A Tearful Trail: The Largely Hidden Trail of Tears

 

 

Almost everyone remembers at least some of the story of the Trail of Tears from history class. It has been said the US shines a bright light yet can leave a dark shadow and this episode in history is listed with slavery and the internment of Japanese-Americans as one of those periods that make Americans uncomfortable. In 1838-39 About 14,000 Cherokee were forcibly removed from their land and sent to Eastern Oklahoma. And what many Tennesseans may not know is the trails ( there were several ) went through Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville.

Here is the background. The Cherokee lived in the Southeast and rather than separate themselves from the culture of the Europeans, they embraced many of its good and bad aspects. In 1822, Sequoyah, a Tennessee Cherokee of mixed race, introduced the first written alphabet used for a Native American tribe and a newspaper soon followed. In 1825 the tribe ratified a constitution similar to that of the United States and created a Capitol in New Achota, Georgia. Some Cherokee were plantation owners and had slaves.

In 1828 gold was discovered in White County, Georgia in the nation’s first gold rush. It brought more white settlers into Georgia and the tensions began mounting between the cultures.

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The state of Georgia began putting onerous regulations on the Cherokee. The tribe took the case to the US Supreme Court which ruled in 1832 an Indian nation was a sovereign nation like any other country and the state could not break treaties with them. Despite this, Georgia enacted a land lottery including Cherokee area. The state seized the printing press of the new Cherokee newspaper President Andrew Jackson was clearly on the side of the state of Georgia. Congress voted to remove the Cherokee in 1830 despite an impassioned plea from fellow Tennessean, US Representative David Crockett.

Some of the Cherokee welcomed the move as the lesser of the two evils. The inevitable clash of cultures, in that school of thought, may make the relatively sparse Oklahoma a desirable alternative to tensions with their new neighbors.

The tribes were removed by the army from 1838 and 1839. There was not just one trail of tears as the tribes took different routes. The water route began at Ross’ Landing what is now downtown Chattanooga, then up the Tennessee River and down the Mississippi and through the Arkansas. About 4,000 of the 14,000 did not survive the approximately six month trip.

The Benges Route Went from Fort Payne, Alabama into Tennessee through Pulaski, Waco, Mount Pleasant, Centerville and Paris then into Kentucky.

The Northern Route started at Charelston in Eastern Tennessee through Dayton, Woodbury, Murfreesboro, Nashville and entered Kentucky east of Guthrie.

Today the most identifiable route is the Bells Route which also starts in Charleston and follows US Highway 64.

In 1987 Congress declared The Trail of Tears a National Trail. A battlefield often keeps features to make it an destination for the public and those interested in history as do buildings. But a trail, such as the Oregon Trail, El Camino Real or Sherman’s March to the Sea is largely invisible to modern eyes, yet still part of our past. How does one commemorate a road, even one that has buried dead and changed our culture forever? The United States Department of Interior has signage that may be used and a way to certify locations along the route, but within the state there seem to be just a few places that are designated Trail of Tears historic sites.

Now the National Trail designation is twenty five years old. It is still in many minds a vague concept in many minds and probably mixed in with stories like the battle of Wounded Knee and other less than stellar moments in white-Native American relations. At least one writer documented her journey along the trail.  In 1998 radio correspondent and author Sara Vowell took a trip along the trail visiting historic sites connected with the Cherokees and their deportation for the Public Radio International show This American Life. Her report, available still online, mixes history and humor. Cynicism meets patriotism. Her journey covered places mostly on the northern route including Ross’ Landing at Chattanooga and Andrew Jackson’s Nashville home, The Hermitage. “We stop at his plantation The Hermitage. The house and museum are closed to the public due to astonishing tornado damage. Part of me wanted to destroy Andrew Jackson and everything he represented. Seeing those hacked-up trees made me feel like someone had beaten me to it.”

 

Vowell looked at the sites on the trail, but what of the route itself? The evolution over the years has been shaped by Civil War, the car growing population and modern technology By modern technology that means anything that has happened since 1839.  Taking a drive out 64, Bells route, there seems to be nothing indicating the trail. There are woodlands and farmlands. There are hills and swamps. When arriving in Shelby County the feel is more suburban with car lots and almost every chain store and restaurant having a location within a mile of Stage and Germantown. Memphis’s largest mall, Wolfchase, is on the trail. Further along into Bartlett the trail then follows US 70 and within a few miles goes from the bright sometimes gaudy lights of  Memphis’ Summer Avenue to the architectural treasure of Rhodes College and its neighbor Overton Park.  See the photo gallery of the route between Pulaski and Memphis.

But there is a good chance those places are also final resting spots for some travelers who did not complete the journey.

Sources

Vowell, Sarah. This American Life radio show. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/107/trail-of-tears

 

US National Park Service: Comprehensive Management and Use Plan: Trail of Tears National Historic trail.