Perdue points out in her book that the Cherokee tribes were strengthening their hold on the land. They were becoming more educated which as a result, they were becoming more difficult to trick or intimidate. Also, they shared many of the economic and social values of the people in Georgia. The motives of removing the Cherokees can be seen as both economic and political. The Cherokee nation was located near the Tennessee River. This river was very important to Georgia because it emptied in the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, providing efficient routes to transport goods and traveling easier. Theda Perdue wrote, "Economic development theorists argued that Georgia's full potential could never be reached until it could tap that vast inland market". .
Another motive for the Cherokee removal was that Georgians were looking for ways to defend and preserve the institution of slavery, which embedded in their everyday lives. An example of this was when Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as president and openly ignored embracing and protecting the rights of the Indians through treaties. Jackson responded to a Cherokee Nation council cry for help by openly defending Georgia's claim to sovereignty and offered Cherokees only two options; accept Georgia law or move out." In eighteen twenty-five, the Cherokee National council advised the United States that it would refuse future requests and enacted a law prohibiting the sale of national land upon penalty of death. In the late eighteen twenties the Georgia legislature extended the state's jurisdiction over Cherokee territory, passed laws aiming to abolish the Cherokees laws and government, and to seize the Cherokee lands, divide it into parcels, and then offer those parcels in a lottery to Georgians, but for only whites. This was called the "Georgia land lottery." In eighteen thirty, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the president to negotiate removal treaties.
