Chesapeake Affair

The Chesapeake Affair (also known as the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair) was a highly controversial naval encounter between the United States and Great Britain that took place in 1807. On June 22, 1807, the British ship HMS Leopard detained and boarded the American ship USS Chesapeake during a search for deserters from the British Royal Navy. Although the deserters were found, the incident quickly proved to be an overreach of authority by the British and a serious foreign affairs blunder. The Chesapeake Affair resulted in increased tensions between the United States and Britain that would contribute to their upcoming clash in the War of 1812.

Background

From 1775 to 1783, Great Britain engaged in a lengthy and bloody war against its former colonies in North America. Known as the American Revolution, this conflict resulted in a stunning victory for Americans seeking independence from their former motherland. In the years following 1783, the newborn United States began to distance itself from many of its British traditions and form its own identity. It also demonstrated remarkable energy and began to grow at a rapid pace, both in size and prosperity.

Even in its early years, the United States showed the potential to become a significant world power. United States ships began participating in ever-increasing amounts of overseas trade. Their travels and trading quickly boosted the American economy, much to the agitation of the British.

One of the United States’ preferred trading partners at that time was France, which had supported the revolutionaries’ bid during the war. While most American leaders considered France an ally and friend, France was also a long-time enemy of Britain. The two countries had clashed over control of North American colonies in the French and Indian War (1754–1763). Later, France’s support of the American cause had helped undo British control there in the Revolutionary War.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Britain and France were locked in the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815) as bitter enemies. Much of their fighting took place on the high seas, where Britain’s vaunted Royal Navy engaged French ships on the Atlantic Ocean and beyond.

Other aspects of the conflict were more subtle, such as political and economic machinations meant to harm the rival powers’ finances. France attempted to keep countries in Europe from trading with Britain. Britain took it a step further and, in 1807, tried to forbid any other country in the world, including the United States, from trading with France. The British Royal Navy, already staging a blockade on France, was ordered to enforce this ruling at ports and on the open ocean. British leaders empowered their sailors to detain and search any neutral ships that might be helping France or hiding British deserters.

Overview

In 1807, American leaders protested the British declaration, pointing out its illegality, but British leaders persisted. In fact, British ships sailed all the way to the Chesapeake Bay in pursuit of French ships that were conducting business there with Americans. The British ships stopped the chase and patrolled nearby to monitor and trap their intended victims.

While patrolling the Chesapeake Bay, several British sailors deserted their posts. Like many Royal Navy seamen, they faced largely miserable lives of poor rations and strict discipline, often involving corporal punishment. They were enticed by what they had heard about liberty and prosperity in the United States. Stealing a rowboat, they went ashore near Norfolk, Virginia. There, the fugitives ultimately joined the crew of another naval ship, this one American: the USS Chesapeake.

British leaders quickly ascertained what had happened. British Vice-Admiral Sir George Berkeley dispatched the ship HMS Leopard, led by Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, to stop the Chesapeake. On June 22, 1807, Humphreys sailed to the Chesapeake and demanded that its commander, Commodore James Barron, submit the ship to a search. Barron flatly refused the demand. When charged with harboring British deserters, Barron noted that the men in question had been pressed into service in the British Royal Navy—meaning they had essentially been kidnapped and forced to work in the British fleet.

Humphreys took this act of denial as a violation of law and ordered cannons on the Leopard to open fire. A heavy burst of shots resulted in the deaths of three American sailors and the wounding of seventeen others, including Barron himself. Barron and the Chesapeake had not been prepared for military activity. Nonetheless, Barron ordered a cannon blast back at the Leopard in response. This had little effect and even Barron, an experienced and tough commander, could see that the Americans were helpless. He offered to surrender.

Humphreys sent soldiers aboard the Chesapeake to search the crew and arrest the deserters known to be hiding among them. After that, the British confiscated the battered ship and towed it to a port in British-ruled Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, while the officers and authorities decided how to proceed legally.

Ultimately, British investigators discovered that only one of the deserters was actually British, while the others were American-born men who said they had been forced to join the Royal Navy. British authorities hanged the British deserter and declared a stiff penalty to the others of five hundred lashes of a whip each.

However, by this time, the overall folly of British actions was becoming clear. News of the incident spread across the United States, enraging many who considered it, at very least, an act of enormous disrespect. Many considered it a downright act of war, and called for the struggle against Britain from the Revolutionary War to be renewed. However, others called for caution and patience in the matter, not seeing it as sufficient cause to risk the security of the still-young United States.

Ultimately, British authorities declined to punish the American-born deserters and released them, along with a payment to the United States for damages during the affair. This was enough to end the immediate threat of renewed hostilities, but did little to satisfy the anger of many Americans. The United States, then under President Thomas Jefferson, chose to punish Britain through a poorly conceived embargo on British trade, which mostly proved a burden to American industry. Bad feelings between the countries would continue to simmer until they again broke out in a new international conflict, the War of 1812.

Bibliography

Haertsch, Emilie. “The Chesapeake-Leopard Incident and the War of 1812.” The Beehive - Massachusetts Historical Society, 25 June 2013, www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2013/06/the-chesapeake-leopard-incident-and-the-war-of-1812/. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Ridler, Jason. “Chesapeake Affair 1807.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 6 June 2014, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chesapeake-affair-1807. Accessed 16 July 2023.

“Summer 1807: The British Attack the USS Chesapeake and Remove American Sailors.” National Park Service, www.nps.gov/articles/chesapeake-leopard-affair.htm. Accessed 16 July 2023.

Tucker, Spencer C., and Frank T. Reuter. “The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair.” U.S. Naval Institute / Naval History Magazine, June 1996, www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1996/june/chesapeake-leopard-affair. Accessed 16 July 2023.

“USS Chesapeake – HMS Leopard Affair.” Naval History and Heritage Command, www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/art/exhibits/conflicts-and-operations/the-war-of-1812/uss-chesapeake--hms-leopard-affair.html. Accessed 16 July 2023.