War of 1812, 200 Years of Peace

Greetings,

On this beautiful Thursday morning, I am writing about a program that has been in development for over two years. I felt back in 2010 that this year, 2012, would be a very important anniversary for one of the most overlooked periods in United States history. The early 19th century was a pivotal time for our young country. Europe was still recovering from the shock of the French Revolution, and its aftermath, Napoleon and his quest for empire. World trade from America was being hampered by British Naval forces. (The British Navy was giving American sailors the opportunity to see the world, through impressment). The beginning of the collapse of colonialism was spreading across the globe. In essence, things were changing rapidly.

President Jefferson expanded the US territory profoundly with the purchase from France of lands west  and north of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, The Louisiana Purchase. The population of the original 13 colonies was exploding,  and therefore, people were beginning to settle in the fertile valleys west of the Appalachian Mountains. This put pressure on those who lived there originally, the First Nation peoples, to "adjust." England became more nervous about the expansionist sentiments south of the Canadian border in the western frontier of the US.

This set up a most fascinating scenario, conflicting interests that boiled into armed conflict in North America and on the high seas between the major world power at the time, England and the brash but naive United States. Caught in the middle were the Indian nations, upon whose lands battles would be fought, and the Canadian settlers, many who had fled the US after the American Revolution in the 1780's.

In the middle of June, war was declared by the US on Great Britain and it didn't go well for both sides early on. Within two months, all of Michigan territory was lost to the British, and on the other hand, the USS Constitution engaged and destroyed HMS Guerierre in the mid Atlantic. Both sides expected a very short conflict, but that was not to be the case.

I knew that there were some poems and ballads from the period that could illuminate the human side of that contentious time and, therefore,  set out to find and hone into a musical lecture many of these songs and stories. And that brings me to today, where  at 12:30 pm, I will perform at Lewis University my program, The War of 1812, the Conflict that Forged Two Nations. This weekend, I will also be at the fort in Fort Wayne, Indiana for a reenactment of the siege of Fort Wayne in September of 1812. See information at my website, leemurdock.com about these and other upcoming events.

Fair Winds!

Lee

info@oldfortwayne.org