5.4Removal and the Trail of Tears

Jacksonian democracy's promise did not extend to Native Americans. Under Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act (1830), authorizing the forced relocation of southeastern nations to lands west of the Mississippi to open their territory for white settlement and cotton.

The Cherokee fought removal in court and won a favorable Supreme Court ruling, which Jackson's administration simply ignored. In 1838–1839, the U.S. Army drove thousands of Cherokee westward on the brutal Trail of Tears, on which thousands died of cold, hunger, and disease. Removal exposed the harsh limits of a democracy defined by race, expanding rights for white men while dispossessing others.