How Did African Americans Affect The Economy In The Late 1800s

Examine the condition of African-Americans in the late nineteenth century and explain why the Thirteenth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which were enacted to aid the new freedmen, actually did little.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s America went thru changes that still affect us today. The defeat of the confederacy led to African Americans freedom from slavery as well as the transformation into an agricultural empire and industrial dominance. American’s faith in progress in the late 1800s and early 1900s was measured by three significant ideas such as, the business and industrial era, the progressive era, and the life of African Americans.

The war in Europe dominated James Madison's Presidency. The previous policy of the Embargo Act had failed, and Madison repealed it with the Non-Intercourse Act, which allowed trade with any country except the belligerents. When this became unenforceable, the Macon Bill, stating that the United could trade with any country agreeing to respect US neutrality, replaced it. Napoleon agreed to this stipulation, the British refused, so the United States began trading with France but not with Great Britain. This led to increased tension with the British, manifested both in the continued impressment of American sailors by the British and an increasingly hostile Indian population in the Northwest supposedly incited by the British.

The War of 1812 had a strange lack of victors, but to fully comprehend its effects, one must first evaluate the causes of the war. Each nation involved in the war had a very specific set of goals they wished to accomplish. Initially, the United States aimed to stay neutral in the affairs of Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars until the two rivals attempted to restrict American trade. In an effort to combat this, President Jefferson passed the Embargo Act of 1807, which banned trade with all foreign countries. The act, intending to deprive the world of American trade, backfired and was later replaced with the Non-Intercourse Act to instead ban trade with only Britain and France. America's unwillingness to trade with the two caused tension that was intensified by the British policy of impressment.2 The resulting “anti-British sentiment” was greatly encouraged by the War Hawks, a group led by Henry Clay that supported war with Britain. They ardently pursued the end of impressment due to the Chesapeake-Leopard Incident in which the HMS Leopard boarded the USS Chesapeake, took four prisoners, and executed one thinking that they were British deserters. Once discovering that they were not, Britain returned the

In fact, during the European embargoes, thousands of American sailors were forcibly impressed by the British because Royal Navy life was so awful and unrewarding it caused British men to desert their own country en masse for the better-paying, better quality life of American maritime. In response to the Chesapeake affair, Jefferson, U.S. president at the time, made the Embargo Act which prevented Americans from trading with any ports outside the United States. The act really hurt American economics and trade and created such uproar in people that it was soon replaced with a more sensible act. The Non-Intercourse act forbade American trade with Britain, France and their colonial allies until their own embargoes were dissolved.

First off, the Embargo Act of 1807 which banned trade between Napoleonic war countries. At this time many American sailors were being captured and forced to serve for the British army. This was only happening because of Napoleon's army which Britain was constantly fighting against. So, Thomas Jefferson created the Embargo act of 1807 which banned trade to European countries. This angered British quite a lot. The Embargo act of 1807 hurt many economies flaring some anger within these nations.

President Jefferson, seeing the problems within a war with Britain, enacted the Embargo Act of 1807 instead. The act stated that no supplies would enter or leave the United States. This act failed miserably in weakening the British economy and actually hurt the United States

It stopped any American ship from sailing to foreign ports and it closed trade with Europe. Instead of disturbing Great Britain’s economy, it impacted the United States negatively and its economy declined. “ Jefferson’s embargo failed from the beginning…Merchants in New England howled at the loss of their greatest industry: oceangoing commerce. The value of American exports plummeted from $48 million in 1807 to $ 9 million a year later” (America, 250).

Since America was developing as a new nation, it was neutral. Great Britain cut off America’s trading because they thought it would interfere with their war against France. They also restricted trading because they wanted to set up an Indian population in the Midwest in order to still maintain their influence. The trade restriction was the first major cause of the War of 1812. During America’s neutral status, the British began to impress Americans, taking about 6,000 mariners and making them serve on the British ships.

With the Impressment, the USS Chesapeake incident, and the Embargo Act, these events were causes that kept leading up to the war of 1812. There were many events and situations after the Revolutionary War involving the British, so many Americans came to conclude that going into another war against Britain might not be a terrible idea. With the Impressment, the British were capturing men and forcing them into naval service. The USS Chesapeake incident was because of the British ship Leopard stopping the Is Navy ship and trying to take all there sailors and the British started open firing when the captain wouldn't let them. During the continuance of the Embargo Act, all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States confined to the navigation of bays, sounds, rivers, and lakes. According to all of these documents it states that the British were involved negatively in all of them against the Americans.

Britain was imposing on the United States trade while they were left at their weakest point. Along the way, Britain was also capturing United States sailors to join their army, resulting in fighting against their own people in the American Indian battles. This is when Madison really messed up and declared the war proclamation toward Britain. Multiple people wanted nothing to Madison’s decision and failed to support it. While trying to keep up with the war, America kept aiming to fight Britain. Although the Unites States often were forced to admit defeat, they were holding up as well as they could. The war of 1812 continued on, and America was suffering trade loss more and more. It got to the point where “Mr. Madison’s war” had forced the trade to stop, resulting in Britain aiming to manipulate American merchants to trade their good during the war. Britain eventually agreed to negotiate the war, this was the signing of The Treaty of

Madison and these supporters of the war looked upon it as being inevitable, causing it to eventually also be known as “Mr. Madison’s War”. Madison was influenced to believe this war was unavoidable as a cause of the British supplying already aggressive Native Americans with weapons, along with members of his party urging the idea of kicking the Indians out of the United States and putting them in Canada. While individuals like this saw the war as inevitable others, such as southerner expansionists, had ulterior motives. These expansionists sought the state of Florida, which at the time was controlled by Spain, a weak ally of Britain. Even with multiple stances on the topic of war and individuals having ulterior motives, what started the entire discussion of war was all the different unjust actions of the British towards the United States. The British were consistently impressing American sailors, taking the Americans from their vessel and forcing them to join and work for the British Navy. Along with impressment occurring there were many more reasons behind the War of 1812; such as, harassment of United States trade by British naval ships, and “During the first three decades of American independence there was a general feeling that the British government had very little respect for the young United States. And during the Napoleonic Wars the British government actively sought to meddle with — or completely suppress — American trade with European nations.” (McNamara). Britain was so desperate in attempting to squash the United States through trade they even passed laws, known as Orders in Council, which meant for all American ships that were headed towards a European port a blockade would now be there.

The Embargo of 1807 that he hails as the pinnacle of the American movement towards a free economy was officially in response to the attack of the Chesapeake by the British Leopold off the coast of Virginia. The British deliberately violated American sovereignty by attempting to seize and search the Chesapeake for British stowaways. Americans were responding to the unjust British policy of impressment and asserting their right to civil and economic sovereignty that was threatened by draconian British policy.

Before getting to that point, we must first discuss the events that led to increasing tensions between the United States and Britain. One of the difficulties that led to the War of 1812 was because of the failure of economic sanctions. In 1810, congress had replaced the Nonintercourse Act with Macon’s Bill No. 2 in hopes of creating easier trading throughout the nations. Through this time, and with the replacement of the Nonintercourse Act with Macon’s Bill No. 2, Napoleon had promised to withdraw decrees against U.S. shipping on the condition that if Britain should not follow suit, Madison would have to force Britain to respect U.S. rights. Unfortunately, French seizures of U.S. ships continued and by the time Napoleon’s requests were clear, he had worsened Anglo-American tensions. In November of 1810, Madison had reimposed Nonintercourse against Britain which only caused the two nations to have more conflicts. Another difficulty leading to the decision of war in 1812 was due to the frontier and Indian resistance. Madison was also pushed toward a war against Britain because of mounting frustrations in the South and West. Farm prices plunged when Jefferson’s embargo shut off exports, but stayed low after the embargo was lifted. Much of the blame for persistent agricultural depression focused on the British and their hold on overseas trade after 1808. As we can see, Britain and the U.S. had not been on good sides of the other. In fact, western

America and Great Britain were at war. But for what may you ask? This is a story longing to be told. Are you brave enough to listen? America and Britain were at war in 1812 for something that seemed like it would be easy to resolve but what it ended in was war.