Chapter 9 The Jefferson Era (1800-1816)
Section 3 A Time of Conflict
Americans on Foreign Seas
•Sea travel was dangerous in the early 1800s
•Storms and pirates
•But Americans depended on trade with foreign nations and had to travel by ship
•Ships sailed to China, India, South America, Africa, and along the Mediterranean Sea
•Brought back goods
•War between France and Britain allowed American ships to benefit from trade
Barbary Pirates
•Pirates from the Barbary Coast states terrorized ships sailing on the Mediterranean
•Barbary Coast states of North Africa- Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis
•Pirates demanded tribute (protection money) from their country’s governments to let their ships pass safely
•European countries paid tribute because they felt it was cheaper than going to war with them
War With Tripoli
•The US also had to pay tribute to the Barbary Coast states
•The ruler of Tripoli didn’t think it was enough
•1801- The ruler asked for more money
•Jefferson refused- Tripoli declared war on the US
•Jefferson sent ships to blockade Tripoli, but the conflict continued
More of the War With Tripoli
•1804- Pirates seized the warship Philadelphia
•The crew was thrown in jail
•Stephen Decatur, a 25-year-old US Navy captain, took action
•Decatur and a small group burned the captured ships to prevent the pirates from using it
•A British admiral called it the “most bold and daring act of the age”
•June 1805- The War ended and Tripoli agreed to stop demanding tribute
•The US had to pay $60,000 for the prisoners to be released
•Tribute payments did not stop completely until 1815
Freedom of the Seas
•Jefferson was reelected in 1804
•The nation was at peace
•France and Britain were fighting a war and it threatened American trade
•The US was caught in the middle of the war with France and Britain
Neutral Rights Violated
•The US had a prosperous trade with both France and Britain
•As long as the US stayed neutral, shippers could continue doing business
•A nation not involved in the conflict had neutral rights (right to sail the seas and not take sides)
•For two years, American shipping prospered
•1805- Britain and France lost patience with American “neutrality”
•Both threatened to search or seize ships trading with their enemy
American Sailors Kidnapped
•The British were in desperate need of sailors for their naval war
•Many deserted because of living conditions in the British Royal Navy
•The British again started impressment
•1000s of Americans were taken and forced to be in the British Navy
Attack on the Chesapeake
•June 1807 off the coast of Virginia
•The Leopard, British warship, stopped the American vessel Chesapeake
•The British captain demanded to search the American ship for British deserters
•The Chesapeake’s captain refused
•The British opened fire, crippled the ship and killed three crew members
More of the Attack on the Chesapeake
•As news spread, Americans reacted with an anti-British fury
•Secretary of State, James Madison, called the attack an outrage
•Many Americans demanded war against Britain
•President Jefferson sought action other than war
The Embargo Act
•To “punish” the British, Congress passed the Embargo Act in December 1807
•An embargo prohibits trade with another country
•In addition to Britain, the act banned imports and exports from ALL foreign countries
•Jefferson and Madison wanted to avoid war, but they wanted to hurt Britain by banning the trade of agricultural
products
•The Act was a disaster- Americans had no trade and it was ineffective against the British
•Congress then enacted the Nonintercourse Act which prohibited trade only with Britain and France
Jefferson Leaves Office
•Jefferson followed Washington and served only two terms
•Republicans chose James Madison as their candidate
•The Federalists nominated Charles Pinckney
•Madison won 122 to 47
War Fever
•Cries of war grew louder
•1810- Congress passed a law permitting direct trade with France or Britain
•Depending on which would lift trade restrictions against the US first
•Napoleon seized the opportunity and promised to end France’s trade restrictions
•France continued to take American ships and selling them for profit
•The nation was ready for war, but didn’t know which side to fight
Frontier Conflicts
•Madison received news about problems in the “West”
•Ohio became a state in 1803 and white settlers started taking Native American land (again)
•Native Americans renewed their contracts with the British
•Other Native Americans pursued a new strategy
•Tecumseh, a powerful Shawnee chief, built a confederacy among Native American nations in the Northwest
Tecumseh
•Planned to halt white movement into Native American lands
•Tecumseh said the treaties were worthless
•“The Great Spirit gave this great island to his red children”
•Tecumseh said- “The white people have no right to take the land from the Indians, because the Indians had it
first”
•Tecumseh’s brother, Tenskwatawa, was known as a prophet
•In Indiana, the prophet set up Prophetstown where the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers meet
A Meeting With Harrison
•William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, became alarmed
•The Shawnee brothers’ power was growing
•Harrison feared they would join with the British
•Harrison wrote to Tecumseh and told him that the US had more warriors than all the Indian nations combined
•Tecumseh replied to Harrison in person- saying that too much land and lives have already been taken
The Battle of Tippecanoe
•Tecumseh went south to expand the confederacy
•Harrison attacked Prophetstown on the Tippecanoe River
•After more than 2 hours, the Prophet’s forces fled in defeat
•The Battle of Tippecanoe was declared a glorious victory for the Americans
•Harrison’s victory led Tecumseh’s forces to join with the British
War Hawks
•Madison faced demands for war against Britain
•The most pressure came from a group of young Republicans known as the War Hawks
•They wanted war with Britain
•The leading War Hawks were Kentucky’s Henry Clay and South Carolina’s John Calhoun
•The War Hawks supported increases in military spending and were driven by hunger for land
•War Hawks wanted to expand the nations power and nationalism
•The Federalists in the Northeast remained strongly opposed to war
Declaring War
•Spring 1812- Madison knew war was inevitable
•Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war
•Meanwhile, the British had decided to end their policy of search and seizure of American ships
•The news did not get across the Atlantic in time
•Once set in motion, the war machine could not be stopped
Essential Question
–1. threats to trade, including the Barbary pirates, seizure of U.S. ships by Britain and France
–2. Tension in the West between settlers and Native Americans
–3. British-Native American alliances