The Choctaws were moved to Indian Territory in three phases beginning in November of 1831. The first group started out in wagons, but flooding along the route forced them to take riverboats that eventually landed them in Arkansas. There they waited for additional wagons to take them to Little Rock and on to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. In a shameful premonition of the Cherokee Trail of Tears of 1838, up to 6,000 Choctaws died on the long trek, due to poor rations and the incompetence of Army leaders charged with their safety.
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| A typical Choctaw village, probably in Alabama, as painted by artist Francois Bernard. |
Two groups of Choctaws remained behind in Mississippi but were forced to leave a few years after the Choctaw Trail of Tears. French Writer Alexis de Tocqueville, who saw the Choctaw removals on a visit to the United States, described them in a book titled Democracy in America:
In the whole scene there was an air of ruin and destruction, something which betrayed a final and irrevocable adieu; one couldn't watch without feeling one's heart wrung. The Indians were tranquil, but sombre and taciturn. There was one who could speak English and of whom I asked why the Chactas were leaving their country. "To be free," he answered, could never get any other reason out of him.
Question
What does de Toqueville's description suggest about how the Choctaw people felt about their removal? Why did the person who could speak English say they were leaving their country in order "to be free?'
