USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Worcester was arrested in Georgia and convicted for disobeying the state’s law restricting white missionaries from living in Cherokee territory without a state license. On appeal, he was the plaintiff in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), a case that went to the United States Supreme Court.

Detailed explanation-2: -Georgia state authorities arrested Worcester and several other missionaries. After they were convicted at trial in 1831 and sentenced to four years of hard labour in prison, Worcester appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Worcester argued that Georgia had no right to extend its laws to Cherokee territory.

Detailed explanation-3: -In Worcester v. Georgia, the court struck down Georgia’s extension laws. In the majority opinion Marshall wrote that the Indian nations were “distinct, independent political communities retaining their original natural rights” and that the United States had acknowledged as much in several treaties with the Cherokees.

Detailed explanation-4: -Worcester appealed this on the grounds that those laws were unconstitutional because the Cherokee people were ruled as sovereign and therefore not bound by state law in 1831.