This volume charts the establishment and early growth of the American empire. It begins with the American Revolution, when colonists in the New World broke away from what they viewed as the corrupt and oppressive British Empire. Even as they articulated a critique of the British imperial system, many American revolutionaries dreamed of creating an empire of their own. Through official treaties, newspapers, letters and diaries, and a variety of other sources this volume traces how U.S. Americans pursued this ambition during their first two decades of independence, during which the United States added substantial amounts of land to their new nation. This volume also explores how people in the United States collided with others who jeopardized the realization of their imperial ambitions, principally Native Americans and rival European colonists. Finally, this volume considers the ideas which underpinned this process—ideas which insisted that the United States could build an empire which would promote the spread of republican government in the New World. This notion of the United States’ so-called Empire of Liberty would form the bedrock of Americans’ expansionist ideology for generations to come.
This volume charts the establishment and early growth of the American empire, it explores how people in the United States collided with others who jeopardized the realization of their imperial ambitions, principally Native Americans and rival European colonists.
Volume 1: Imperialism
Edited by Alys Beverton
General Introduction
Volume 1: Introduction
Part 1: The Revolutionary War
1. Treaty of Paris, 1763, Articles IV, VII
2. William Trents Journal at Fort Pitt, May 30, 1763, A. T. Volwiler
(ed.), Journal of American History 11, no. 3 (December 1924), pp. 393
396.
3. King George III, Proclamation of 1763,
4. Benjamin Franklin, A Narrative of the Late Massacres, in Lancaster County,
of a Number of Indians, Friends of this Province, By Persons Unknown. With
Some Observations on the same, January 30, 1764
5. James Otis, The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (Boston
and London: J. Almon, 1764), pp. 35
38.
6. George Washington to William Crawford, September 17, 1767
7. Declaration of Independence, 1776
8. Plan of the Treaties with France of 1778, Articles II, III, IX, XI, XII,
Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1779
9. Major General John Sullivan to George Washington, 28 September 1779,
Poulsons American Daily Advertiser, October 9, 1779
10. Benjamin Franklin to James Hutton, July 7, 1782
Part 2: The Treaty of Paris and the Building of a New Nation
11. Motion Regarding the Western Lands, September 6, 1780
12. Treaty of Paris, 1783, Article II
13. Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1784
14. United States Continental Congress, An Ordinance for Ascertaining the
Mode of Disposing of Lands in the Western Territory, May 18, 1785
15. United States Continental Congress, An Ordinance for the Government of
the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, July 13,
1787
16. John May, Journal of Letters of Col. John May, of Boston, Relative to Two
Journeys to the Ohio Country in 1788 and 89 (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke &
Co., 1873), pp. 76
81.
17. H. H. Brackenridge, For the National Gazette. Thoughts on the Present
Indian War, National Gazette, February 2,
1792.
18. Militia Act of 1792, Section 1
19. Letter from Anthony Wayne to Henry Knox, Grand Glaize, August 28, 1794
20. Treaty of Fort Greenville, 1795
Part 3: Jeffersons Empire of Liberty
21. Virginia Land Law 1779, Section I, Kentucky Secretary of State: Virginia
and Old Kentucky Patents
22. Petition No. 8, in James Rood Robertson, Petitions of the Early
Inhabitants of Kentucky to the General Assembly of Virginia 1769 to 1792
(Louisville, KY: John P. Morton & Company, 1914), pp. 45 47
23. J. Hector St. John de Crèvecur, Letters from an American Farmer;
Describing Certain Provincial Situations, Manners, and Customs, Not Generally
Known, and Conveying Some Idea of the Late and Present Interior Circumstances
of the British Colonies in North America. Written for the Information of a
Friend in England (London: Davies & Davis, 1782), pp. 45-49
24. Publius (pseud.), The Federalist No. 10: The Union as a Safeguard
Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection, New York Packet, November 27,
1787
25. Thomas Jefferson to George Rogers Clark, 25 December 1780
26. Harry Toulmin, The Western Country in
1793. Reports on Kentucky and
Virginia by Harry Toulmin (Pasadena, CA: The Castle Press, 1948), pp. 130
136.
27. Alexander MWhorter, The Blessedness of the Liberal: A Sermon, Preached
in the Middle Dutch Church, Before the New York Missionary Society, at their
first Institution, November 1, 1796 (New York: T. and J. Swords, 1796), pp.
20
23.
28. Solomon Sibley, Extract from an Oration, Delivered at Mendon (Mass.) at
the Celebration of the 19th Anniversary of American Independence, by Mr. S.
Sibley, A.B., Federal Galaxy (Vermont), October 30,
1797.
29. Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, November 24, 1801
Part 4: The Louisiana Purchase
30. Treaty of San Ildefonso, 1800, Articles I, II, III
31. Thomas Jefferson to Robert Livingston, April 18, 1802
32. Declaration of the Independence of the Blacks of St. Domingo
33. Treaty Between the United States of America and the French Republic,
April 30, 1803, Preamble, Articles I, III, VI, and A Convention Between the
United States of America and the French Republic, Article I
34. Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe to James Madison, May 13, 1803
35. The Merits of the Public Conduct of the Republicans, Aurora General
Advertiser, September 15,
1803.
36. William C. C. Clairborne, Proclamation to the People of New Orleans,
December 20, 1803,
37. Aaron Arrowsmith. Louisiana. [ S.l, 1805] Map.
38. David Ramsay, An Oration on the Cession of Louisiana, to the United
States, Delivered on the 12th May, 1804, in St. Michaels Church, Charleston,
South Carolina, at the Request of a Number of the Inhabitants, and Published
by their Desire (Charleston: W. P. Young, Franklins Head: 1804), pp. 17
22.
39. Pierre Debigney, Memorial Presented by the Inhabitants of Louisiana to
the Congress of the United States, 1804
Part 5: Women and Empire
40. Jean Charles Levasseur (after a drawing by Antoine Borel), LAmérique
Indépendante, engraving,
1778.
41. Petition No. 37, in James Rood Robertson, Petitions of the Early
Inhabitants of Kentucky to the General Assembly of Virginia 1769 to 1792
(Louisville, KY: John P. Morton & Company, 1914), pp. 95
96.
42. Mrs. Mary Deweess Journal from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1787-1788,
Early Journal Content, Internet Archive, pp. 182
187.
43. Mary Lewis Kinnan, A True Narrative of the Sufferings of Mary Kinnan, who
was Taken Prisoner by the Shawnee Nation of Indians on the Thirteenth Day of
May, 1791, and Remained with them till the Sixteenth of August, 1794
(Elizabethtown, NJ: Shepard Kollock, 1795), pp. 3
9.
44. Knoxville, Nov. 29, The North American, December 20,
1794.
Part 6: Indigenous Perspectives
45. Pontiac, Advice from the Master of Life, 1763, Digital History.
46. Cruzat to Miro, August 23, 1784, in Spain in the Mississippi Valley v.
3, pt. 2, Lawrence Kinnaird (ed.), (Washington DC: United States Printing
Office, 1946), pp. 117
119.
47. Treaty of New York, 1790
48. The Seneca Chiefs to George Washington, December 1, 1790
Part 7: Anti-Imperial Voices
49. George Washington to James Duane, September 7, 1783
50. Alexander Hamilton, Purchase of Louisiana, New York Evening Post,July
5,
1803.
51. Correspondence of Timothy Pickering and Rufus King, 1804, in The Life and
Correspondence of Rufus King Comprising his Letters, Private and Official,
His Public Documents and His Speeches, v. IV (New York: G. P. Putnams Sons,
1897), pp. 364
366.
Part 8: Through an Environmental Lens
52. The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon; Containing a Narrative of the Wars
of Kentucke, in John Filson, The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of
Kentucke: and an Essay towards the Topography, and Natural History of that
Important Country (Wilmington, NC: James Adams, 1784), pp. 39
43.
53. Thomas Jefferson to Buffon, October 1, 1787
54. Ed. Danial Webb, A General History of the Americans, of their Customs,
Manners, and Colours: An History of the Patagonians, of the Blafards, and
White Negroes. History of Perus. An History of the Manners, Customs, &c. of
the Chinese and Egyptians, Selected from M. Pauw (Rochdale: T. Wood, 1806),
pp. 15
20.
55. William Bartram, Travels through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East &
West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the
Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the CHactaws;
Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions,
Together with Observations on the Manners of Indians (Philadelphia: James &
Johnson, 1791), pp. 333
338.
56. Daily Record, January 1, 1791 April 9, 1794, p. 1, Thomas Jefferson
Account Book 1791 1803, The Jefferson Weather & Climate Records.
Index
Dr Alys Beverton is a senior lecturer in History at Oxford Brookes University. She holds an undergraduate degree and MPhil, both from the University of Sussex, and completed her PhD at University College London. Her research focuses on the nineteenth-century United States and the role of foreign policy in shaping U.S. nationalism and political culture during this time. She is especially interested in how these themes interacted in the context of U.S. relations with the nations of Latin America during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. Among her published works is her monograph, American Exceptionalism in Crisis: Faction, Anarchy, and Mexico in the U.S. Imagination during the Civil War Era, which was published by UNC Press in 2025.
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