Rather, it was a fiercely contested political act designed to secure new lands for the expansion of slavery and to consolidate the power of the southern states. Unworthy Republic reveals how expulsion became national policy and describes the chaotic and deadly results of the operation to deport 80,000 men, women, and children.ĭrawing on firsthand accounts and the voluminous records produced by the federal government, Saunt’s deeply researched book argues that Indian Removal, as advocates of the policy called it, was not an inevitable chapter in U.S. But as the policy unfolded over the next decade, thousands of Native Americans died under the federal government’s auspices, and thousands of others lost their possessions and homelands in an orgy of fraud, intimidation, and violence. Justified as a humanitarian enterprise, the undertaking was to be systematic and rational, overseen by Washington’s small but growing bureaucracy. Retrieved October 15, 2021.In May 1830, the United States formally launched a policy to expel Native Americans from the East to territories west of the Mississippi River. ^ 'Publishers Weekly Top 10 Books of the Year'.^ 'The 2020 Cundill History Prize Longlist'.'The People Who Profited Off the Trail of Tears'. ' 'Unworthy Republic' Takes an Unflinching Look at Indian Removal in the 1830s'. ^ '2020 National Book Awards Finalists'.

'Books on Hurricane Katrina and Native American Removal Win Bancroft Prize'. ^ Schuessler, Jennifer (March 23, 2021).'Illuminating slave owners' crucial role in the expulsion of Native Americans'. New York Times Critics' Top Books of the Year.Washington Post Top 10 Books of the Year.Publishers Weekly Top 10 Books of the Year.Longlisted for the Cundill History Prize.Finalist for National Book Award for Nonfiction.Saunt covers numerous important events including but not limited to the Black Hawk War, the Trail of Tears, and the Seminole Wars. He shows that the deportation of Native Americans allowed for the expansion of southern slavery, and for investment by Wall Street Bankers and the northern financial industry. Saunt highlights the relationship between slavery and the expulsion of Native Americans. Saunt describes the US policy of Indian Removal in the Eastern United States. It was awarded the Bancroft Prize in American history, and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory is a 2020 book by historian Claudio Saunt that focuses on the forced removal of Native Americans from the eastern United States during the 19th Century.

Unworthy Republic by Claudio Saunt