Hero or Enemy of the People?

To continue our unit on Protecting Nations and Growing Democracy, we started a lesson on the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson.  The essential question for this lesson is, “Is Andrew Jackson’s long-standing reputation as “the people’s president” deserved?  Why?  Why not?  This essential question is important because we, citizens of America, should observe the leaders of our country and ask ourselves if they are making decisions that benefit the people. As a class, we watched a Ted-Ed video and a Crash Course video describing Andrew Jackson’s life and reputation.  Then, we split up into groups of four and were each assigned a topic; the Bank War, Indian Removal, or Spoils System.  

My group was assigned the Indian Removal.  Each group then went through their documents, took notes, and created a project.  My group decided to make a PowerPoint. In our presentation we explained that Andrew Jackson did not deserve his reputation as “the people's president”.  This is because he was only concerned about the well being of the whites, but he completely disregarded the Indians and lead them to their death on the Trail of Tears.  After watching the presentation for the Bank War, it seems that Andrew Jackson was looking out for the poor and accommodating for them, thus being a people’s president, but at the same time he caused a class war between the poor and and rich and in the long run, a complete financial collapse.  Therefore, Andrew Jackson did not deserve his long standing reputation as “the people's president” since he was not looking out for the greater good for everyone.  The Spoils System clearly showed that Andrew Jackson did not deserve his reputation as a people’s president because he rewarded only his supporters with government positions, while ending jobs for hundreds of people at the same time.  Overall, after learning about the Indian, Bank War, and Spoils System, its apparent that Andrew Jackson did not deserve his long-standing reputation as “the people’s president.”

This is my group’s project on the Indian Removal.