Episode 412: Trail of Tears: American Greed, American Tragedy
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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at greed made manifest by the US government—the tragedy of the Trail of Tears. Most people know the Trail of Tears to be a death march in which indigenous peoples in the US were forced to relocate to lands they didn’t want, but it is a deeper tale than that. First, it wasn’t just the Cherokee as many people were taught in school. It was several groups, including the Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw (among others). It also wasn’t just a single bad march, it was a systemic, government run process of forcing people of their land for about a decade. So where did it start? Greed.
In the early 1800s, gold was discovered in Georgia. Simultaneously, southern plantation owners in several states were trying to grab more land, and there were several Indian groups who owned the land they wanted. Why try to buy land at a fair price (for gold or agriculture), when you can get the government to forcibly remove people?
Enter the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It was a close vote in the Congress, but the support of President Jackson won the day, and the native peoples were screwed. Money was set aside to buy land and pay for the move, but not enough. Plus which, the government had no idea how to move 100,000 people without a significant portion of them dying.
In the Trail of Tears, there was greed and corruption. There was cholera and blizzards. There was a whole lot of death and a whole of people who didn’t care so much. Groups like the Choctaw made deals with the US government to sell their own farm land and set out early (but died on the trail anyway). Groups like the Cherokee held out until the end and were forced to move at military gunpoint. And, badass groups like the Seminole fought a war, killing people guerrilla style from the swamps of the Florida everglades by way of resistance.
So, which native groups went willingly, and which ones fought tooth and nail? Who was the chief that caused so much trouble in Florida? Which groups of Indians owned African slaves? What did George Washington try to do decades earlier to stop this from happening? How many people were transported in the Trail of Tears and how many were thought to have died? How much more did boat owners charge the natives than the white man to travel to their destination? How many times will Dave say “supple cotton” in this episode? Listen, laugh, learn.
Explore the Sources we Cite and Discuss:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Trail-of-Tears
https://edu.glogster.com/glog/trail-of-tears/2374kgdmewa?=glogpedia-source
http://www.dadiepiombo.it/pdf/seminole-sr.pdf
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears
https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears
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