Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American ...

Books

Jacksonland is the thrilling narrative history of two men-President Andrew Jackson and Cherokee chief John Ross-who led their respective nations at a crossroads of American history. Five decades after the Revolutionary War, the United States approached a constitutional crisis. At its center stood two former military comrades locked in a struggle that tested the boundaries of our fledgling democracy. Jacksonland is their story. One man we recognize: Andrew Jackson-war hero, populist, and exemplar of the expanding South-whose first major initiative as president instigated the massive expulsion of Native Americans known as the Trail of Tears. The other is a half-forgotten figure: John Ross-a mixed-race Cherokee politician and diplomat-who used the United States' own legal system and democratic ideals to oppose Jackson. Representing one of the Five Civilized Tribes who had adopted the ways of white settlers-cultivating farms, publishing a newspaper in their own language, and sending children to school-Ross ...