APUSH 3.12 Movement in the Early Republic

US Diplomatic Conflicts

Great Britain

  • They still occupied the west
  • GB was impressing American sailors
    • Which was essentially kidnapping them and forcing them into the British navy
Jay Treaty
  • Provisioned that British forces would leave the sites they still occupied on US soil
    • Opens up land in the west
  • US pledged to pay pre-revolutionary debts to British merchants
  • A commission would meet to settle the following issues
    • Boundary disputes between Canada and the US
    • British seizure of American ships and sailors
  • John Jay, who negotiated the treaty, did alright with the first provision
    • People weren’t so impressed with how he handled the other two
    • However, Jay did keep the US from entering a European war
    • He didn’t win everything for the US, but avoided a worse fate

Spain

  • The Spanish were restricting American use of the Mississippi River
Pinckney’s Treaty
  • US gained free access to use the Mississippi River for shipping
  • US gained free use of the port and New Orleans
  • US gained disputed territory north of Florida
  • General Anthony Wayne negotiated this treaty, and did a good job across the board
    • This is who led the US army at the battle of Fallen Timbers against Native Americans
  • Opens up economic opportunity in the west

Native Americans

  • Conflict over settlers moving west
  • Battle of Fallen Timbers
Treaty of Greenville
  • After the battle of Fallen Timbers, Native Americans ceded much western land to US settlers
  • Increased safety for settlers

Movement West

  • Western farmers distilled surplus grain crops into whiskey
  • Hamilton’s Financial Plan put an excise tax on whiskey, which made many people very mad
    • Western Pennsylvania farmers refused to pay this tax

Whiskey Rebellion of 1794

  • Whiskey Rebels engaged in violence toward tax collectors
  • George Washington could choose to do nothing or to use federal force within a state
    • There was no precedent for the government taking care of a state’s problem
    • Remember Shay’s Rebellion and how Massachusetts couldn’t end it because they had no help
  • Washington tried to send negotiator but they did not succeed
  • Washington and Hamilton then led ~12,000 militia troops to Pennsylvania to enforce the federal tax and stop the rebellion
  • Rebels dispersed before the force arrived
  • This shows how the federal government was stronger than under the articles
Compared to Shay’s
  • Shay’s rebellion saw Western Massachusetts farmers rebelling over farm foreclosures
    • Under the articles there was no national power to stop this rebellion

Revolutionary War and Freedom

  • Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation and Philipsburg Proclamation gave freedom to enslaved persons willing to join the British force
    • ~30,000 fled to the British side

Constitutional Protections of Slavery

  • 3/5 Compromise
  • Protection of slave trade until 1808
    • Remember that this was essentially because no one could agree and no progress was being made
    • They decided to set the issue to the side for twenty years
  • Fugitive Clause
Date Slavery Ended
  • The end of slavery could mean immediate or gradual emancipation; it depended on the state
  • Massachusetts: 1750
  • New Hampshire: 1783
  • Pennsylvania: 1780-1850
  • Rhode Island: 1784-1842
  • Connecticut: 1784-1848
  • New York: 1799-1827
  • New Jersey: 1804-1846

Migration West and Slaveholder Power

  • Slaveholders migrated to new lands in the west
  • They established plantation agriculture there
  • Added to legislative power of the slave holding states
  • Rivalry between northern and southern states continued to grow
Southern States Restrict Manumission
  • South Carolina required state government permission to manumit (set free) enslaved persons, which already happened very rarely
  • Some states required manumitted people to leave the state
    • Many freedmen would leave either way, the south was a very dangerous place for them

Regional Trends in Slavery

  • The northern states continued to decrease their use and engagement in slavery
    • They would do this through legislative manumission, either immediately or gradually
  • Southern states increased
    • Legislated strict protections of slavery
  • New states were created in the west
    • Their slave status was always of great controversy
    • Added to power of slave holding states