| Voices from the Trail of Tears Contributor(s): Rozema, Vicki (Editor) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0895872714 ISBN-13: 9780895872715 Publisher: Blair OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Paperback Published: March 2003 Annotation: Although British and American governmental policy had been pushing Native Americans westward for much of the 18"th" and early 19"th" centuries, passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 brought this policy to a head. This act, which provided for the exchange of American Indian lands in the East for lands west of the Mississippi River and for the removal of the Indians to those lands, resulted in the relocation of an estimated 100,000 Native Americans. Although many tribes were involved in this process, the most publicized removal was that of the Cherokees. In Voices from the Trail of Tears, Vicki Rozema draws from letters, military records, physicians' records, and journal excerpts to provide insight into what actually happened during this period. Through these primary sources, which are presented in chronological order, we follow the feuding within the Cherokee ranks about whether to accept the white man's ultimatum, and if so, how it should be implemented. We have firsthand accounts of how the Indians from Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee were rounded up to prepare for their removal. We hear the sympathetic white missionaries pleading for the Cherokees to be allowed to stay in their homeland, and we see how some of these same missionaries dealt with the testing of their faith as they accompanied the Indians on their westward journey. We read official reports and private musings from the soldiers who were ordered to carry out the removal, many of whom ended up sympathizing with their wards. We see the conditions that the people endured as they traveled on what they called "the Trail Where They Cried." We even follow the confusion that resulted when the new arrivals in the West faced assimilation into a culture already established by those who had emigrated 20 to 30 years earlier. In Voices from the Trail of Tears, the actual participants give us a perspective on what happened during this infamous chapter in American history. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Native American - History | United States - 19th Century |
| Dewey: 973.049 |
| LCCN: 2002015299 |
| Series: Real Voices, Real History Series |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5" W x 7.4" (0.60 lbs) 176 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1800-1850 - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Ethnic Orientation - Native American |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: During the first half of the 19th century, as many as 100,000 Native Americans were relocated west of the Mississippi River from their homelands in the East. The best known of these forced emigrations was the Cherokee Removal of 1838. Christened Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu--literally "the Trail Where They Cried"--by the Cherokees, it is remembered today as the Trail of Tears. In Voices from the Trail of Tears, editor Vicki Rozema re-creates this tragic period in American history by letting eyewitnesses speak for themselves. Using newspaper articles and editorials, journal excerpts, correspondence, and official documents, she presents a comprehensive overview of the Trail of Tears--the events leading to the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokees' conflicting attitudes toward removal, life in the emigrant camps, the routes westward by land and water, the rampant deaths in camp and along the trail, the experiences of the United States military and of the missionaries and physicians attending the Cherokees, and the difficulties faced by the tribe in the West. "O what a year it has been " wrote one witness accompanying a detachment westward in December 1838. "O what a sweeping wind has gone over, and carried its thousands into the grave." This book will lead readers to both rethink American history and celebrate the spirit of those who survived. Vicki Rozema is the author of Cherokee Voices: Early Accounts of Cherokee Life in the East and Voices from the Trail of Tears. Also an acclaimed photographer, she is a history professor at the University of Tennessee. The first edition of Footsteps of the Cherokees received an Award of Merit from the Tennessee Historical Commission in 1996. Her honors include the 2014 McClung Award for an article that appeared in the 2013 Journal of East Tennessee History and the Native American Eagle Award for her writings on the Cherokee. "This work, like Cherokee Voices, is a compilation of letters, newspaper editorials, journal excerpts, church records, and military documents, written by a diverse group of Cherokees and Euroamericans. As the title suggests, Voices from the Trail of Tears is a moving account of the forced removal of thousands of Cherokees in the 1830s; Rozema does a remarkable job of 're-creating this tragic period in American history by letting eyewitnesses speak for themselves.'" - Ginny Carney Studies in American Indian Literature |
Contributor Bio(s): Rozema, Vicki: - Vicki Rozema is the author of Cherokee Voices: Early Accounts of Cherokee Life in the East and Voices from the Trail of Tears. Also an acclaimed photographer, she is a history professor at the University of Tennessee. The first edition of Footsteps of the Cherokees received an Award of Merit from the Tennessee Historical Commission in 1996. |
