Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

PART II EMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE

Britain, with the largest navy in the world, commenced a blockade of US ports along the east coast to limit US trade and compromise the US economy. "Between 1812 and 1815, Britain captured 500 more American sailing craft" (Kert, 1998, 3). At sea both sides experienced major losses of merchant vessels, cargoes, and profitability due to the coastal blockade, privateering and exorbitant insurance rates, and were pushed to the negotiating table in 1814, following two- and one-half years of conflict. A final event, as acceptance of the Treaty of Ghent neared, was the late British military action under Major General Sir Edward Packenham to capture New Orleans from the US, with the hope of taking all the Louisiana Territory. He was soundly defeated on 8 Jan 1815 by General Andrew Jackson. The Americans suffered 71 casualties and the British 2,000, including the deaths of Packenham and his second in command. 1814. The Treaty of Ghent. The Treaty of Ghent was signed in Ghent 24 Dec 1814 . President James Madison did not exchange the signed copies with the British Ambassador until 17 Feb 1815 , shortly after the Battle of New Orleans, returning both sides to their pre-war boundaries. Pensacola was returned to Spanish Florida (temporarily), but the US retained Spanish West Florida and the important Port of Mobile. While British public pro-war sentiment persisted toward the USA in the immediate aftermath of the War of 1812 and British North Americans continued to fear US expansionism, the Treaty of Ghent would persist through the 19 th century. 1818. US Territorial Consolidation. “The House of Representatives of the United States have passed Acts, authorizing the Missouri Territory west of the river Mississippi, and the Illinois Territory, lying east of the Mississippi, and north of the river Ohio, to form Constitutions, in order to be admitted into the Union, as States - those two will make their number up to twenty-two. Michigan Territory is to be allowed a Delegate in Congress; and as soon as their numbers shall become sufficient, they also will be organized and admitted as a State. Their national Flag is to be Thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white, to designate the original number of the United States, and one Star, for each existing State, the Stars to be white on a blue field”. Montreal Gazette 6 May 1818. Michigan would not be admitted until 26 Jan 1845. 1819. Transcontinental Treaty: Florida Territory ceded to the US. Spain and the Seminole Indians were openly sympathetic to the British in the War of 1812. In 1817-18 the US military under Gen. Andrew Jackson attacked the Seminole Indians of Florida to recapture runaway black slaves, and in the process, they seized Spanish Pensacola and St Mark. Spain recognized that it could no longer defend Spanish Florida and ceded Florida and Oregon Country to the US in exchange for the US recognition of Spanish sovereignty over Texas under the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819. The Florida Territory would not achieve statehood until 3 Mar 1845. 1820. The Economy. As the USA expanded, so did the economy in both diversity and size. The US was becoming a major agricultural and manufacturing power, increasingly producing goods for sale rather than consumption. New labor-saving technologies and better transportation systems enhanced the trade of competitively priced goods and produce. On the 981-mile Ohio River, migrants continued floating households and cargoes westward on flatboats, reaching Cincinnati, Louisville, and other destinations along the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys. Cincinnati exemplified the explosive growth of population centers along migration corridors - incorporated as a city in 1819 , it grew rapidly from 2,540 in 1810, to 9,642 in 1820, and would reach 46,338 residents by 1840 (Fig 19).

100