Andrew Jackson:
A Monster or a Hero? By: Larissa Franco
Nullification Crisis
Two tariffs were passed during Jackson's presidency, Tariff of 1828 and Tariff of 1832. The South was upset, because they had little manufacturing and they still relied heavily on imported goods. South Carolina threatened to secede, because they were very upset. Andrew Jackson was irritated and passed "The Force Bill." Eventually, this crisis was resolved thanks to Henry Clay. Congress lowered taxes so that they were affordable, and South Carolina agreed to pay them.
Jacksonian Democracy
Jacksonian Democracy caused Andrew Jackson to win presidency in 1828. Jackson was a poor white male running for president. Many people were poor white farmers and factory workers who didn't have the power to vote until suffrage expanded among the states. Jackson believed that anyone had the right to vote even the white males who were not on the wealthy side but more on the poor side. Since suffrage expanded, many poor people could vote for the "common man."
Indian Removal Act
Andrew Jackson had no respect for the Native Americans. Once he found out that the Cherokee land was desirable because of the beautiful land in Georgia and gold found there, he kicked the Cherokee out of their land. He allowed the US government to "exchange" the Indians land with less desirable land west of the Mississippi river. The Cherokee had to walk a long way from their land to Oklahoma, the land Jackson exchanged with them.
Political Cartoon: The Great White Father
This political cartoon is portraying Andrew Jackson as a father to the Native American Tribes. The portrayal of Jackson as a bigger man looks to show that he was better than the Native Americans due to race. This cartoon represents that Andrew Jackson believed that he was responsible for the Native Americans and that they were his children, meaning that the Natives were dependent on Jackson.
Cherokee letter
Andrew Jackson is a monster to our tribe. He took away everything we loved and cared for. He took away our beautiful land where everything was perfect and forced us to move to where his troops instructed to with disrespect. We lost our homes and were forced to walk all the way to Oklahoma where Jackson and his troops told us even better land awaited us. But little did we know that the trail to the new land was going to be terrible and the new land was going to be nothing compared to our old beautiful land.
Factory worker letter
Andrew Jackson is a hero. Without him, we wouldn't be able to vote, that is us common poor white men. Andrew Jackson is a very nice man, he's much more approachable, and a kind of man we need to represent our country. A big thing he did to help us poor white common men was putting tariffs on imported goods. This helped us gain more money for factory workers including me and many of my friends. Jackson knows the struggle of being poor and how difficult it is to put food on your table, and what he is doing is helping out a lot of people just like me.