2.32 America: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 6/31)

James madison administration(1809-1815) 4th president

In 1808 Congress had passed a law against the importation of slaves, but it was not strictly enforced because Eli Whitney's cotton gin initially made slave labor in the fields seem even more needed. In addition the invention of the gin introduced the principle of mass production to America, a feature which led to the Colt revolver, the sewing machine and the flour mill, revolutionizing the status of human labor, particularly in the western world and still more especially in the northern states. The north welcomed the Industrial Revolution while the south rejected it. After Jean Etienne Bore had demonstrated how to make granulated sugar from cane, a great sugar empire began to stretch along the Gulf. With the development of a steamboat which could go upstream against the Mississippi current, the sugar was sent to St. Louis, Louisville and Cincinnati for refining. (Ref. 39 )

Although a great statesman, Madison was a poor politician and as a result of his ineptitude and Napoleon's maneuverings, difficulties with England increased. Both French and English navies were seizing and even scuttling American vessels. In 1811 Madison forbade all intercourse with England and as Napoleon had closed all Europe to Britain at the same time, it made for a very bad winter in England. By 1812 the United States and England were at war.

In the meantime, as the Spanish Empire appeared to be breaking up, the inhabitants of "West Florida" elected for the United States and were soon incorporated as the Territory of Orleans (later part of the state of Louisiana. We must also discuss the Indian situation in the Ohio and Indiana regions at this time. By 1800 many Indians were ready to try the white man's ways. Late in 1801 a delegation of chiefs from the Potawatomis, Miamis, Delawares, Shawnees, Kickapoos and Kaskaskias visited the east and two of the chief s asked for government assistance. As a result, during that first decade of the century the federal government and various religious organizations sent funds, farming implements and advisors to those tribes. Yet most of the programs were mismanaged and unscrupulous agents even sold the farm implements to white settlers. But primarily the Indians themselves could not become adjusted to the new ways. The Shawnees, early known as the "Southerners" by other Algonquian-speaking peoples shared the same problems. Branches of this tribe were scattered across the south, the Gulf Coast, the Delaware Valley, Georgia and South Carolina at various periods. In this century many were settled in Ohio and Indiana when the white citizens there declared an "open season" on Shawnee property. That, along with Shawnee excessive drinking, economic difficulties and various injustices led to deterioration of relationships. Some of these Shawnees, including a young prince, Tecumseh, had fought against the Americans under "Mad Anthony" Wayne at the end of the last century. Now Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa, a Shawnee holy man, sought to save his people with a new mystic religion. Claiming that he had been appointed by the Great Spirit he established Prophetstown near where the Tippecanoe joins the Wabash River, denounced alcohol and polygamy and set up certain rituals. The future president William Henry Harrison kept pushing his land acquisitions and further antagonizing various tribes, all of which soon began to accept the new Shawnee religion and join the groups at Prophetstown. The Kickapoos, Potawatomis, Ottawas, Chippewas, Crees, Winnebagos, Sacs, Miamis and Assiniboins were all converts. By 1807 Prophetstown had over 60 cabins and wigwams clustered around a frame council-house measuring about 150 by 34 feet. William Wells, the Indian agent at Fort Wayne, warned both then Governor Harrison and the Secretary of War that the Prophet constituted a serious threat and it was certainly true that most of these Indians had begun to sympathize more with the British in Canada than with the "Long Knives" Americans. Only the Shawnee clan led by Chief Black Hoof remained loyal to the United States. (Ref. 293 )