"In the years between 1795 and 1830, the vital southwestern quadrant of the young republic, encompassing the modern-day states between South Carolina and Louisiana, witnessed nearly unceasing conflict. Many of the disputes resulted from the United States pushing aside a hundred thousand Indians as well as overtaking the final vestiges of Spanish, French, and British presence in a wilderness Americans sought for its abundant pastureland, fertile soil, and forest products. Out of the expansion of the frontier to the Mississippi River emnerged leaders such as Andrew Jackson, policies like Indian Removal, and a willingness to let adventurous settlers open up a new territories as a part of the Manifest Destiny of a growing country. As this volume makes clear, an understanding of the history of the Old Southwest is important because events there foretold the nation's transcontinental expansion"--Bookjacket.