I’ve googled well into the triple digits now, and I’m starting to get upset. :mad::mad: Does anybody know the speech the Cherokee gave that said something along the lines of “we are imprisoned, yet we do not fight you” or know where I can find it?
I thank you in advance.
It goes like this and it was a letter written to Winfield Scott by about 100 of the Cherokees due to the sickness and weather conditions prior to being driven across the Midwest:
"We your prisoners, wish to speak to you. We wish
to speak humbly for we cannot help ourselves. We
have been made prisoners by your men, but we do
not fight against you. We have never done you any
harm. Sir, we ask you to hear us. We have been
told we are to be sent off by boat immediately.
Sir, will you listen to your prisoners. We are
Indians. Our wives and children are Indians and
some people do not pity Indians. But if we are
Indians we have hearts that feel. We do not want
to see our wives and children die. We do not want
to die ourselves and leave them widows and
orphans. We are in trouble, Sir, our hearts are
very heavy. The darkness of the night is before
us. We have no hope unless you will help us. We
do not ask you to let us go free from being your
prisoners, unless it should please yourself. But
we ask that you not send us down the river this
time of year. If you do we shall die, our wives
will die or our children will die. Sir, our hearts
our heavy, very heavy. We want you to keep us in
this country until the sickly time is over, so
that when we get to the west we may be able to
make boards to cover our families. If you send us
now the sickly time is commenced, we shall not
have strength to work. We will be in the open air
in all the deadly time of sickness, or we shall
die, and our poor wives and children will die too.
And if you send the whole nation, the whole nation
will die. We ask pity. Pity our women and
children if they are Indians do not send us off
at the sickly time. Some of our people are
Christians They will pray for you. If you pity
us we hope your God will be pleased and that he
will pity you and your wife and children and do
you good. We cannot make a talk, our hearts are
too full of sorrow. This is all we say.
The Trail of Tears is something that can still make me cry…
Ack… I have an ancestor who was on the Trail of Tears. I just found out recently, and it sure turned my head around (I am 1/32 Cherokee through my dad’s family).
Thank you Missy2U, you don’t even realize how grateful I am for that. And EJsGirl, I’m really sorry to hear that.
So was I. Especially since there’s another ancestor in there who was a buffalo hunter and Indian fighter. Woo yoo. Interesting family.
Very interesting family and one to be proud of too, EJsGirl.
I have lived near Andrew Jackson’s home for almost forty years. But I won’t set foot there because of the Trail of Tears.