How much can we learn about our current democracy from looking back at key events and time periods in US history? That’s what NPR’s Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep sought to do when he began reading documents, letters and studying 1820s America. What he found was a story that fascinated him about Andrew Jackson and the conflicts over land between the US and Native Americans, particularly the Cherokee.
In his new book "Jacksonland, Cherokee Chief John Ross and a Great American Land Grab," Inskeep calls Jackson, an “awful and great and vital and troubling figure.” He writes about the very tough man, who walked around with two bullets I him much of his life: one from a duel in which he killed a man; the other in his shoulder from a gunfight in a Nashville hotel. Jackson was a prolific writer and Inskeep says both his personal and political thoughts are chronicled in thousands of letters. While Jackson, the nation’s 7th President, helped shape America’s fledgling democracy, he also led numerous bloody battles against Native Americans at a time when conflicts over land were pushing Indian tribes west.
The incongruence and violence of policies toward Native Americans fascinated Inskeep. He found that maps of the time showed 5 different tribes had legal, recognized ownership over lands that were, at the same time, part of states. He also discovered that not everyone supported the displacement of the tribes. In fact, he suggests even some soldiers that fought in those battles considered what they did was wrong.
The book consumed a good deal of his free time over two years as he researched and wrote. Inskeep adds he took trips into the Southern states about which he was writing to see first-hand the places, while also talking to people in the South.
