Chapter Six The Early Republic, 1775 to 1820 Revolutionary War and Early National Period Federal Period 1775 to 1789 1789 to 1820 1775 1775-1783 1789 1800 1812-1814 1817 |||||| Colonial Revolutionary Constitution Population War Baltimore Gas population War ratified reaches of Lighting Company reaches 1 million 1812 nation’s first 700,000 gas utility AN ECOLOGY OF PEOPLE AND PLACE SIGNIFICANT EVENTS Ⅺ PEOPLE ▫ 1775–total population ▫ 1793 to 1794–yellow reaches 700,000 fever ravages region The outbreak of war between Great Britain and its North ▫ 1775 to 1783- ▫ 1800–regional American colonies in 1775 significantly altered people’s Revolutionary War population reaches 1 million lives throughout the Chesapeake Bay region (see Map ▫ 1776-United States ▫ 8). As the War for Independence intensified, Coastal declares indepen- 1800–nation’s first dence modern highway Plain and Piedmont communities increasingly took on a completed; wartime footing. They prepared defenses, mobilized ▫ 1781–Cornwallis Philadelphia- surrenders army to Lancaster turnpike communities, and dedicated resources to maintaining General George ▫ 1804–work begins on the war effort. Washington and the Chesapeake and Comte de Rocham- Delaware Canal The first years of the war were marked by confusion and beau at Yorktown, Virginia,to end ▫ 1808–federal govern- hardship. Although opinions about the war were fighting in North ment abolishes divided, all Chesapeake Bay people suffered from short- America importation of slaves ▫ ages caused by the British blockade begun in 1776. ▫ 1789–U. S. Consti- 1812 to 1814–War Conditions improved when the British were forced to lift tution is ratified of 1812 renews hostilities with Great the blockade following France’s entrance into the war ▫ 1790–Bank of Britain on the American side in 1779. And some Chesapeake Maryland established ▫ 1813–first commer- Bay merchants even benefitted from the war. Sailing ▫ 1791–Maryland and cial steamboat on from ports throughout the region, they took advantage Virginia provide land Chesapeake Bay and funds for new waters begins service of new opportunities for plunder and the opening of national capital ▫ 1814–British troops markets of rival powers formerly officially closed to ▫ burn Washington and 1792–nation’s capital besiege Baltimore them. Loyalist skippers–employed by established firms moved to newly based in larger ports such as Baltimore, Annapolis, and established District of ▫ 1816–University of Norfolk–plied a burgeoning trade with New York and Columbia (later Virginia established Washington, D.C.) ▫ other British held ports. Entrepreneurial captains of 1817–nation’s first ▫ 1792–Cape Henry gas utility chartered; rebel vessels sailing from smaller ports carried cargoes Lighthouse built Baltimore Gas to Philadelphia, Boston, and other American held har- Lighting Company ▫ 1793–construction bors. Many of these men made fortunes as privateers ▫ 1819–construction begins on the United begins on Fort (sailors on armed, private ships licensed by their gov- States Capitol Monroe ernment to attack enemy ships). Roaming the waters of An Ecology of People and Place 77 Map 8: The Early Republic, 1775 to 1820 ● Lancaster ● Yo r k Ferncliff Wildlife and Su Wildflower Preserve sq ue ha nn a Gilpin's R i Falls ve Sion Hill r ● IA Elkton LVAN ● NSY Principio PEN D YLAN Furnace MAR r n i e a t v Long Green Creek i n r u R and Sweathouse Branch e v o i y Natural Area R M c r e a P t h s t c a e Catoctin Ridge t h u ● o a Baltimore C o Frederick n ps ● o c S o Riv e Chestertown M r er v Harper's Ferry Gap i Fort McHenry Kent R Sugar Loaf Island k Mountain n Colonial a Annapolis t Waterford p o E D h R er ● N Leesburg Wye House A C A W iv Riversdale L A Y L Oak Hill Washington DC R Tulip Hill E Patowmack ● A Manassas Gap ● D ke R Oatlands Canal ● Bladensburg M in a P t tico Alexandria a n Choptank n u Bannecker t a o u Indian N x M Thorofare Gap Belt Woods e Reservation n Mount n u t ● Warrenton ● R Vernon R Cambridge l l i u v e r B Battle Creek e r v Thornton Gap Cypress Swamp i ac River R ● Salisbury h Calvert iver a o Potom Cliffs Preserve d V n s oke R I n R a i n G a e t I N h n R D ocom I N A P S u a LA o p Y p AR M Culpeper a M h e annock Caledon g Smith d R i Potomac Ri R i State Park ver Island R a ver pi e r Fredericksburg e da Ri v Spence's Point u n l B MA Stratford RYL NIA AND IRGI Montpelier Hall V Forest Camden Rappahannock R Tangier Island M C at ta iver h ● Charlottesville po ni e R s iv e a Virginia Rockfish Gap Monticello P r a p Coast mu Green Springs n e ke Reserve y a R Mattaponi Indian ive k r Reservation e s B n i r Richmond Pamunkey ta e n iv ● Indian a u Bremo J Reservation y o s R a m M e e s Rive r Y m o e a rk g J Williamsburg R id i Cape iver John Tyler House v e r R Charles e lu Yo r k t ow n B attox R James River Gap Fort Monroe ● J Poplar am Cape ppom Petersburg e Forest A s Norfolk Henry Riv er ● ● Charles Seashore Lynchburg C.Steirly Natural Area Cape Henry Natural Area Portsmouth Lighthouse Great Dismal Swamp LEGEND National Historic Landmark © National Natural Landmark • City or Town ■ Natural or Cultural Feature Canal Bay Plain 0 5 10 25 50 miles Piedmont 0 5 10 40 80 kilometers North 78 CHAPTER SIX: THE EARLY REPUBLIC KEY LOCALES NATIONAL HISTORIC Virginia Richmond City Landmarks LANDMARKS Benjamin Banneker SW-9 Dr. John Brockenbrough Intermediate Boundary House [1818] District of Columbia Stone [1792], Arlington Virginia State Capitol Landmarks County [1785-1792] Cleveland Abbe House [1805] Bremo Historic District [early John Marshall House [1790] 19th century], Fluvanna Newton D. Baker House Monumental Church [1814] [1794] County Virginia Governor’s Mansion Cape Henry Lighthouse Decatur House [1819] [1811-1813] [1792], Virginia Beach Georgetown Historic District Virginia State Capitol Fort Monroe [1819-1834], [18th-19th centuries] [1785-1792] Hampton City Hiram W. Johnson House [ca. Wickham-Valentine House Green Springs Historic District 1810] [1812] Lafayette Square Historic [18th-19th centuries], District [18th-20th Louisa County centuries] James Monroe Law Office Octagon House [1800] [1786-1789], Fredericksburg City Sewall-Belmont House [1820, 1929] Monticello [1770-1789], Albemarle County Tudor Place [ca. 1815] Mount Vernon [1792-1799], United States Capitol [1793- Fairfax County 1865] Oak Hill, James Monroe House United States Marine Corps [1820-1823], Loudon County Commandant’s House [1803] Oatlands [1800], Loudon County Washington Navy Yard [1800- 1910] Poplar Forest [1808-1819], Bedford County White House [1792, 1815] Patowmack Canal Historic Maryland District [1786-1830], Fairfax County Chestertown Historic District [18th-19th centuries], Kent Spence’s Point [1806], County Westmoreland County Colonial Annapolis Historic John Tyler House [1780, District [17th-18th 1842], Charles City County centuries], Annapolis, University of Virginia Historic Anne Arundel County District Riversdale [early 19th [19th-20th centuries], century], Prince George’s Charlottesville City County Waterford Historic District Sion Hill [19th-20th [18th-19th centuries], centuries], Harford County Loudon County Tulip Hill [1756, 1790], Williamsburg Historic District AnneArundel County [1633-1779], Williamsburg City Wye House [1784, 1799], Talbot County Alexandria City Landmarks Baltimore City Landmarks Alexandria Historic District [18th-19th centuries] First Unitarian Church [1818] Gadsby’s Tavern [1752, 1792], Homewood [1803] Alexandria City Minor Basilica of the Woodlawn [1803-1805] Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary [1806-1863] Peale’s Baltimore Museum [1814] Saint Mary’s Seminary Chapel [1808] Star-Spangled Banner House [ca. 1793] An Ecology of People and Place 79 of commercial agriculture based on plantations staffed by craftsmen, com- mission agents, and middle managers such as overseers and stewards. Enslaved Africans were the principal laborers for almost every aspect of this economy. Reaching beyond plantation boundaries, slaves furnished the skilled and unskilled labor essential for constructing buildings and roads, working fisheries, building ships, and toiling in the region’s mills and embryonic iron industry (see Figure 26). The Chesapeake Bay economy was closely integrated into the emerging Figure 26: Fragment of an Industrial Landscape: The smelting political order of the new nation. stack at Principio Iron Furnace, Havre de Grace, Maryland, in Established landowners and powerful 1997. (Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service) families competed with entrepreneurs in the Bay and ranging far out into open a widening network of international ocean waters, Chesapeake privateers trade. These were only two factions in a preyed on the ships of Great Britain and new nation struggling to cope with a her allies. growing and diverse population. Social ferment generated by competition Fighting on the land also ravaged the between contending classes, castes, and region throughout the war. Virginia’s interests shaped the particular sense of royal governor, John Murray Dunmore, identity and purpose developing in the conducted a series of raids on rebel posi- region as the new nation took its place in Hampton Roads, tions throughout Hampton Roads during the world community. Creation of a Virginia the war’s first years. In 1777, a large national identity became a conscious British army commanded by Major and compelling concern as citizens General Sir William Howe moved up searched for ways to express, celebrate, Chesapeake Bay on its way to and strengthen the bonds linking them Philadelphia.