|
4th Grade ESL Tennessee History Part Seven: Steamboats and the Trail of Tears  Why would the settlers need steamboats?1) It was very difficult for Nashville farmers to return upstream by flatboats after trading their goods. The current of the Cumberland River was too powerful. 
Steamboats on the Cumberland River in Nashville
2) All of this changed in when the steamboat was invented. On March 1819 the General Jackson was the first steamboat to visit Nashville.
3) In a few years, most trade was done on steamboats. No longer was it necessary to float down the river and come home by road. The Natchez Trace was no longer significant. 4) Not all cities on the river could be reached by steamboat. Steamboats were big and wide and difficult to maneuver. Also, the river water had to be at least three or five feet deep for steamboats or they couldn't make it through. 5) It was difficult to travel to Knoxville and Chattanooga (along the Tennessee River) by steamboat because the Tennessee River was too shallow and unpredictable. Travel by steamboat to Nashville was much easier. 6) Nashville became the state capital in 1826. Why was the steamboat significant in the history of Nashville?  Why is the Trail of Tears a sad part of Tennessee history?1) Tennesseans had purchased a lot of land from the Cherokees. The largest purchase was the Chickasaw Purchase of 1818. 
This is what a Cherokee home would have looked like in 1820
2) By this time the ways of the Cherokee had changed. They were no longer at war. They had large farms and sold goods at markets. Some were working as blacksmiths and tailors. They had adopted the Christian religion and had fought as Americans in the War of 1812 and the Creek War. Sequoyah, a Cherokee Indian, had written a language system, and they even had their own newspaper.
3) But some Americans were greedy and wanted more land. Other Americans still didn't believe that there was any way that white culture could remain peacefully side by side with Cherokee culture. How did this happen?1) Andrew Jackson, who was elected president in 1828, did not like Native American culture. He called them "immoral" and "wandering savages". He had fought against them many times. 2) The same year that Jackson was elected president, a Cherokee boy discovered gold in Northwest Georgia, in the middle of Cherokee country. 
A gold panner in North Georgia in the 19th century PHOTO: Georgia Department of Archives and History 3) White prospectors came in large numbers hoping to find gold. They began to plunder and burn Cherokee homes, wanting to scare away the Cherokee people.
4) On May 28, 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. It demanded that all Native Americans leave their homes and move west of the Mississippi River. 5) The Cherokees refused to go and filed a lawsuit against the government to stop this from happening. 
This picture is from the Cherokee Indian Museum in Cherokee, North Carolina
6) The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the Cherokee nation, but Jackson refused to obey the Supreme Court. The presidency probably should have been taken away from Jackson for his disobedience, but Congress did not act to remove him from his position.
7) By 1838, Martin Van Buren was the president. He agreed with Jackson about removing the Cherokee. By this time, most Native Americans gave up, refused to fight and moved west. Those who stayed behind were gathered by the U.S. Army and forced to leave. This sad event is known as the Trail of Tears. 
The route of the Trail of Tears
8) About 16,000 Cherokee people were marched to the state of Oklahoma. The journey took a year and a half. One in four people died as they walked.
Our New Tennessee History Words
* flatboat: A flatboat is a raft with sides attached to it. * significant: Something significant is something that is very important. * maneuver: When you maneuver, you move through a course. * goods: Goods are things that can be bought, sold or traded. * blacksmith: A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from iron or steel. * tailors: Tailors sew clothing. * immoral: An immoral person does not understand the difference or recognize the difference between right and wrong behavior. * savage: A savage is a wild, out of control person. * prospector: A prospector is a person who searches for gold and takes it if he finds it. * plunder: To plunder is to take something illegally. * lawsuit: A lawsuit is a legal action by one person against another person. |
Click