Everyone Hates Impressment
Have you ever had an unexpected problem ruin your day? One day, my
friend Tony’s car broke down while we were in Texas during the
summer. Instead of doing what we were going to be doing that day, we
had to walk in the heat. We walked to a gas station about a mile away,
then we walked back to the car to try to fix it, and then we walked back
to the gas station where we had to stay all afternoon until Tony’s dad
finally had the car towed. Not a very fun day.
Even though they didn’t have cars in the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson
still had to deal with a problem that he was not expecting. Thomas
Jefferson hoped that while he was president that he could deal with
problems in the United States without having to worry about war with
other countries. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out how Thomas
Jefferson expected.
France decided to get rid of their king, Louis XVI, and England took the
side of the king. During the war, the United States decided not to take
either side. Instead they sold
products and made money off of
both countries. However, France
did not like the U.S. giving
supplies to England, and England
did not like the U.S. giving
supplies to France. So sailors
from both France and England
began attacking American ships.
English sailors attacked American
British sailors forcing American sailors into
ships that were going to France,
impressment
and French sailors attacked
American ships that were going to England. The attackers would steal
everything off of the American ships.
The United States was already pretty ticked off at England and France
for pillaging1 their ships. But then England made the situation even
worse. England began using impressment to stop the Americans from
trading with France. Impressment is the same as kidnapping. British
sailors would attack an American ship, kidnap all the American sailors,
and force them to work on a British ship. One time, the British attacked
an American ship called the Chesapeake, and they tried to kidnap the
American sailors. But the
Americans fought for
their freedom, and three
of the Americans were
killed in the small battle.
President Jefferson heard
about the British killing
the American sailors and
was furious. He decided it
The American ship Chesapeake being attacked by the
was time to take action
British
against the British.
Rather than fight another war against the most powerful country in the
world, though, Thomas Jefferson tried to fight against the British in
another way. He stopped trading with them. In 1807, Thomas Jefferson
encouraged Congress to pass the Embargo2 Act. It made it illegal for
American ships to sail to other countries. It also made it illegal for
1
pillaging: stealing from
2
An embargo is where one country refuses to trade with another
An American sailor being forced into impressment.
Don’t you just want to be his friend?
British ships to come to
the United States. Thomas
Jefferson knew that the
British used a lot of
American products. He
hoped that if the
Americans stopped
trading with Britain, that
Britain would get
desperate to have
American products and
would agree to stop using
impressment.
The Embargo Act didn’t work like Thomas Jefferson hoped. Many
Americans counted on the British to buy their products, and the
Embargo Act made it illegal to sell to the British. Many Americans lost a
lot of money, because they could no longer sell their products to the
British. They were more angry with the government about the Embargo
Act than they were at the British for the impressments.
What should we do?
Bring back the Embargo Act, and make the British suffer. If we wait
longer this time, they will stop bothering us.
Prepare for war with England and France!