The Early Republic, 1789-1815
Characteristics:
• Tumultuous change: Economic, Political, Social
• National Identity
• Emergence of Race theory/System of classification (Bruce Dain-Harvard)
• Expansion
Federalist Era: 1789-1800 (within larger historical era)
• Dominated politics
• Hatred of political parties/ but still emerged
• Fiscal military state vs. rural agricultural state
By 1815 (Historian Gordon S. Wood)
• Culture
• End of slavery in North/ remained in South
• Wanted to avoid war/ became embroiled in war
The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1809
Personal
•Spoke six languages
•Copy of Qu’ran (1764- 2 volume)
•Widowed
•Conflicted about slavery
• Opposed slave trade/only freed seven of hundreds of slaves/anti-Black sentiment
•6,487 books- sold to Library of Congress
•1819- Founded the University of Virginia.
Political Agenda: Overview
•Promotion of political democracy and expansion
• Yeoman farmer/ artisans, tradesman
•Political democracy=economically independent citizenry
•Decrease Executive branch
• Legal precedent: Marbury vs. Madison (1803) Judicial review
•Foreign Policy
• Impulse: Expansion vs. Avoiding War
• Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase
• Barbary States (North Africa)
• Embargo Act (1807)
The Mind of Thomas Jefferson…
Social
• Product of the Enlightenment
• Education
• Amendment/ failed
• Six goals of Education
• Jeffersonian Democracy
• Narrow interpretation of Constitution
• Opposed Federalist Party supported
• The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
• Razor and glue. New Testament
• 1803 Letter -Dr. Benjamin Rush (Natchez, MS)
• Composed it for himself
• Notes of the State of Virginia. (1785)
• Obsessed- connection between race and intelligence.
• Inherent inferiority OR Decades of degrading enslavement.
• Anti-Slavery Actions vs. Anti-Black Thought
• 1778- Virginia/ prohibit importation of slaves
• 1785-publically silent
A Hideous Monster of the Mind:
American Race Theory in the Early Republic
Anti-slavery/Pro-Black Thought
• English abolitionist- Granville Sharp
• American abolitionist- Lemuel Haynes
• Alaudah Equiano and John Marrant
• Phillis Wheatley
Emergence of Race Theory
• Assumptions of fundamental variations in humanity (physiology)
• Exclusion from social contract and civil society.
• Differences rooted in Nature.
• Undid 18th century abolitionism
• Ideology- Blackness becomes innate.
Development Via:
• Political thought, natural science, moral philosophy, responses to Haitian revolution,
colonization to Liberia, abolitionism, and ethnology.
Pirates in the Mediterranean:
Northwest African Berber Muslim states and the United States
Setting the Stage: The Berbers in North Africa
• Language: Barbary
• The Barbary States: Tripoli, Algiers (Algeria) , Morocco=Piracy of Mediterranean
shipping
• Extort ransom, pillage, enslavement of crews
• U.S.- Tribute to Barbary states (Hood tax to operate trade)
• Spain: 1784 suggested to offer tribute
• Envoys to Morocco and Algeria
• Peace treaty 12 June 1786: ended all Moroccan piracy
• Algiers: Capture of schooners Maria and Dauphin
• Captive for a decade. $600,000 each state
• 1795: release of 115 sailors, over $1 million dollars
• Jefferson refusal: 1801. Pasha of Tripoli, demand $225,000/cut down flagstaff
• The First Barbary War 1801-1805
• Second Barbary War: 1815.
Setting the Precedent:
Judicial Review, One Big Land Purchase, and the Corps of Discovery…
Judicial Review
•Marbury v. Madison (1803)
• Problematic: John Adams Federalist “Midnight judges.”
• Delivery of commissions to appointed judges
• Federalist Judge Chief Justice John Marshall
• End Result: Judicial Review.
The Louisiana Purchase ($15 mil.)
•Men of the Western Waters
•Napoleon’s Plans for Louisiana
•Jefferson’s Plan to Secure Louisiana- New Orleans
The Lewis and Clark Expedition
•Corps of Discovery
•Sacajawea
•Incorporating Louisiana: Division of territories.
Gossip and Conspiracies in the Early Republic
The Case of Sally Hemings (The Revolutionary Period)
• Biracial: Enslaved Elizabeth Hemings and English Captain John Hemings
• 1774: property of Thomas Jefferson
• Paris, 1787.
• Six children*
• Was not emancipated.
The Burr Conspiracy: A Treasonous Cabal and Texas Territory
• 1805-1806: Travels to Texas Territory (Spanish).
• Planters, Politicians, Army Officials. Plans in Newspaper, August 1805.
• Arrest: 1806.
• Trial: Charge of Treason. Not Guilty
• Lack of Evidence
• Legacy:
• Privilege: Executive and States
• Independence of Investigation:
• Subpoenas: Issue of release of papers
• Executive independent of Judiciary
• President: Subject to Law
European Harassment and An Embargo
Harassment by Britain
• Contest for world power: 1791-1815
• Seized American citizens and property
• Impressment: 2nd Jefferson Administration
• 1795 Jay Treaty: Did not address this issue
• Forcibly seizing ships and sailors to work in Royal Navy
• American warship the USS Chesapeake
• Growing pressure for war
Embargo Act of 1807
• Prohibited all foreign commerce/respect of American rights
• Failed to compel
• Jefferson-hypocrite- foe of excessive government/U.S. Navy patrols
• Stimulated domestic manufacturing
• Repealed: Non-Intercourse Act of 1809
Presidency of James Madison, 1809-1817
Characteristics
• 4th president: War and Domestic Policy
• Term dominated by tensions with Britain
• Pressured towards war with Great Britain- War of 1812
• (Theatre of Napoleonic Wars)
• Domestic Problems: War-hawks, the Indigenous, Frontier
Indigenous Policies
• Paternalistic
• Protected indigenous lands (military commander Andrew Jackson)
• Battle of Tippecanoe (1811)- Indiana Territory and Tecumseh
Economic Policies
• Congress failed to re-authorize charter of first Bank of America
• 1816- signed act/ federal bank supported war
• Taxation: tariffs, professional military, internal improvements (Henry Clay)
• Vetoed Bonus Bill of 1817: financed roads, bridges, canals
The War of 1812
Causes
•Violation of American Rights
• Increased British navy aggression
• Royal Navy boarded ships/Impressed its seamen
•Expansion
• Armed indigenous in Northwest Territory- “buffer zone”
• War Hawks: supported war
•Economic Motivations:
• Unfinished business from American Revolution
• Failure of Embargo Act 1807
• War or Absolute submission
Incidents
•1807: HMS Leopard & American warship USS Chesapeake
•Leander Affair: Jefferson banned British ships in ports
•Napoleon’s Continental System (1806) and British Orders in Council (1807)
• 900 American ships seized- 1807-1812
•1 June 1812: Madison outlines grievances against Britain
Course of War of 1812
Course of War
• Land, Coasts, and Waterways
The War in the South
• Creek War: Andrew Jackson (1813-1814)
• Began as Civil War within Creek Nation
• Red Sticks
• Battle of Burnt Corn: U.S. Involvement
• Tecumseh
• Red Sticks
• Fort Mims Massacre: massacre against whites and biracial Creeks
• Treaty of 1814: Language. 20 million acres of Georgia land
• Battle of New Orleans- 1815.
The War in the Chesapeake
• British response to burning of York in Upper Canada
• Burned White House in 1814
• Francis Scott Key: The Star Spangled Banner
Dolley Madison and Washington City
National Capital
• Land given by Maryland
• Jefferson: “Dismal Indian swamp”
• Dolley Madison
• 17 years younger
• Social graces and hospitality
• Stand-in for First Lady of Jefferson
• Architect Benjamin Latrobe
Burning of Washington, 1814
•Statue of George Washington
•Organized enslaved to save valuables
•Paul Jennings: James Madison’s personal servant (15 years old)
•Purchased freedom from Dolley Madison
•Reconstruction
•2009 Jennings reunion/ Enslaved Contributions/ White House
Treaty of Ghent: 24 December 1814
Key Points
• Conditions of pre-war status
• Arranged prior to Battle of New Orleans
• Status quo antebellum
• Released all prisoners
• Restored all war lands and boats
• British- return of freed Black slaves