On June 21, 1807, the British frigate Leopard fired on the USS Chesapeake near Norfolk, Virginia, after the commander of the American vessel refused to let the British board it. The British killed three sailors and injured another eighteen. They boarded the Chesapeake impressing three American sailors. Citizens throughout the United States were outraged.
Jefferson urged Congress to pass the Embargo Act of 1807. It prevented any American ships from sailing to foreign ports, and engaging in trade with Britain and France.
New Englanders detested the embargo. It affirmed their suspicions that Jefferson ignored New England’s economic interests.[1] It wreaked havoc on the profitable trade merchants had risked so much to achieve. The Act was impossible to enforce. Smuggling ensued. Non-compliance was rife.
Once again, New Englanders discussed secession.
[1] Jeffrey L. Pasley, “The Tyranny of Printers”: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001) 350.
