
Was the Trail of Tears accurately represented?
The truth is, in todays day and age, Jackson is still condemned for being a "good" president. I mean, he is still on the $20 dollar bill used by everyone. Jackson was a slave owner, extremely racist, and not a hero for anyone who knows what he did. Then why is he still on the twenty dollar bill? This raises many questions but ultimately stems down to the United States government. Jackson removed the Native Americans off their land, to have more land for slavery. Jackson had even made it known in his presidency how much he disliked Native Americans, and spoke out in private and public. Although blurry, there are some Primary Sources below. Some documents are Jackson speaking out to the Cherokee tribes, others are Jackson speaking to congress, and the other ones are Cherokee tribes speaking back on the limitations they went through. Although there are memorials today for the Trail of Tears, Jackson is still deemed as a "heroic" president to some people in history. Below is the national website for the Trail of Tears memorial. Please click if you wish to see.
"Build a fire under them, and when it gets hot enough, they'll move." - Andrew Jackson
"The tribes which occupied the countries now constituting the Eastern States were annihilated or have melted away to make room for the whites." - Andrew Jackson (speech on congress concerning Indian removal)
"After a harassing warfare, prolonged by the nature of the country and by the difficulty of procuring subsistence, the Indians were entirely defeated, and the disaffected band dispersed or destroyed. The result has been creditable to the troops engaged in the service. Severe as is the lesson to the Indians, it was rendered necessary by their unprovoked aggressions, and it is to be hoped that its impression will be permanent and salutary." -Andrew Jackson (December 4th, 1832, Forth Message to Congress)



