why did the british navy set up blockades in the war of 1812

With the stirrings of another war with the United Kingdom, residents again panicked. Some thirty years later, history repeated itself. Island representatives met with British commanders in New York and Newport, and an agreement was hammered out in which “depredations should cease, provided Nantucket observe strict neutrality.” 3 Happen again thirty years later, Nantucket sought to isolate itself from war. With so many of Nantucket’s whaling merchants avowed loyalists, coupled with the loss of London as a major market for its whaling products, several influential community members proposed the island remain an independent or neutral state. Being cut off from its primary market in London was especially devastating. The outbreak of fighting was immediately felt by Nantucket’s booming whaling business as many overseas markets for its whaling products were closed off.

During the winter of 1775, Nantucket residents successfully petitioned Parliament for an exemption from the New England Restraining Act, 1 which was intended to punish the New England colonies for their belligerence by dramatically curtailing fishing in the region. Closely tied to the British economy before the American Revolution, Nantucket showed little interest in supporting the Colonial cause for independence. Nantucket’s flirtation with neutrality was nothing new. Without consent from the Madison Administration, island representatives began negotiations with the Royal Navy which eventually led, late in the war, to a neutrality agreement between Nantucket and the United Kingdom. In late August 1814, at the height of the War of 1812 and in the midst of the Royal Navy’s blockade of America’s coastline, acting out of desperation, with no help from the federal or state governments, residents of Nantucket took matters into their own hands. Less known is an event that occurred in the early nineteenth century that, for a brief period of time, severely disrupted Nantucket’s whaling industry, exposing the island’s connection to, and total dependence, on the sea for its economic existence. In the broad context of the rich history of Nantucket, the significant role its residents played in developing and controlling much of the global whaling industry during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has defined the narrative of the island. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellowship Private Events Make your Event Historic!.

Why did the british navy set up blockades in the war of 1812