The Trail of Tears: The Story of the Cherokee Removal (Great Journeys)

Fascinating and concise introduction to the topic for youth. I learned a lot, but clearly a lot was left out (for example mention of "Sooners" which is still a term of pride here in OK).

"'Let the Indians forget their own languages... and learn ours, which will at once open to them the whole field of every kind of useful knowledge....'" Jedidiah Morse, 1822.

"Other native tribes had already met a similar fate. The Choctaws and Chickasaws have been forced to move West, paving the way with their own suffering and deaths. Members of the Creek had resisted only to be defeated in battle. Other Creeks had been persuaded to help ferret out the Seminoles who still maintained a stronghold in Florida swamps. Less fortunate Seminoles were already show more being sent by boat to the Arkansas territory."

" Out of the 16,000 cherokees who left the east, at least 4,000 didn't live to see their new homeland. With all the undocumented deaths in the stockades, some scholars put the number closer to 8,000." Also, at least 1,00o were Black, apparently mostly slaves of the Cherokee.

"By all accounts blacks were generally treated more humanely within the Cherokee Nation than they were on farms and plantations elsewhere in the South.... In fact, by 1835 a strong movement was afoot to emancipate the slaves and make them Cherokee citizens."

Includes sources bibliography, 'for further reading,' and index. Insufficient illustration credit - by whom is the cover painting? show less

Goodwill