1789-1869

"[Looks at the] history of the forced migration of 80,000 Native Americans across the Mississippi River in the 1830s. On May 28, 1830, Congress authorized the expulsion of indigenous peoples from the East to territories west of the Mississippi River. Over the next decade, Native Americans saw their homelands and possessions stolen through fraud, intimidation, and murder. Thousands lost their lives. ... Claudio Saunt upends the common view that 'Indian Removal' was an inevitable chapter in US expansion across the continent. Instead, Saunt argues that it was a contested political act-resisted by both indigenous peoples and US citizens-that passed in Congress by a razor-thin margin. In telling the full story of this systematic, state-sponsored theft, Saunt reveals how expulsion became national policy, abetted by southern slave owners and financed by Wall Street"-- Provided by publisher.

"Tells the story behind the law that forced thousands of American Indians out of their ancestral homelands. Each spread provides information about the context, wording, and lasting effects of the document paired with interesting sidebars, questions to consider, and historical images"--Amazon.com.

At the age of twelve, orphan Will Cooper is sent to work a trading post on the edge of the Cherokee Nation's land, where he spends his life learning about and defending the lives of the Native Americans and desiring the love of Claire Featherstone, the wife of a successful Cherokee landowner and patriarch.