Andrew Jackson

In this lesson, the class was split into 6 groups to discuss the essential question, "Is Andrew Jackson's long-standing reputation as "the people's president" deserved? ". To find educated answers to this question, the groups were each assigned one of the 3 major decisions or achievements of Jackson's career; the Bank War, the Spoils System, and my topic, the Indian Removal Act which is more commonly known as the Trail of Tears. The Indian Removal Act was Jackson's decision to move an estimated 100,000 Native Americans off of their native land to present day Oklahoma to make room for white settlers. To make the idea seem less cruel, he claimed they would leave upon their own decision, and that he was doing the Natives a favor by giving them land with resources, and claimed that if they didn't they faced the chances of dying out as other tribes in that area had, and even said that if they left they wouldn't have to abide by American laws. Though they didn't want to be burdened by American Laws, there were even more reasons for them to stay. The land they were being pressed to leave was the land where their ancestors had lived for generations, and they didn't know what the new territory would offer them regarding resources and the customs of their neighbors.

The other two topics, the Spoils System and the Bank War were covered by other groups and discussed in class. The Spoils System was a system in which political parties gave jobs to their supporters, and Jackson believed in it. The Bank War was the result of Jackson disapproving of the way the American bank system worked, and trying to make it more beneficial to the poor. All of these topics give evidence of how he was a peoples' president, though he showed more apprehension towards the poor. Also, regarding the Indian Removal Act, he does show characteristics of a peoples' president, however he only cared about the settlers and not the Indians. 

Though embedding wouldn't work, here is a link to  my group's Google Doc on the Indian Removal Act. It covers all the information referred to in this post and more, in depth.  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1950_cxEBOPB6tK4svRfiv5WiwX25Qslrz84W8lw3pz8/edit#slide=id.p