In Howard Zinn’s Chapter “As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs” we are introduced to Andrew Jackson, an American Hero” … Well, reading all about what Andrew Jackson had ‘accomplished’ before becoming president scares me. How many more presidents have been considered hero’s for killing off Indians? This seems to me to be an idea of ‘being American’ of course some people thought this was outrageous and yes, some people agreed that killing the Indians and pushing them out is totally the right thing to do.
Wanting to know a little more about how Jackson’s history is told; I looked up ‘Andrew Jackson U.S. history’. From there I found a link to www.biography.com and it states that Jackson is “known as the people’s president”. One thing is for sure, from what I know about Jackson from Zinn’s chapter how is he a people’s president… Maybe it was the white elite men who were his people. This brings up a lot of clashes with classes and gender gaps. The article also states that Jackson “instituted policies that resulted in forced migration of Native Americans” (biograohy.com). The Indians still alive probably figured that if they don’t get out, they have a very good chance of being killed just like the other 800.
This is just another example of how history is taught in a skewed way. Maybe one day we will start writing history books and teaching history in a way that does not just idolize white males.
Personally, I do remember learning a lot about Andrew Jackson in 8th grade, as I recall we had to write an essay on whether he deserved to be on the 20 dollar bill. This being said, it does not seem like every other history class out there did its job in explaining what kind of man he really was, and what he did to the Native Americans. I mirror you concern about history being taught in a skewed way, and I believe it is up to our generation to make sure history is passed down clearly and correctly.
I totally agree with you! He was always one of those presidents that were taught about in a rush, and I never really understood what he did or why he’s on the 20 dollar bill. That quote from the bibliography represents how screwed up the history we are thought is. The way things are worded and carefully said in order to portrait someone as better than they actually were disgusts me. They know what this man did was wrong, yet they still try to paint it in an okay light.
I completely agree I feel as though I was not taught nearly enough about Andrew Jackson. I hope that eventually, the american schooling system will in corporate the real history of our country.
You make really great points. The popular history of Andrew Jackson is skewed, as America doesn’t like to highlight its mistakes. A classic instance of white supremacy is shown here. This brings me back to the idea that was posed in one of the earliest podcasts about how we have an immediate reaction to things that are foriegn. While this immediate reaction of americans to native americans may have been bad, they soon learned that the societies could coexist with respect. Yet, white supremacy made there needs more important, and created the tension that still exists on some level today.