The Jefferson and Jacksonian Eras
During the Jeffersonian Era relations between Native peoples and the United States were generally slanted towards a Jeffersonian idea of nonviolence and induction of the Native population into the young nation’s society and economy.1 There were still many points of contention, however. The U.S. drafted numerous treaties pertaining to land claims with various local Native nations,2 and there were always popular movements for further expansion.3 Settlers continually pushed deeper into Native territory to homestead, something accentuated by Madison’s belief that the west could relieve population pressures on the east coast by allowing farmers to migrate inland.4 This led to violence throughout the borderlands of Native nations and the U.S.
Agrarian culture was important in the early development of the U.S. While various crops were grown throughout the nation, and in borderland areas, by far the most important for the South and, by the early nineteenth century, the nation as a whole, was cotton. This stimulated greater economic growth for the South and the increasingly industrialized North. The national reliance on cotton, when paired with the extensive financial costs in maintaining large plantation estates and the rapidly dwindling territory available to planters, led to a deep economic motivation for expansion. Through treaties, the U.S. encouraged Native peoples to adopt male-headed agricultural households, like those of the U.S., so that they would live on smaller parcels of land and the U.S. could claim the rest of their territory for its burgeoning agricultural markets. Supposedly it would be a fair negotiation “between those who have lands to spare and want other necessaries, and those who have such necessaries to spare and want lands.”5 While there were a number of Native tribes who would end up following through on this idea, adapting their cultures and agreeing to land cessions,6 there were also many Native people who grew increasingly irate about the constant encroachment and demands of the United States. This resentment grew both at the level of negotiating treaties and at the level of responses to individual homesteaders claiming Native land. The Treaty of Fort Wayne7 in particular fueled this conflict, when Tecumseh claimed that the Chiefs who had signed the treaty did not have proper ownership of the land given, leading to the formation of Tecumseh’s confederation and rebellion and which extended into the War of 1812. U.S. citizens felt deep resentment toward Native nations, a situation which and propelled the rise of Andrew Jackson and his proposal to remove Native people from the east.8
Treaty of Ghent
Tenskwatawa "The Prophet"
Where the Jeffersonian Era was marked by mostly nonviolent policies and measures to have Native peoples assimilated into the emerging post-colonial culture,9 the Jacksonian Era was characterized by the single goal of developing a larger, wealthier, and generally stronger United States. According to U.S. politicians, this future had virtually no place for Native nations within it.10 Andrew Jackson started his rise to popularity in the U.S. with a victory over the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. This was the last major conflict in the Creek Civil war, an extension of Tecumseh’s rebellion where a large faction of the Creek population grew dissatisfied with the cooperation of the larger Creek community with the U.S. and, as a result, began a resistance movement. Jackson fought this faction (the Red Sticks) with a coalition force of both US infantry and Native soldiers,11 and after the battle he presented the “treaty” of Fort Jackson to the Creek. In this treaty he demanded that, due to the failure of the Creek to prevent this war (presumably by killing or turning Tecumseh over to the U.S.), the Creek were to surrender twenty-three million acres of land to the U.S. to ensure U.S.' national security.12 Within weeks this treaty would be contradicted by the Treaty of Ghent, the official peace treaty to end the War of 1812, in which all captured lands were to be returned to their original nations,13 but with the unanimous ratification of the Fort Jackson Treaty14 Andrew Jackson felt entitled to disregard this clause of the Treaty of Ghent. This mindset would define Jackson during his rise to power, as he argued for the necessity of national security. He believed that as long as the U.S. shared borders with Native nations (at least on the same side of the Mississippi river), the U.S. would not be secure.15 National security, which would also be his justification for his actions in the Nullification crisis and the conquest of Florida, would benefit the economy by opening up the newly cleared borderlands to agrarian markets.16 Even when carrying out orders to keep homesteaders from moving into newly opened land he would prioritize the preservation of settler crops.17 Buoyed by his great popularity in the South and bordering territories, Jackson was elected President, and oversaw the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This act was the culmination of Jackson’s politics, allowing him to immediately start negotiations for the removal of Native nations to the far side of the Mississippi river in exchange for financial compensation.18 This transfer would supposedly grant increased security to the settlers and to the nation overall, opening up much land, and allowing easier access to New Orleans and the Mississippi river for the U.S. (a valuable city and waterway for trade).
First Seminole War
Tecumseh
By Nick Burbules
1 Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826. Notes on the State of Virginia, Documenting the American South, docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/jefferson/jefferson.html.
2 Kappler, Charles Joseph. Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. vol. 2, Govt. Print. Off., 1904.
3 Kappler, Charles Joseph. Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. vol. 2, Govt. Print. Off., 1904, pp. 64–66.
4 Letters and Other Writings of James Madison Volume 4, by James Madison, Rarebooksclub Com, 2012, pp. 261–261.
5 “Founders Online: From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 18 February 1803.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-39-02-0456.
6 “CONSTITUTION OF THE CHEROKEE NATION.” Cherokee Phoenix, Hunter Library's Cherokee Phoenix Project, www.wcu.edu/library/DigitalCollections/CherokeePhoenix/Vol1/no01/constitution-of-the-cherokee-nation-page-1-column-2a-page-2-column-3a.html.
7 Kappler, Charles Joseph. Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. vol. 2, Govt. Print. Off., 1904, pp. 101–102.
8 Jackson, Andrew, and Willie Blount. Willie Blount to Andrew Jackson. 1813. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/maj001848/.
9 “Founders Online: From Thomas Jefferson to Sir John Sinclair, 30 June 1803.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0486.
10 Pinckney, Thomas, and Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson to Thomas Pinckney. 1814. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/maj003002/.
11 Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845. Major General Andrew Jackson's official report (with map) to Tennessee Governor Willie Blount following the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend. 1814 March 31. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://cdm15138.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15138coll33/id/252.
12 Kappler, Charles Joseph. Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. vol. 2, Govt. Print. Off., 1904, pp. 107–110.
13 “Transcript of Treaty of Ghent (1814).” Our Documents - Transcript of Treaty of Ghent (1814), Our Documents, www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=20&page=transcript.
14 Jackson, Andrew, and Jesse Wharton. Jesse Wharton to Andrew Jackson. 1815. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/maj005119/.
15 The Papers of Andrew Jackson. 1814-1815, by Andrew Jackson and Harold D. Moser, Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1991, pp. 73–75.
16 Monroe, James, and Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson to James Monroe. 1816. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/maj006961/.
17 Jackson, Andrew, and Edmund Pendleton Gaines. Edmund Pendleton Gaines to Andrew Jackson. 1820. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/maj009621/.
18 A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875, Library of Congress, memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=004%2Fllsl004.db&recNum=458.
Treaty of Ghent: Early issue of the Treaty of Ghent, titled "A Treaty of Peace and Amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America." Signed at Ghent, December 24, 1814. Printed by R. G. Clarke, Cannon-Row, Westminster. Accessed May 26, 2021. https://archive.org/details/treatyofpeaceami00unse
Tecumseh: "Tecumseh," 1817. National Portrait Gallery Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Accessed May 26, 2021. http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm413068246-a63e-4241-9a40-c044bffd84c8
Tenskwatawa "The Prophet": J. Barincou, "Tenskwatawa," 1835. National Portrait Gallery Collection, Washington D.C. Accessed May 26, 2021. http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4c03e7876-8517-44f2-9829-b76fbbef0a49
First Seminole War: Joshua R. Giddings, "The Exiles of Florida," Columbus, Ohio: Follet, Foster, and Company, 1858. University of California via HathiTrust. Accessed May 26, 2021. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t8w95365d