John Binhack’s Reviews > American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House > Status Update

"The trail of tears was the forced removal of Cherokees to the West. The military could be brutal, and an estimated 4000 of the 16000 Cherokees who were forced out died along the way. "I fought through the Civil War and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by the thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew," said one Georgia volunteer.

Jacksons and slavery; Jackson could be a harsh [slave] master.  In an 1804 "advertisement for runaway slave," he offered a $50 reward "and ten dollars extra, for every hundred lashes any person will give him, to the amount of three hundred." He owned about 150 slaves; he freed none in his will. Jackson agreed with the principles of individual liberty stated by the Founders, but solely by Whites.

Jackson on Indian removal "the policy of concentrating our southern tribes to a point west of the Mississippi and thereby strengthening our southern border with the white population which will occupy their lands is one of much importance"

Furthermore as a people Indians were neither autonomous nor independent but were to be manipulated and managed in the context of what most benefitted Jacksons America-White America

Learning more about the Eaton/Petticoat (Jacksons Sec. of War) affair and how John Eaton's wife (Margaret) past promiscuity is taking center stage in Washington news and gossip circles. Interesting to view how a cabinet member and their past actions are having an influence on Jackson and how it takes him away from focusing on the upcoming Tariff Nullification crisis with John Calhoun and the state of South Carolina.