The War of 1812 and Native Americans in Georgia Mrs. Eby The War of 1812 and Native Americans in Georgia

The War of1812 Between 1793 & 1815, France and Great Britain were almost constantly at war. American merchants got caught in the middle as both countries tried to block America from trading with the other country Some Americans were forced into service in the British Navy by British naval captains who stopped their ships

The War of 1812 Because of these issues, President T. Jefferson began an unsuccessful embargo to stop trade with foreign countries This embargo did not have the results Jefferson desired He wanted Britain and France to change their policies Instead, the results were disastrous to American shipping

The war of 1812 Americans also felt Great Britain was stirring up Indians in the western states & territories In Congress, land-hungry southerners and westerners wanted the U.S. to declare war on Great Britain They hoped to capture Canada and eliminate the British and Indian menace in the west In June1812, President James Madison asked Congress to declare war on GB

The War of 1812 Most citizens did not feel the U.S. was prepared to fight a power such as GB No progress was made in the war for about two years, but in 1814 British forces invaded Chesapeake Bay on their way to destroy the nation’s capital. Much of Washington (including the President’s home) was burned

The war of 1812 The war was ended by the Treaty of Ghent (signed in Belgium) No new land exchanged hands in this treaty, but the U.S. proved it was willing to fight for its continued independence The war also pulled the individual states together as one nation and forced the U.S. to supply many of its own needs with regards to goods and services It was also the last time Britain and America have fought on opposite sides of a war In a battle after the war, General Andrew Jackson became a national hero in the Battle of New Orleans where he lost 13 men to great Britain’s 2,000

Native Americans in GA In 1817, President Monroe asked Andrew Jackson to look into problems Georgians were having with the Seminole Indians. Instead of investigating, Jackson invaded Florida and overthrew the Spanish governor. Spain agreed to sell FL to the U.S. rather than fight. The U.S. bought FL for 5 million dollars and Jackson became the governor of the new territory.

Native American Conflict: Cherokee Indians Considered the most advanced tribe Some lived in large brick homes similar to those we might see today Sequoyah created the Cherokee alphabet giving the Cherokee a written language The Cherokee Phoenix was the first Indian newspaper New Echota (near present day Calhoun) was the Cherokee capital

Native American Conflict: Creek Indians Tensions between Creek & settlers increased in the late 1700’s as pioneers infringed on Creek lands Tribal Chief Alexander McGillivray sent warriors who burned houses and stole horses & cattle GA settlers decided to kill on sight any Creek who was considered to be from an unfriendly tribe This conflict became known as the Oconee War

Native American Conflict: Oconee war After several years of fighting, President Washington convinced McGillivray to sign the Treaty of New York Treaty meant Creek gave up all of their land east of the Oconee River & whites would not enter lands considered to be Creek Georgians did not like the treaty because they felt the govt. had taken the Creek’s side The treaty was ignored and bad feeling between the Natives and Georgians continued After the Yazoo Land Fraud, the federal government took back land west of the Chattahoochee from GA, but also promised to move the Natives out of the state The War of 1812 distracted them from this promise

Native American Conflict: The Creek War Many Creek (known as Red Sticks)fought alongside the British in the War of 1812. In one attack, Red Sticks attacked Fort Mims (near Alabama) and killed 400 people, including women and children. As a result, U.S. troops (led by Andrew Jackson) began attacking Creek territory. The Red Stick were no match for the U.S. army As a result, the Creek gave their land in South GA up to the U.S.

Native American Conflict: Death of William Mcintosh In 1825, Chief William McIntosh signed a treaty with his first cousin, GA Governor George Troup This Treaty meant that the U.S. would pay McIntosh and other Creek chiefs to give up the rest of the Creek land in GA Groups of Creek who disagreed with this decision decided to punish McIntosh They killed McIntosh at his home and displayed his scalp as a warning to others who might want to give their land away

Native American Conflict: Indian removal In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the U.S. Jackson had been friendly with the Native Americans (especially the Cherokee) when he needed their help to fight the Red Sticks He also knew that white voters wanted Native Americans removed from southern states In 1830, Congress signed the Indian Removal Act which called for Native to be removed to western territories

Native American Conflict: Gold in Dahlonega As the Creek were being moved westward, GA was making plans to get rid of the Cherokee. In 1829, gold was discovered in Dahlonega (Cherokee land). Georgia’s legislature passed a law that placed the Cherokee land under the state’s control. It declared Cherokee law null and void and refused the Cherokee rights to the gold on the land

Native American conflict: Worchester v. GA A group of missionaries, led by Rev. Samuel Worchester, who lived on the Cherokee land sued the state after they were found guilty of not signing an oath of allegiance to the governor (a requirement placed upon Georgians who lived on Cherokee land). Their case eventually went to the Supreme Court (headed by Chief Justice John Marshall)who ruled the Cherokee territory was not subject to state law. The Cherokee thought they would be able to keep their land, but the President refused to follow the ruling and placed GA’s government in charge of Cherokee territory.

Native American Conflict: Trail of Tears Conflict continued, and many Cherokee were run off their land, whipped, or killed. Chief John Ross asked for help from Congress, but no help was given. The Cherokee were forced to sign over their land in a treaty in 1835 at New Echota. The treaty said the Natives would move west In 1838, the Cherokee who remained were rounded up and forced to begin the 700-800 mile trek west Thousands died on the “Trail of Tears”