Trail of Tears Compare/Contrast Center
Directions:
1. Read each piece carefully.
2. Note who wrote each one.
3. What is each person saying?
4. How are their views about the Indian Removal Act different?
5. Compare and contrast what each says about freedom.
6. Respond in your notebook.
Quote from Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, speaking to Congress in 1830, urging them to pass the Indian Removal Act:
“It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the states; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions, and perhaps gradually, under the protection of the [U.S.] government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community.”
Quote from Cherokee Chief, John Ross:
“We are stripped of every attribute of freedom…Our property may be plundered before our eyes; violence may be committed on our person; even our lives may be taken away…We are deprived of membership in the human family!”