Indian Removal Act (1830)

In the 50 years following U.S. independence, white settlers expanded beyond the Appalachian Mountains onto lands occupied by Native Americans. In response to the growing conflict between settlers and Native Americans, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The law sought the removal or acculturation of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole Indians, and perhaps more important, it signaled a new phase of national policy whereby the U.S. government would open land, with force if necessary, for white settlement.

The colonists declared independence from England in 1776 for several reasons. Among the most pointed criticism directed at the Crown was the limit it placed on western expansion following the War of Empire with France and Spain during the 1750s and 1760s. English authorities passed the proclamation line of 1763, making it illegal for white settlers to cross the Appalachians. According to the Crown, the measure minimized conflict on the frontier and thus ensured stable trade relations on the coast. However, after independence, settlers (now U.S. citizens) abolished the proclamation line and streamed onto the western frontier, disrupting Native societies in the process. Not surprisingly, violence between settlers and Native Americans broke out, and fighting around the Great Lakes and the midwest cost the new nation much treasury. Moreover, many white citizens believed that God had offered the continent to people of European descent, while others believed that the Native Americans’ unwillingness to adopt European customs such as private [Page 1178]property and Christianity rendered them an inferior population who stood in the way of progress.

Upon entering office in 1829, Andrew Jackson held a combination of these beliefs and was determined to use the presidency as means to open the trans-Appalachian west for permanent settlement. In the attempt to maintain their sovereignty, some Native groups like the Cherokee established representative government, adopted private property and sedentary agriculture, and even practiced slavery. However, Jackson maintained his opinion that whites and Indians could not live together; the latter must vacate their ancestral homelands to accommodate white advancement. Despite some contentious debate in Congress, Jackson's Indian Removal Act put these beliefs into practice.