Saunt, Claudio

OUR SYNOPSIS: Claudio Saunt demonstrates how the U.S. government forcibly expelled Native Americans from their homelands, in some cases pursuing a policy of extermination, during the first century of the American Republic. He argues this expulsion was unprecedented and “became something of a model for colonial empires around the world.” (xv) He also emphasizes it “was a major turning point for indigenous peoples and for the United States” and that it “was far from inevitable.” (xvii-xviii) In telling these stories, he amplifies the resistance and experiences of the Indigenous people oppressed by this settler-colonial state-building. He also shows that President Andrew Jackson was a key leader of Indigenous expulsion. Once Congress passed the Removal Act of 1830, Jackson harnessed his prior military experience violently rampaging through Native American communities to lead mass expulsion. Financiers and joint-stock companies funded these efforts while land speculators grabbed the newly evicted land, all advancing imperial racial capitalism.