The system of leveeing was too
onerous and expensive to be undertaken by the people sparsedly
populating the eastern bank throughout the hill-country. The levee
system which had reclaimed so much of the low country in Louisiana, had
not extended above Pointe Coupee, in 1826. Yet there were some
settlements on several of the lakes above, especially on Lakes
Concordia and St. Joseph.
The immense country in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi in
possession of the Indians, interposed a barrier to emigration. To think
of leaving home and friends to go away beyond these savages, seemed an
undertaking too gigantic for any but men of desperate fortunes, or of
the most indomitable energy.
Adventurers had wandered into the country and returned with terrible
stories of the unhealthiness of the climate as well as the difficulties
to be overcome in reaching it; thus deterring the emigrant who desired
a new home. When General Jackson was elected to the Presidency a new
policy was inaugurated. The Indians were removed beyond the
Mississippi; the lands they had occupied were brought into market, and
a flood of emigration poured into these new acquisitions.
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