Order Description
In the late 1830s, U.S. soldiers oversaw the forced migration of some 16,000 Cherokees to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi. This event, often known as the Trail of Tears, is the setting for the novel Mountain Windsong.
Based on your reading of Mountain Windsong, write a 2-3 page, thesis-driven essay (no less than 2 COMPLETE pages) that addresses the various ways that Cherokee men, women, and children experienced and understood their removal and the Trail of Tears. You might want to keep the following sorts of questions in mind as you form your thesis: How did Cherokees understand the decision of the government to force them to leave their lands in Georgia? Did all of them obey the government? If they didn’t, what did they do? Did the U.S. government have a strong, united plan to remove the Indians? In what ways did the Trail of Tears experience differ for individual Cherokees? What accounts for some of these differences? As you interact with these types of questions, be certain to support your claims with specific examples from the book, citing clearly the ideas that are your own and the ideas that you borrow from the book’s author.

Make certain that you develop a clear thesis and outline for your essay ways that Cherokee men, women, and children experienced and understood this event. Refer to your course syllabus for specific format and style criteria and expectations. Remember that I will NOT grade your essay if you do not follow the documentation style set forth in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.