Primary sources from the era.
The Treaty of Ghent (1814) included Article IX, which promised to restore Indigenous peoples’ possessions, rights, and privileges to their 1811 status, but the provision was unenforced and Britain’s proposed Indigenous buffer state was dropped. This article examines the treaty’s limited and consequential treatment of Indigenous nations and its long-term impact.
Records of Impressed American Sailors are the diplomatic and administrative documents created by the U.S. government between the 1790s and the end of the War of 1812 to track foreign impressment of American seamen and to seek their release. These records document a primary cause of the War of 1812 and survive as a rich source for genealogists and historians.
This article provides a practical guide to using historical newspapers as primary sources for researching the War of 1812, covering where to find digitized collections, how to analyze bias, and how to integrate newspaper evidence into historical research.
The United States wanted the Treaty of Ghent to end impressment, protect neutral trade rights, restore pre-war boundaries, and stop British interference with American sovereignty. These aims shifted during negotiations as the war’s circumstances changed, ultimately leading to a treaty that restored the status quo ante bellum without addressing the original grievances.
This article examines the ways American and British military and newspaper sources described battles during the War of 1812, highlighting differences in format, accuracy, and bias, and explaining how historians use these reports to reconstruct events.
The Treaty of Ghent, signed on December 24, 1814, ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. This article provides the full text of the treaty and explains its background, terms, and historical significance.
The Treaty of Ghent (1814) ended the War of 1812 but left unresolved the core causes of impressment, neutral trading rights, the status of Indigenous lands, and precise boundary disputes, setting the stage for future disagreements.
Seamen’s Protection Certificates, created by the U.S. Congress in 1796, were identity documents issued to American merchant seamen to protect them from British impressment. The applications and registers of these certificates, preserved at the National Archives, have become valuable resources for genealogists researching maritime ancestors from the early republic, including the War of 1812 era.
The Treaty of Ghent, signed December 24, 1814, ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain. This guide explains each of its eleven articles, their purposes, and their consequences.
