Antiremoval Subject

Alisse Theodore is the Assistant Professor of English at the University of Michigan. In her article A Right to Speak on the Subject: The U.S. Women’s Antiremoval Petition Campaign, 1829-1831, Theodore not only summarizes the history of the antiremoval campaign but also studies the strategies women have taken in petitioning against the Indian Removal Act. The antiremoval petition campaign is the earlier known record of women protesting against the federal government in a political manner. The strategies that the women took were significantly different from the way men petitioned against this oppressive law, the women’s strategies appealing more to emotion through issues of morality and religion. The Indian Removal Act was first declared in a speech by U.S. President Andrew Jackson in 1829. Before that, Native Americans have settled in southern states, much to the displeasure of Southerners who wanted to preserve the land to themselves. Jackson was very clear on his stance on Native American rights and he openly supported establishing U.S. sovereignty. Jackson gained tremendous support …show more content…
In Theodore’s article, it states that “Evarts framed Indian Removal as a moral and religious as well as a legal issue. The morality of the issue and its ties to religion captivated the daughter of a friend of Evarts, a woman named Catharine Beecher.” Beech wrote and anonymously published a letter titled “To the Benevolent Women of the United States”, encouraging women to help gain signatures for the petitions. Her letter became very popular with the help of reprints, most notably the Christian Advocate and Journal and Zion’s Herald reprint of her letter, spreading through towns across the Northeast. In high hopes of having their voices being heard, even by the highest rulers of the land, more than 1,400 petitioned against the Indian Removal