FREE ESSAY ON NATIVE AMERICAN & SLAVERY 1800

NATIVE AMERICAN & SLAVERY 1800

The constitution of the United States reads; "We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain
inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." 
In the 1830's, there existed a deep division among the nation's white population
reguarding Native Americans. In their dealings with Native Americans, the first white
settlers adopted policies that were shaped by their own European worldview and
experience. When the United States became a nation, the new government built on this
European foundation, but over time adapted its Native American policy to changing
perspectives and needs- mainly the desire for more land and wealth. Eventually the Native
Americans were regarded as an anachronism irreclaimable savage by those west of the
Appalachians and redeemable savages by eastern philanthropists and humanitarians.
To the whites settlers in the trans-Appalachian frontier that ran from the mid-west to
the southern states, Indians were considered a threat that had to be exterminated. 
Believers in Native American reform were largely from the industrial and commercial
centers in the Northeast where few Indians lived. 
With the arrival of twenty Negroes aboard a Dutch man-of-war in Virginia in 1619, the
face of American slavery began to change from the tawny Indian to the blackamoor African;
a period of transition lasting from between 1650 to 1750. Though the issue is complex,
the unsuitability of the Native American for the labor-intensive agricultural practices,
their susceptibility to European diseases, the proximity of avenues of escape for Native
Americans, and the lucrative nature of the African slave trade led to a transition to an
African-based institution of slavery. In spite of a later tendency in the Southern United
States to differentiate the African slave from the Indian, African slavery was in
actuality imposed on top of a pre-existing system of Indian slavery. In North America,
the two never diverged as distinctive institutions.
Indian slaves were considered to be sullen, insubordinate, and short lived, A.B. Hart
quoted in Sanford Wilson, Indian Slavery in the South Carolina Region, Journal of Negro
History 22 (1935): 440. The article further describes Native American slaves as not of
such robust and strong bodies, as to lift great burdens, and endure labor and slavish
work. Native Americans were not without some commercial value. They were often seized
throughout the South and taken to the slave markets and traded at an exchange rate of two
for one for African Americans. An interesting spin on the story comes from Booker T.
Washington and W.E.B. Dubois who, even in agreement with the positions stated above,
stated that The Indian refused to submit to bondage and to learn the white man's ways.
The result is that the greater portion of the American Indians has disappeared, the
greater portions of those who remain are not civilized. The Negro, wiser and more
enduring than the Indian, patiently endured slavery; and contact with the white man has
given him a civilization vastly superior to that of the Indian. (Booker T. Washington and
W.E.B. Dubois, The Negro in the South: His Economic Progress in Relation to His Moral and
Religious Development (Philadelphia, George W. Jacobs and Company, 1907), 14.) Washington
reiterates this point by quoting Dr. John Spencer, who in discussing the collapse of
indentured servitude and Indian slavery, stated In each case
it was survival of the fittest. Both Indian slavery and white servitude were to go down
before the black man's superior endurance, docility, and labor capacity. (Dr. John
Spencer quoted in Booker T. Washington, The Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from
Slavery.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATIVE AND AFRICAN AMERICANS:
During this transitional period, Africans and Native Americans shared the common
experience of enslavement. In addition to working together in the fields, they lived
together in communal living quarters, began to produce collective recipes for food and
herbal remedies, shared myths and legends, and ultimately intermarried. The intermarriage
of Africans and Native Americans was facilitated by the disproportionate numbers of
African male slaves to females (3 to 1) and the decimation of Native American males by
disease, enslavement, and prolonged war against the colonists.
As Native American societies in the Southeast were primarily matrilineal, African men who
married Native American women often became members of the wife's clan and citizens of the
respective nation. As relationships grew, the lines of racial distinction began to blur,
and the evolution of red-black people began to pursue its own course. Many of the people
known as slaves, free people of color, Africans, or Indians were most often the products
of an integrating culture. Many aspects of African American culture, including
handicrafts, music, and folklore, may be Native American rather than African in origin.
The cultures of Africans and Natives intertwined in complex ways in the early Southeast,
and material culture, like social organization, often reflected the blending of these two
cultures.
The Cherokee accepted African Americans from the very earliest points of contact; the
European colonial powers feared an alliance between the mountain Indians and runaway
blacks, as had been done in Jamaica and Haiti. On the eve of the Revolutionary War,
Cherokee traditional leader Attakullakulla spoke metaphorically (and almost biblically)
of how, within the old way, there was a house of cultural accommodation in which blacks
had a room of their own. Among the people of the Chickamagua region of the Cherokee
Nation and those who spoke the Kituwhan dialect, there was a particular ethnic openness,
and the people were more receptive to racial diversity within their towns than the
mainstream Cherokees.
As white Georgians' disgust of Indians rose, they pressured the government to remove all
Indians from the state. In 1817, Senator Andrew Jackson forced Cherokee leaders into a
treaty, which traded a third of Cherokee territory for land in the Arkansas Territory.
Although not forced, nearly six thousand emigrated.
What Africans went through:
During this same period, Africans in the South were pushed into continued forced labor.
With Eli Whitney's cotton gin, the cotton industry became the core of the southern
economy in the United States. More slave labor was used on the plantations in the South.
At the same time, the abolitionists in the North began to gain strength. Their
antislavery movement divided the United States. This movement was part of the fuel that
ignited the Civil War in 1861. From this era in history, African American leaders became
vocal and organized. Many of these leaders influenced the African American community.
Among them was Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was a former slave who spoke
eloquently and was able to give a picture of slavery through his speeches and his
autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. With the emancipation of the
slaves by the 13th Amendment, he along with others believed that African Americans would
be treated as citizens. Yet, the African Americans faced continued oppression. In a
speech to whites in 1895, he said, "The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity,
and independence, bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not me. The sunlight that
brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. The Fourth of July
is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must moum."
Indian Removal Act:
After the passing of the Indian Removal Act, which mandated the relocation of eastern
tribes to the west, thousands of Indians began their trek across the country. Not all
tribes went easily. Posing the most difficulty was the Cherokee nation. Feeling cheated,
the Cherokee nation took their case to the Supreme Court on two occasions. The first
case, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, ruled that the court did not have jurisdiction. The
second case, Worcestor v. Georgia, brought hope to the Cherokee. The judge ruled that the
state of Georgia had no power over the Cherokee; only the federal government could pass
laws dealing with the Indians. Andrew Jackson ignored the ruling and proceeded to have a
lottery of Cherokee land. 
The Cherokee nation was split into two: those that favored removal and those that opposed
it. When the pro-removal division sold all of the nation's land for five million dollars,
the anti-removal side was furious. They refused to leave the land until 1838 when they
were escorted by the American army. The long journey became known as the Trail of Tears.

The Trail of Tears was filled with emotional hardships and physical exhaustion. Of the
eighteen thousand Cherokees who started the journey, four thousand of them had died
either on the trail or in stockades.