Name: Unworthy Republic
ISBN: 9780393609844

Claudio Saunt

A masterful and unsettling history of "Indian Removal," the forced migration of Native Americans across the Mississippi River in the 1830s and the state-sponsored theft of their lands.

The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory

Unworthy Republic

Christian Beck

The subject of this book is always something I was aware of but embarrassingly never dug into. Saunt’s research is massive in scope and organized incredibly well. 

The framework of white supremacy is pervasive throughout this book, and frankly the quotes and politics involved in justifying and enforcing dispossession are still echoing throughout the south today. It’s a troubling story. Perhaps the most damning insight to me was when he describes how representatives from Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama unanimously supported state-sponsored dispossession for the sole purpose of opening more land for slave owners. WTF indeed.

The north feebly fought against the movement, but eventually cowered under the threat of the South’s threat to break up the union. It’s sad to know that happened anyway twenty years later so their backing down salvaged nothing.

The cowardice and racism on display at such a systematic scale is gut wrenching to read. But I’m grateful for Claudio Saint having written this book and teaching me about the genocide I’d too long ignored.

Unworthy Republic The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory

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