ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, American President Thomas Jefferson initiated a policy for the removal of all Indians to the West from east of the Mississippi River, gradually starting in Ohio at the eastern end of the Northwest Territory and moving westward. Andrew Jackson continued this policy with his infamous Indian Removal Act of 1830, which became a watershed moment. By 1840, nearly all Indians had been removed to specific reservations along the eastern borders of what were to become Kansas and Nebraska and Indian lands in present-day Oklahoma. In response, travel writers developed and maintained the trope of vanishing or disappearing Indian. It was echoed by editorialists, novelists, and other writers, especially those from the Atlantic coast who had never or rarely seen an Indian or been west of the Appalachians. This chapter illustrates that the writers who reflected on the dislocation and removal of Indians used their firsthand experience to add credibility to their political opinions.
