Jacksonland : President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a great American land grab / Steve Inskeep

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Indian map and the White man's map -- Horseshoe, 1814. Every thing is to be feared ; Urge on all those Cherokees ; Stamping his foot for war ; It was dark before we finished killing them -- Origins, 1767-1814. Send a few late newspapers by the bearer ; I am fond of hearing that there is a peace ; Every thing that was dear to me -- Old Hickory, 1815-1818. Address their fears and indulge their avarice ; Men of cultivated understandings ; Let me see you as I pass -- Young prince, 1820-1828. This unexpected weapon of defence ; Ominous of other events ; The taverns were unknown to us -- Interlude. Hero's progress, 1824-1825. Liberty, equality, and true social order ; Clay is politically damd ; We wish to know whether you could protect us -- Inaugurations, 1828-1829. We are politically your friends and brethren ; This is a straight and good talk ; The blazing light of the nineteenth century -- State of the Union, 1829-1830. They have been led to look upon us as unjust ; The expediency of setting fire ; Sway the empire of affection -- Checks and balances, 1830-1832. Legislative ; Judicial ; Executive -- Democracy in America, 1833 -1835. The purest love of formalities ; I have the right to address you ; We are yet your friends ; Should they be satisfied with the character of that country -- Tears, 1835-1838. Five millions of dollars ; The War Department does not understand these people ; Perchance, you may have heard that the Cherokees are in trouble ; The thunder often sounding in the distance.

Five decades after the Revolutionary War, the United States approached a constitutional crisis. At its center stood two former military comrades locked in a struggle that tested the boundaries of our fledgling democracy. One man we recognize: Andrew Jackson - war hero, populist, and exemplar of the expanding South - whose first major initiative as President instigated the massive expulsion of Native Americans known as the Trail of Tears. The other is a half-forgotten figure: John Ross - a mixed-race Cherokee politician and diplomat - who used the United States' own legal system and democratic ideals to oppose Jackson. Representing one of the Five Civilized Tribes who had adopted the ways of white settlers - cultivating farms, publishing a newspaper in their own language, and sending children to school - Ross championed the tribes' cause all the way to the Supreme Court. He gained allies like Senator Henry Clay, Chief Justice John Marshall, and even Davy Crockett. In a fight that seems at once distant and familiar, Ross and his allies made their case in the media, committed civil disobedience, and benefited from the first mass political action by American women. At stake in this struggle was the land of the Five Civilized Tribes. In shocking detail, Jacksonland reveals how Jackson, as a general, extracted immense wealth from his own armies' conquest of native lands. Later, as president, Jackson set in motion the seizure of tens of millions of acres in today's Deep South. This is the story of America at a moment of transition, when the fate of states and nations was decided by the actions of two heroic yet tragically opposed men.

English.