Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars [Hardcover]

Robert V. Remini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2001

The removal of Native Americans to the Indian Territory beyond the Mississippi River remains one of the most controversial events in U.S. history, and the man most responsible and widely blamed for this policy is Andrew Jackson. Hailed by The New York Times as "the foremost Jacksonian scholar of our time," Robert Remini now turns his attention to the single most controversial aspect of Jackson's long career. The first history to trace Jackson's involvement in decades of Indian conflicts, this book takes us through Jackson's entire life, from his early years as an Indian fighter in South Carolina and Tennessee to his victory in the Creek War in 1814, to his presidential years, when he set into motion the legislation that led to the Indian Removal Act, and, eventually, the Trail of Tears. Throughout, Remini demonstrates a masterful command of his subject and offers a thought-provoking and controversial defense of Jackson's strategy of removing the Indians. This book is sure to stimulate heated discussion among scholars and general readers alike.

An exuberant history in the great storytelling tradition, Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars is also a sobering reminder of the violence and darkness at the heart of America's past.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like many of his Scots-Irish contemporaries on the western frontier of the early United States, Andrew Jackson grew up despising and fearing his Indian neighbors. He proved to be a formidable enemy, campaigning against the Cherokee, Creeks, Chickasaws, and other peoples, some of them former allies against England in the Revolution and the War of 1812. In doing so, he established precedents that his compatriots would follow for the rest of the 19th century.

Robert Remini, the National Book Award-winning biographer of Jackson, here turns his attention to Jackson's relations with the Indian nations of the American South. Those relations, he writes, were tempered by the racism of the day, but, as both general and president, Jackson was also unusual in enforcing rights guaranteed to those nations by treaty, even in instances when he disagreed with the terms. Despite his sense of justice, Jackson kept to his conviction that "Indians had to be shunted to one side or removed to make the land safe for white people to cultivate and settle," and during his tenure as president he pursued a policy of forced removal through which the Indian nations were relocated to the so-called Indian territories west of the Mississippi River, which in turn would be overrun only a few years later.

Though critical of Jackson's policies and actions, Remini suggests that removal saved many of the eastern Indian nations from almost certain annihilation. That view, while capably argued, is controversial, and some scholars of American Indian history are sure to take issue with it. Still, this is a valuable addition to the historical literature, one of interest to general readers as well as Remini's fellow historians. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

"I want to assure the reader that it is not my intention to excuse or exonerate Andrew Jackson for the role he played in the removal of Native Americans west of the Mississippi River. My purpose is simply to explain what happened and why": so writes Remini, who won the National Book Award for his three-volume biography of the seventh president. This provocative book is sure to create controversy for scholars, the Native American community and lay historians, among others. Jackson was the president who "removed" the five "civilized" tribes from the South and forced them westward across the Mississippi River. Existing studies portray Jackson as a villain. Not so, says Remini, who examines Jackson's life to show that he was a product of his age, nothing more, nothing less. Indian tribes sided with the British during the Revolution, then repeatedly confronted the first generation of settlers who moved into the western frontier Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. Jackson vaulted to national prominence when he bloodily crushed the British-allied Creek tribe in 1814 during the War of 1812. Then, with or without presidential approval, Southern District Commander Jackson invaded Spanish-held Florida; acting as an "Indian commissioner," he proceeded to lever indigenous people off their ancestral lands in exchange for territory farther west. The idea, Remini says, was first espoused by Thomas Jefferson and was supported by the vast majority of frontier Americans. Despite or, indeed, because of its grave, catastrophic results, Jackson's policy deserves to be judged in light of early 19th-century America, argues Remini. He further contends that Jackson's removal policy may have actually saved the tribes from being exterminated. Expert reviewers, pundits and descendants may feel otherwise. Maps not seen by PW.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 317 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1ST edition (July 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670910252
• ISBN-13: 978-0670910250
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #317,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Jackson, Andrew

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sharp Knife, October 9, 2001

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars (Hardcover)

Although Americans are prone to refer to Jackson as "Old Hickory" or, in his day, as "the Hero", the Indian tribes of his day gave him the nickname of "Sharp Knife". This nickname was based upon Jackson's unrelenting warfare against the Creek Indians, particularly at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. Professor Remini shows in his careful and thorough study of Jackson and the Indians that the sobriquet was indeed well deserved. The book is a thorough and careful exposition of the cruelties practiced on the Indians during the Jacksonian Era culminating in their removal from their homes and their relocation west of the Mississippi River during and subsequent to Jackson's Presidency.

Remini is a master of his materials. He has written a National Book Award winning biography of Jackson together with many other works on the Jacksonian Era of our history.

After a brief introductory chapter summarizing Jackson's early years, Remini plunges into the story of Jackson's Indian wars. Prior to his Presidency, Jackson conquered the Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws and Seminoles in fierce no-quarter fighting. Jackson was resolute in his wish to remove the Indians from the Southeastern United States.

In addition to his leadership on the battlefield, Jackson was a participant in many treaties with the Indians in which the ceded large portions of their ancestral domain in return for small tracts of land and small sums of money. Here too, Jackson was a domineering, seemingly irresistible figure intent on opening the Southeast to the onrush of white settlement, with little regard for the effect of his actions on the Indians.

As a national hero based upon his victory at the Battle of New Orleans and his conquests of the tribes, Jackson narrowly missed the Presidency in 1824 but was elected in 1828 and 1832. He was able to implement the policy of Indian removal he had conceived in his years as a general and a treaty negotiator. He secured legislation from Congress authorizing the removal of the "Five Civilized Tribes" -- the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Creeks, Choctaws, and Seminoles -- and implemented this policy at great cost and suffering to the Tribes. It is a story all too little known today.

Jackson was a man of determination, strength, and will. He was also, in Remini's account, an American patriot. Shocking as was his treatment of the Indians, Jackson was moved by considerations of American Nationalism. In particular, he wished to protect the coastal areas of the United States from intrigue and invasion by England and France. The European powers tended to use the Indians as a means to threaten the United States.

Although he is properly critical of Jackson's cruelty, arrogance, and deceit towards the tribes, and of the horrors they underwent during the removal, Remini argues that there was no good alternative to the removal policy. If the tribes had not been removed they would have been overwhelmed by onrushing white settlement and lost entirely their tribal identity, as was the case with many northeastern tribes. Paradoxically, Jackson proved right in that the removal policy saved the southeast tribes from extinction. Of course, none of this excuses the cruelty with which the process was implemented; and Remini is far from trying to excuse it.

I came to Remini's book after reading an earlier study of Jackson and the Indians: Michael Paul Rogin's book " Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian." I wasn't entirely happy with the Rogin because of its hypercritical tone and because of its psychologizing. Remini's book constitutes a more thorough,thoughtful, and balanced consideration of this sad period in our history. This is a good book for those who wish to try to understand Indian policy and its role in our country's development.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biography at its best, February 26, 2004

By 

Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars (Paperback)

This is a magnificent look at Andrew Jackson's war with the Native Americans. So many biographers bury their subject and forget that most readers what to know who their subject *was*, not merely what they *did.* Remini doesn't fall into this trap. He gives the reader a well-grounded and detailed look at Andrew Jackson as a man: his foibles, passions and prejudices, as well as his extreme ambition and vacillating brilliance.

Remini strikes a beautiful balance when examining Jackson's private life and military/political life. His examination of the Trail of Tears is absolutely riveting, and he weaves Jackson in and out of the narrative with rare poise and skill. The reader can actually picture Jackson in the midst of this conflict, feel his emotions and understand the decisions he made. When a biographer can paint such a vivid picture, the reader will always be rewarded.

This is an excellent book for the entire spectrum of people interested in Jackson. Whether you are a neophyte or an established Jacksonian historian, there is much to enjoy, as well as new material. The footnotes and bibliography are excellent resources and lead to additional sources for the reader. The minute I finished this, I bought the second volume, "Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832," also available here. This volume is truly an outstanding book

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an educational study of jackson and us southeast indians, August 10, 2001

By 

David W. Lee (edmond, ok United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars (Hardcover)

This concise and highly interesting book covers a period of history that was important to the development of the American continent. Unfortunately, the United States' gain was achieved at the great expense of the Indians who inhabited the southeast. Although I thought I knew something about American history, this book showed me how little I knew about this important (and heartbreaking) era when a clash of cultures resulted in Indians being removed from their homes in the woods primarly to the State where I live, Oklahoma, which was created by Congress in 1834, and designated as Indian territory.

Remini gives a direct and fascinating look at Jackson and his relentless attacks upon the southeast and southern Indians. Yet Remini shows that Jackson understood the only way that the tribes of southeastern America could survive the interactions with whites (who murdered the Indians and took their land and property) was by removal to Indian territory west of the Mississippi. This policy was made possible, of course, by the Louisiana Purchase. Thomas Jefferson also advocated the removal of Indians to the land that he had acquired by this Purchase.

Remini points out that Jackson's fame and ultimate rise to the Presidency resulted from public recognition of his military success and genius, first with regard to the Creeks, then the British, and then the Seminoles and Cherokees. For better or worse, Jackson was the most important figure responsible for the Southeast America that we know today.

In this book, when Remini finishes his story, he stops, making this book a treasure. Not a word is wasted, and every page is appreciated. I gained much from reading it.

David W. Lee [e-mail]