About the Indian Removal Act

The processes shaping the Indian Removal Act of 1830 began years prior to the actual passage of the Act over the course of repeated attempts by the government of the state of Georgia to force the Cherokee Indians within its borders to off of their lands and westward across the Mississippi River.  The Cherokee nation had embraced the civilization efforts of the American
government under Secretary of War Henry Knox in the late eighteenth century, and had consistently resisted the efforts of the state of Georgia through legal action.  Until the election of Andrew Jackson as President of the United States in 1829, Cherokee resistance to removal was largely successful.


In his first term in office, Jackson made Indian (and particularly Cherokee) removal one of his top priorities.  The Indian Removal Act of 1830 that was passed in part as a result of Jackson’s support for removal was one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in the early nineteenth century.  American citizens throughout the United States hotly debated the topic in newspaper editorials and public debates, and hundreds of petitions were submitted to the members of Congress in favor of or against Indian removal (see David Walker Howe’s What God Hath Wrought).  The Congressional debates surrounding the Act lasted several days, with speeches on each side sometimes lasting several hours.

Click to view the Indian Removal Act of 1830.



Although opponents of the Act largely dominated the debates, Jackson’s supporters managed to swing the vote in their favor.  The Senate passed the Act by a vote of 28 to 19, the House by 101 to 97. 


By 1835, US officials had managed to coerce a number of Cherokee leaders into agreeing to their nation’s removal in the Treaty of New Echota.  Cherokee removal (now known as the Trail of Tears) lasted from the fall of 1838 to 1839.  Over the course of their forced march to the newly established Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma), 4,000 Cherokees died (see Theda Perdue’s The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears).

 

Timeline of Indian History in the American Southeast and Trans-Mississippi West

Scroll sideways to navigate and click entries to view a brief description.