In 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed into law the "Indian Removal Act." Over the next twenty years members of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee tribes were forcibly resettled west of the Mississippi River in what became known, in Cherokee, as the "Trail of Tears." 2,000-6,000 of the 16,500 Indians removed died on the way.
It is impossible to conceive the extent of the sufferings which attend these forced emigrations. They are undertaken by a people already exhausted and reduced; and the countries to which the newcomers betake themselves are inhabited by other tribes which receive them with jealous hostility. Hunger is in the rear; war awairs them, and misery besets them on all sides.
It is impossible to conceive the extent of the sufferings which attend these forced emigrations. They are undertaken by a people already exhausted and reduced; and the countries to which the newcomers betake themselves are inhabited by other tribes which receive them with jealous hostility. Hunger is in the rear; war awairs them, and misery besets them on all sides.
