Embargo Act of 1807

 

In APUSH we are discussing the Embargo Act of 1807.  At this moment England and France were fighting against each other in the Napoleonic Wars creating an unsafe environment to trade on the seas!  The new American Government wanted to protect American Businessman.  So they said you cannot trade with any country!  They truly thought this action would hurt the rest of the world!  It did NOT!  It backfired!  It hurt America more, and numerous traders and merchants became smugglers to get around the Embargo.

The government heard the pain of American Businessmen and repealed this hated embargo creating smugglers.  It was replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act, which is an unfortunate name.  This Act opened the world to American Businessmen except for England and France.

To show American frustration the above political cartoon was created!  In the early 19th Century most Americans could not read or write, but they could analyze pictures.  Here is the symbolism in the political cartoon:

1. The snapping turtle is the Embargo

2. The guy running with a barrel to the ocean is a smuggler

3. The turtle is biting the smuggler (the embargo holds American businessmen back) 

4. The scene is in a port

5. There is a British Ship waiting in the port for the smuggler

6.  Last thing is the title Embago backwards