Page 241 - American Stories, A History of the United States

allies virtually defenseless before the tide of whites who rushed into the region. Con-
9.1 signed by treaty to reservations outside the main lines of white advance, most of the
tribes were eventually forced west of the Mississippi.
The last stand of the Indians in this region occurred in 1831–1832, when a faction of
9.2 the confederated Sac and Fox under Chief Black Hawk refused to abandon their lands east
of the Mississippi. Federal troops and Illinois militia drove the Indians back to the river,
where they were almost exterminated while attempting to cross to the western bank.

9.3 Uprooting Indian communities of the Old Northwest was part of a national pro-
gram for removing Indians of the eastern part of the country to an area beyond the
Mississippi. Many whites viewed Indian society and culture as radically inferior to their
own and doomed by “progress.” Furthermore, Indians based property rights to land
on use rather than absolute ownership. Whites saw this as an insuperable obstacle to
economic development. Moving Indians west helped many Americans reap fortunes
through land speculation. Andrew Jackson got rich speculating on lands he bought
from the Chickasaws after negotiating a treaty with them and opening an area along
the Mississippi to white settlement in 1814. Land he bought for $100, he later sold for
$5,000. Jackson made his name fighting the Creeks in the 1810s. After victory in that
conflict, he wrote to General Thomas Pinckney, “I must destroy these deluded victims
doomed to destruction by their own restless and savage conduct,” and added that he
had “on all occasions preserved the scalps of my killed.”
As originally conceived by Thomas Jefferson, removal would have allowed those
Indians who became “civilized” to remain behind on individually owned farms and
qualify for American citizenship. This policy would reduce Indian holdings without
appearing to violate American standards of justice. Not everyone agreed with Jefferson’s
Quick Check belief that Indians, unlike blacks, had the natural ability to adopt white ways and become
useful citizens. People living on the frontier who coveted Indian land and risked violent
In what ways did the Cherokee
attempt to Increase their chances retaliation for trying to take it were more likely to think of Native Americans as irredeem-
of survival in the face of American able savages or vermin to be exterminated if necessary. During the Monroe era (1817–
settlement, and how did they differ 1825), it became clear that white settlers wanted to remove all Indians, “civilized” or not.
from the Seminoles?
As president, Andrew Jackson presided over a far more aggressive Indian removal policy.

Transportation and the Market Economy

9.2 How did developments in transportation support the growth of agriculture and
manufacturing?
I t took more than the spread of settlements to bring prosperity to new areas and

ensure that the inhabitants would identify with older regions or with the country as
a whole. Land transportation was so primitive that in 1813 it took 75 days for one
wagon of goods drawn by four horses to travel about 1,000 miles from Worcester,
Massachusetts, to Charleston, South Carolina. Coastal shipping eased the problem to
some extent in the East and stimulated the growth of port cities. Traveling west over
the mountains, however, meant months on the trail.
After the War of 1812, political leaders realized that national security, economic
progress, and political unity more or less depended on an improved transportation
network. Accordingly, President Madison called for a federally supported program of
“internal improvements” in 1815. In the ensuing decades, the nationalists realized their
vision of a transportation revolution to a considerable extent, although the direct role
of the federal government proved to be less important than anticipated.

Roads and Steamboats

The first great federal transportation project was building the National Road between
Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac and Wheeling, Virginia, on the Ohio (1811–
1818). This impressive gravel-surfaced toll road was extended to Vandalia, Illinois,
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