The expulsion of Native Americans from the eastern half of the continent to the Indian Territory beyond the Mississippi River remains one of the most notorious events in U.S. history, and the man most responsible and most widely blamed for their removal is Andrew Jackson. Robert Remini, hailed by the New York Times as “our foremost Jacksonian scholar,” now provides a thought-provoking analysis of this single most controversial aspect of Jackson’s long career.
Andrew Jackson was fearless—some would say ruthless—in his single-minded focus on the security of the United States. Orphaned at fifteen and already a veteran of wars with the British and the Indians, Jackson was clear and outspoken from an early age in his often violent patriotism. In a spirited narrative, Remini describes Jackson’s early years as an Indian fighter in South Carolina and Tennessee, his victory in the Creek War of 1814, his excursions against the Choctaws, Cherokees, and Chickasaws, and his conduct of the First Seminole War in Florida. Remini recalls Jackson’s political rise and election to the presidency, where he set in motion the legislation that led to the Indian Removal Act and eventually the Trail of Tears.
Masterfully capturing Jackson's flaws and limitations as well as his heroism, Remini contends that, despite the injustice and atrocities that accompanied the removal, Jackson in fact ensured the tribes’ survival for they surely would have been wholly exterminated had they remained in place.
This is at once an exuberant work of American history and a sobering reminder of the violence and darkness at the heart of that history. |
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