Defining the Stakes: Narratives

Kathryn Braund of Auburn University examines the American Indian experience in the War of 1812. The Indian war which broke out in the Ohio country in 1811 and the Red Stick or Creek War of 1813 are commonly viewed as part of the War of 1812, but in reality, the Indian wars were concurrent conflicts that had their origins in long-standing grievances over land and the right of Indian peoples to self-determination.

Thomas Jefferson was never more wrong. In late June 1812 he wrote to his friend Thaddeus Kosciuszko that no war had been "entered into under more favorable auspices" and that "[o]ur present enemy will have the seas to herself, while we shall be equally predominant at land, and shall strip her of all her possessions on this continent." The American army quickly experienced a series of horrendous reverses, while the navy gained triumph after triumph.

It was known as Mr. Madison's War. Throughout his career, James Madison was appreciated for his deliberative character, his leading role in state and national legislatures, and his reasoned opinions on such issues as commerce and constitutions. But no one looked to the guarded, if good-humored, fourth president for wartime leadership. Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein of Louisiana State University explore James Madison's legacy and influence on the War of 1812.

Americans remember the War of 1812 as a second war of independence, as a war to force the British to give up practices that violated American rights and undermined US sovereignty. But this was a byproduct of a much larger conflict in Europe. Historian Donald R. Hickey of Wayne State College and author of several books on the War of 1812 explores these global contexts.

Alan Taylor of the University of Virginia examines the early origins of the War of 1812. In many ways it served as the final act of the American Revolution. During the revolution, the American patriots risked their new nation on a republic, then a risky and radical form of government where sovereignty derived from a broad electorate. In a second great gamble, they sought to sustain that new republic on a vast and unprecedented scale: the eastern third of a continent.

Historian Doug Kiel explores the dramatic changes to Indian Country following the War of 1812. If Native aspirations were to maintain their land base and relative autonomy, then the war was most of all a loss for Native peoples throughout eastern North America.

In June 1807, the United States and Great Britain appeared on the verge of conflict: after the frigate Leopard fired on the US warship Chesapeake, British sailors boarded the American vessel, mustered the crew, and impressed four seamen -- Jenkins Ratford, William Ware, Daniel Martin, and John Strachan -- whom they claimed were deserters. The damaged Chesapeake limped back to Norfolk with three dead and 18 wounded. Historian Gene Allen Smith examines the inauspicious beginnings to the war.

On the scale of war as waged in Europe during the age of Napoleon, the War of 1812 was a minor affair. In 1812, as Napoleon was invading Russia with a half million men, the United States was trying to conquer Canada with forces numbering about one-tenth of a percent of the Grande Armee's size. While individual European battles counted casualties in the tens of thousands, about 6,000 Americans were killed or wounded during the entire War of 1812.