 1994 enlarge image   The Trail of Tears has become the symbol in American history that signifies the callousness of American policy makers toward American Indians. Indian lands were held hostage by the states and the federal government, and Indians had to agree to removal to preserve their identity as tribes. The factors leading to Indian removal are more complex. Early writers such as Annie Heloise Abel and Grant Foreman simply described the policy and events. Foreman's book, Indian Removal (1932), is compelling because the reader can draw from quotes from primary documents the details of the removal experience for the five southeastern tribes. The bulk of the literature on removal deals with the impact on the Choctaws, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, but Abel's work, Events Leading to the Consolidation of American Indian Tribes West of the Mississippi River (1906) deals with the wider implications of the policy for other tribes in other parts of America. The complexity of reasons for removal comes from later historical interpretation. Richard White's The Roots of Dependency (1983) puts the Choctaws in the larger context of American history and explains their experience in light of the changing economy of American society in the post-revolutionary war era. The religious justification for removal, preservation of Indian nations from the pernicious influence of white populations, is apparent in George A. Schultz's An Indian Canaan (1972), the story of Isaac McCoy, the Baptist missionary who was the most active proponent of an Indian state, where Native peoples could be consolidated in an area where, if the environment was foreign, they could be protected to pursue their own lifestyle. ". . . we have done so much to destroy the Indians, and so little to save them; and that, before another step is taken, there should be the most thorough deliberation, on the part of all our constituted authorities, lest we act in such a manner as to expose ourselves to the judgments of heaven." Jeremiah Evarts, Essays on the present crisis in the condition of the American Indians , 1829    full text The moral objections to removal are evident in the writings of Jeremiah Evarts, Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the organization that established the first Christian missions among the Cherokees and Choctaws in the early 1800s. Cherokee Removal: The "William Penn" Essays and Other Writings (1981) is a collection of Evarts's letters and essays. Evarts upheld an inherent right of Native people to be secure in their lands. His covert agenda was to protect the financial investment that the American Board had made in the mission buildings that they had established in the southeast. The impact of removal on native populations has led to some debate in terms of demographics. The extent of the loss of life among migrants has an impact on the ability of people to maintain community structures such as clan and kin relationships. Loss of large numbers of family members through epidemic disease and the rigors of removal disrupt communities. Debates about the impact of epidemic disease and depopulation continue among scholars today. For the Cherokee Trail of Tears, consult Russell Thornton's The Cherokees: A Population History (1990), in which he estimates both loss of life and the potential population of the Cherokee nation had Removal not taken place. Census of Cherokee families in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee (probably the 1840 federal census); excerpt. Phrase "died during the emigration" appears repeatedly in the remarks. University of Georgia Libraries. Place cursor on "Remarks" entries for transcribed text. full text of document National Archives Delegates from 34 tribes in front of Creek Council House, Indian Territory, 1880 enlarge image The dynamic ability of tribes to adapt to new environments is evident in William McLoughlin's After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty 1839-1880 (1993). Although the usual historical interpretation of the Trail of Tears has portrayed Indians as victims of federal policy, renewed attention to earlier scholarship such as Grant Foreman's works shows that Indians were making decisions to move west of the Mississippi long before the Removal Act. Those decisions may have some basis in traditions that they had originally lived west of the Mississippi. The historical tragedy and loss of homelands has been emphasized. The resilience of tribes and their ability to adapt to new environments needs to be stressed. In the larger scheme of American history, many tribal members were adapting to a new kind of economic system as were Americans generally. They faced the pressures of a market economy in which land was becoming a commodity to be bought and sold. The result was a historical experience that for contemporary tribal members joins traditional origin stories with accounts of the experiences of their ancestors in moving to and adapting to a new environment. Library of Congress Ardmore, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), settled by the Chickasaw in 1862; bird's eye map, 1891 (detail).    full navigable map "many tribal members were adapting to a new kind of economic system as were Americans generally" continued

Home — Essay Samples — History — History of the United States — Trail of Tears

Essays on Trail of Tears

Prompt examples for "trail of tears" essays, the historical context.

Examine the historical context surrounding the Trail of Tears. What events and policies led to the forced removal of Native American tribes, and how did it impact their lives and cultures?

The Cherokee Nation

Focus on the Cherokee Nation's experience during the Trail of Tears. How did the Cherokee people resist removal, and what were the consequences of their forced relocation to Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma)?

Human Rights and Injustice

Analyze the human rights violations and injustices committed during the Trail of Tears. How did the U.S. government's actions violate the rights of Native Americans, and what long-lasting effects did this have on Native communities?

Leadership and Resistance

Discuss the leadership and resistance efforts of Native American leaders during the forced removal. Who were the key figures, and what strategies did they employ to advocate for their people's rights and survival?

Cultural Preservation

Explore how Native American tribes worked to preserve their cultures, languages, and traditions despite the hardships of the Trail of Tears. What cultural elements endured, and how have they influenced Native communities today?

Legacy and Remembrance

Reflect on the legacy of the Trail of Tears and how it is remembered today. How has the event shaped discussions of Native American history, identity, and sovereignty?

Thesis Statement for Trail of Tears

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The Cherokee Trail of Tears: a Tragic Chapter in American History

Indian removal act and the trail of tears, the effects of the trail of tears on the relationship between the native americans and the settlers, a horror of trail of tears, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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A Latent Genocide: Historic Background of The Trail of Tears

Trail of tears: the greatest genocide in american history, my attitude to trail of tears event, the suppresion of native americans with indian removal act, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

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Trail of Tears: a Part of Cherokee Nation's History

History of the cherokee removal and the trail of tears, cavour and the unification of italy.

c. 1830 - 1840

Southeastern United States and Indian Territory

The Trail of Tears was part of a series of forced displacements during the 1830s of Eastern Woodlands Indians of the Southeast region of the United States to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.

White Americans often feared and resented the Native Americans they encountered. State governments joined the effort to drive Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Creek and Cherokee people out of the South.

In 1830, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which gave the federal government the power to exchange Native-held land for land to the west. President Jackson forced Native Americans to vacate lands they had lived on for generations. The Choctaw became the first nation to be expelled from its land altogether.

By 1838, only about 2,000 Cherokees had left their Georgia homeland for Indian Territory. About 7,000 soldiers were sent to expedite the Cherokee removal process. They marched more than 1,200 miles to Indian Territory and more than 5,000 Cherokee died as a result of the journey. The Trail of Tears is over 5,043 miles long.

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Trail Of Tears - Essay Examples And Topic Ideas For Free

The Trail of Tears refers to the forced relocation of Native American tribes in the 1830s, resulting in significant suffering and death. Essays could discuss the events leading up to the Trail of Tears, its impact on Native American communities, or its legacy in U.S. history. We’ve gathered an extensive assortment of free essay samples on the topic of Trail of Tears you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Trail of Tears: Indian Removal Act

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Research Paper #1 – the Trail of Tears

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Controversies Durong Andrew Jackson Presidency

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“Trail of Tears” : a Deadly Journey Across the Mississippi River

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Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears

On December 6th, 1830, President Andrew Jackson addressed the members of Congress regarding the Indian Removal Act. He began his speech: “It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed […]

The Treaty of Indian New Echota

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The Trail of Tears History

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Andrew Jackson – Presidency, Facts & Trail of Tears

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The Impact of Native American Relocation in the United States of America

During the 19th Century A Good Indian is a Dead Indian! This is how many white Americans felt in the 1800s when greed and racial prejudice forced the relocation of Native Americans. The Trail of Tears refers to the forceful relocation of the Native American communities from the South Eastern regions of the United States as a result of the Indian Removal Act in the year 1830. In the year 1838, the Cherokee community was forced to surrender its land […]

A Lifetime of Injustice for the Native Americans under American Colonization

In 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed, and President Andrew Jackson began negotiations to acquire native land and move the Indians to the west. From 1838 to 1839, Cherokee and Choctaw natives were forced to march 1,000 miles to present-day Oklahoma in what is called the Trail of Tears. While traveling, several thousand Native Americans died and many were mistreated. Since the start of American colonization, the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians, among other tribes, faced numerous hardships. Research demonstrates […]

The Plight of Seeking Rights, and Domestic Terrorism on U.S. Soil

According to the United States, domestic terrorism is defined as “activities that - involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the United States or of any State… to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping…”. The U.S. has not, however, ever explicitly admitted to utilizing terror on its own soil, but it has […]

Life Way of Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson lived in his home called “The Hermitage” in Tennessee. Some people believed that Andrew Jackson was the best President since the Founding Fathers. Jackson was a very controversial President. His opinion on Native American removal from their own lands and African American slaves is still controversial to this day.  Jackson’s parents immigrated to the Carolinas in the 1760’s from Ireland. Jackson never met his father. Andrew Jackson’s father died while his mother was pregnant with him. Jackson grew […]

Forgotten – the New World was not New

The New World was not new. It was inhabited by Native Americans of different Tribal Nations. Although Native Americans are often misinterpreted to have been savages, they were not. Native Americans were successful in agriculture, and some had their own governments. The first Natives that the Spaniards encountered were the Taino, found in the chain of Islands under the Florida peninsula. The establishment of the colonies was also started in Native American land. The genocides of the Taino people and […]

Andrew Jackson’s Role of Dueling

Dueling in the life of Andrew Jackson was based on honor. Honor was Jacksons trademark and what his mother had raised him to believe was most important to a man. He was known for his thin-skin and violent pride. Andrew Jackson challenged many people throughout history to duels based on petty grievances or things that he thought were outright slander to his character. Despite his thin-skin and prideful attitude, he had a code of honor that he was bound to abide. […]

Indian Removal Act of 1830

Well, speaking of the specifics of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 this law was passed by the United States Congress, and it was signed by President Andrew Jackson. From previous readings I saw that George Washington also had a strong input about Native Americans being a problem, and agreed with President Andrew Jackson to extract their land. George Washington wanted to civilize the Natives by changing their beliefs in life, and converting them over to Christianity. Therefore the Removal […]

The Seminole Tribe

Later in the 1830s, Jackson became the President of the United States, and he pushed through Congress the Indian Removal Act. This was to move Indians out of the Southeast and use the opened land for the settlers, also for the military enforcement policy to increase. This policy began in 1835 and those 7 years were tragic in US Indian history in the relations east of the Mississippi River. This was also known in history as the Second Seminole War. […]

History of Women’s Rights

Throughout history, women, Spanish-speaking peoples’ and American Indians have struggled for many years to obtain their rights as citizens and gain equality. They faced deeply entrenched prejudices against the involvement of these minorities in political life as they sought to claim their rights as citizens. Women, Spanish-speaking peoples’ and American Indians did not have many rights, their power as a citizen was limited, and they could not speak out against the problems they faced. In the 1900s, Women, Spanish speaking […]

Manifest Destiny and the Indian Removal Act

Indian Relocation The Indian Relocation was a removal of several Indian tribes known as the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, and Cherokee. The Indian Removal Act was passed by the Congress of the United States and signed by Andrew Jackson. Although meanwhile, the Indians were strongly against their decision to force them off their land, they made an attempt to prevent the act from affecting them. Unfortunately, the Congress was successful in forcing the Indians from their land to Oklahoma. As the […]

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72 Trail Of Tears Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best trail of tears topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 good essay topics on trail of tears, 🔎 simple & easy trail of tears essay titles, ❓ trail of tears research questions.

• Summary of “Trail of Tears” by John Ehle This analysis by John Ehle is about the rise and fall of the Cherokee nation resulting from the forced removal of the Cherokees who were Native Americans from their ancestral lands in Georgia to the […]
• Native Americans History: Trail of Tears Therefore, The Trail of Tears was a battle between the Europeans and Native Americans, often referred to as the American Holocaust because it completely outcast a group of people due to the fact they were […]
• Cherokee Removal: The Trail of Tears, 1833-1839 Thus, I should state that the Cherokees had many reasons to discuss the forced relocation as the ‘Trail of Tears’ because they suffered significantly and saw a lot of deaths during the journey.
• Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation However, the primary advantage of the book is that it presents a different perspective and casts light on some facts of relationships between Native and White Americans that people, whether intentionally or not, tend to […]
• The Keys of Territorial Expansion: The Trail of Tears The parties opposing the removal were advancing their arguments around the following points; one of them is that the US should implement policies that were applicable to the cases of the affected and that they […]
• The Trail of Tears: Historical Overview The trail of tears was a term that was used to refer to the forced movement and the relocation of these native Indians tribes.
• America’s Early National Disgrace, the Trail of Tears of 1838
• Andrew Jackson and the Elimination of the Cherokee Indians in the Trail of Tears
• Book Review “Trail of Tears”: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation
• Cherokee Native American Indians and the Trail of Tears
• The Injustices and Inhumanity in the Trail of Tears
• Cherokee Population Losses During Trail of Tears
• The Original Race Discrimination in America of the Trail of Tears
• Cherokee Tribe Before and After Trail of Tears
• Comparing the Middle Passage to the Trail of Tears
• Historical Background and Review of the “Trail of Tears”
• Life With the Ojibwa: A Modern Day Trail of Tears
• Starvation, Illness, and Death of the Native Americans in Trail of Tears
• The Five Civilized Tribes and the “Trail of Tears”
• The Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears
• The Misguided Policy That Put the Cherokee Indians on the Trail of Tears
• The U. S. Oppression of the Native Americans on the Trail of Tears
• Voices From the “Trail of Tears” by Vicki Rozema
• Western Expansion and the Trail of Tears
• The Sufferings of the Native Americans During the Trail of Tears
• An Argument in Favor of the Trail of Tears
• The Trail of Tears and the Long Walk of the Navajo
• The History of the Genocide in the Trail of Tears
• Historical Background of the Trail of Tears
• The Trail of Tears: Event That Changed the Native Americans
• Trail of Tears: A Part of Cherokee Nation’s History
• Causes of the Trail of Tears
• The Pros and Cons of the Trail of Tears
• Cherokee Women in Crisis: Trail of Tears, Civil War, and Allotment
• Cherokee Trail of Tears: One of the Removals of Eastern Tribes to Oklahoma
• History of the Cherokee Removal and the Trail of Tears
• Trail of Tears: Definition, Date, and Cherokee Nation
• The Policy of Doom That Led to the Trail of Tears
• The Effects on Native Americans of the Trail of Tears
• Stories of the Trail of Tears in Oklahoma History
• Facts and Significance of the Trail of Tears
• The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation
• The Indian Removal Act and Its Effect on the Trail of Tears
• Supreme Court Decision of the Trail of Tears
• In What Order Did the Five Civilized Tribes Make the Trail of Tears
• Affect the Trail of Tears on the Cherokee Nation
• What Lesson Can Be Learned from the Trail of Tears?
• How Did the Indian Removal Act Affect Native American Culture?
• Why Were Native Americans Forced on the Trail of Tears?
• How Did the Trail of Tears Affect the Future?
• What Diseases Did the Trail of Tears Bring?
• How Did the Trail of Tears Destroy Native American Culture?
• What Was the Social Impact of the Trail of Tears?
• How Did the Trail of Tears Change American History?
• Was the Trail of Tears an Example of the Indian Removal Policy Implemented by the United States Government During Jackson’s Time?
• How Is the Trail of Tears Remembered Today?
• What Misguided Policies Led the Cherokee Indians Through Hell on the Trail of Tears?
• How Was the Cherokee Involved in the Trail of Tears?
• What Is the Native American History of the Trail of Tears?
• Why Did the United States Oppress Native Americans on the Trail of Tears?
• How Did the Soldiers Treat the Indians During the Trail of Tears?
• What Supreme Court Decision and Jackson’s Response Led to the Trail of Tears?
• How Did the Trail of Tears Affect History?
• Which Tribe Lost the Most People During the Trail of Tears?
• How Did the Trail of Tears and the Indian Removal Act Affect Westward Expansion?
• What Were the Main Causes of Death on the Trail of Tears?
• Has Anyone Tried to Stop the Trail of Tears?
• Why Is the Trail of Tears Called a National Tragedy?
• What Is the Significance of the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears?
• How Did the Trail of Tears End?
• What Happened to the Natives After the Trail of Tears?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Stormy Daniels Delivers Intense Testimony in Trump’s Trial: 6 Takeaways

A long day on the stand put Ms. Daniels’s credibility to the test as defense lawyers challenged her motives.

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By Kate Christobek and Jesse McKinley

• Published May 7, 2024 Updated May 14, 2024, 8:37 a.m. ET

Follow our live coverage of Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan.

“The people call Stormy Daniels.”

So began the intense and often uncomfortable testimony of Ms. Daniels, who spent almost five hours in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday recounting her story of a 2006 encounter with Donald J. Trump and the ensuing hush-money cover-up that has become the bedrock of the prosecution’s case.

Ms. Daniels spoke quickly and at length about her first meeting with Mr. Trump at a celebrity golf tournament near Lake Tahoe in Nevada.

After the lunch break, Mr. Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche moved for a mistrial, arguing that the prosecution’s questions had been designed to embarrass Mr. Trump and prejudice the jury.

The judge, Justice Juan M. Merchan of State Supreme Court, agreed that some of Ms. Daniels’s testimony might have “been better left unsaid,” but he denied a mistrial.

The former president is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to Ms. Daniels just before the 2016 election. Mr. Trump, 77, has denied the charges and says he did not have sex with Ms. Daniels. If convicted, he could face prison time or probation.

Here are six takeaways from Mr. Trump’s 13th day on trial.

Prosecutors took a risk with their witness.

Jurors heard a vivid account of the Lake Tahoe encounter and met the woman who had received the hush-money payment. This could have presented a risk for prosecutors, depending on whether the jury viewed Ms. Daniels’s story as prurient or powerful.

Ms. Daniels described meeting Mr. Trump at the golf event and accepting his dinner invitation after her publicist said, “What could possibly go wrong?”

She recalled that Mr. Trump had been wearing pajamas when she met him at his hotel suite and that she asked him to change. They discussed the porn industry, and he asked about residuals, unions and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, she said.

She said they had talked about his family, including his daughter, whom he likened to Ms. Daniels — “People underestimate her as well,” Ms. Daniels recalled him as saying. They also discussed his wife; Mr. Trump said they did not “even sleep in the same room.” He suggested that Ms. Daniels might appear on “The Apprentice.”

When she later emerged from the bathroom, Ms. Daniels found Mr. Trump partially undressed, she said. The sex was consensual, she said, but there was a power “imbalance.”

The Links Between Trump and 3 Hush-Money Deals

Here’s how key figures involved in making hush-money payoffs on behalf of Donald J. Trump are connected.

Trump received another warning.

Justice Merchan has already held the former president in contempt 10 times, fined him $10,000 and twice threatened to send him to jail. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump again drew the judge’s ire after Justice Merchan said he had been “cursing audibly” and “shaking his head.”

The judge asked Mr. Trump’s lawyers privately to talk to their client, saying Mr. Trump’s actions might intimidate the witness, Ms. Daniels.

“You need to speak to him,” the judge said. “I won’t tolerate that.”

The motive for the payoff is a point of contention.

Prosecutors asked Ms. Daniels about a 2018 statement in which she denied the sexual encounter. Ms. Daniels said she had not wanted to sign it and that it was not true.

Defense lawyers, capitalizing on what they seem to perceive as Ms. Daniels’s shortcomings as a witness, came out blazing. One of them, Susan Necheles, implied in her cross-examination that Ms. Daniels was trying to “extort money” from Mr. Trump.

Ms. Daniels replied sharply, “False.”

Daniels’s story bothers Trump.

Before court even started Tuesday morning, Trump telegraphed his frustration with Ms. Daniels in an angry post on Truth Social, saying he had just learned about a coming witness and that his lawyers had “no time” to prepare. The post was removed shortly thereafter, possibly because of concerns over violating the gag order.

Mr. Trump, who has spent much of the trial with his eyes closed, remained attentive for part of the day, often with a sour expression on his face. He continually whispered to his lawyers and at one point mouthed an expletive.

But by the afternoon, he had returned to his habit of closing his eyes, even during a combative cross-examination.

Daniels’s credibility is a hurdle for prosecutors.

Ms. Daniels’s motivations are a major focus of the defense. In a sharp moment, Ms. Necheles confronted her about what Ms. Necheles described as her hatred of the former president and asked whether she wanted him to go to jail. Ms. Daniels responded, “I want him to be held accountable.”

Ms. Necheles also asked Ms. Daniels about making money by claiming to have had sex with Mr. Trump. Ms. Daniels responded, “I have been making money by telling my story,” and later added, “It has also cost me a lot of money.”

Who Are Key Players in the Trump Manhattan Criminal Trial?

The first criminal trial of former President Donald J. Trump is underway. Take a closer look at central figures related to the case.

Trump’s words haunt him.

Prosecutors have tried several times to use Mr. Trump’s prior statements against him.

Before Ms. Daniels testified Tuesday, a witness read aloud passages from books by Mr. Trump. Some spoke to his frugality. Others spoke to his penchant for revenge.

“For many years I’ve said that if someone screws you, screw them back,” the witness read. The passage continued, “When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can.”

Not long after, one of his enemies — Ms. Daniels — took the stand. Her cross-examination resumes on Thursday.

Kate Christobek is a reporter covering the civil and criminal cases against former president Donald J. Trump for The Times. More about Kate Christobek

Jesse McKinley is a Times reporter covering upstate New York, courts and politics. More about Jesse McKinley

Our Coverage of the Trump Hush-Money Trial

News and Analysis

On the first day of his testimony , Michael Cohen, the one-time fixer for Donald Trump and the star witness at his trial , discussed how Trump urged him to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels  late in the 2016 campaign.

Trump’s trial has become a staging ground  for Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson  and Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio , to prove their fealty to the former president.

With no cameras recording Trump’s trial, cable news anchors and producers are improvising to animate dramatic moments  like Cohen’s testimony.

More on Trump’s Legal Troubles

Key Inquiries: Trump faces several investigations  at both the state and the federal levels, into matters related to his business and political careers.

Case Tracker:  Keep track of the developments in the criminal cases  involving the former president.

What if Trump Is Convicted?: Could he go to prison ? And will any of the proceedings hinder Trump’s presidential campaign? Here is what we know , and what we don’t know .

Trump on Trial Newsletter: Sign up here  to get the latest news and analysis  on the cases in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.