Jacksonland is the thrilling narrative history of two menβPresident Andrew Jackson and Cherokee chief John Rossβwho 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 Jacksonβwar hero, populist, and exemplar of the expanding Southβwhose 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 Rossβa mixed-race Cherokee politician and diplomatβwho used the United Statesβ own legal system and democratic ideals to oppose Jackson. Representing one of the Five Civilized Tribes who had adopted the ways of white settlersβcultivating farms, publishing a newspaper in their own language, and sending children to schoolβRoss championed the tribesβ cause all the way to the Supreme Court. He gained allies like Senator Henry Clay, Chief Justice John Marshall, and even Davy Crockett. In a fight that seems at once distant and familiar, Ross and his allies made their case in the media, committed civil disobedience, and benefited from the first mass political action by American women. Their struggle contained ominous overtures of later events like the Civil War and set the pattern for modern-day politics.
At stake in this struggle was the land of the Five Civilized Tribes. In shocking detail, Jacksonland reveals how Jackson, as a general, extracted immense wealth from his own armiesβ conquest of native lands. Later, as president, Jackson set in motion the seizure of tens of millions of acresββJacksonlandββin todayβs Deep South.
Jacksonland is the work of renowned journalist Steve Inskeep, cohost of NPRβs Morning Edition, who offers here a heart-stopping narrative masterpiece, a tragedy of American history that feels ripped from the headlines in its immediacy, drama, and relevance to our lives.
Harrowing, inspiring, and deeply moving, Inskeepβs Jacksonland is the story of America at a moment of transition, when the fate of states and nations was decided by the actions of two heroic yet tragically opposed men.
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Diane Rehm Show - NPR - May 21, 2015 PBS News Hour - May 19, 2015 Morning Edition - May 19, 2015
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