What was the impact of the Trail of Tears?

The impact
of the Trail of Tears was that the Cherokee people were forcibly removed from Georgia, western
North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. This was the culmination of a more than decade-long
removal process championed by President Andrew Johnson. By 1838, virtually all of the Native
peoples in the Southeast--the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, and to a lesser extent the
Seminoles--had been forced off their lands and into Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma.
Each of these peoples had suffered grievously in the process, with thousands dying of disease.
The Cherokee experience was no different. The tribe had split into factions, with one smaller
group moving more or less voluntarily. A much larger faction, at least 15,000, refused to leave.
Under orders from President Martin van Buren, they were forced from their lands by the US Army
and marched to Indian Country. Around 5,000 died of disease and exposure. So the result of the
Trail of Tears was the expropriation of Indian lands and widespread disease and death among
Indian peoples. On the other hand, Indian removal cleared the way for the expansion of
plantation agriculture into the fertile Southeast. Thousands of would-be planters brought their
slaves to the region to raise cotton.

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