Indian Removal Act of 1830

Indian Removal Act of 1830

Question 1

President Andrew Jackson advocated for the Indian Removal Act of 1830 that forced the southeastern natives to relocate to the west of Mississippi River. The law was established to free land for the white settlers by using the army as well as militia to forcefully evict the Native Americans to augment the Trail of Tears history. The Americans moving west searched for the opportunities to own land based on the Homestead Act. The mining and the gold opportunities also resulted in the westward expansion with the effect of the railroad that ensured the supplies were available. At the same time, the cattle industry and the adventure of the Wild West continued the surge that resulted in the clashes between the Natives and the Americans moving west. As the prospective gold miners occupied the West Mississippi, violent conflict erupted over the natural resources and land. The occupations also affected the culture, politics, religion, and the lands of the Native Americans to further the clashes.

Question 2

W.E.B Du Bois, African American scholar, describes the reconstruction failure as splendid in light of the shortcomings of reconstruction in his 1935 book, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880. Du Bois used the term ‘splendid failure’ in light of reconstruction because it did not fail of the rationale that the white people expected. Whilst the constitutional amendment declared that the free slaves become citizens, controversy emerges based on their integration in society. Du Bois explores the failures and the shortcomings of the reconstruction in light of the long-term implications of reconstruction. From a personal perspective, the statement W.E.B Du Bois makes that despite the atrocities of the failures, the reconstruction failure was splendid (Du Bois 708). The statement forms an agreeable analogy in light of the long-term implications of reconstruction.

The amendments that declared the slaves free neglected the rights of women and children because the freed slaves did not have equal rights to the people living in the nation. The Jim Crow laws and the black codes augmented the negative implications of the Ku Klux Klan activities. The phenomenon of the separate but equal laws used in schools discriminated against the freed slaves as the government marginalized the black communities. Du Bois compounded the injustices directed at the free slaves from the perspective of the civil and labor rights augmented in the realm of the Black Codes. Indeed, reconstruction accentuated discrimination and racial segregation amidst the innumerable concept of white supremacy.

Question 3

The captains of industry were philanthropists who made their wealth in a manner that benefitted society by providing employment opportunities as well as increase productivity. The American captains of industry instigated the growth explosion of the industries and the business in the United States of America. The greater value of the agricultural products and the value of industrial products peaked in the year 1890 to augment the significant industrial growth. The captains of industry in the Gilded Age of America included John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. For example, Ford established a Valley Farm to take care of the orphaned boys, built a school in Georgia for the African American children, and the Henry Ford Hospital for the working poor to stimulate the lives of Americans. Carnegie contributed to the society by establishing the New York Public Library, Carnegie Mellon College, and the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace.

# 3 – Who were some of the American captains of industry between 1865 and 1915? What changes did they stimulate in American life?

# 4 – Explain the circumstances, advantages, and disadvantages of America’s acquisition of the Philippine Islands.

Works Cited

Du Bois, W. E. B. “Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880.” New York (2001).

VMFA. (2020). Native American Indian and Western Expansion of the United States – Learn – Educational Resources – ARCHIVE. Vmfa.museum. Retrieved April 3, 2020, from https://www.vmfa.museum/learn-archive/microsites/george-catlin/native-american-indian-and-western-expansion-of-the-united-states/.

Poster Advertising “Indian Territory That Garden of the World, Open for Homestead and Pre-Emption” in Current Day Oklahoma; ca. 1889; Letters Received, 11/1863 – 12/1904; Records of U.S. Army Continental Commands, Record Group 393; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/indian-territory-poster, April 3, 2020]

Hendrick, Burton Jesse. The age of big business: a chronicle of the captains of industry. Vol. 39. Yale University Press, 1920.