Overview
Arguably, the signature theme for the historical portion of our course during these first 4 weeks is the notion of “land hunger.”
In a paper of 5 pages, describe the phenomenon of land hunger in the context of White settlement in the U.S. Southeast, and explain how the hunger for land by white settlers led to conflict with, and dispossession of Indigenous Amerindians, most notably the Cherokee of Georgia. What were some of the salient forces driving this hunger for land that resulted in the Trail of Tears?
In your essay, when discussing the theme of land hunger, you can also make reference to the case of New England that led to Metacom’s War, or even to Mankoto in Minnesota when 38 Dakota Sioux were executed. For your paper, you can use lectures, readings, and the film, We Shall Remain. If you want to use outside sources, you will have to talk to me first and explain why you want to use the outside source in question. Do not use Chat GTP, Deep Seek, or any other forms of "AI" to write your paper. Be sure to cite your sources in a separate “References” page.
The strongest papers will construct an “argument” – a claim -- about land hunger, backed by evidence [see “Basics of Arguments” in Module]. The claim in the argument, however, need not be complex. For example, a claim for an argument about land hunger might simply state:
“The hunger for land on the part of Anglo-American colonists derived from ongoing increases in the settler population that brought settlers into conflict with Native Americans.”
Alternatively, the claim in your argument might be more nuanced:
“Land hunger on the part of American settlers in the Southeast resulted from their perceptions of profit opportunities from cotton-growing that created pressures on Native lands and brought the settlement community and Indigenous Tribes into conflict over land.”
Or again, the claim might be more complex by adding an additional element:
"Land hunger on the part of American settlers in the Southeast resulted from their perceptions of profit opportunities from cotton-growing that created pressures on Native lands, but the push by white settlers for Indian land was also driven by a far more basic and harsh sentiment – white racism."
There are many possibilities. The key in writing this kind of paper is to think in terms of a claim that you can support, that in turn, will enable you to tell a story about how land hunger brought the settler community and Amerindians into conflict with one another focusing on the case of Georgia and the U.S. Southeast. Admittedly, it is more challenging to write this kind of essay, but it is a more effective way of writing and presenting your ideas to a reader.