More Land Grab: the Creeks
The anti-Indian policies of
7th US President Andrew Jackson were popular among the land
hungry whites and he was re-elected President in 1832.
[Though the white population was already 13 million, only
some 2 million were eligible to vote.] Jackson proceeded to
speed up Indian removal. Most of the Choctaws were gone but
there were many thousands of Creeks in Alabama, Cherokees in
Georgia and Seminoles in Florida. The Creeks had been
fighting for their land with various European groups from
the time of Columbus. In good faith they signed the Treaty
of Washington (1832) giving up 5 million acres and agreeing
to move beyond the Mississippi. In a matter of days, this
treaty was broken. Hordes of whites invaded Creek lands -
land grabbers, looters, fraudsters, whiskey sellers -
driving thousands of Creeks into the swamps and forests. The
federal government did nothing to stop the invaders.
Unprotected, the Creeks fought back as best they could. By
1836, the federal and state governments had decided that the
Creeks, by making ‘war’, had invalidated the treaties and
must go. An army of 11,000 marched the Creeks westward in
batches of 2000-3000. There was no compensation. Those
presumed to be rebels were herded away in chains, their
women and children trailing behind them. Thousands died on
the way from starvation, sickness or exhaustion.
The
Cherokees
The government was soon after the land
of the Cherokees. Their newspaper was closed and their land
simply divided among the whites. In 1834, hundreds of
harassed Cherokees agreed to move west. 81 died on the way,
including children, from measles and cholera. Half of those
who arrived beyond the Mississippi died from cholera within
a year. In 1836, the Cherokees were summoned in Georgia to
sign a treaty to remove them. Fewer than 500 (out of 17,000)
turned up but the treaty was signed anyway. Thousands of
regular soldiers and militia poured into Cherokee territory
to drive them out. General Winfield Scott served notice that
resistance would “compel us to resort to arms” and a retreat
into the hills and forests would “oblige us to hunt you
down”. The 17,000 Cherokees were rounded up and marched
westwards in batches - many dying of sickness, drought and
heat. They arrived by the icy waters of the Mississippi in
mid-winter. Hundreds of the sick and dying were left lying
on the freezing grounds. Some 4000 Cherokees died in
the removal process. In 1838, US President Van Buren
announced: “It affords sincere pleasure to apprise the
Congress of the entire removal of the Cherokee Nation to
their new homes. The measures authorized by Congress have
had the happiest of effects.”
The Seminoles
In
1819, the US had taken over Florida and the indigenous
people, the Seminoles, were increasingly pressured to move
out. A treaty in 1823 asked them to leave north Florida and
move into the interior which included the swamp lands where
food could not be grown and wild game could not survive. By
1834, Seminole leaders were summoned and told to move out of
Florida altogether. Here is what some of them said: “We
were all made by the same Great Father... Therefore we are
brothers and should live together in peace... My people say
they will not go, if we tear our hearts from our homes, our
heart-strings will snap...”
The white Christian man was not moved and the Seminoles were
forced to defend their land and livelihood by mounting a
series of attacks on the white settlers. In response,
Congress authorized a military campaign under General
Winfield Scott. The war went on for 8 years with a loss of
1500 white lives and at a cost of $20 million. Finally in
the 1840s, the Seminoles gave up and the war ended soon
after. [Pic shows a Seminole family
(19th century)]
Texas Annexed
To the southwest of the US of the 1830s
lay Mexico which had become independent in 1821 when the
Creoles (settlers of Spanish descent) rebelled against
Spain. It was a large country which to the north included
Texas and the present day US states of New Mexico, Utah,
Nevada, Arizona, California and part of Colorado. A series
of revolutionary movements continued to plague the country
and control became more centralised under Mexican leader
Santa Anna in 1824. In 1830, about 16,000 Americans lived in
Texas. The Mexicans made generous land grants to potential
developers and Americans used the opportunity to acquire
huge holdings. One of these early developers was Stephen
Austin who after his detention by the Mexicans favoured an
independent Texas. In 1832, a tougher American, Sam Houston,
arrived from the north. He was a friend of President Andrew
Jackson. Soon the American settlers were at war with Mexico.
After the American defeat at the Alamo, Houston joined in
and defeated the Mexicans. General Santa Anna was captured
and he agreed to grant Texas an independent status in 1836.
The US government, uneasy about the presence and ambitions
of this ‘lone star republic’ at its doorstep, proceeded to
annex it in 1845.
Half of Mexico Taken
US President James
Polk was determined to grab California. He ordered General
Taylor to move troops to the Rio Grande on the southern
boundary of Texas and wait for a pretext to go to war with
Mexico. In 1846, the pretext came: a party of Taylor’s
soldiers were surprised by the Mexicans, several killed and
others captured. Polk lost no time in notifying Congress
that Mexico had “shed American blood upon American soil...we
are called upon by duty and patriotism to vindicate the honor and interests of the country.” War was declared. The
war that followed was bitter and protracted. In the end, the
Mexicans lost and there were patriotic calls that the US
should annex the whole of Mexico. At the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo (1848), the US decided to take half the territory
including New Mexico and California and paid Mexico $15
million. The details of the war need not concern us here.
More significant are the attitudes of Anglo racial
superiority fanned by the war. A concept or doctrine that
was repeatedly invoked was ‘Manifest Destiny’, a belief that
the Anglo American race was ordained by Divine Providence to
shape the destiny of the western hemisphere (see comments on
the right).
References
1. Howard Zinn, The People’s History
of the United States (Longman 1996)
2. Larry Zimmerman,
Native North America (Macmillan 1996) u
What They Said
Broken Treaties
In the history of
diplomatic relations between Indians and white men, (there
is) recorded not a single instance of a treaty which had not
been broken by the white parties to it, however solemnly
embellished with terms like ‘permanent’, ‘forever’, ‘for all
time’...
____ D. Van Every, The Disinherited: The Lost
Birthright of the American Indian, (Morrow 1976)
(White) American Views on the
Mexican War
Our manifest destiny (is) to spread the
continent, allotted by Providence for the free development
of our multiplying millions.
____ Democratic Review
(periodical), 1845
From the first, the US are the
aggressors... We have no right to be here... It looks as if
the government (sought) a pretext for taking California and
as much of Mexico as it chooses.
____ Colonel Hitchcock,
Commander of the 3rd US Infantry Regiment, 1846
Mexico must
be thoroughly chastised! Let our spirit teach the world that
America knows how to crush as well as how to expand!”
____
Walt Whitman (poet), 1846
(The Mexicans are) a wretched
people, wretched in their origin, history and character, who
must yield to the steady advance of a superior race, with
superior ideas and a better civilization.
____ Rev Theordore
Parker, c1846
(The Mexicans) embrace all shades of color...
a sad compound of Spanish, English, Indian and negro
bloods... resulting in the production of a slothful,
ignorant race.
____ Congressman Delano, c1846
The universal Yankee
nation can regenerate the people of Mexico in a few years;
we believe it part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful
country (California).
____ New York Herald, 1847
I believe we should be
recreant to our noble mission if we refused to acquiesce in
the high purpose of a wise Providence... In this view I
subscribe to the doctrine of ‘manifest destiny’.
____ Senator H V Johnson, c1847
We must march from ocean to ocean... We
shall and must gain territory... It is the destiny of the
white race, it is the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race.
____ Congressional Globe, 1847