*Although the Peace of Paris in 1783 brought peace between the US and Great Britain, tension remained between the United States and the American Indians.

*Indians resented the encroachment of white men on their land west of the Appalachian, especially after the Land Ordinance and the Northwest Ordinance eased and encouraged settlement of those lands.

*Annoyed, many of the Indians in the old Northwest formed a confederation of mutual defence, and later for the purpose of waging a war of their own.  In this they were assisted by the British.  In 1790, the Indians, led by Little Turtle and Blue Jacket defeated the US Army at Miamitown, near Fort Wayne, Indiana.  In 1791, they again defeated the US Army under Governor Arthur St. Clair, making it one of the worst defeats known by the US Army in Indian warfare.  However, the British eventually stopped sending aid, and the US Army regrouped, and in 1794, General Mad Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers and made them sign a treaty of Greenville, in which they gave up 2/3 of Ohio.

*The Indians responded to their defeat in a variety of ways.  Some, such as Little Turtle (and many Cherokee, defeated in large part by John Sevier), adopted white ways, and tried to live in peace with their white neighbours.

*Some Indians tried to combine Indian and white customs and cultures.  In western New York, the Seneca Handsome Lake, consigned to a reservation, wanted to strengthen the Seneca’s rituals and traditions while using white land management, farming, and family life while rejecting the old Indian warrior traditions.

*Other Indians, blaming their people’s failure on their adoption of white ways and their assimilation into white culture, wanted a return to the Indians’ Old Time religion, refusing to have anything to do with white ways or beliefs.  One of these traditionalists was Tenskwatawa, also know as ‘The Prophet.’  Ironically, he gained some of his fame as a prophet by predicting an eclipse he had learned about from some white men.

*Some Indians, including the Prophet’s brother Tecumseh, felt that the only correct action was military action.  He wanted to unite all Indian tribes under one leader (possibly himself) in order to fight against the United States, on whom they blamed most of their problems (and not without justification).  Later the Prophet joined Tecumseh in this crusade, and they again got help from Britain.

*In 1810, Tecumseh went to visit Indiana Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison to protest the practise of getting individual Indians to sign away the lands of their whole tribes.  Tecumseh said if Harrison wasn’t careful, or war might come.

*Harrison was careful and moved first.  In 1811, he and 1,000 militia and soldiers attacked the Prophet and some of his warriors at a place called Tippecanoe while Tecumseh was travelling to other Indian tribes he hoped to recruit.  The battle was a draw, but the Prophet lost much of his people’s confidence.

*Tecumseh would become a brigadier in the British army, and would eventually be defeated by Harrison at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.

*The aid the British gave to the Indians was one of several factors that led to disagreement between the United States and Great Britain.  Americans were also very angry about the continued practise of imressment and about the British forts that still remained in the Northwest.  Finally, War Hawks like Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun wanted to invade Canada to seize more land for America.  The combination of greed and of righteous anger led to war.  The official reason was impressment, and war was official declared by Congress at the request of James Madison in 1812.

*It was thought that America would be able to take Canada easily, but that the US would have trouble on the high seas against the Royal Navy.  America immediately invaded Canada and to their surprise were beaten.

*America did have some victories on land, mostly against Britain’s Indian allies.  Harrison defeated the Indians at Tippecanoe and the Thames.  Andrew Jackson led a group of Tennessee militia against the Creek in Alabama after Fort Mims was burned in 1813 and essentially destroyed the Creek nation at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March, 1814.  With him were Samuel Houston and Davy Crockett.  The first man killed in the battle was Captain Montgomery, after whom the capital of Alabama is named.

*To everyone’s surprise, the US navy won several battles, although there were a few early defeats.  USS Chesapeake was captured in 1813; her captain’s last words were ‘Don’t give up the ship.’  Although they had to then, that remains one of the battle cries of the US Navy.  The great American victory came from the Great Lakes Fleet commanded by Oliver Hazard Perry, who defeated the British on Lake Erie.  After a terrible battle, his report to his superiors was ‘We have met the enemy, and they are ours.’  Although the American Navy, ship for ship, was actually better than the Royal Navy, the size and experience of the British allowed them to eventually blockade America.

*In 1814 the British ended their war with Napoleon, shipping him to an island in the Caribbean.  Able to turn their attention to America, they sent more ships and men, and burnt Washington, D.C.  Madison escaped along with his wife Dolley.  Afterwards, when they repaired the President’s house, they painted it white to hide the scorch marks on the outside.

*After taking Washington, the British attacked Baltimore and bombarded Fort McHenry all night long.  Francis Scott Key watching this wrote the poem that eventually became ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’

*The blockade destroyed New England shipping, and forced New England to turn to something new.  Unable to travel on the high seas and unable to import foreign merchandise, New Englanders began to build factories and produce their own manufactures.

*Frustrated by the injury to their trade and a war with their favourite trading partner, and afraid the destruction of the capital might mean the war would be lost anyway, a group of Federalists in New England met in Hartford, Connecticut in 1814 to discuss seceding from the US.  Eventually they decided not to, and only suggested constitutional amendments to give New England more power (which never came to pass), but this led to New England in general and the Federalist party in particular being considered traitors to the US.

*Eventually both the US and Great Britain realised that neither side could win this war or get much out of it.  Therefore, representatives from both nations met in Ghent, Belgium, where they signed the Treaty of Ghent on 24 December, 1814.  All it officially did was restore the status quo antebellum, and did nothing about impressment or much else, but it also demonstrated that the US could hold its own in the world as an independent nation.

*However, before word got home, in 1814 we took a little trip, along with Andrew Jackson down the mighty Mississipp’.  With a force of about 5,000 militiamen and soldiers, Jackson badly defeated a 5,000 man British army on 8 January, 1815 (after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed) when the British attacked Jackson’s fortifications outside New Orleans.  About 20 Americans were killed or wounded; over 2,000 British were.  After a war with few big victories and an unimpressive peace, the Battle of New Orleans did a great deal to boost American pride and patriotism, and it helped make Jackson a hero and one day President.

*After the war, America began to feel the divisions between north and south, almost all of which can be traced to slavery.

*The Northwest Ordinance had outlawed slavery in its area, and the states south of the Ohio had been admitted with the understanding that slavery would be legal.  However, in 1820, Missouri wanted to join the Union, and was not exactly part of either area.  Missouri already had many slaves living there, and meant to enter as a slave state.  However, at this point there were 22 states in the US, 11 free and 11 slave.  The free states did not want to let Missouri in unless she agreed to abolish slavery, either now or at some point in the future.  Southerners did not accept that Congress could make a law forbidding a state to have slavery—and if they do it here, they could do it again.  Furthermore, many people began to worry that if another slave state would make the South too powerful in the Senate.  Finally, Henry Clay brokered the Great Compromise:  Missouri would enter as a slave state but Maine would be created as a free state, keeping the balance in the Senate.  Furthermore, west of Missouri, states south of Missouri’s southern border would be slave states, and those north of it would be free, thus avoiding future argument.

*With this Compromise, most people quit worrying for a while, but a few thought it was a sign of danger for the nation.  Some felt that it was the first sign of a greater divide between north and south, and that, perhaps, America was suffering for the sin of slavery.  Thomas Jefferson called it ‘a fire bell in the night’ warning of future danger for the whole nation.

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