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Follow Lewis and Clark as they explore the U.S. interior and meet more than 50 Native nations!

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What is now regarded as one of the greatest real estate deals in history, the Louisiana Purchase, occurred in 1803. Led by Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States, the deal saw the addition of approximately 828,000 square miles of land, effectively doubling the size of the United States overnight. Check out this free one-sheet that clearly outlines the territory that was acquired, and sheds some background on this historic event.

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Infographic: The Louisiana Purchase - Kids Discover

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What is now regarded as one of the greatest real estate deals in history, the Louisiana Purchase, occurred in 1803. Led by Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States, the deal saw the addition of approximately 828,000 square miles of land, effectively doubling the size of the United States overnight.

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Westward Expansion

Pony Express Rider
by Frank E. Webner

History >> Westward Expansion
The Pony Express was a mail delivery service that ran between Missouri and California. Using the Pony Express, mail could arrive in California in as few as 9 days rather than the weeks it took to arrive when sent by horse carriage.

How did it work?

The Pony Express used a planned out route with a number of stations along the way. Riders would carry the mail from station to station, switching to fresh horses at each station. Every hundred or so miles the rider would be replaced. This allowed the mail to be constantly moving at a good speed.

The Route

The route used by the Pony Express went from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. There were 184 stations along the 1,900 mile route. It followed the Oregon Trail for a ways, and then used the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City. The trail traveled over the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and finally to California.

Pony Express Route
from the National Park Service

The Riders
The riders of the Pony Express made $100 a month, which was pretty good money for the time. They worked hard, riding in bad weather, rough terrain, and in dangerous situations. In order to keep the weight down that the horses had to carry, the riders had to weigh less than 125 pounds. A lot of the riders were young, tough, skinny, teenagers who were willing to face the dangers of the ride for the excitement of the job and the money they could earn.

When did the Pony Express run?

The Pony Express was a business. Despite its place in American history, it didn't stay open very long. It opened on April 3, 1860 and closed on October 24, 1861. At the height of its business it had over 400 horses and around 180 riders.

Pony Express Poster
by Unknown

Why did it end?

The Pony Express was forced to close after the opening of the transcontinental telegraph. Telegraphs could be sent much faster and with less expense. In the end, the business venture that was the Pony Express lost a lot of money and became outdated fairly quickly.

Interesting Facts about the Pony Express

The first riders left from Sacramento and St. Joseph on April 3, 1860. They each arrived around 10 days later.

In the winter, the trip generally took around two days longer than in the summer.

The most famous of the Pony Express riders was Buffalo Bill who earned fame putting on Wild West shows.

The initial cost to send a ½ ounce letter was $5. That was a lot of money back in 1860. Prices were lowered to $1 for a ½ ounce letter by the end of the Pony Express.

Only one rider and one shipment of mail were lost during the running of the Pony Express.

Riders would travel 75 to 100 miles a day, switching horses every 10 to 12 miles.

The fastest delivery in the history of the Pony Express was seven days and seventeen hours. It was to deliver President Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address.

The Pony Express was started by William H. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors.

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History >> Westward Expansion

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Kids learn about the Pony Express from the Old West. Riders would swap horses at stations to deliver the mail faster to and from California.

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Schoolhouse Rock - Elbow Room- Manifest Destiny

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First Transcontinental Railroad
History >>Westward Expansion

The First Transcontinental Railroad stretched from the East Coast of the United States to the West Coast. No longer would people travel in long wagon trains that took months to reachCalifornia. They could now travel faster, safer, and cheaper by train. In addition to people, things like mail, supplies, and trade goods could now be shipped across the country in just a few days. The railroad was built between 1863 and 1869.

Background

The first talk of a transcontinental railroad started around 1830. One of the first promoters of the railroad was a merchant named Asa Whitney. Asa tried hard for many years to get Congress to pass an act to build the railroad, but failed. However, in the 1860s Theodore Judah began to lobby for a railroad. He surveyed the Sierra Nevada Mountains and found a pass where the railroad could be built.

The Route

There were two main routes along which people wanted the first railroad to be built.

One route was called the "central route". It followed much the same route as the Oregon Trail. It would begin in Omaha, Nebraska and end up in Sacramento, California.

The other route was the "southern route". This route would stretch across Texas, New Mexico, and end up in Los Angeles, California.

The central route was eventually chosen by Congress.

Route of the First Transcontinental Railroad by Unknown

Pacific Railroad Act

In 1862President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law. The act said that there were two main railroad lines. The Central Pacific Railroad would come from California and the Union Pacific Railroad would come from the Midwest. The two railroads would meet somewhere in the middle.

The act gave the railroad companies land where they could build the railroad. It also paid them for each mile that they built. They were paid more money for miles of track built in themountains versus miles of track built on the flat plains.

Building the Railroad

Across the Continent
by Joseph Becker

Building the railroad was tough, hard work. Weather conditions were especially tough in the mountains during the winter. A lot of times the only way to travel over the mountains was to go through the mountains by blasting a tunnel. The Central Pacific Railroad had to blast a number of tunnels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The longest tunnel built was 1659 feet long. It took a long time to build the tunnels. They were able to blast around 1 foot per day on average.

While the Central Pacific Railroad had to deal with mountains and snow, the Union Pacific Railroad had to deal withNative Americans. As the Native Americans came to realize the threat to their way of life that the "Iron Horse" was going to bring, they began to raid the railroad work sites. Also, a lot of the land that was "granted" to the railroad by the government was actually Native American land.

The Workers

The majority of the workers on the Union Pacific Railroad were Irish laborers, many who had served in both the Union and the Confederate armies. In Utah, a lot of the track was built by Mormon workers. Most of the Central Pacific Railroad was built by Chinese immigrants.

The Golden Spike

The two railroads finally met at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869. Leland Stanford, governor of California and president of the Central Pacific Railroad, drove in the last spike. This final spike was called the "Golden Spike" or "The Final Spike". You can see it today at Stanford University in California.

Driving the Golden Spike on 10th May, 1869
by American School

Interesting Facts about the First Transcontinental Railroad

The Pony Express traveled a similar route to the central route and helped to prove that the route was passable in winter.

The transcontinental railroad was also called the Pacific Railroad and the Overland Route.

The total length of the First Transcontinental Railroad was 1,776 miles.

The Central Pacific Railroad was controlled by four men called the "Big Four". They were Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker.

It was later, in November of 1869, when the Central Pacific connected San Francisco to Sacramento.

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History >>Westward Expansion

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History >>Westward Expansion The First Transcontinental Railroad stretched from the East Coast of the United States to the West Coast. No longer would people travel in long wagon trains that took months to reachCalifornia. They could now travel faster, safer, and cheaper by train.

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This one is kind of intense.  read lyrics first

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This one is kind of intense.  read lyrics first

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Indian Removal - Social Studies - Manifest Destiny - Flocabulary

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Teach or review Indian Removal with Flocabulary’s educational rap video and lesson plan.

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Find a summary, definition and facts about the Oregon Trail for kids. Map of the Oregon Trail and its landmarks. Dangers and hardships along the Oregon Trail for kids, children, homework and schools.

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https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/9-gold-rush/

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Kids learn about the Louisiana Purchase. When President Thomas Jefferson bought land west of the Mississippi from the French.

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Westward Expansion Map
The Westward Expansion Map details the dates and the historical treaties made by the United States of America that increased the nation's lands and made Westward Expansion possible.

When did Westward Expansion begin?
Westward Expansion began with the settlement of the first 13 colonies in the East. The 1783 Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783 and ended the American Revolutionary War and established the early U.S. boundaries.

When did Westward Expansion end?
Westward Expansion ended on February 14, 1912 when Arizona was admitted to the Union as the last of the 48 contiguous (adjoining) states. The admittance of Arizona to the Union completed the process of conquering, establishing and organizing the American West.

Who was involved in the Westward Expansion? It could be said that between 1783-1912 all of the people of America were involved in the Westward Expansion of the United States. Westward Expansion was led by all of the Presidents of the United States during this period. Treaties were enacted by the politicians and the diplomats. The wars were waged by the military and U.S. citizens. Henry Clay introduced the "
American System" that included a subsidized transportation infrastructure of new roads and canals. The inventors during the period of the Industrial Revolution made new transportation systems such as the railroads possible. Entrepreneurs invested in the systems. But it was the people of America who built the systems making it possible for Westward Expansion to become viable and help the pioneers and settlers to head west and build new lives in new lands.

Reasons for Westward Expansion
Why was westward expansion important and what were the reasons for Westward Expansion? There was a whole continent to explore that offered a range of different climates, geographical features, vegetation, animals and raw materials. The potential of the new resources and the massive areas of land were waiting for American settlers to discover, some land was almost free. Westward Expansion offered people the opportunity to find new homes and work, to experience adventure, to explore possibilities, to become rich, to find gold or silver, to escape from the constraints of civilization and to make a new start. In other words Westward Expansion enabled people to live the 'American Dream'. Americans were motivated to move west for a whole variety of practical reasons but they were inspired by the belief that the Manifest Destiny of the United States was God's will.

Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny for kids notion of the "
The Manifest Destiny" of the United States was that the occupation the whole continent of North America, was a divine right of the American people. Manifest Destiny was based on the belief of cultural and racial superiority over other nations and the obligation to bring enlightenment and civilization to other races like the Native American Indians. The belief in the Manifest Destiny of the United States justified the darker side of Westward Expansion.

Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny
The picture on your right is of a painting depicting Westward Expansion and the concept of Manifest Destiny. It was painted in 1872 by John Gast (1842-1893) and called American Progress "Spirit of the Frontier". The painting depicts American people moving west, using different types of transport guided and protected by the goddess Columbia, as a symbol of America, holding the book of knowledge and enlightenment. The painting provides a graphic representation of Westward Expansion combined with the concept of Manifest Destiny. Look carefully and you will see people including Native American Indians, pioneers, settlers, prospectors and farmers. The history and progress of transport systems by foot, horse, covered wagon, stagecoach, canal steamboats and the railroad. Communication systems are represented by a Pony Express rider and telegraph wires.

Westward Expansion and Westward Expansion Timeline and Facts for kids Interesting Westward Expansion Facts and Timeline for kids are detailed below together with details of important events in Westward expansion. The history of Westward Expansion of the United States is told in a factual timeline sequence consisting of a series of short facts providing a simple method of relating the relevant, significant events that lead to the Westward Expansion of the United States of America. All of the events are explained with access to additional articles containing detailed facts and information about each of these important historical events that aided Westward Expansion in the United States.

Westward Expansion Timeline and Facts for kids

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 2: 1800 - Cities and Travel - The towns and cities increased and methods of transport included the stagecoach

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 6: 1811 - The Cumberland Road - The Construction of the Cumberland Road began in Maryland and stretched 600 miles into the Northwest Territory.

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 7: 1812 - Turnpikes(Toll Roads) - The era of road building introduced the system of Turnpikes (Toll Roads)

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 25: 1845 - Manifest Destiny - 1845: John O'Sullivan initiates the phrase 'Manifest Destiny'

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 27: 1846 - Bear Flag Revolt - The Bear Flag Revolt against Mexico in Alta California

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 30: 1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo by which Mexico ceded Upper California and New Mexico to the United States that covered 525,000 square miles for a payment of $15,000,000

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 30: 1869 - Transcontinental Railroad - The Transcontinental Railroad was completed joining the eastern and western parts of the United States

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 31: 1872 - Manifest Destiny Painting - The Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion Painting called American Progress "Spirit of the Frontier" was painted by John Gast

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 32: 1879 - The Exodusters - The Exodusters and the mass migration of African Americans to Kansas

Westward Expansion Timeline Fact 33: 1898 - Annexation of Hawaii - Queen Liliuokalani was deposed leading to the Annexation of Hawaii.

Westward Expansion and Westward Expansion Timeline and Facts for kids

Westward Expansion for kids - President James K Polk Video
The article on the Westward Expansion for kids provides an overview of one of the Important ideas of his presidential term in office. The following James K Polk video will give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the 11th American President whose presidency spanned from March 4, 1845 to March 4, 1849.

Westward Expansion

● Facts and Manifest timeline for kids and schools
● Definition of the Westward Expansion in US history
● Facts about the Westward Expansion Timeline
● James K Polk Presidency from March 4, 1845 to March 4, 1849
● Fast, fun, Westward Expansion about Important events in his presidency
● Westward Expansion Painting and Timeline
● James K Polk Presidency and the Westward Expansion timeline for schools, homework, kids and children

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Find a summary, definition and facts about the Westward Expansion timeline for kids. Westward Expansion Timeline, Map and Facts. Facts via the Westward Expansion timeline for kids, children, homework and schools.

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central union pacific transcontinental railroad

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The Great Railroad Race - Transcontinental Railroad Interactive Railroad Project

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Elementary Education Simulation Game teaching the history of the first transcontinental railroad, 1863-1869. Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum.

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Westward Expansion

Go here to watch a video about the Oregon Trail.

History >> Westward Expansion

The Oregon Trail was a major route that people took when migrating to the western part of the United States. Between 1841 and 1869, hundreds of thousands of people traveled westward on the trail. Many of them traveled in large wagon trains using covered wagons to carry their belongings.

The Route

The Oregon Trail began in Independence, Missouri and ended in Oregon City, Oregon. It stretched for around 2,000 miles and through six different states including Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. Along the way, travelers had to cross all sorts of rough terrain such as the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Oregon Trail Route by Unknown
Click picture for larger view

Covered Wagons
The main vehicle used to carry the pioneer's belongings was the covered wagon. Sometimes these wagons were called "Prairie Schooners", because they were like boats going over the vast prairies of the west. The wagons were made of wood with iron around the wheels like tires. The covers were made from waterproofed cotton or linen canvas. The typical covered wagon was about 10 feet long and four feet wide.

Most of the settlers used oxen to pull their wagons. The oxen were slow, but steady. Sometimes mules were used as well. A fully loaded wagon could weigh as much as 2,500 pounds. A lot of the time the pioneers walked alongside the wagons. Traveling wasn't too bad with the wagons on the flat terrain of the prairies, but once the settlers reached the Rocky Mountains, getting the wagons up and down steep trails was very difficult.

Dangers

Traveling the Oregon Trail in the 1800s was a dangerous journey. However, the danger wasn't from Native Americans as you might think. As a matter of fact, many records show that Native Americans helped many of the travelers along the way. The real danger was from a disease called cholera that killed many settlers. Other dangers included bad weather and accidents while trying to move their heavy wagons over the mountains.

Conestoga wagon on Oregon Trail
from the National Archives

Supplies
The pioneers were able to bring very little with them. When they left their homes in the east, they had to leave most of their belongings. The covered wagon was mostly filled with food. It took over a 1,000 pounds of food to feed a family of four on the trip out west. They took preserved foods such as hard tack, coffee, bacon, rice, beans, and flour. They also took a few basic cooking utensils such as a coffee pot, some buckets, and an iron skillet.

The pioneers didn't have room for a lot of fancy items. They only had room to pack two or three sets of tough clothing. They packed candles for lighting and a rifle to hunt with along the way. Other items included tents, bedding, and basic tools such as an axe and a shovel.

Other Trails

Although the Oregon Trail was the most used wagon trail, there were other trails that led out west. Some of them branched off the Oregon Trail like the California Trail which left the Oregon Trail in Idaho and headed south to California. There was also the Mormon Trail which went from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Interesting Facts about the Oregon Trail

In 1849, a guide was published describing the overland journey to California.

There were reports of the trail being littered with items that people cast off along the way. These included books, stoves, trunks and other heavy items.

It took about five months for a wagon train to make the journey.

The first major migration took place in 1843 when a single large wagon train of 120 wagons and 500 people made the trip.

The trail was popular until the transcontinental railroad connected the east to the west in 1869.

In 1978, the U.S. Congress officially named the trail the Oregon National Historic Trail. Although much of the trail has been built over through the years, around 300 miles of it has been preserved and you can still see the ruts made from the wagon wheels.

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History >> Westward Expansion

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Learn about the Oregon Trail from the Old West. A roadway used by pioneers in covered wagons to travel west.

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America's reading comprehension crisis.

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Timeline

History >> Westward Expansion
1767: Daniel Boone explores Kentucky for the first time.

1803: Louisiana Purchase - President Thomas Jefferson buys the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. This doubles the size of the United States and provides a large area to the west of the country for expansion.

1805: Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean - Explorers Lewis and Clark map out areas of the Louisiana Purchase and eventually reach the Pacific Ocean.

1830: Indian Removal Act - Congress passes a law to move Native Americans from the Southeast to the west of the Mississippi River.

1836: Battle of the Alamo - Mexican troops attack the Alamo Mission killing all but two Texans. This spurs the Texans on in the Texas Revolution.

1838: Trail of Tears - The Cherokee Nation is forced to march from the east coast to Oklahoma. Many thousands die along the way.

1841: Oregon Trail - People begin to travel west in wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. Around 300,000 people would take the trail over the next 20 years.

1845: Manifest Destiny - Journalist John O'Sullivan first uses the term "Manifest Destiny" to describe the westward expansion of the United States.

1845: Texas becomes a U.S. State - The United States officially claims Texas as a state, eventually leading to the Mexican-American War.

1846: Brigham Young leads 5,000 Mormons to Utah - After experiencing religious persecution, the Mormons move to Salt Lake City, Utah.

1846-1848: The Mexican-American War - A war fought over the rights to Texas. After the war, the United States paid Mexico $15 million for land that would later become California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of several other states.

1846: Oregon Treaty - England signs the Oregon Treaty handing over the Oregon Territory to the United States.

1848: Gold Rush begins - James Marshall discovers gold at Sutter's Mill. Soon word is out and people rush to California to strike it rich.

1849: Around 90,000 "Forty-niners" move to California to find gold.

1860: The Pony Express begins to deliver mail.

1861: The First Transcontinental Telegraph line is finished. The Pony Express shuts down.

1862: Pacific Railroad Act - The United States government agrees to help fund a railroad from California to Missouri.

1862: Homestead Act - The U.S. government offers up free land to farmers who agree to live on the land for five years and make improvements to the land. Many people rush to places like Oklahoma to claim their land.

1869: The Transcontinental Railroad is completed - The Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroads meet at Promontory, Utah and the railroad is completed.

1872: Yellowstone National Park is dedicated as the nation's first national park by President Ulysses S. Grant.

1874: Black Hills Gold - Gold is discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

1874: Barbed wire invented - Ranchers can now use barbed wire fences to keep their cattle from ranging free.

1876: Wild Bill Hickok is shot and killed while playing poker in Deadwood, South Dakota.

1876: Battle of Little Bighorn - An American Indian army composed of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapahoe defeat General Custer and the 7th Calvary.

1890: The U.S. Government announces that the Western lands have been explored.
Works Cited
History >> Westward Expansion

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Kids learn the timeline of Westward Expansion of the United States. Pioneers and settlers moved west of the Mississippi all the way to California.

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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Oregon Trail, The : MECC : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

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The Oregon Trail is a series of strategy computer games. The first game was originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971...

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At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida-land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. But by the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States. Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians' land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk hundreds of miles to a specially designated "Indian Territory" across the Mississippi River. This difficult and oftentimes deadly journey is known as the Trail of Tears.
WATCH: Native American History Documentaries on HISTORY Vault
The 'Indian Problem'

White Americans, particularly those who lived on the western frontier, often feared and resented the Native Americans they encountered: To them, American Indians seemed to be an unfamiliar, alien people who occupied land that white settlers wanted (and believed they deserved).

Some officials in the early years of the American republic, such as President George Washington, believed that the best way to solve this "Indian problem" was to simply "civilize" the Native Americans. The goal of this civilization campaign was to make Native Americans as much like white Americans as possible by encouraging them convert to Christianity, learn to speak and read English and adopt European-style economic practices such as the individual ownership of land and other property (including, in some instances in the South, enslaved persons).

In the southeastern United States, many Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Creek and Cherokee people embraced these customs and became known as the "Five Civilized Tribes."

Did you know? Indian removal took place in the Northern states as well. In Illinois and Wisconsin, for example, the bloody Black Hawk War in 1832 opened to white settlement millions of acres of land that had belonged to the Sauk, Fox and other native nations.

But the Native Americans' land, located in parts of Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee, was valuable, and it grew to be more coveted as white settlers flooded the region. Many of these whites yearned to make their fortunes by growing cotton, and often resorted to violent means to take land from their Indigenous neighbors. They stole livestock; burned and looted houses and towns; committed mass murder; and squatted on land that did not belong to them.

Worcester v. Georgia

State governments joined in this effort to drive Native Americans out of the South. Several states passed laws limiting Native American sovereignty and rights and encroaching on their territory.

In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the U.S. Supreme Court objected to these practices and affirmed that native nations were sovereign nations "in which the laws of Georgia [and other states] can have no force."

Even so, the maltreatment continued. As President Andrew Jackson noted in 1832, if no one intended to enforce the Supreme Court's rulings (which he certainly did not), then the decisions would "[fall]...still born." Southern states were determined to take ownership of Indian lands and would go to great lengths to secure this territory.

Indian Removal Act

Andrew Jackson had long been an advocate of what he called "Indian removal." As an Army general, he had spent years leading brutal campaigns against the Creeks in Georgia and Alabama and the Seminoles in Florida-campaigns that resulted in the transfer of hundreds of thousands of acres of land from Indian nations to white farmers.

As president, he continued this crusade. In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which gave the federal government the power to exchange Native-held land in the cotton kingdom east of the Mississippi for land to the west, in the "Indian colonization zone" that the United States had acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase. This "Indian territory" was located in present-day Oklahoma.

The law required the government to negotiate removal treaties fairly, voluntarily and peacefully: It did not permit the president or anyone else to coerce Native nations into giving up their ancestral lands. However, President Jackson and his government frequently ignored the letter of the law and forced Native Americans to vacate lands they had lived on for generations.

Trail of Tears

In the winter of 1831, under threat of invasion by the U.S. Army, the Choctaw became the first nation to be expelled from its land altogether. They made the journey to Indian Territory on foot (some "bound in chains and marched double file," one historian writes), and without any food, supplies or other help from the government.

Thousands of people died along the way. It was, one Choctaw leader told an Alabama newspaper, a "trail of tears and death."

The Indian-removal process continued. In 1836, the federal government drove the Creeks from their land for the last time: 3,500 of the 15,000 Creeks who set out for Oklahoma did not survive the trip.
READ MORE: How Native Americans Struggled to Survive on the Trail of Tears
Treaty of New Echota

The Cherokee people were divided: What was the best way to handle the government's determination to get its hands on their territory? Some wanted to stay and fight. Others thought it was more pragmatic to agree to leave in exchange for money and other concessions.

In 1835, a few self-appointed representatives of the Cherokee nation negotiated the Treaty of New Echota, which traded all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi - roughly 7 million acres - for $5 million, relocation assistance and compensation for lost property.

To the federal government, the treaty (signed in New Echota, Georgia) was a done deal, but a majority of the Cherokee felt betrayed. Importantly, the negotiators did not represent the tribal government or anyone else. Most Cherokee people considered the Treaty of New Echota fraudulent, and the Cherokee National Council voted in 1836 to reject it.

John Ross

"The instrument in question is not the act of our nation," wrote the nation's principal chief, John Ross, in a letter to the U.S. Senate protesting the Treaty of New Echota. "We are not parties to its covenants; it has not received the sanction of our people." Nearly 16,000 Cherokees signed Ross's petition, but Congress approved the treaty anyway.

By 1838, only about 2,000 Cherokees had left their Georgia homeland for Indian Territory. President Martin Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott and 7,000 soldiers to expedite the removal process. Scott and his troops forced the Cherokee into stockades at bayonet point while his men looted their homes and belongings.

Then, they marched the Indians more than 1,200 miles to Indian Territory. Whooping cough, typhus, dysentery, cholera and starvation were epidemic along the way. Historians estimate that more than 5,000 Cherokee died as a result of the journey.

Legacy of the Trail of Tears

By 1840, tens of thousands of Native Americans had been driven off of their land in the southeastern states and forced to move across the Mississippi to Indian Territory. The federal government promised that their new land would remain unmolested forever, but as the line of white settlement pushed westward, "Indian Country" shrank and shrank. In 1907, Oklahoma became a state and Indian Territory was considered lost.

A 2020 decision by the Supreme Court, however, highlighted ongoing interest in Native American territorial rights. In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that a huge area of Oklahoma is still considered an American Indian reservation.

This decision left the state of Oklahoma unable to prosecute Native Americans accused of crimes on those tribal lands - only federal and tribal law enforcement can prosecute such crimes. (A later 2022 Supreme Court decision rolled back some provisions of the 2020 court finding.)

The Trail of Tears - actually a network of different routes - is over 5,000 miles long and covers nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Today, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail is run by the National Park Service and portions of it are accessible on foot, by horse, by bicycle or by car.

Sources

Trail of Tears. NPS.gov.
Trail of Tears. Museum of the Cherokee Indian.
The Treaty of New Echota and the Trail of Tears. North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
The Treaty That Forced the Cherokee People from Their Homelands Goes on View. Smithsonian Magazine.
Justices rule swath of Oklahoma remains tribal reservation. Associated Press.
Justices limit 2020 ruling on tribal lands in Oklahoma. Associated Press.

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At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida-land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. But by the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States.

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August 1, 1770 -
- William Clark, Born

August 18, 1774 -
- Meriwether Lewis, Born

March 6, 1801 -
- Lewis is asked by President Jefferson to be his secretary-aide

Spring, 1803 -
- Lewis picked as commander of expedition. Writes to ask William Clark to join him and share command. Clark accepts.

July 4, 1803 -
- Announcement of Louisiana Purchase.

Summer, 1803 -
- Large keelboat constructed in Pittsburgh, overseen by Lewis. After construction Lewis takes it down the Ohio River picking up Clark and recruits along the way.

Fall/Winter, 1803 -
- Camp Wood established upstream from St. Louis.

May 14, 1804 -
-Expedition begins.

July 4, 1804 -
-Expedition marks first 4th of July west of the Mississippi by firing the keelboat's cannon, and naming Independence Creek.

August 3, 1804 -
- Corps of Discovery meet with representatives of the Oto and Missouri Indians, give peace medals, 15 star flags and other gifts.

August 20, 1804 -
- Near present day Sioux City, Iowa, Sgt. Charles Floyd dies of a probable burst appendix. Captains name hilltops where he is buried Floyd's Bluff and a nearby stream, Floyd's River.

August 30, 1804 -
- Friendly council with Yankton Sioux held.

September 7, 1804 -
- All of the men attempt to drown a never-before-seen prarie dog out of its hole for shipment back to Jefferson.

September 25, 1804 -
- Confrontation with Teton Sioux, who demand one of the expedition's boats as a toll to travel farther upriver. Chief Black Buffalo resolves situation before any fighting. Expedition stays with tribe for 3 more days.

October 24, 1804 -
- Expedition discovers earthlodge villages of the Mandan and Hidatsas Indians. The captains decide to build Fort Mandan across the river from the main village.

November 4, 1804 -
- Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian fur trapper living with the Hidatsas, is hired as an interpreter. His wife, Sacagawea, a Shoshone who had been captured by the Hidatsas and sold to Charbonneau, is also considered helpful as the Shoshones are said to live at the headwaters of the Missouri.

December 24, 1804 -
- Fort Mandan completed, expedition moves in for the winter.

February 11, 1805 -
- Sacagawea gives birth to baby boy, Jean Baptiste.

April 7, 1805 -
- Lewis and Clark send the keelboat and approx. a dozen men back downriver, with maps, reports, Indian artifacts and other scientific specimens for Jefferson. The remaining party heads west.

April 29, 1805 -
- Lewis and another hunter kill a large grizzly bear, which had never before been described for science.

May 29, 1805 -
- Clark names the Judith River in honor of a girl back in Virginia he hopes to marry.

June 2, 1805 -
-The expedition comes to a fork in the river. Lewis and Clark believe the south fork is the Missouri, while all of the other men believe it is the north fork. Although they are not convinced that the south fork is the Missouri the captains recount; "they were ready to follow us any where we thought proper to direct."

June 13, 1805 -
- Scouting ahead of the rest of the expedition, Lewis comes across the Great Falls of the Missouri. He also discovers four more waterfalls farther upstream. The expedition will have to portage over eighteen miles, taking nearly a month, to get past them.

Late July, 1805 -
- The expedition reaches the three forks of the Missouri River, and name them the Gallatin, the Madison, and the Jefferson, after the Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of State, James Madison, and President Thomas Jefferson. The expedition continues southwest, up the Jefferson.

August 8, 1805 -
- Sacagawea recognizes Beaverhead Rock and says they are nearing the headwaters of the Missouri, and her people, the Shoshones. Lewis and three others scout ahead.

August 12, 1805 -
- The shipment sent from fort Mandan arrives in the East and is delivered to Jefferson. Lewis ascends the final ridge toward the Continental Divide expecting to see plains and a river flowing to the Pacific, but he finds even more mountains.

August 17, 1805 -
- Lewis discovers a village of Shoshones and tries to negotiate for horses. Clark and the rest of the expedition arrives as well, and it is discovered that the Shoshone chief Cameahwait is Sacagawea's brother. Lewis and Clark name the site Camp Fortunate.

August 31, 1805 -
- The expedition sets out with a Shoshone guide called Old Toby, along with 29 horses and a mule.

September 9, 1805 -
- The expedition camps at present day Missoula, Montana, a spot Lewis and Clark called Travelers Rest to prepare for the mountain crossing.

September 22, 1805 -
- After nearly starving in the mountains the expedition emerges near present-day Weippe, Idaho.

October 16, 1805 -
- The expedition reaches the Columbia River.

October 18, 1805 -
- Clark sees Mount Hood in the distance, named by a British sea captain in 1792, proof that they are near the ocean.

November 7, 1805 -
- Clark, who believes he can see the ocean writes his most famous journal entry: "Ocian in view! O! the joy." The expedition is actually still 20 miles from the sea. Terrible storms halt the expedition for nearly 3 weeks.

November 24, 1805 -
- By majority vote the expedition decides to cross to the south side of the Columbia River to build winter quarters.

January 4, 1806 -
- President Jefferson welcomes a delegation of Missouri, Oto, Arikara, and Yankton Sioux chiefs who had met with Lewis and Clark more than a year earlier.

March 7, 1806 -
- The expedition runs out of tobacco. They had run out of their whiskey ration the previous fourth of July.

March 23, 1806 -
- Fort Clatsop is presented to the Clatsop Indian, for which it was named, and the expedition begins the journey home.

May - Late June, 1806 -
- The expedition reaches the Bitterroot mountains, but must wait for the snow to melt before crossing them. During this time the expedition again stays with the Nez Perce, Lewis describes them as "the most hospitable, honest and sincere people that we have met with in our voyage."

July 3, 1806 -
- Having crossed the Bitterroots again, the expedition breaks into smaller groups in order to explore more of the Louisiana Territory. Clark and his group head down the Yellowstone River, while Lewis takes the shortcut to the Great Falls, and then heads north along the Maris River.

July 25, 1806 -
- Near present-day Billings, Montana, Clark names a sandstone outcropping Pompy's Tower, after sacagawea's son, nicknamed Little Pomp. On the rock face Clark enscribes his name and the date.

July 26-27, 1806 -
- While making their way back to the Missouri, Lewis' party encounters eight Blackfeet warriors. They camp together, but the morning of the 27th the party catches the blackfeet attempting to steal their horses and guns. During a fight two of the Blackfeet were killed.

August 12, 1806 -
- All of the parties are reunited downstream from the mouth of the Yellowstone River.

August 14, 1806 -
- The expedition returns to the Mandan village. Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and Jean Baptist stay, while John Colter is granted permission to return to the Yellowstone to trap beaver.

September, 1806 -
- With the current of the Missouri behind them, they are able to cover over 70 miles per day. The expedition also begins meeting boats of American traders heading upriver.

September 23, 1806 -
- Lewis and Clark reach St. Louis.

Fall, 1806 -
- Lewis and Clark are treated as national heroes. They return to Washington, D.C. The men receive double pay and 320 acres of land as reward, the captains get 1,600 acres. Lewis is named governor of the Louisiana Territory, Clark is made Indian agent for the West and brigadier general of the territory's militia.

October 11, 1809 -
- Lewis commits suicide at Grinders Stand, an inn south of Nashville.

December 20, 1812 -
- Sacagawea dies at Fort Manuel. Clark, who is St. Louis, assumes custody of Jean Baptiste, as well as her daughter, Lisette.

September 1, 1838 -
- William Clark dies at the home of his eldest son, Meriwether Lewis Clark. William Clark had married Julia "Judith" Hancock for whom he had named a river while on the expedition.

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On May 14th 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on an amazing expedition across the Louisiana Territory.

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Lewis and Clark . Inside the Corps | PBS

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Twenty-five hundred dollars were appropriated to fund a small expeditionary group, whose mission was to explore the uncharted West. Jefferson called the group the Corps of Discovery. It would be led by Jefferson's secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and Lewis' friend,William Clark.

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Sutter's Mill

On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California.

At the time, Marshall was working to build a water-powered sawmill owned by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss citizen and founder of a colony of Nueva Helvetia (New Switzerland, which would later become the city of Sacramento). As Marshall later recalled of his historic discovery: "It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold."

Did you know? Miners extracted more than 750,000 pounds of gold during the California Gold Rush.

Days after Marshall's discovery at Sutter's Mill, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War and leaving California in the hands of the United States-a remarkable twist of fate with important ramifications for an America eager for westward expansion.

At the time, the population of the territory consisted of 6,500 Californios (people of Spanish or Mexican descent); 700 foreigners (primarily Americans); and 150,000 Native Americans (barely half the number that had been there when Spanish settlers arrived in 1769).

Sutter, in fact, had enslaved hundreds of Native Americans and used them as a free source of labor and makeshift militia to defend his territory and expand his empire.

Gold Fever Strikes

Though Marshall and Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery under wraps, word got out, and by mid-March at least one newspaper was reporting that large quantities of gold were being turned up at Sutter's Mill. Though the initial reaction in San Francisco was disbelief, storekeeper Sam Brannan set off a frenzy when he paraded through town displaying a vial of gold obtained from Sutter's Creek.

By mid-June, shops and businesses stood empty, as some three-quarters of the male population of San Francisco had abandoned the city for the gold mines, and the number of miners in the area ballooned to some 4,000 by August.

As news reports-many wildly overblown-of the easy fortunes being made in California spread worldwide, some of the first migrants to arrive were those from lands accessible by boat, such as Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), Mexico, Chile, Peru and China.

Polk Spreads Gold Fever

When the news reached the East Coast, press reports were initially skeptical. Gold fever kicked off nationwide in earnest, however, after December 1848, when President James K. Polk announced the positive results of a report made by Colonel Richard Mason, California's military governor, in his inaugural address.

As Polk wrote, "The accounts of abundance of gold are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service."

The '49ers Come to California

Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) with gold fever borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns. In turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such as running farms or businesses and caring for their children alone.

Thousands of would-be gold miners, known as 49ers for the year they arrived, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.

By the end of the year, the non-native population of California was estimated at 100,000, (as compared with 20,000 at the end of 1848 and around 800 in March 1848). To accommodate the needs of the 49ers, gold mining towns had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses seeking to make their own Gold Rush fortune.

The overcrowded chaos of the mining camps and towns grew ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, alcoholism, prostitution and violence. San Francisco, for its part, developed a bustling economy and became the central metropolis of the new frontier.

Gold Rush Politics

The Gold Rush undoubtedly sped up California's admission to the Union as the 31st state. In late 1849, California applied to enter the Union with a constitution that barred the Southern system of racial slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress between proponents of slavery and anti-slavery politicians.

According to the Compromise of 1850, proposed by Kentucky's Senator Henry Clay, California was allowed to enter as a free state, while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were left to decide the legal status of slavery for themselves.

California's Mines

After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared, even as miners continued to arrive. Mining had always been difficult and dangerous labor, and striking it rich required good luck as much as skill and hard work. Moreover, the average daily take for an independent miner working with his pick and shovel had by then sharply decreased from what it had been in 1848.

As gold became more and more difficult to reach, the growing industrialization of mining drove more and more miners from independence into wage labor. The new technique of hydraulic mining, developed in 1853, brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some $81 million was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take declined gradually, leveling off to around $45 million per year by 1857. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state's population was 380,000.

Impact of the Gold Rush

New mining methods and the population boom in the wake of the California Gold Rush permanently altered the landscape of California. The technique of hydraulic mining brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Dams designed to supply water to mine sites in summer altered the course of rivers away from farmland, while sediment from mines clogged others. The logging industry in the area was born from the need to construct extensive canals and feed boilers at mines, further consuming natural resources.

In 1884, hydraulic mining was outlawed by court order, and soon agriculture became the dominant industry in California, and it remains so today. While a few mines and Gold Rush towns remain, much of the heritage of that era is preserved at places such as Bodie State Historic Park, a decaying ghost town, and at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where Sutter's Mill once stood.

Sources

Environmental Impact of the Gold Rush. Calisphere.org.
After the Gold Rush. National Geographic.

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Gold Rush: California, Date & Sutter's Mill | HISTORY

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The Gold Rush in California started in 1848 after gold was found at Sutter's Mill. Within a year, hundreds of thousands of 49ers seeking fortune poured into the state.

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Boom-Towns became popular places. People rode the Transcontinental Railroad to the towns. Then they would work the whole day and then ride the train back. Usually men did most of the mining. In...

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James Marshall's discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California in 1848, started the California Gold Rush.

Born in 1810, Marshall followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a skilled carpenter and wheelwright. When his father died in 1834, he headed westward, spending some time in Illinois and Indiana before settling in Missouri. There, he contracted malaria and at the advice of his doctor, he moved westward again.

In July 1845, he arrived in the Sacramento Valley and began to work for John Sutter as a carpenter. Fairing well there, he improved his economic prospects, purchasing a ranch, and began to raise cattle. In 1846, he joined John C. Fremont's California Battalion, and participated in the Bear Flag Revolt, a bid to seize control of California from Mexican control.

When he returned to his land, he found his cattle had been stolen and he was forced to sell his land. He then formed a partnership with John Sutter to build a sawmill. It was at the sawmill that, on January 24, 1848, he discovered gold in the water flow through the mill's tailrace. He immediately advised Sutter, who swore all his employees to secrecy. But, the "news" was just too big, and in no time it leaked out.

As word quickly spread, some 80,000 miners flooded the area, extending up and down the length of the Sacramento Valley, and overrunning Sutter's domain. Ironically, neither Sutter nor Marshall ever profited from the discovery that should have made them independently wealthy. Though Marshall tried to secure his own claims in the gold fields, he was unsuccessful. His sawmill also failed, as every able-bodied man took off in search of gold. Soon, the area surrounding Sutter's Mill became the first mining boom town in California - Coloma.

Embittered, Marshall left the area, drifting from place to place in California, looking for yet another rich strike. In 1857, he returned to Coloma and started a vineyard in the early 1860s. Initially profitable, his endeavors as a vintner would also fail when, by the end of the decade, increased competition and less demand put him out of business once again.

Marshall then returned to prospecting and wandering about the state. He soon partnered up with another miner in a gold mine near Kelsey, California. However, the development of the mine proved expensive and yielded nothing, leaving the unlucky Marshall once again close to bankruptcy.

In 1872, Marshall had a turn of luck when the California State Legislature awarded him a two-year pension in recognition of his role in an important era in California history.

The pension was renewed in 1874 and 1876 but lapsed in 1878. According to the legend, Marshall then went to visit the legislative assembly in person to get the pension renewed again. However, when a brandy bottle dropped from his pocket and rolled on the floor, no additional pension was awarded.

Marshall continued to live in Kelsey, in a spartan homesteader's cabin, earning money from a small garden until his death on August 10, 1885. His body was then taken to Coloma and buried on the property where he had owned his vineyard. Overlooking the south fork of the American River, a monument was erected over the grave site in 1890. Atop the monument is a bronze statue of Marshall, pointing to the spot where he changed California history.

© Kathy Weiser/ Legends of America, updated November 2018.
Also See: The California Gold Rush Coloma - Gold Town to Ghost Town John A. Sutter - Boom & Bust in California Sutter's Own Story

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James Marshall - Discovering Gold in California

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James Marshall's discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California in 1848, started the California Gold Rush. Born in 1810, Marshall followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a skilled carpenter and wheelwright. When his father died in 1834, he headed westward, spending some time in Illinois and Indiana before settling in Missouri.

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Over 20,000 Cherokees were forced to march westward along the Trail of Tears. About a quarter of them died along the way.

Not everyone was included in the new Jacksonian Democracy. There was no initiative from Jacksonian Democrats to include women in political life or to combat slavery. But, it was the Native American who suffered most from Andrew Jackson's vision of America. Jackson, both as a military leader and as President, pursued a policy of removing Indian tribes from their ancestral lands. This relocation would make room for settlers and often for speculators who made large profits from the purchase and sale of land.

According to legend, a Cherokee rose, the state flower of Georgia, grew in every spot a tear fell on the Trail of Tears. Today the flowers grow along many of the trails that the Native Americans took West.

Indian policy caused the President little political trouble because his primary supporters were from the southern and western states and generally favored a plan to remove all the Indian tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River. While Jackson and other politicians put a very positive and favorable spin on Indian removal in their speeches, the removals were in fact often brutal. There was little the Indians could do to defend themselves. In 1832, a group of about a thousand Sac and Fox Indians led by Chief Black Hawk returned to Illinois, but militia members easily drove them back across the Mississippi. The Seminole resistance in Florida was more formidable, resulting in a war that began under Chief Osceola and lasted into the 1840s.

Sequoyah, the child of a Native American woman and a white settler, came up with the first Cherokee alphabet in the early 1800s. By 1821 the Cherokee Nation had officially recognized this form of writing and thousands of Cherokee became literate.

The Cherokees of Georgia, on the other hand, used legal action to resist. The Cherokee people were by no means frontier savages. By the 1830s they developed their own written language, printed newspapers and elected leaders to representative government. When the government of Georgia refused to recognize their autonomy and threatened to seize their lands, the Cherokees took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won a favorable decision. John Marshall's opinion for the Court majority in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia was essentially that Georgia had no jurisdiction over the Cherokees and no claim to their lands. But Georgia officials simply ignored the decision, and President Jackson refused to enforce it. Jackson was furious and personally affronted by the Marshall ruling, stating, "Mr. Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it!"

Finally, federal troops came to Georgia to remove the tribes forcibly. As early as 1831, the army began to push the Choctaws off their lands to march to Oklahoma. In 1835, some Cherokee leaders agreed to accept western land and payment in exchange for relocation. With this agreement, the Treaty of New Echota, Jackson had the green light to order Cherokee removal. Other Cherokees, under the leadership of Chief John Ross, resisted until the bitter end. About 20,000 Cherokees were marched westward at gunpoint on the infamous Trail of Tears. Nearly a quarter perished on the way, with the remainder left to seek survival in a completely foreign land. The tribe became hopelessly divided as the followers of Ross murdered those who signed the Treaty of New Echota.

The Trail of Tears is the most sorrowful legacy of the Jacksonian Era.

Florida's Seminoles - The Unconquered
When the Indian Removal Act was passed, three of the Five Civilized Tribes left peacefully, and the fourth, the Cherokees, fought their case in court. But the Seminoles fought their case on the battlefield and many remained in Florida. This illustration-filled article written for Absolutely Florida magazine sketches the history of the Seminoles and their fierce resistance to President Jackson's efforts to relocate them west to Arkansas and Oklahoma.

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The Trail Where They Cried
Nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i is the Cherokee name for the Trail of Tears, which literally translates to "The trail where they cried." This website from the Cherokees of California nonprofit group tells the history behind the forced removal of the Cherokees from Georgia. Complete with quotes from the Cherokees, Jackson, and soldiers in charge of the move, this website is riveting although not visually stimulating.

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The Seminoles were considered one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" so called because they adopted many ways of the white civilization. The others were the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Cherokees.
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My friends, circumstances render it impossible that you can flourish in the midst of a civilized community. You have but one remedy within your reach, and that is to remove to the west. -Andrew Jackson.
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the trail of tears — the indian removals

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The Trail of Tears - The Indian Removals [ushistory.org]

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President Andrew Jackson pursued a policy of aggressively removing Native Americans from their lands to make room for settlers as the American nation expoanded to the west. Some tribes tried to resist, with arms or in the courts, but resistance proved furile.

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Elected president in 1828, Andrew Jackson supported the removal of American Indians from their homelands, arguing that the American Indians' survival depended on separation from whites. In this 1835 circular to the Cherokee people, Jackson lays out his case for removal. Using paternalistic and threatening language, Jackson urges the Cherokee to accept removal from Georgia and relocate westward peacefully. "I have no motive, my friends, to deceive you," Jackson writes. He continues, "Circumstances that cannot be controlled, and which are beyond the reach of human laws, render it impossible that you can flourish in the midst of a civilized community . . . You have but one remedy within your reach. And that is, to remove to the west." Jackson closes with an ominous tone and these threatening sentences: "The fate of your women and children, the fate of your people, to the remotest generation, depend on the issue." Later that same year, a small group of 100 Cherokee delegates signed the Treaty of New Echota, paving the way for the Cherokee Nation's removal to Oklahoma in 1838.

Excerpt

I have no motive, my friends, to deceive you. I am sincerely desirous to promote your welfare. Listen to me, therefore, while I tell you that you cannot remain where you now are. Circumstances that cannot be controlled, and which are beyond the reach of human laws, render it impossible that you can flourish in the midst of a civilized community. You have but one remedy within your reach. And that is, to remove to the West and join your countrymen, who are already established there. And the sooner you do this, the sooner you will commence your career of improvement and prosperity. . . .

As certain as the sun shines to guide you in your path, so certain is it that you cannot drive back the laws of Georgia from among you. Every year will increase your difficulties. Look at the condition of the Creeks. See the collisions which are taking place with them. See how their young men are committing depredations upon the property of our citizens, and are shedding their blood. This cannot and will not be allowed. Punishment will follow, and all who are engaged in these offences must suffer.

Questions for Discussion

Read the document introduction, examine the excerpt and if possible the entire transcript, and apply your knowledge of American history in order to answer the questions that follow.

1. Explain what Andrew Jackson meant when he told the Cherokees that "Circumstances . . . render it impossible that you can flourish in the midst of a civilized community."

2. American Indians correctly claimed that prior treaties with the US government were violated by Andrew Jackson. Why then, did they sign the Treaty of New Echota?

3. When Jackson referred to the Cherokees as "my friends," why did they have serious concerns about his sincerity?

A printer-friendly version is available here.

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Andrew Jackson to the Cherokee Tribe, 1835

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Elected president in 1828, Andrew Jackson supported the removal of American Indians from their homelands, arguing that the American Indians' survival depended on separation from whites. In this 1835 circular to the Cherokee people, Jackson lays out his case for removal. Using paternalistic and threatening language, Jackson urges the Cherokee to accept removal from Georgia and relocate westward peacefully.

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Mexican-American War - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Mexican-American War, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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The U.S.-Mexican War . Biographies . General Antonio López de Santa Anna | PBS

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General Antonio López de Santa Anna remains one of the more controversial and enigmatic figures in Mexican and United States history. Born in Jalapa in 1794, Santa Anna followed his father into Spanish royal service and entered the army. He joined the political fray in Mexico as a young officer, but abandoned the Royalist cause in 1821 and supported independence.

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Antonio López de Santa Anna in Manifest Destiny & Mexican-American War

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At Buena Vista, however, Jefferson Davis' reserve forces stalled Santa Anna's Mexican soldiers. Gen. Zachary Taylor counterattacked, and the Mexicans suffered terrible casualties. Santa Anna's men were then was routed by U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott when they invaded the capital city in September 1847.

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Today we may know them simply as Texans, but deciding what to call the people living in Texas in the pre-Texas Revolution era was a matter of some confusion. According to an issue of the Telegraph and Texas Register published on November 7, 1835, various people used the terms Texans, Texonians, Texasians and Texicans, but: "We believe that, both by the Mexican and American residents of the country, the name commonly used is Texians." Texas residents of Mexican descent, many of whom predated their Anglo neighbors, were more accurately known by the Spanish word "Tejano."

"Texian" took on a newly patriotic meaning during the war for independence from Mexico, which erupted in late 1835. Though Tejanos and volunteers from the United States and other countries fought alongside the white settlers of Texas against the Mexican troops of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, as a whole they were known as the Texian Army.

After Texas won its independence and became a republic, President Mirabeau Lamar (elected in 1838) made a point of referring to its citizens as Texians, in order to foster a spirit of national pride. The term Texian gradually disappeared from popular use following the annexation and statehood of Texas in 1845, and "Texan" became the name more commonly used for a resident of the new state. Still, those who had lived through the years of revolution and republic continued to call themselves Texians into the 20th century. Even today, some descendants of those early Texas settlers proudly use the term in order to evoke their strong sense of heritage.

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Today we may know them simply as Texans, but deciding what to call the people living in Texas in the pre-Texas Revolution era was a matter of some confusion.

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Why did Texas want independence from Mexico? On October 2, 1835, rebellious Texans took shots at Mexican soldiers in the town of Gonzales. It was barely a skirmish, as the Mexicans left the battlefield without attempting to engage the Texans, but nevertheless "the Battle of Gonzales" is considered the first engagement of what would become Texas' War of Independence from Mexico. The battle, however, was only the start of the actual fighting: tensions had been high for years between the Americans who had come to settle Texas and the Mexican authorities.

Texas formally declared independence in March of 1836: there were many reasons why they did so.

1. The Settlers Were Culturally American, Not Mexican

Mexico only became a nation in 1821, after winning independence from Spain. At first, Mexico encouraged Americans to settle Texas. They were given land that no Mexicans had yet laid claim to. These Americans became Mexican citizens and were supposed to learn Spanish and convert to Catholicism. They never really became "Mexican," however: they kept their language and ways and culturally had more in common with the people of the USA than with Mexico. These cultural ties with the USA made the settlers identify more with the USA than Mexico and made independence (or US statehood) more attractive.

2. The Slavery Issue

Most of the American settlers in Mexico were from southern states, where slavery was still legal. They even brought their slaves with them.

Because slavery was illegal in Mexico, these settlers made their slaves sign agreements giving them the status of indentured servants - essentially slavery by another name. The Mexican authorities grudgingly went along with it, but the issue occasionally flared up, especially when slaves ran off. By the 1830s, many settlers were afraid that the Mexicans would take their slaves away: this made them favor independence.

3. The Abolishment of the 1824 Constitution

One of Mexico's first constitutions was written in 1824, which was about the time that the first settlers arrived in Texas. This constitution was heavily weighted in favor of states' rights (as opposed to federal control). It allowed the Texans great freedom to rule themselves as they saw fit. This constitution was overturned in favor of another that gave the federal government more control, and many Texans were outraged (many Mexicans in other parts of Mexico were, too). Reinstatement of the 1824 constitution became a rallying cry in Texas before the fighting broke out.

4. Chaos in Mexico City

Mexico suffered great growing pains as a young nation in the years after independence. In the capital, liberals and conservatives fought it out in the legislature (and occasionally in the streets) over issues such as states' rights and the separation (or not) of church and state. Presidents and leaders came and went. The most powerful man in Mexico was Antonio López de Santa Anna. He was president several times, but he was a notorious flip-flopper, generally favoring liberalism or conservatism as it fit his needs. These problems made it impossible for Texans to solve their differences with the central government in any lasting way: new governments often reversed decisions made by previous ones.

5. Economic Ties with the USA

Texas was separated from most of Mexico by large swaths of desert with little in the way of roads. For those Texans who produced export crops, such as cotton, it was far easier to send their goods downstream to the coast, ship it to a nearby city like New Orleans and sell them there. Selling their goods in Mexican ports was nearly prohibitively hard. Texas produced a lot of cotton and other goods, and the resulting economic ties with the southern US hastened its departure from Mexico.

6. Texas Was Part of the State of Coahuila y Texas:

Texas was not a state in the United States of Mexico, it was half of the state of Coahuila y Texas. From the beginning, the American settlers (and many of the Mexican Tejanos as well) wanted statehood for Texas, as the state capital was far away and difficult to reach.

In the 1830s, the Texans would occasionally have meetings and make demands of the Mexican government: many of these demands were met, but their petition for separate statehood was always denied.

7. The Americans Outnumbered the Tejanos

In the 1820s and 1830s, Americans were desperate for land, and often settled in dangerous frontier territories if land was available. Texas has some great land for farming and ranching and when it was opened up, many went there as fast as they could. Mexicans, however, never wanted to go there. To them, Texas was a remote, undesirable region. The soldiers stationed there were usually convicts: when the Mexican government offered to relocate citizens there, no one took them up on it. The native Tejanos, or native-born Texas Mexicans, were few in number and by 1834 the Americans outnumbered them by as many as four-to-one.

Many Americans believed that Texas, as well as other parts of Mexico, should belong to the USA. They felt that the USA should extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and that any Mexicans or Indians in between should be kicked out to make way for the "rightful" owners. This belief was called "Manifest Destiny." By 1830, the USA had taken Florida from the Spanish and the central part of the nation from the French (via the Louisiana Purchase). Political leaders such as Andrew Jackson officially disowned rebel actions in Texas but covertly encouraged Texas settlers to rebel, giving tacit approval of their deeds.

The Path to Texas Independence

Mexicans were keenly aware of the possibility of Texas splitting off to become a state of the USA or an independent nation.

Manuel de Mier y Terán, a respected Mexican military officer, was sent to Texas to make a report on what he saw. He gave a report in 1829 in which he reported the large number of legal and illegal immigrants into Texas. He recommended that Mexico increase its military presence in Texas, outlaw any further immigration from the USA and move large numbers of Mexican settlers into the area. In 1830, Mexico passed a measure to follow Terán's suggestions, sending additional troops and cutting off further immigration. But it was too little, too late, and all the new resolution accomplished was to anger those settlers already in Texas and hasten the independence movement.

There were many Americans who immigrated to Texas with the intention of being good citizens of Mexico. The best example is Stephen F. Austin. Austin managed the most ambitious of the settlement projects and insisted his colonists adhere to the laws of Mexico. In the end, however, the differences between the Texans and the Mexicans were too great. Austin himself changed sides and supported independence after years of fruitless wrangling with the Mexican bureaucracy and about a year in a Mexican prison for supporting Texas statehood a little too vigorously. Alienating men like Austin was the worst thing Mexico could have done: when even Austin picked up a rifle in 1835, there was no going back.

On October 2, 1835, the first shots were fired in the town of Gonzales. After the Texans captured San Antonio, General Santa Anna marched north with a massive army.

They overran the defenders at the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. The Texas legislature had officially declared independence a few days before. On April 21, 1835, the Mexicans were crushed at the Battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna was captured, essentially sealing Texas' independence. Although Mexico would try several times in the next few years to reclaim Texas, it joined the USA in 1845.
Sources:
Brands, H.W. Lone Star Nation: the Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence. New York: Anchor Books, 2004.

Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and its War with the United States.New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

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Why Did Texas Want Independence from Mexico?

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Why did Texas want independence from Mexico? On October 2, 1835, rebellious Texans took shots at Mexican soldiers in the town of Gonzales. It was barely a skirmish, as the Mexicans left the battlefield without attempting to engage the Texans, but nevertheless "the Battle of Gonzales" is considered the first engagement of what would become Texas' War of Independence from Mexico.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorer and guide Sacagawea. Native American woman who helped Lewis and Clark.

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In 1804, Lewis and Clark persuaded Charbonneau to join them on their expedition as an interpreter. It was understood that Sacagawea would join the party as well. They wanted her on the journey because traveling with a woman would indicate to Native American tribes that they came in peace.

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Find Facts about Sacagawea for Kids. Fun Facts about Sacagawea for Kids. History and Info about Sacagawea for Kids.

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For Kids

The US government passed a law in 1830 called the Indian Removal Act. This allowed the US government the right to force Indian tribes to vacate their land and move to reservation lands, geographical areas the government had put aside for their use. Most Indian tribes did not want to leave their land. It was their spiritual and physical home. But the government sent in the army to force tribes to move.

The Cherokee and four other nations - the Seminoles, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw - were told to leave their land in the Southeast. The US government gave them land in Oklahoma. The Cherokee refused to leave. They had no desire to live in Oklahoma. They wanted to live in the land of their ancestors, where they had always lived. The Cherokee took their case to the US Supreme Court. And they won! The Supreme Court said the Cherokee were right - the US government could not force them to move. The Cherokee people were so happy. They thought they had won the battle to live on their own land. But they were mistaken.

President Andrew Jackson ignored the Supreme Court ruling. He directed the US Army to capture all the Cherokee they could find and force them to move. The US Army followed the president's direction. The Supreme Court did nothing.

This was an incredibly sad time in American history. Most Cherokee had to walk the whole way. They walked through rain and cold and incredible heat. More than 4000 Cherokees died on the journey. That is why this forced eviction was called "The Trail of Tears."

The Trail of Tears, animated educational video

The Trail of Tears - Why and What Happened in 5 minutes (YouTube)

Trail of Tears, cartoon educational video

Indians of the Southeast - Seminoles, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw

For Teachers

Primary Documents

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The Incredibly Sad Trail of Tears for Kids and Teachers - When the US Government forced Native Americans to leave their land in the Southeast and walk through rain and snow for hundreds and hundreds of miles - Native Americans in Olden Times for Kids

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The US government passed a law in 1830 called the Indian Removal Act. This allowed the US government the right to force Indian tribes to vacate their land and move to reservation lands, geographical areas the government had put aside for their use. Most Indian tribes did not want to leave their land.

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Fresberg Cartoon – Learning & History for Students

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Trail of Tears for Kids Documentary: Watch our Cartoon for Kids on the Trail of Tears

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The Battle of the Alamo during Texas' war for independence from Mexico lasted thirteen days, from February 23, 1836-March 6, 1836. In December of 1835, a group of Texan volunteer soldiers had occupied the Alamo, a former Franciscan mission located near the present-day city of San Antonio. On February 23, a Mexican force numbering in the thousands and led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a siege of the fort. Though vastly outnumbered, the Alamo's 200 defenders-commanded by James Bowie and William Travis and including the famed frontiersman Davy Crockett-held out for 13 days before the Mexican forces finally overpowered them. For Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became an enduring symbol of their heroic resistance to oppression and their struggle for independence, which they won later that year. The battle cry of "remember the Alamo" later became popular during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848.

Early History of the Alamo

Spanish settlers built the Mission San Antonio de Valero, named for St. Anthony of Padua, on the banks of the San Antonio River around 1718. They also established the nearby military garrison of San Antonio de Béxar, which soon became the center of a settlement known as San Fernando de Béxar (later renamed San Antonio). The Mission San Antonio de Valero housed missionaries and their Native American converts for some 70 years until 1793, when Spanish authorities secularized the five missions located in San Antonio and distributed their lands among local residents.

Did you know? Ten years after Texas won its independence and shortly after it was annexed by the United States, U.S. soldiers revived the "Remember the Alamo!" battle cry while fighting against Mexican forces in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848.

Beginning in the early 1800s, Spanish military troops were stationed in the abandoned chapel of the former mission. Because it stood in a grove of cottonwood trees, the soldiers called their new fort "El Alamo" after the Spanish word for cottonwood and in honor of Alamo de Parras, their hometown in Mexico. Military troops-first Spanish, then rebel and later Mexican-occupied the Alamo during and after Mexico's war for independence from Spain in the early 1820s. In the summer of 1821, Stephen Austin arrived in San Antonio along with some 300 U.S. families that the Spanish government had allowed to settle in Texas. The migration of U.S. citizens to Texas increased over the next decades, sparking a revolutionary movement that would erupt into armed conflict by the mid-1830s.

The Battle of the Alamo

In December 1835, in the early stages of Texas' war for independence from Mexico, a group of Texan (or Texian) volunteers led by George Collinsworth and Benjamin Milam overwhelmed the Mexican garrison at the Alamo and captured the fort, seizing control of San Antonio. By mid-February 1836, Colonel James Bowie and Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis had taken command of Texan forces in San Antonio. Though Sam Houston, the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Texan forces, argued that San Antonio should be abandoned due to insufficient troop numbers, the Alamo's defenders-led by Bowie and Travis-dug in nonetheless, prepared to defend the fort to the last. These defenders, who despite later reinforcements never numbered more than 200, included Davy Crockett, the famous frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee, who had arrived in early February.

On February 23, a Mexican force comprising somewhere between 1,800 and 6,000 men (according to various estimates) and commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a siege of the fort. The Texans held out for 13 days, but on the morning of March 6 Mexican forces broke through a breach in the outer wall of the courtyard and overpowered them. Santa Anna ordered his men to take no prisoners, and only a small handful of the Texans were spared. One of these was Susannah Dickinson, the wife of Captain Almaron Dickinson (who was killed) and her infant daughter Angelina. Santa Anna sent them to Houston's camp in Gonzalez with a warning that a similar fate awaited the rest of the Texans if they continued their revolt.

The Mexican forces also suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of the Alamo, losing between 600 and 1,600 men.

Legacy of the Alamo

From March to May, Mexican forces once again occupied the Alamo. For the Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became a symbol of heroic resistance and a rallying cry in their struggle for independence. On April 21, 1836, Sam Houston and some 800 Texans defeated Santa Anna's Mexican force of 1,500 men at San Jacinto (near the site of present-day Houston), shouting "Remember the Alamo!" as they attacked. The victory ensured the success of Texan independence: Santa Anna, who had been taken prisoner, came to terms with Houston to end the war. In May, Mexican troops in San Antonio were ordered to withdraw, and to demolish the Alamo's fortifications as they went.

'Remember The Alamo!'

In 1845, the United States annexed Texas. For many years afterward, the U.S. Army quartered troops and stored supplies at the Alamo. The Alamo remained a symbol of courage, and in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, U.S. soldiers revived the "Remember the Alamo!" battle cry while fighting against Mexican forces.

The Alamo has been commemorated on everything from postage stamps to the 1960 film The Alamo starring John Wayne as Davy Crockett. In 1883, the state of Texas purchased the Alamo, later acquiring property rights to all the surrounding grounds. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, a women's organization including descendants of the earliest Texan residents, has managed the Alamo since 1905. Today, more than 2.5 million people a year visit the Alamo. The 4.2-acre site includes some original structures dating back to the mission period.

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The Battle of the Alamo during Texas' war for independence from Mexico lasted thirteen days, from February 23, 1836-March 6, 1836. In December of 1835, a group of Texan volunteer soldiers had occupied the Alamo, a former Franciscan mission located near the present-day city of San Antonio.

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Yea

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Davy Crockett and the Alamo

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On March 6, 1836, Mexican forces stormed the Alamo, a fortress-like old mission in San Antonio where some 200 rebellious Texans had been holed up for weeks. The battle was over in less than two hours, leaving great Texas heroes like Jim Bowie, James Butler Bonham and William Travis dead. Among the defenders that day was Davy Crockett, former Congressman and legendary hunter, scout and teller of tall-tales.

According to some accounts, Crockett died in battle and according to others, he was one of a handful of men captured and later executed. What really happened?

Davy Crockett

Davy Crockett (1786-1836) was born in Tennessee, then a frontier territory. He was a hard working young man who distinguished himself as a scout in the Creek War and provided food for his whole regiment by hunting. Initially a supporter of Andrew Jackson, he was elected to Congress in 1827. He fell out with Jackson, however, and in 1835 lost his seat in Congress. By this time, Crockett was famous for his tall tales and folksy speeches. He felt it was time to take a break from politics and decided to visit Texas.

Crockett Arrives at the Alamo

Crockett made his way slowly to Texas. Along the way, he learned that there was much sympathy for the Texans in the USA. Many men were heading there to fight and people assumed Crockett was, too: he didn't contradict them.

He crossed into Texas in early 1836. Learning that the fighting was taking place near San Antonio, he headed there. He arrived at the Alamo in February. By then, Rebel leaders such as Jim Bowie and William Travis were preparing a defense. Bowie and Travis did not get along: Crockett, ever the skilled politician, defused the tension between them.

Crockett at the Battle of the Alamo

Crockett had arrived with a handful of volunteers from Tennessee. These frontiersmen were lethal with their long rifles and they were a welcome addition to the defenders. The Mexican army arrived in late February and laid siege to the Alamo. Mexican General Santa Anna did not immediately seal the exits from San Antonio and the defenders could have escaped had they wished: they chose to remain. The Mexicans attacked at dawn on March 6 and within two hours the Alamo was overrun.

Was Crockett Taken Prisoner?

Here's where things get unclear. Historians agree on a few basic facts: some 600 Mexicans and 200 Texans died that day. A handful - most say seven - of Texan defenders were taken alive. These men were swiftly put to death by orders of Mexican General Santa Anna. According to some sources, Crockett was among them, and according to others, he was not. What's the truth? There are several sources that should be considered.

Fernando Urissa

The Mexicans were crushed at the Battle of San Jacinto about six weeks later. One of the Mexican prisoners was a young officer named Fernando Urissa. Urissa was wounded, and treated by Dr. Nicholas Labadie, who kept a journal.

Labadie asked about the Battle of the Alamo, and Urissa mentioned the capture of a "venerable-looking man" with a red face: he believed the others called him "Coket." The prisoner was brought to Santa Anna and then executed, shot by several soldiers at once.

Francisco Antonio Ruiz

Francisco Antonio Ruiz, the mayor of San Antonio, was safely behind the Mexican lines when the battle began and had a good vantage point to witness what happened. Before the arrival of the Mexican army, he had met Crockett, as the civilians of San Antonio and the defenders of the Alamo mingled freely. He said that after the battle Santa Anna ordered him to point out the bodies of Crockett, Travis and Bowie. Crockett, he said, had fallen in battle on the west side of the Alamo grounds near "a little fort."

Jose Enrique de la Peña

De la Peña was a mid-level officer in Santa Anna's army.

He later allegedly wrote a diary, not found and published until 1955, about his experiences at the Alamo. In it, he claims that the "well-known" David Crockett was one of seven men taken prisoner. They were brought to Santa Anna, who ordered them executed. The rank-and-file soldiers who had stormed the Alamo, sick of death, did nothing, but officers close to Santa Anna, who had seen no fighting, were eager to impress him and fell upon the prisoners with swords. According to de la Peña, the prisoners "...died without complaining and without humiliating themselves before their torturers."

Other Accounts

Women, children and slaves who were captured at the Alamo were spared. Susanna Dickinson, wife of one of the slain Texans, was among them. She never wrote down her eyewitness account, but was interviewed many times over the course of her life. She said that after the battle, she saw Crockett's body between the chapel and the barracks (which roughly corroborates Ruiz' account). Santa Anna's silence on the subject is also relevant: he never claimed to have captured and executed Crockett.

Did Crockett die in Battle?

Unless other documents come to light, we'll never know the details of Crockett's fate. The accounts do not agree, and there are several problems with each of them. Urissa called the prisoner "venerable," which seems a little harsh to describe the energetic, 49-year-old Crockett. It's also hearsay, as it was written down by Labadie. Ruiz' account comes from an English translation of something he may or may not have written: the original has never been found.

De la Peña hated Santa Anna and may have invented or embellished the story to make his former commander look bad: also, some historians think the document might be a fake. Dickinson never personally wrote anything down and other parts of her story have been proven questionable.

In the end, it's not really important. Crockett was a hero because he knowingly remained at the Alamo as the Mexican army advanced, boosting the spirits of the forlorn defenders with his fiddle and his tall tales. When the time came, Crockett and all of the others fought bravely and sold their lives dearly. Their sacrifice inspired others to join the cause, and within two months the Texans would win the decisive Battle of San Jacinto .
Brands, H.W. Lone Star Nation: the Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence. New York: Anchor Books, 2004. Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and its War with the United States.New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

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Was Davy Crockett Killed in Battle or Taken Captive at the Alamo?

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On March 6, 1836, Mexican forces stormed the Alamo, a fortress-like old mission in San Antonio where some 200 rebellious Texans had been holed up for weeks. The battle was over in less than two hours, leaving great Texas heroes like Jim Bowie, James Butler Bonham and William Travis dead.

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Ducksters

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turd

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bruh

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Oregon traIL GAME 1992

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History: Westward Expansion

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Hiiiii