The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture) [Paperback]

Theda Perdue (Editor), Michael D. Green (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312415990 | ISBN-13: 978-0312415990 | Publication Date: August 18, 2004 | Edition: Second Edition

The Cherokee Removal of 1838–1839 unfolded against a complex backdrop of competing ideologies, self-interest, party politics, altruism, and ambition. Using documents that convey Cherokee voices, government policy, and white citizens’ views, Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green present a multifaceted account of this complicated moment in American history. The second edition of this successful, class-tested volume contains four new sources, including the Cherokee Constitution of 1827 and a modern Cherokee’s perspective on the removal. The introduction provides students with succinct historical background. Document headnotes contextualize the selections and draw attention to historical methodology. To aid students’ investigation of this compelling topic, suggestions for further reading, photographs, and a chronology of the Cherokee removal are also included.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

THEDA PERDUE is professor of history and American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her publications include Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society, 1540-1865 (1979), Nations Remembered: An Oral History of the Five Civilized Tribes (1980), Cherokee Editor (1983), Native Carolinians (1985), The Cherokees (1988), Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 (1998), Sifters: Native American Women's Lives (2001), The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast (2001), and "Mixed Blood" Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South (2003).

MICHAEL D. GREEN is professor of history and American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His publications include The Creeks: A Critical Bibliography (1979), The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis (1985), The Creeks: A Tribal History (1990), and The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast (2001).

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's; Second Edition edition (August 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312415990
• ISBN-13: 978-0312415990
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > History > Americas > Native American

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good, but leaves important gaps, August 13, 2002

By 

razetheladder "razetheladder" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) (Paperback)

This book tells the story of American ethnic cleansing against the Cherokee nation through an admirable combination of primary documents and the editors' analyses. Perdue and Green begin with a short but sophisticated history of the Cherokee from their first interaction with Europeans to their expulsion from the region where Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama meet. We are then directed through a variety of documents commenting on several important themes: the "civilizing" of the Cherokee (i.e. their adoption of European culture), Georgia's leading role in pressuring the Cherokee off their land and pushing the federal government to remove them by force, the national debate between promoters and opponents of expulsion, the debate within the Cherokee nation, and a brief look at the deportation itself.

Hearing the voices of those who framed the debate and the Cherokee themselves allows the reader to appreciate exactly how complicated the situation really was. Pro-removal Americans make racist judgments of the Cherokee but cast their arguments in humanitarian rhetoric. Pro-emigration Cherokee harshly criticize the Cherokee leadership as corrupt and disdain traditional Cherokee culture. American defenders and the Cherokee leadership deploy legal and moral arguments in a futile effort to forestall American violence.

Yet the situation was even more complex than the editors convey. They ignore the very real class divisions within Cherokee society: the land- and slave-owning elite afraid of losing their property in the expulsion; the "middle class", resentful of elite privilege and hoping to seize leadership after emigration by betraying the nation and negotiating a sham treaty with the Americans; and the less Europeanized majority simply seeking to avoid forced deportation from their homes. Perdue and Green also ignore the larger political situation in the United States, namely the struggle between pro-Jackson Democrats and the emerging Whig opposition that resulted in a surprisingly close 102-97 House vote on the issue (try to imagine a vote that close over the latest example of government violence in pursuit of resources, the coming Iraq war). Particularly disappointing is a lack of any internal documents from the Jackson administration that might give insight into the motivations of the ethnic cleansers themselves.

Despite these deficiencies (and despite the editors' insistence on "modernizing" capitalization and punctuation), the book provides a good overview of the US-Cherokee conflict and a taste of what it's like to work with primary sources. It opens our eyes to how some of the most prominent Americans could embrace ethnic cleansing and revives the voices of those Americans and Cherokee who stood up against imperialism even when there was no hope of victory.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely fascinating., February 17, 2001

By 

Janice (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) (Paperback)

I read this book as part of my Native American History class and I truly enjoy this book. "Cherokee Removal" brings its readers, chronologically to the inevitable "Trail of Tears" where the government brought in troops and forced the Cherokees into stockades where they walked to Oklahoma, in terrible conditions, insufficient food, and a lot of the Cherokees died during the journey.

This books gave its readers access to primary documents, such as treaties, and letters written by Cherokees themselves, and it presents both views, from Euro-Americans who supported removal, who opposed removal and likewise for the Cherokees. By examining the primary documents, we can gain insights into how leaders like Andrew Jackson thought of the removal as a crucial step for Cherokees "survival".

The state of Georgia, defying the Supreme Court's rulling in Worcester v Georgia, in favor of the Cherokees, brought in troops, seize the Cherokee's printing press, etc.

By reading this book, one can't help but feel that greed, ethoncentricity can bring people to be blinded by their own prejudice and make mistakes that bring such tragic consequences.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the Cherokee Removal as other native american tribes suffered basically the same.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History the way it should be told, October 23, 2000

By 

Randall L. Golden "randy_golden" (Woodstock, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) (Paperback)

Theda Purdue is generally recognized as the pre-eminent Cherokee authority, but Ms Purdue lets the people who lived the events tell the story of the The Cherokee Removal. She, along with Michael Green, who is really more of a Creek Indian expert, uses contemporary letters, essays, and editorials to draw the reader into the plight of the Cherokee.

For example, in a chapter on United States Policy she uses Lewis Cass' justification of removal, and Andrew Jackson's State of the Union address to illustrate what the mind of the leaders of our country were like at the time of this great tragedy.

Perdue begins the book with a twenty-plus page introduction that tells the story of their civilization from the first man and woman to the removal from the Cherokee Nation in 1838.

When Purdue does interject her own opinion, it is well thought out and objective. After a discussion of the terms "Half Breed" and "Quadroon," she states "The concern with blood quantum reflected racist nineteenth-century thinking that linked ancestry and culture." Well said, and on the money...just like this book.