Keith Johnson

What Happened to Free Men of Color After the War of 1812?

| African American |

After the War of 1812, free men of color in the United States saw few of the rights they had hoped loyal service would bring, and many faced new legal restrictions. Several thousand Black people who escaped to British lines were evacuated as free settlers to Bermuda, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Trinidad, and Sierra Leone, while Article I of the Treaty of Ghent produced a British-American claims dispute over carried-away people that was not closed until 1828.

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Tecumseh’s Role in the War of 1812

| People |

Tecumseh (c. 1768–1813), the Shawnee war leader who built an intertribal confederacy in the Old Northwest, allied with Great Britain after the United States declared war in June 1812. He helped break the first American invasion of Upper Canada, contributed to the surrender of Fort Detroit, fought at Fort Meigs, and was killed at the Battle of the Thames on 5 October 1813. His death ended the confederacy’s most serious attempt to win a recognized Indigenous territory between the United States and British North America.

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How Did the British Commissariat Supply Its Forces in Canada During the War of 1812?

| Canada |

The British Commissariat supplied British, Canadian, and Indigenous forces in Canada during the War of 1812 by contracting for food, forage, and transport, moving stores by bateaux and lake vessels, and issuing regulated rations. Its work shaped strategy, limited offensives, and helped prevent the collapse of British North America despite chronic shortages.

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The Passamaquoddy Bay Islands Dispute: A Forgotten Border Issue of the War of 1812

| Treaties |

The Passamaquoddy Bay Islands Dispute was a territorial disagreement between the United States and Great Britain over islands in Passamaquoddy Bay, resolved under Article IV of the Treaty of Ghent in 1817. The decision awarded Moose, Dudley, and Frederick Islands to the United States and all other islands, including Grand Manan, to Great Britain. Though often overlooked, it exemplifies how the War of 1812’s peace treaty addressed long-standing boundary questions.

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The Battle of Lake Champlain in British Memory: How Was the Defeat Explained in London?

| Perspectives |

The Battle of Lake Champlain, or Plattsburgh, was an American victory on 11 September 1814. In London, the British defeat was explained not as a national catastrophe but as a local failure of an improvised squadron, a killed naval commander, and flawed army-navy coordination. This article examines official dispatches, naval courts-martial, London newspapers, and later British historiography.

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