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jeninmotion's review against another edition
4.0
This book was incredibly important and I was definitely unsettled by referring to plantations as slave labor camps, but that's what they were. It was a slog with just...a lot of information and it was obvious that parallels were being drawn between the Jackson Administration and the Trump Administration. And I don't think that the lens this book came from is bad, I don't think that just the dark subject matter made it a slog, but it took for.frigging.ever to get through this book, which is what cost it a star.
ericamj12's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really important book to read to educate us on the cost of “American exceptionalism.” Knocking a star off because it was occasionally hard to stay engaged.
thelonelycastle's review against another edition
This book is good! I was genuinely interested in it however I just do not have the time or energy to finish this right now. I had to read it for a class and so I got about half way through so maybe eventually I'll read the rest.
abeanbg's review against another edition
3.0
This is one of those history books where the telling needs to be really great to overcome my familiarity with what happened.
I did not find the telling to be really great, sad to say.
I did not find the telling to be really great, sad to say.
ashawp's review against another edition
4.0
I read (listened) to this one rather quickly, and some of it blurs together in my brain. The main point seems to be similar to The Color of Law - showing that the government had an unequivocally primary role in taking Native land and essentially forcing them to relocate. The argument was made that most Native peoples did *not* want to move, that living side by side was mostly working. This was made a political issue by Southern plantation farmers and slave-owners who wanted more land and more white power. A close vote by the federal government made the decision for dispossession and relocation, and the government and its agents used different forms of coercion to make this happen, breaking all previous treaties. I don’t think you need me to tell you this was detrimental to all parties involved (aside from some individuals who profited, at least temporarily, although the author argues it was also a huge waste of government funds.)
I think the author did struggle to avoid bias in how he reported on some of the facts. He did write this to make a particular argument, after all. I don’t think it detracts from the narrative but it may make some readers distrustful.
I wanted to hear more of the author’s thoughts on what reparations should or could look like. I feel like that’s the obvious history tie-in to the present.
I think the author did struggle to avoid bias in how he reported on some of the facts. He did write this to make a particular argument, after all. I don’t think it detracts from the narrative but it may make some readers distrustful.
I wanted to hear more of the author’s thoughts on what reparations should or could look like. I feel like that’s the obvious history tie-in to the present.
bahareads's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Unworthy Republic by Claudio Saunt is chronicling the dispossession of Indigenous people in the United States of America. Saunt takes the reader along the various routes traveled by the Natives and shows how the Indigenous were either persuaded to move or forced off their ancestral lands in the South to Indian territory in the Midwest United States. The thesis of Unworthy Republic is threefold, Saunt shows the reader how deportation becomes an integral part of America’s early history, how the state sponsored deportation was a “turning point for indigenous peoples and for the United States,” and how deportation was not as inevitable as skewed history books have led many Americans to believe (Saunt xvii). The documentation used to prove these points is mainly primary – ranging from writings by Native Americans and legal proceedings to government official letters and diaries of American agents in the field. As a historian whose expertise is based in the sects of southern American history, Native American history, and Racial history in the United States Claudio Saunt creates Unworthy Republic as an intersectional literary piece. Viewpoints from all parties involved in the dispossession of Native Americans are culled into Unworthy Republic for a balanced look and to prove Saunt’s main thesis.
Unworthy Republic is divided into five main sections that tackle different aspects of Saunt’s thesis. The first section shows how deportation was not inevitable while showing how it was a turning point for the period as stated in the thesis. Indigenous people were adapting white ways such as owning plantations with large numbers of slaves (Saunt 13). Saunt shows how feelings of superiority, greed, and perhaps fear made many white Southerners decide the Indigenous had become a problem to live with and would be better off out of sight and therefore out of mind (Saunt 62). The second section is much like the first; it shows those in power such as President Andrew Jackson, who grew up in the American south and had strong views about Native Americans, leading the way for dispossession. Legislation that moved the Indigenous out of the way for improvement of Southern Whites would shift the balance of power economically in favor of the South which Saunt points out in his thesis (Saunt 77). The third section speaks on removal plans laid by the USA government. It also shows how cholera was spread throughout the USA through Native removal; it should not be surprising that Saunt notes the Indigenous were taken on routes similar to slave trading routes. Section three sets out to prove Saunt’s viewpoint that deportation was not the only course of action and that it helped propel the USA republic down the course of its current history (Saunt 147). Section four of Unworthy Republic shows how the deportation was financed and who profited from it. As an example, Saunt shows the reader Sauk miners thrived until white miners moved in and took over their enterprise (Saunt 143-145). The removal of the Indigenous in the south was a turning point for US history. Plantations would expand and economically the United States would flourish. The amount of money the Indigenous lost from the removal and how much land and equity Americans gained during this tumultuous time was vast. The price of land sales helped with the cumulative cost of deportation as Saunt shows with graphs and maps that deportation was profitable (Saunt 309-313). The final section shows that the expulsion of Native Americans is set in history for all time because of the atrocities that happened. Many of the Indigenous had left for Indian territory and large percentages died along the way (Saunt 139, 217, 298). The fact that the Cherokee and the Seminoles were the only large number of Indigenous left in the south by 1838 shows the complete erasure of all the other thriving Native communities in the south (Saunt 268).
Saunt brings other viewpoints of people at that time such as government officials, President Andrew Jackson, and white Southerners. As far as specific historian viewpoints go Saunt does not bother to incorporate that into the Unworthy Republic, he does bring in other general positions which he shoots down right away with his evidence. As far as the wider context of historical events being discussed Saunt talks about how Indian removal was used by abolitionists to make connections to plantation slavery and how removal of the Indigenous meant slavery extending onto the stolen lands. (Saunt 264-265).
Unworthy Republic was written for a large audience. The way the book flows makes it easy for a layman to read and understand, especially if they are not familiar with the subject of Indigenous removal in the United States. The thought process of Saunt and the thesis of Unworthy Republic are laid out well and clear. The flow of one section into another section while taking the reader through the time period of Indigenous removal is brilliant. The maps, graphs, and photos of letters make the subject matter come to life.
Saunt does not expound on the fact that Indigenous people had plantations and slaves – which leaves the reader wondering what happened to them? Were the slaves acquired with the land taken from the Indigenous or did they travel with the Indigenous to the places they were removed to. While garnering sympathy for Native Americans Saunt seems to smother over their slave holding, mentioning a few lines here and there about how some Indigenous were opposed to emancipation of the slaves (Saunt 265). On the topic of slavery Saunt also forgets to mention that some of the Creeks would have gained much of their equity from participating in the slave trade, such as capturing runaways or selling off their Indigenous foes. The erasure of this knowledge can leave the reader wondering why Saunt came from this angle.
The ending of Unworthy Republic seems a bit abrupt; it leaves the reader curious about what happens after 1839. The notes of sadness on the last page spark interest into looking up more on the topic for the time period afterwards which is Saunt’s intent. Claudio Saunt uses harsh language when referring to Southerners and a lighter language when referring to Native Americans; one can’t help but wonder at the use of such language and its impacted intent on the reader. It seems to want to cast the white man in the role of villain and the native in the role of poor victim. Unworthy Republic fits into Indigenous exportation literature quite well. It shows the cruel realities of the world at that time in the United States.
Unworthy Republic is a compilation of great writing and research. While Saunt does not take the time to examine everything in the complexities of inter-relational ties between Indigenous communities or the complexity of Native slave holders, he makes his theory come to life with the information given. Unworthy Republic sets up a casual reader or learned scholar on the subject with enough information to process and rethink the time period differently. A new perspective is given to Native literature with Unworthy Republic.
jarcher's review against another edition
3.0
Really well researched with horrifying detail - just a little dense if you don’t have an academic interest in the subject.