Harriet Tubman on the 20 — Archive

Today, we got to take a look at some of the "Muster Rolls of Cherokee Indians Who Have Emigrated West of the Mississippi" from 1833. Tribes were being forced out of the Deep South, following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, to make way for white settlers. The law was initially merely to authorize the President to negotiate with tribes for their removal to federal lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for their ancestral homelands. But what was intended to be a voluntary move became a forced expulsion. In 1833, the Cherokee Nation was not yet being forced to head west, but the government was keeping track of those who left voluntarily- displaying some particularly colorful names. In the midst of the Georgia Gold Rush, President Andrew Jackson put increasing pressure on the tribes to move, and refused to protect them from state laws stripping the Nation of all land except personal residences (some strong supporting evidence in the case to get Andrew Jackson replaced on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman- go Harriet!). The Treaty of New Echota was signed in 1835 by a minority party within the Cherokee Nation, ceding all its southeast territory and agreeing to the move west. The enforcement of this treaty led to what is now known as the Trail of Tears. The remaining Cherokees were forced to march 1000 miles to Oklahoma in the dead of winter, carrying everything they owned. Over 4000 people died, and the rest had to build new lives in foreign territory, with few possessions and little hope.