ANSWER: President Andrew Jackson urged Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act, which it did in 1830. This act gave the federal government the authority to remove any southeastern tribes from their ancestral homelands and relocate them to the distant, barren land of what is now called Oklahoma. For the next decade the Five Civilized Tribes of the southeast were forcibly marched 800 miles in harsh weather without adequate food or shelter. Over 100,000 natives were forced from their homes, and it’s estimated that over 15,000 died on the long, brutal marches. White settlers seized all their lands.
Archives for April 2019
Who was Frederick Douglass?
Trump was praising Douglass in the present tense as if he is a rising star among black political leaders. The great abolitionist, however, died in 1895. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became the most famous black leader of the 19th century. Many doubted that a former slave could be such an eloquent speaker, which prompted him to write his first autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. It became a bestseller in the United States and Europe and is now considered a must-read classic on slavery.
Who was this famous Chief?
Answer: Red Cloud, Chief of the Oglala Lakota. Quote from Vine Deloria Jr.’s classic book, “God is Red”.
Coming May 15th– “The Great Divide: Why the Civil War Never Ended”
Read the Introduction by clicking INTRO in the Header bar or scrolling to the bottom of these brief posts.
Who was this Supreme Court Chief Justice?
ANSWER: Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Andrew Jackson. He declared in the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857 that blacks were not and could never be citizens of the United States. They could, however, be “bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it.”