How Native American Slaveholders Complicate the Trail of Tears Narrative

You know about the forced removal of Cherokees on a “trail of tears,” thanks to the villainous Andrew Jackson.

What you probably don’t picture are Cherokee slaveholders, foremost among them Cherokee chief John Ross. What you probably don’t picture are the numerous African-American slaves, Cherokee-owned, who made the brutal march themselves, or else were shipped en masse to what is now Oklahoma aboard cramped boats by their wealthy Indian masters.

And what you may not know is that the federal policy of Indian removal, which ranged far beyond the Trail of Tears and the Cherokee, was not simply the vindictive scheme of Andrew Jackson, but rather a popularly endorsed, congressionally sanctioned campaign spanning the administrations of nine separate presidents.

Huh. What do y’know?

via At the Smithsonian | Smithsonian Magazine