History of the United States I / Unit 10 USH1 1392 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Assimilation Was Not the Point
The idea
The condition placed on Native nations was that they adopt Anglo-American ways. The Cherokee did so more completely than any other nation. They spoke English, practised Christianity, farmed as their neighbours farmed, held enslaved people as their neighbours did, wrote a constitution and published a newspaper in their own alphabet. They met the stated condition and were removed anyway.
In practice
A people designated civilised by their neighbours and expelled by them in the same decade.
Where people slip
This is the anchor's own point and it settles a question students often ask. The argument was never about civilisation. It was about land, and the civilisation test was a condition offered in bad faith, because no performance of it would have been accepted. Removal followed the discovery of gold in Georgia and the pressure of cotton planters for territory, not from any failure of the Cherokee to comply.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
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