![]() It was a time of broken treaties and cynical promises, forced marches, racial subjugation in the name of white supremacy, a type of ethnic cleansing, and perhaps a form of genocide. Rather, it was a state-sponsored mass deportation of "unimaginable violence." It was a land grab by wealthy planters. ![]() ![]() Indian emigration was not voluntary by any stretch of the imagination, nor was it humanitarian. Jackson's signature policy of "Indian Removal," as its proponents called it, would "define his presidency," says Claudio Saunt, in his meticulous account of one of the most shameful episodes in American history. ![]() When Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as president on March 4, 1829, he promised that "it will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our people." Nine months later, in his first message to Congress in December 1829, he called for the "voluntary" emigration of 80,000 Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi River. Claudio Saunt, Unworthy Republic The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory (New York: W.W. ![]()
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