The Trail Of Tears An Annotated Bibliography History Essay

The book The Removal of the Cherokee Nation: Manifest Destiny or National Dishonor? is written by Louis Filler and Allen Guttmann, and covers the key political aspects of the removal of the Cherokees from their land from 1829 to 1832. This book revolves around the speeches and the judicial trials that were held in regards to the Cherokee expulsion. It contains Theodore Frelinghuysen’s speech before the Senate, Wilson Lumpkin’s speech before Congress, and even a speech by David Crockett presented before congress. It mainly revolves around the removals in the states of Georgia and South Carolina. The book extensively covers the court rulings of “The Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia” and “Worcester vs. The State of Georgia.” It contains arguments both for the removal and against it. The key points from each side are written in an unbiased way.

This source contains many valuable points of view from people’s first hand experiences regarding the Cherokee Nation. Considering that the book contains several primary sources it is one of the most reliable of this bibliography. The speeches and trials cover both major parts of the Cherokee Removal and the “Trail of Tears.” Since the book is objective, it can be used to side with both arguments and give clear opinions. The overall goal of this book is to cover the political arguments and proceedings in regards to the Cherokee removal in the states of Georgia and South Carolina in an unbiased way providing facts for both sides.

This source has been very helpful to my research of the “Trail of Tears.” While it may not have been as emotionally influenced and powerful as some of the other sources, it provided clear political points of views to be referenced in my paper. It gave me several primary sources and helped me think about my topic as if I was in the time period it occurred. I can use this source in my research paper by using the direct quotes from the notable speeches and also facts from the judicial trials that are covered in the book.

Foreman, Grant. Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.

The book Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians covers the forcible uprooting and expulsion of the 60,000 Native Americans that made up the Five Civilized Tribes, including the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole. The source goes into intense details including facts such as the numbers of people moved, quality and quantities of supplies, and other small details. There are constant lists of such aspects of the story, repeated throughout the text. It contains many pages of maps in the book that show the path of the relocations and the territories the Native American groups occupied. I would compare this source to an encyclopedia about my topic.

The language of this work is a little hard to follow from today’s attention-deficit perspective. The footnotes are too long, and there are too many important but uninteresting details. It is one of the hardest books to read from my list of sources. However it is a very reliable source. From fragments in thousands of manuscripts, Grant Foreman gleaned the materials for this book to provide readers with and unbiased day-by-day recital of events.

Considering the dryness of the text, this source was not as helpful to me as I had hoped. It contains uninteresting details that would really only be used if I was writing about a very specific topic. This source did not change how I think about my topic. It did however, fill my research in with small details and illustrations that I may need to reference later on.

Green, Len. “Choctaw Removal Was Really a ‘Trail of Tears’.” Bishinik (November 1978): 8-9. Http://web.archive.org/web/20080604005.(accessed October 2010).

In the journal entry “Choctaw Removal was Really a ‘Trail of Tears’,” the author, Len Green writes about the “Trail of Tears” from Mississippi walked by the Choctaw Native Americans from 1831- 1833. George Gaines was named by Secretary of War Lewis Coss as general supervisor for the removal of the Choctaws from Mississippi to what is now southern Oklahoma. The plan was done by moving one-third of the Choctaws per year in each of the years 1831, 1832 and 1833. Gaines set removal of the first one-third of the Choctaws to begin on November 1, 1831. The rest of the entry describes the various routes that the Natives took to move. It also describes the “new” Choctaw nation set up in the West.

This article was written for the Bishinik journal, which is a monthly publication sent free to registered Choctaw Nation tribal members upon request. It is published by the Choctaw Nation in Durant, Oklahoma. The Library of Congress shows a record of the newspaper’s publication from 1978 to 1981 and from 1983 to the present. The author, Len Green, is a ancestor of the Choctaw nation and has written several articles for this publication. This is a reliable source, however it is heavily biased. The goal of this source is for a reflection of a monumental historic event of the Choctaw Nation and to provide the readers with an accurate description of how and why the removal took place.

This source was helpful to me as it provided a point of view from a Native American. Although the author did not experience the event first hand, his ancestors did, and that gives him a different point of view than that of unrelated scholars and researchers. Since this source was solely about the Choctaw Indian removal, it provided additional details needed to assess each Native American tribe’s experiences with the forced removal and how they compared and contrasted.

Hook, Sue V. Trail of Tears. Edina, MN: ABDO Publishing Company, 2010.

The book Trail of Tears by Sue Vander Hook is a book about the forced Native American removal and the path they took, known as the “Trail of Tears.” This book is about all of the Native Americans that were forced off of their land. The Cherokee were not the only Native Americans to be replaced. The Choctaw, the Seminole, the Creek, the Chickasaw, and others also had to leave the land of their ancestors. This book is written in story book form and follows the path of the Native American removal providing details at each step. It begins with an introduction to the Native American groups and their way of life. Then it discusses the introduction of the American colonist and how relationships soon soured. It then goes into great detail about the struggles Native Americans had to face and the cruelty the colonists inflicted upon them while driving them off of their own land.

This source is more emotionally written than some of my other sources and is a biased source for the Native American side. This is a reliable source. It is written by Sue Vander Hook, a professor at the University of Michigan. She has written many historic books that have received good reviews. The book contains a concise bibliography that gives all of the sources she used in the research for this book.

This source is a valuable resource to me. It helps me understand the subject by laying it out as a story rather than just dry facts. It helps me shape my argument by giving me a better idea about the cruelty and violence that the Native Americans had to endure. I can use this source to provide additional facts about the literal “Trail of Tears.” This book has shaped how I think about my topic by influencing my feeling toward Native Americans.

Jahoda, Gloria. The Trail of Tears: The Story of American Removals 1813-1855. New York: Wings Books, 1975.

Although hardly comprehensive, in The Trail of Tears: The Story of American Indian Removals, Jahoda provides a rather exhaustive review of the removal of the “five civilized tribes” as well as a number of Midwestern peoples. Jahoda notes the particular senselessness of removing the eastern tribes, as many had already been integrated into the lifestyle of the American settlers (some even became major plantation owners, complete with slaves) and became devout Christians. It was not a matter of simply dealing with the “savages” but a demonstration of racism, plain and simple. The Trail of Tears: The Story of American Indian Removals is not only an illuminating history but also a rather instructive text.

This book is very balanced, overlooking no point of view. It is also a very human book that does not skip painful details. Jahoda’s history aims for a more narrative style, almost like historical fiction. However, lurking behind the lively narrative is thorough scholarship. This is a reliable source. The author, Gloria Jahoda, was educated at Northwestern University where she took a BA in English and an MS in Anthropology. Jahoda was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of West Florida for her services to Floridian culture and history as a writer and advocate. The goal of this book is the continued education of our native people’s plight and to bring to light the true story of the Native American removals.

This book will be very helpful to writing about the details of the Native American removals as a whole. Not just focused on a specific Native American group such as the Cherokee Indians, but all groups of Native Americans that were removed from their land. It will help me write about history through the eyes and ears of those experiencing it. The fact that there was no respect for the Native American culture and the courage they had to stand up for their beliefs and rights will be a key part of my paper.

Krupat, Arnold, ed. Native American Autobiography: An Anthology. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.

The book Native American Autobiography: An Anthology, is a collection that brings together several major autobiographical narratives written by Native American people from early documents to recent ones. The thirty narratives included here cover many tribes and cultural areas, over a span of more than 200 years. Native American Autobiography covers a broad range of Native American experience. The sections include Traditional Lives, the Christian Indians, the Resisting Indians, the Closed Frontier, the Anthropologists’ Indians, Native American Renaissance, and Traditional Lives Today.

As the editor, Arnold Krupat provides a general introduction, an historical introduction to each of the seven sections, extensive head notes for each selection, and suggestions for further reading. Native American Autobiography is a valued addition to my sources. Since the sources are written firsthand by Native Americans the information is essential providing primary facts in my paper. Even though the reports will be biased from the author’s own point of view, the validity of the source is still high.

The source will be the best one of my sources to pull direct quotes from. Since it contains all of the primary source accounts, quotes will be easily accessible and reliable. It also gives background on each of the authors, so background information can be provided around the quote in the paper. The background information on the Five Civilized Tribes will also be valuable. There is also a section about the gold discovery in Georgia and the resistance of the Native Americans there that will be a large portion of the research paper.

Perdue, Theda, and Michael D. Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Penguin Group, 2007.

The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears is compact book by prominent historians Theda Perdue and Michael Green. It moves from the time when all Cherokees lived in the southern Appalachian to their forced expulsion to the Indian Territory, as American policy changed from simply civilizing Native Americans to what might today be deemed ethnic cleansing. It is a book about politics and Cherokee power struggles, of juridical argument and economic motive, and of personal disputes against changing public policy. Over the entire book hangs the sad knowledge that in the history of interaction between Europeans and Native Americans, Cherokee removal is a large part of that history that no one should forget.

Perdue and Green have written a reliable and readable account of the legal complexities of the 18th-century Right of Conquest Doctrine and the 19th-century doctrine of state rights. This book contains accurate information that is highly reviewed by scholars nation-wide. Theda Perdue is professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the Native peoples of the southeastern United States and on gender in Native societies. Michael D. Green is also a professor of history and American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This source is the number one source I will be using for this research project. This is due to the fact that it contains highly useful information that is clear, concise, reliable, and unbiased.

This source will give me accurate information about the treaties, alliances, obligations and assurances involved in the Indian Removal Act. It will also help me address the landmark cases “Cherokee v. Georgia” and “Worcester v. Georgia” (one effectively denying Cherokee self-government). Since this source was so easily readable it gave me a great idea of the ideas behind the Indian Removal and how it was executed.

Sturgis, Amy H. The Trail of Tears and Indian Removal. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007.

The book The Trail of Tears and Indian Removal, by Amy Sturgis is designed as a reference for high school students and lower-level undergraduates. It examines the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation from its traditional homeland in 1838-1839 along what is known as the “Trail of Tears.” The perspectives of both the Cherokee Nation and the U.S. government are discussed. Supplemental materials include brief biographies of key individuals as well as a chronology and excerpts from primary documents.

This source is one my most useful sources. The book is well thought out and contains reliable information. The author, Amy Sturgis, holds a Ph.D. is intellectual history from Vanderbilt University and has written four books on U.S. presidential history and Native American studies. The goal of this source is to provide a simple, yet intuitive story of the “Trail of Tears.”

This source is one of the only sources that contain a time line of the events regarding the Indian removal. This is a very useful piece of information for my research project. The engaging thematic chapters that explore the events surrounding the “Trail of Tears” will also be very helpful in working on my project. This source has helped me make a movie in my head of how the Indian Removal Act happened and it a key source to help me organize my paper in a chronological way.

Thorton, Russell. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.

The book American Indian Holocaust and Survival explains the decline of the Indian population since the arrival of the first settlers. It starts by describing the population of the Native Americans before the arrival of foreigners. It then explains that the population went into a steady decline throughout the years of 1492-1900. During this section the various causes of the decline are discussed. These include disease, alcoholism, geographical removal and relocation, and other destructions of the Native American way of life.

This book gives accurate information about the decline of the Native American population. While the trail of tears is only a small portion of this decline, the source provides a great feel for the unfairness of the way the entire native American population was treated throughout history. It also contains many useful graphs and maps. The author, Russell Thorton, has a Ph.D. from Florida State University postdoctoral degree from Harvard University and a postdoctoral degree from the University of Southern California. He has published several other published works about Native American history.

This source contains valuable information about the decline of the Native American population that the settlers caused. It contains a large section about the Native American removal and the “Trail of Tears.” This book will help me provide additional facts about the Native American removal as well as give me additional facts about the overall decline of the Native American population. Finally this source will help me explain the population recovery and the definition and enumeration of American Natives as a part of the conclusion to my research project.