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FOURTH GRADE HISTORY
Part Six: Big Names Here are some of the more important figures in Tennessee history from the early 1800s: Andrew Jackson
As far as American history is concerned, Andrew Jackson is almost certainly the most important person to come from But he had a rough life. His father died before he was born; his mother and both his brothers died before he was 14. Luckily for him, he found a job as a lawyer's apprentice when he was a teenager. At the age of 20 he moved to
Today people still argue about things Andrew Jackson did as president. He dissolved the Bank of the United States. He paid off the national debt. But the most controversial thing he ever did was order all Native Americans moved west – a forced migration known as the Trail of Tears. Nancy Ward She was born as a member of the Cherokee tribe in 1738 -- in the midst of a horrible smallpox epidemic -- and at that time her name was Nan’yehi. As a young woman she took part in battles against the Creek Indians, and largely because of this she became a leader within the Cherokee nation. But she could also be a peacemaker, and at one point she spared the life of Lyda Bean, the wife of William Bean (Tennessee's first permanent white male settler). David Crockett “Be sure you are right. Then go-ahead.” This was the motto of David Crockett. Crockett was born in Greene County in 1786 and as a young man he, at different times, lived in Lincoln, Franklin, Lawrence and Gibson counties (today there is a monument or park to him just about everywhere he lived). He excelled at hunting and at being a soldier, fighting in several battles against Native Americans. In 1835 Crockett lost a Congressional election, and it made him so mad that he moved to Sam Houston Sam Houston was a big, strong man, but many of his biographies say he was afraid of the dark. He also became governor of two American states even though he seemed to prefer Native American culture over white culture.
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Sequoyah
Sequoyah
As we said before, one of the big differences between Native American tribes and white settlers is that the Native Americans didn’t have a written language. The man who would eventually do something to change this was born in 1776 in the Cherokee town of Sequoyah was raised in a manner typical of Cherokee children of that era, but he spent much of his youth exposed to white culture. For instance, he was trained as a blacksmith – certainly something that wasn’t a part of Cherokee culture. During the War of 1812 and the Creek War of 1813-14 he fought on the side of the Americans. Legend has it that he first got the idea to create an alphabet for the Cherokee people when he saw soldiers writing letters home during that war. Convinced his people needed a language, Sequoyah spent several years creating one, coming up with new symbols for every sound in the Cherokee spoken language. Legend has it that he first demonstrated his new written language to other Cherokees at a tribal meeting, with his daughter reading something he had written. Sequoyah’s new “talking leaves,” as they were sometimes known, caught on so fast within the Cherokee nation that by the late 1820s it is believed that the literacy rate among Cherokees was higher than it was for whites who lived near them. Starting in 1828, the Cherokees even had their own newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, written in the new language. However, Sequoyah’s language came too late to make any real impact on the sad fate that awaited the Cherokee nation. James K. Polk
When Andrew Jackson was president, one of his most devoted followers in the U. S. House of Representatives was James K. Polk, a resident of Columbia and former governor of Tennessee. In fact, Polk was often known as “Young Hickory.” In 1844 Polk was elected president of the United States. Polk did not run for a second term. He died only months after he left office and is now buried on the lawn of the State Capitol. Identify the person who might have written the following sentences:
1. I was the American president during the Mexican-American War. 2. I invented an entire alphabet. 3. I was the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. 4. I was a hero to my Cherokee people in war, but I mainly wanted them to live in peace. 5. I quit my job as governor of 6. I was a hunter, a settler, a Congressman, and a frontier hero. But I left Tennessee in disgust. ASSIGNMENT: Write a report on a famous Tennessean from this era. |
All photographs taken by Bill Carey for THKF unless otherwise stated.











