President by Massacre pulls back the curtain of expansionism, revealing how Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor massacred Indians to open land to slavery and oligarchic fortunes.

President by Massacre examines the way in which presidential hopefuls through the first half of the nineteenth century parlayed militarily mounted land grabs into Indian-hating political capital to attain the highest office in the United States. The text zeroes in on three eras of U.S. expansionism as it led to the massacre of Indians to open land to African slavery while luring lower European classes into racism’s promise to raise white above red and black.

This book inquires deeply into the existence of the affected Muskogee ( Creek ), Shawnee, Sauk, Meskwaki ( Fox ), and Seminole, before and after invasion, showing what it meant to them to have been so displaced and to have lost a large percentage of their members in the process. It additionally addresses land seizures from these and the Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa, Black Hawk, and Osceola tribes.

President by Massacre is written for undergraduate and graduate readers who are interested in the Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands, U.S. slavery, and the settler politics of U.S. expansionism.

Provides the first comprehensive review of American Indian policies formulated and carried out by three nineteenth-century United States presidents (Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor)

Reflects the expertise of an American Indian author among the most notable thinkers in contemporary Native American Studies

Stands apart from other books on the market by tackling the subject matter from a native perspective