Andrew Jackson's American Progress

In the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal” is called a self-evident truth. However, in reality, this sentence didn’t apply to all human beings in the country. Groups like Indians were treaty poorly with lower social status in the country while the whites became the exploiter of others. This contradiction of advocating equality without practicing it became much obvious in the market revolution, a time when demand for lands and cheap labors grew by new industries and advanced transportation developed according to Ronald Takaki.
Industries like cotton planting need vast lands to support and the way government acquire them is to force Indians to cede their lands through violence just like before. Violence on Indians started
Andrew Jackson called his carnage a process “advancing civilization” on “savage dogs” (Takaki 81). In painting “American Progress” about the achievement of market revolution, as Takaki described, Indians stayed under the dark sky in the corner of the painting (Takaki 97), far from the railroads and flourishing cities building on their native lands just like they were never the owners of them. They were represented as savages exiled by the progress of the country but their story during the process, which contained blood and tears of leaving homeland, was never important to and mentioned by the executors as this was the victory for them to advance their “civilization” on a wild land. The unfair perception of the savage on Indians made whites in a higher hierarchy, making the deprivation of Indians land without letting them enjoy the progress possible but also violate the equality of manhood advocated by
Leaders of tribes wrote to the government, or the general public how Indians were tortured during that time and criticized inequality they perceived. George Harkins, the leader of Choctaw, wrote a letter to American people complaining there was “a mountain of prejudice” existed, making their voice hard to be heard and degraded the influence of the law (Takaki 86-87). The pro-removal leader in Cherokees wrote to president Jackson addressing the injustice by government, saying: “Even the Georgia laws, which deny us our oaths, are thrown aside, and notwithstanding the cries of our people…” (Takaki 89). But the result for them was still the fatal removal. Indians employed more direct strategy later like the Choctaw’s appeal against the government for retrieving the profits it earned in Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek but only gain partial success. Indians’ voice wasn’t appreciated by the decision-makers even on court. If all men are equal, the law would enforce equally instead of favoring the government to make removal happen and profit retained. The contradiction was further demonstrated by the