A Glimpse of Jackson County, Alabama

The last Indian rights to Alabama land were terminated by 1838, when the Cherokees were removed. This made space, in many places, for enormous cotton plantations, and in others for modest farmhouses like this one.

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The Layers of History at Cartacay Methodist Church

From Greg Kindall, Ellijay, Georgia: “Built in 1859 to replace a 1834 structure, this fine old church is on the National Register of Historic Places. My 4th great-grandfather was a Civil War-era minister here.” The town of Ellijay, in north Georgia, was once part of the Cherokee Nation. It was on “the Indian map,” territory…

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Steve Inskeep’s Bio

Steve Inskeep

Steve Inskeep is a cohost of NPR’s Morning Edition, the most widely heard radio program in the United States, and of NPR’s Up First,one of the nation’s most popular podcasts.  On days of bad news, Inskeep is inspired by the Langston Hughes book, Laughing to Keep From Crying. Of hosting Morning Edition during the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession, he told Nuvo magazine…

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Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America

differ we must

Steve Inskeep’s compelling and nuanced exploration of Abraham Lincoln’s political acumen, illuminating a great politician’s strategy in a country divided—and lessons for our own disorderly present.

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Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Frémont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity and Helped Cause the Civil War

With rare detail and in consummate style, Steve Inskeep tells the story of a couple whose joint ambitions and talents intertwined with those of the nascent United States itself. Taking advantage of expanding news media, aided by an increasingly literate public, the two linked their names to the three great national movements of the time—westward settlement, women’s rights, and opposition to slavery.

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A Cherokee 4th of July

“John Ross embraced real democracy and the Cherokee do today as they celebrate this country. i was struck on the 4th of July last year by what seems to be such an incredible paradox. i am constantly in awe of the dignity and grace, the humanity, the memory of what was, the knowing of what is, the joining of cultures, and also, independence. This particular powwow is held annually, now for 40 years, by The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, NC within the Qualla Boundary.”

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Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab

From Steve Inskeep, NPR Host and author, Jacksonland is the thrilling narrative history of two men—President Andrew Jackson and Cherokee chief John Ross—who led their respective nations at a crossroads of American history. Five decades after the Revolutionary War, the United States approached a constitutional crisis.

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A Warrior of AniKituwah

“The Warriors of AniKituwah at the North Carolina Arboretum. The Emissaries of Peace Exhibit from The Museum of the Cherokee Indian was on display at the arboretum.”

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The Unbelievable Solitary Confinement Prison in Jacksonland

This is Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, built in the 1820’s as a model prison. In keeping with the latest thinking in criminal justice reform, the prison was designed so that every single prisoner would be kept in solitary confinement for the entirety of his term.

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Women’s Movement, Circa 1830

Jacksonland shows how his opponents broadened democratic participation too. This image, taken at the National Archives, shows the cover of an 1831 petition to Congress. It was from the “Massachusetts Ladies of Hamden relative to removal of Indians.” Women had no right to vote in Jackson’s era, but some found a way to dissent.

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