Episode 7

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Published on:

1st Aug 2025

S1E7 The Early Republic: Expansion, Resistance & Nationalism | American Yawp Chapter 7 Explained

In Episode 7 of Star-Spangled Studies, Dr. G examines Chapter 7 of The American Yawp—how Jefferson’s republic grappled with paradoxes of freedom amid rapid expansion and conflict. Key topics include:

• Jefferson’s presidency, the Haitian Revolution & Gabriel’s Rebellion

• Rise of scientific racism & challenges from Black intellectuals

• Republican Motherhood and early female education

• Peaceful transfer of power in 1800 and Jefferson’s small-govt reforms

• Constitutional crisis over the Louisiana Purchase

• Lewis & Clark’s Corps of Discovery and Native partnerships

• Tecumseh’s Confederacy and Prophetstown

• The War of 1812: from USS Constitution to the burning of Washington

• Era of Good Feelings and the Monroe Doctrine


**Links & Resources:**

– Textbook: [The American Yawp – Chapter 7: The Early Republic](https://www.americanyawp.com/text/07-the-early-republic/)

– Instagram: [@star_spangled_studies](https://www.instagram.com/star_spangled_studies)

– Facebook: [Star-Spangled Studies](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576389415625)

Explore Chapter 7 of The American Yawp in this episode of Star-Spangled Studies: “The Early Republic.” Historian Dr. G covers Jefferson’s paradoxical vision, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis & Clark, Tecumseh’s resistance, the War of 1812, and the rise of American nationalism under the Monroe Doctrine.


Keywords: Early Republic podcast, American Yawp Chapter 7, Jefferson presidency, Gabriel’s Rebellion, Louisiana Purchase, Lewis & Clark, Tecumseh, War of 1812, Monroe Doctrine, Dr. G


Transcript
Speaker:

Hello y'all.

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It's me.

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It's me.

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It's Dr.

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G.

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And the last time we spoke, we talked

about the election of:

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so vicious and fraught with crisis.

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That Jefferson himself would

later call it the revolution of

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1800 as real a revolution in the

principles of our government.

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As that of 76 was in its form, it marked

the first peaceful transfer of power

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between rival political parties in

American history, a moment that seemed to

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affirm the promise of the new Republic.

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What kind of republic was it?

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Thomas Payne had famously called America

an asylum for liberty, but as the new

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century dawned who was welcome in that

asylum today we explore the promises and

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the paradoxes of the Jeffersonian era.

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We'll see a nation that doubles

in size with the stroke of a pen,

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even as its president questions his

own authority with which to do so.

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We'll witness the rise of a

powerful pan-Indian resistance

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movement in the West and a second

brutal war with Great Britain.

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And through it all, we'll confront

the central agonizing contradiction

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of the age, the expansion of liberty

for some built on the violent

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dispossession and enslavement.

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Of others.

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This is the story of the

early Republic, so let's go.

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Thomas Jefferson came to the presidency

in:

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Republican experiment, then check

the growth of government power.

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But his administration was

immediately confronted with.

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The explosive issue that would

haunt the entire new nation.

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Slavery and nothing brought that issue

into sharper focus than two events that

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horrified and terrified white Americans,

especially those living in the south.

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The first was the Haitian Revolution,

and the second was Gabriel's rebellion.

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The Haitian Revolution be had begun in

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most successful slave revolt in history.

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For a decade, enslaved people

in the French colony of Saint

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Dome fought for their freedom.

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They defeated the French, the Spanish,

and British armies, and were finally

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able to establish the independent

Black Republic of Haiti in:

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For enslaved people in the United States.

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Haiti was a beacon of hope, a

powerful symbol of black liberation,

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throwing off the shackles of slavery.

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But for American slave holders,

it was a waking nightmare.

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Jefferson himself, though a supporter

of the French Revolution feared

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the quote, specter of slave revolt

in the contagion of black freedom

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spreading to American Shores.

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His administration pursued a policy

to isolate Haiti, refusing to

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recognize its independence for fear of

encouraging similar uprisings at home.

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Those fears would soon

seem to be realized.

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In the summer of 1800, right before

Jefferson's election in Henrico

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County, Virginia, an enslaved

blacksmith named Gabriel organized

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one of the most sophisticated slave

conspiracies in American history.

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Gabriel's plan was to march on Richmond,

seized the state armory, and take

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Governor James Monroe hostage and

demand an end to slavery in Virginia.

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His plot was explicitly inspired

by the language within the American

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Revolution and the Haitian Revolution.

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According to the trial testimony

of one conspirator, Gabriel planned

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to carry a flag emblazoned with

the words quote, death or liberty.

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I.

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Another conspirator when captured,

reportedly declared, quote, I have nothing

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more to offer than what George Washington

would've had to offer had he been

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taken by the British and put to trial.

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End quote.

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The plot was portrayed just hours before

it was set to motion, and a torrential

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rainstorm washed out the roads preventing

the conspirators from gathering.

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In the aftermath, Virginian authorities

executed Gabriel in 25 of his

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followers, the rebellion failed.

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But as our textbook notes,

it taught Virginia's white

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residents two terrifying lessons.

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First, it proved that enslaved black

Virginians were capable of preparing

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and carrying out a violent revolution.

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One, they avoided.

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Luckily.

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And two, it shattered white

supremacist assumptions about

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black intellectual inferiority.

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And lastly, it demonstrated that white

efforts to suppress news of other

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slave revolts had ultimately failed.

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I.

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The ghost of Gabriel and the shadow

of Haiti would loom large over the

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politics of the early republic.

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The fear of slave rebellion led not to a

questioning of slavery as a system itself.

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But rather to a hardening of

racial ideologies in new laws.

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This period saw the rise of

scientific racism, an attempt to

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use the language of science to

justify slavery and white supremacy.

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Even Thomas Jefferson, that great champion

of liberty, was deeply entangled in

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this a few decades earlier in his 1788

book notes on the state of Virginia.

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Jefferson speculated on the quote.

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Real distinctions, which nature has

made between black and white people.

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In his own words, he said this quote,

comparing them by their faculties

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of memory, reason, and imagination.

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It appears to me that in memory

they are equal to whites in

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reason, much inferior, and that in

imagination, they are dull, tasteless.

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Anomalous, I advance it.

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Therefore, as a suspicion only that the

blacks, whether originally a distinct

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race or made distinct by time and

circumstances are inferior to the whites

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in the endowments of both body and mind.

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End quote.

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That is a chilling racist passage.

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Jefferson admits it is only a suspicion.

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Sure.

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But by.

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Publishing it.

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He gave that idea the immense

prestige of his name and intellectual

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power to the cause of racism.

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It's a powerful reminder that

the Enlightenment's focus on

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reason could be used not only to

liberate, but also to oppress.

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And this emerging racial science

was powerfully challenged by

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black intellectuals of the time.

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Especially by a man named Benjamin Er.

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He was a free black astronomer.

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He was a mathematician and a surveyor,

and in:

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almanac to Jefferson, along with

a letter directly confronting the

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Secretary of State's hypocrisy.

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Sir, I have long been

convinced that if your love for

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yourself and for those in the.

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Estimable laws, which preserved

to you the rights of human

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nature was founded on sincerity.

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You could not but be silicious

that every individual of whatever

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distinction or color might with you

equally enjoy the blessings thereof.

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But sir, how pitiable it is to reflect

that, although you were so fully.

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Convinced of the benevolence of the

father of mankind that you should at

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the same time counteract his mercies

in detaining by fraud and violence.

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So numerous, a part of my brethren under

groaning captivity and cruel oppression.

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End quote.

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While black Americans were fighting

for their basic humanity, white

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women were carving out a new but

still limited role in the republic.

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The ideology of Republican motherhood

held that women's primary political

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role was to raise virtuous sons

who had become good citizens.

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Of the new nation.

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This idea in one sense, elevated the

importance of the domestic sphere, but

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at the same time it confined women to it.

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As historian Linda Kerber has shown

the Republican mother was to be quote.

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Citizen, but not really

a constituent end quote.

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This new role did, however, create

a demand for female education.

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If women were be to be the primary

educators of future citizens,

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then they of course would need

to be educated themselves.

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And this led to the founding

of New Female Academies.

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The letters of women from this

period, like those of Eliza South

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GA's Bone deeply reveal a yearning

for intellectual engagement.

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Bone right to her cousin,

lamenting, quote, the inequality

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of privilege between the sexes.

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End quote and argued that a cultivated

mind would lead to stability and

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uniformity in the female character.

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I.

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Yet, even as she championed education,

she also revealed the powerful social

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pressures of her time observing

that quote, not one woman in a

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hundred Marries for love end quote.

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In the New Republic, it seemed

it only offered new roles, but.

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Not a fundamental reordering of the power.

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When Thomas Jefferson took the oath

th,:

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a moment of profound significance

after the bitter and divisive.

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Election.

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A peaceful transfer of power from the

Federalist Party to the Democratic

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Republicans was a testament to

the resilience of the new Young

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Nation's constitutional system.

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But Jefferson's presidency

itself would mark a dramatic

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shift in style and substance.

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He rejected the formal trappings of the

Washington and Adams administrations.

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In fact, he walked to

his own inauguration.

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He answered the door to the

President's house himself.

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I.

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He even hosted informal dinners, but the

changes were more than just symbolic.

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True to his principles

of limited government.

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He worked to slash taxes.

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He cut the national debt and dramatically

reduced the size of the army and the navy.

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His vision was for a frugal

agrarian republic, but.

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In a great historical irony, this

champion of small government and strict

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constitutional interpretations would soon

make a decision that would stretch the

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powers of the presidency beyond anything

the Federalists had even ever imagined.

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I.

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To understand why we need to actually

move back to Europe in 18 hundreds,

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Spain secretly seeded the vast Louisiana

territory, including the vital port of New

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Orleans or Nolins back to France, which

was now under the rule of the ambitious

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Napoleon Bonaparte for Jefferson.

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This was a geopolitical nightmare.

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As he wrote to his minister in

France, Robert Livingston in:

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quote, there is on the globe one

single spot, the possessor of which

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is our natural and habitual enemy.

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It is New Orleans through which

the produce of three eighths of

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our territory must pass to market.

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End quote, French control of New

Orleans threatened to choke off American

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commerce on the Mississippi River, and

might one day eventually lead to war.

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Jefferson dispatched James Monroe to

join Livingston in Paris, authorizing

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them to offer up to $10 million

for New Orleans in West Florida.

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But when they arrived, they

were met with a stunning offer.

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Napoleon, his plans for a new

world empire having been thwarted.

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By the Slave Revolt and its

success in Haiti, and facing a

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renewed war on the horizon with

Britain offered to sell the entire

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Louisiana territory for $15 million.

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It was a deal of a lifetime and it

doubled the size of the United States.

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States for pennies an acre.

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But for Jefferson, it posed a

profound constitutional crisis.

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As a strict con constructionist.

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He believed that the federal

government only had powers explicitly

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granted to it in the constitution.

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Nowhere in the Constitution did

it give the president the power

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to purchase foreign territory.

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He confessed this dilemma in a letter to

Senator John Breckenridge of Kentucky.

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The Constitution has made no provision

for our holding foreign territory,

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still less for incorporating

foreign territory into our union.

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The executive have done an

act beyond the Constitution.

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The legislature must ratify and pay

for it and throw themselves on their

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country for doing for them unauthorized.

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What we know they would have

done for themselves had they

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been in a situation to do it.

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End quote, Jefferson initially

believed a constitutional amendment

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was necessary to authorize the.

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Purchase, but he feared that the

slow, cumbersome amendment process

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would give Napoleon time to change his

mind, urged by his advisors, like the

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treasury secretary, Albert Gallatin, who

argued the power to acquire territory,

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was inherent in the treaty, making

powers assigned to the executive.

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Jefferson ultimately set aside

his constitutional strictness.

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He rationalized his decision by comparing

himself to a guardian who invests his

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ward's money in an important territory,

trusting that the ward upon coming

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of age will approve the actions taken

for his own good in October,:

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The Senate ratified, the treaty in

the United States had doubled its size

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even before the purchase was finalized.

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Jefferson was planning an

expedition to explore the vast

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and to him unknown territory.

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He chose his personal secretary

Merriweather Lewis and an

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Army Officer William Clark to

lead the core of discovery.

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Their mission was part scientific,

part commercial, and part geopolitical.

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Jefferson instructed them to find a

water route to the Pacific for the

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purposes of commerce, to document the

plants, the animals, and the geography

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of the region, and to establish

trade and friendly relations with the

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Native Americans they encountered.

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For over two years from 1804 to

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thousands of miles from St.

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Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back.

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Their success was almost entirely

dependent on the help that they received

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from more than 50 Native American

groups that they met Along the way.

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These groups were

crucial to their success.

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They provided the core with food, shelter.

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Guides and critical and crucial knowledge

of the landscape they encountered.

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The most famous of these helpers

was the Lemi Shoshone woman, Saka

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Sacajawea, who served as an interpreter

of and whose very presence with her

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infant son signaled to other groups

that this was a peaceful mission.

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The journals kept by Lewis and Clark

provide an invaluable if one-sided

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record of these encounters, detailing

complex negotiations, cultural exchanges,

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and moments of tension like when

they're near violent standoff with the

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Lakota Sioux and the deadly skirmish

with a group of Blackfeet warriors.

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The expedition overall was a triumph

of exploration, but it was also

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the leading edge of an American

expansion that would once again.

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Have catastrophic consequences

for Native American peoples

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this time in the Mid and West

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Jefferson's vision of an Empire of

Liberty was also an empire of expansion

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and one that continued to put relentless

pressure on Native American land.

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In the Ohio Valley, this pressure

gave rise to one of the most

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powerful resistance movements in

American history led by two Shawnee

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Brothers, Tose and tens Katua.

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Tens.

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Awa known as the Prophet, was

a spiritual leader in:

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He had a vision in which the Master

of Life commanded him to preach a

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message of cultural revitalization

to all Native Americans.

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He urged them to reject.

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All American ways alcohol, European style,

clothing, the idea of private property.

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In return to their traditional customs,

his message spread like wildfire,

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attracting thousands of followers from

different groups to his new settlement

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prophets town in what is now Indiana.

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His brother Te come see, was a brilliant

warrior and political strategist.

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He took his brother's religious

message and transformed it into a

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powerful political movement, traveling

from the Great Lakes to the Gulf

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Coast to come see work, to build

a pan-Indian military alliance to

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resist further American expansion.

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His core argument, which he delivered in

a powerful speech to the governor of the

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Indiana Territory, William Henry Harrison,

in:

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All Native Americans in common and that

no single group had the right to sell

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it, quote the way, and the only way

to check and to stop this evil is for

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all the red men to unite in claiming

a common and equal right in the land

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as it was first, and should be yet.

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For it never was divided, but

belongs to all for the use of each.

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For no part has a right to sell even to

each other, much less to strangers, those

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who want all and will not do with less.

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End quote In another speech, he

warned other groups of the fate that

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awaited them if they failed to unite.

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Now.

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Quote, sleep no longer o choctaws

and Chickasaws in false security and

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Delusive hopes we will not soon be

driven from our respective countries and

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the graves of our ancestors will not.

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The bones of our dead be plowed up and

their graves be turned into fields.

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Shall we calmly wait until they

becomes so numerous that we will no

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longer be able to resist oppression?

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I know you will cry with me.

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Never, never.

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End quote toe's confederation.

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Posed a serious threat to

United States ambitions.

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In November, 1811, while Tecumseh

was in the south recruiting allies,

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governor Harrison marched an army

of a thousand men on profits.

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Town tense awa against tecumseh's

orders, attacked Harrison's

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forces, the resulting battle.

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Was the battle of Typic canoe, and

this was a brutal two hour fight

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that ended with the Americans driving

off the Native American warriors and

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burning prophets down to the ground.

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The defeat shattered the prophet's

prestige and it broke the back of

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the Confederacy for to come see.

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It was a devastating blow, and it pushed

him and his remaining followers into

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a formal alliance with the British.

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Just as a new war between the British

and the United States was about to begin,

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historians sometimes call the war of 1812

America's Second War for Independence,

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and they do so for good reason.

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For years, the United States had

been caught in the middle of a

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massive global conflict between

Britain and Napoleonic France.

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The British Royal Navy was desperate

for sailors, and it routinely

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practiced something called impressment,

which meant they boarded American

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ships and forced American sailors.

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Into the British service.

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This was not only a pro profound

insult to American sovereignty,

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it actually put people into war.

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At the same time, the British were

continuing to support and arm Native

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American resistance movements in the

West, like Tecumseh's Confederacy.

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A new generation of politicians in

Congress known as the Warhawks, led by men

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like Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C.

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Calhoun of South Carolina Clamored

for another war against Britain.

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They argued that American honor and

economic independence was at stake.

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In June of 1812, president James

Madison, who was Jefferson's successor

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asked Congress for a declaration of war

and what it becomes known now as Mr.

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Madison's war began.

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This was a messy, often disastrous

affair for the United States.

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An attempted invasion of Canada failed

miserably, but a small American Navy

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achieved some stunning victories at sea.

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The most famous of these being that

the US constitutions defeat of the

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HMS Garre, a victory that earned the

American ship its famous nickname.

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Old iron sides.

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By 1814 with Napoleon defeated in

Europe, Britain was able to turn its full

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attention now to the American War, and

they launched a three-pronged attack.

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One of those prongs was aimed

directly at the Chesapeake Bay.

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In August, 1814, British

forces landed in Maryland.

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They routed the American militia

at the Battle of Bladensburg,

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and they marched unopposed into

the new capitol at Washington DC.

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What follows is one of the most

humiliating moments in American

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history in retaliation for an

earlier American raid that had

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burned the Canadian capital of York.

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British troops systematically

burned Washington's public buildings

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to the ground, including the

capitol and the president's house.

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An eye witness, George gl, a British

officer, described the scene quote.

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The blazing of houses, ships, and stores.

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The report of Exploding magazines and the

clash of falling roofs informed them as

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they proceeded of what was going forward.

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You can conceive nothing finer

than the site which met them

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as they drew near to the town.

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The sky was brilliantly illuminated by

the different conflagrations and the

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dark red light was thrown upon the roads

sufficient to permit each man to view

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distinctly his comrades face End quote.

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First Lady Dolly Madison famously

stayed behind until the last

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possible moment saving cabinet

papers and the iconic Gilbert Stewart

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portrait of George Washington.

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Before fleeing the city from Washington,

the British moved onto their next target,

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the much more commercially important

city of Baltimore, but Baltimore itself.

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Was fortified and ready.

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The city's defenses were anchored

by Fort McHenry for 25 hours.

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The British fleet bombarded the fort,

but its defenders refused to surrender.

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A young American lawyer named Francis

Scott Key, who was being held on a

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British ship, watched the bombardment

through the night at Dawn when he saw the

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American flag still flying over the fort.

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He was inspired to write a poem that he

called the Defense of Ford McHenry set

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to the popular British drinking tune.

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It would later become

America's national anthem.

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The Star-Spangled Banner.

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The final and most infamous Battle of

the War was fought, ironically, after

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the Peace Treaty had already been signed.

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In January, 1815, a massive veteran

British army attacked New Orleans, which

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was defended by a motley crew of American

regulars, a militia from Kentucky and

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one from Tennessee, as well as free black

soldiers and even some pirates all under

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the command of a tough frontier General.

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Named Andrew Jackson.

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The British launched a frontal assault

on Jackson's well entrenched position.

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The result was a slaughter in less

than an hour, the British suffered

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2000 plus casualties, including

their commanding general, while the

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Americans lost fewer than a hundred men.

370

:

A soldier from Tennessee described

the scene quote when the smoke

371

:

had cleared away, and we can

obtain a fair view of the field.

372

:

It looked at first glance

like a sea of blood.

373

:

It was not blood itself, which gave it

this appearance, but the red coats in

374

:

which the British soldiers were dressed

straight out before our position.

375

:

The field was entirely

covered with prostrate.

376

:

The battle of New War leads, which

happened after the war had been over,

377

:

was a stunning American victory.

378

:

It had no effect on the outcome of

the war, but it had a profound effect

379

:

on the American psyche, believing

that they had now won the war.

380

:

It created a new national hero as

well, Andrew Jackson, who would later

381

:

ride this to the presidency, and it

fueled a powerful wave of American

382

:

nationalism and the era of good feelings.

383

:

The war of 1812 was a disaster

for the Federalist Party.

384

:

From the very beginning.

385

:

They had opposed the war, which was deeply

unpopular in their New England stronghold.

386

:

In late 1814, a group of New England

Federalists met in secret at the Hartford

387

:

Convention to air their grievances.

388

:

They proposed a series of

constitutional amendments to.

389

:

Designed to protect New England's

interests, including a one-term

390

:

limit for the President and a

two-thirds vote in Congress for

391

:

declaring war or admitting new states.

392

:

But their timing would, could

have not come at a worse time just

393

:

as their emissaries arrived in

Washington to present their demands.

394

:

News of Jackson's victory at New

Orleans and the signing of the

395

:

Treaty of Gantt, which ended the war.

396

:

Happened.

397

:

Suddenly the federalists looked

like foolish, disloyal, and even

398

:

traitorous and treasonous old men.

399

:

The party collapsed after this

and it never fully recovered.

400

:

The collapse of the Federalists

ushered in a period of one party rule

401

:

under the Democratic Republicans, a

time that a Boston newspaper dubbed

402

:

as the quote era of good feelings.

403

:

This period was marked by a

surge in American nationalism.

404

:

The war, despite its many failures,

like the burning of the white House,

405

:

which is why it's white, by the way,

it convinced many Americans that they

406

:

could stand up to a European power.

407

:

It had, as our textbook puts it, quote,

cultivated a profound sense of union

408

:

among a diverse and divided people, quote.

409

:

This new sense of national

confidence found his most forceful

410

:

expression in 1823 in what became

known as the Monroe Doctrine.

411

:

President James Monroe, in his

annual address to Congress laid

412

:

out a bold new foreign policy for

the United States, alarmed by the

413

:

possibility that European powers

might once again try to re-con newly

414

:

independent nations in Latin America.

415

:

But Monroe declared that the

Western Hemisphere was off limits.

416

:

To future European colonization quote, the

American continents are hence forth not

417

:

to be considered as subjects for future

colonization by any European powers.

418

:

We should consider any temp on

their part to extend their system to

419

:

any portion of this hemisphere to.

420

:

As dangerous to our peace and safety.

421

:

The Monroe Doctrine was a stunning

declaration, one that the United States

422

:

might not have been able to enforce.

423

:

The young United States had little

power at the time to actually

424

:

make good on this promise.

425

:

But it was a powerful statement of

a new American identity, confident,

426

:

assertive, and seeing itself as the

dominant power in the Western hemisphere.

427

:

So the earlier republic was a period of

profound transformation and contradiction.

428

:

It began in an era of Jefferson's

revolution and his vision of

429

:

a limited agrarian republic.

430

:

But it was also an era that saw

the dramatic expansion of federal

431

:

power with the Louisiana purchase,

the brutal realities of a second

432

:

war with Britain, and the rise of a

new assertive American nationalism.

433

:

And through it all, the

unresolved questions of the

434

:

revolution continued to linger.

435

:

The nation that Thomas Payne had called

an asylum for liberty was also a nation

436

:

that was systematically dispossessing

Native Americans of their land and

437

:

building its prosperity on the backs.

438

:

Slaves, the era of good feelings

would prove to be short-lived.

439

:

The very forces unleashed in

this period westward expansion.

440

:

The growth of a national market and the

deepening divide over slavery would soon

441

:

shatter the illusion of national unity.

442

:

Next time we'll explore the

market revolution and we'll look

443

:

at the rise of factories, the

building of canals and railroads.

444

:

And the profound social and economic

changes that would transform the the

445

:

lives of ordinary Americans, and then

set the stage for the rise of a new

446

:

kind of politics under Andrew Jackson.

447

:

So.

448

:

This is me, Dr.

449

:

G, saying, I'll see y'all in the past.

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About the Podcast

Star-Spangled Studies
Star-Spangled Studies is a college-level U.S. history podcast created by professional historian Dr. G—built for students, teachers, and curious listeners alike. Season 1 covers the era from 1865 to the present, using The American Yawp, a free and open educational resource (OER) textbook, as its guide. Each episode unpacks key events, movements, and ideas that shaped the modern United States—through rich narrative, scholarly insight, and accessible storytelling.

Whether you're enrolled in a course or exploring history on your own, you’ll get clear, engaging episodes that follow the chapters of The American Yawp. Bring your curiosity, download the textbook, and join Dr. G for a star-spangled journey through American history.

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