1811 in the United States

1811 in the United States
Years:	1808 1809 1810 – 1811 – 1812 1813 1814
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Events from the year 1811 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: James Madison (DR-Virginia)
• Vice President: George Clinton (DR-New York)
• Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Bradley Varnum (DR-Massachusetts) (until March 4), Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky) (starting November 4)
• Congress: 11th (until March 4), 12th (starting March 4)

Governors and Lieutenant Governors

Governors Governor of Connecticut: John Treadwell (Federalist) (until May 9), Roger Griswold (Federalist) (starting May 9) Governor of Delaware: George Truitt (Federalist) (until January 15), Joseph Haslet (Democratic-Republican) (starting January 15) Governor of Georgia: David Brydie Mitchell (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Kentucky: Charles Scott (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Maryland: Edward Lloyd (Democratic-Republican) (until November 16), Robert Bowie (Democratic-Republican) (starting November 16) Governor of Massachusetts: Elbridge Gerry (Democratic-Republican) Governor of New Hampshire: John Langdon (Democratic-Republican) Governor of New Jersey: Joseph Bloomfield (Democratic-Republican) Governor of New York: Daniel D. Tompkins (Democratic-Republican) Governor of North Carolina: David Stone (Democratic-Republican) (until December 11), William Hawkins (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 11) Governor of Ohio: Return J. Meigs, Jr. (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Pennsylvania: Simon Snyder (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Rhode Island: James Fenner (Democratic-Republican) (until May 1), William Jones (Federalist) (starting May 1) Governor of South Carolina: Henry Middleton (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Tennessee: Willie Blount (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Vermont: Jonas Galusha (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Virginia: until January 15: John Tyler, Sr. (Democratic-Republican) January 15-January 19: George William Smith (Democratic-Republican) January 19-April 3: James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) April 3-December 26: George William Smith (Democratic-Republican) December 26-December 27: vacant starting December 27: Peyton Randolph (Democratic-Republican) Lieutenant Governors Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Roger Griswold (Federalist) (until May 9), John Cotton Smith (Federalist) (starting May 9) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Gabriel Slaughter (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: William Gray (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of New York: John Tayler (Democratic-Republican) (until month and day unknown), DeWitt Clinton (Democratic-Republican) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Isaac Wilbour (Democratic-Republican) (until May 1), Simeon Martin (political party unknown) (starting May 1) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Samuel Farrow (Democratic-Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Paul Brigham (Democratic-Republican)

Events

• January 8 – An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslandes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
• January 22 – The Casas Revolt begins in San Antonio, Texas.
• March 22 – The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 for Manhattan is presented.
• July 9 – British explorer David Thompson posts a notice at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake Rivers (in modern-day Washington (state)) claiming the area for the United Kingdom.
• October 11 – Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry (service between New York, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey).
• November 6 – Battle of Tippecanoe: American troops led by William Henry Harrison defeat the Native American chief Tecumseh.
• December 16 – The New Madrid earthquake in Mississippi Valley near New Madrid reverses the course of the river for a while. Other earthquakes along the fault occur on January 23, 1812, and February 7, 1812.

Births

• January 5 – Richard Brodhead, United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1851 to 1857. (died 1863)
• January 16 – William Alexander Richardson, United States Senator from Illinois from 1863 till 1865. (died 1875)
• January 17 – George S. Houston, Governor of Alabama from 1874 till 1878 and United States Senator from Alabama in 1879. (died 1879)
• February 4 – Asa Biggs, United States Senator from North Carolina from 1855 till 1858. (died 1878)
• February 24
  • Edward Dickinson Baker, English-born United States Senator from Oregon from 1860 till 1861. (died 1861)
  • Henry Smith Lane, United States Senator from Indiana from 1836 to 1837 and from 1854 till 1858. (died 1881)
• August 6 – Judah P. Benjamin, United States Senator from Louisiana from 1853 till 1861, 1st Confederate States Attorney General, 2nd Confederate States Secretary of War, 3rd Confederate States Secretary of State (died 1884)
• June 14 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author best known for the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (died 1896)

Deaths

• August 2 – William Williams, signatory of the Declaration of Independence (born 1731)

Further reading

• Franklin D. Scott. President Madison's Foreign Policy—The Views of An American Merchant Abroad in 1811. The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 16, No. 4 (December, 1944), pp. 294–298
• D. Fedotoff White. A Russian Sketches Philadelphia, 1811-1813. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 75, No. 1 (January, 1951), pp. 3–24
• Willard E. Wight, Robert J. Miller. The Journals of the Reverend Robert J. Miller, Lutheran Missionary in Virginia, 1811 and 1813. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 61, No. 2 (April, 1953), pp. 141–166
• Willard E. Wight. Two Lutheran Missionary Journals, 1811, 1813. The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 55, No. 1 (January, 1954), pp. 6–14
• Florence G. Watts. Lieutenant Charles Larrabee's Account of the Battle of Tippecanoe, 1811. Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 57, No. 3 (September 1961), pp. 225–247
• Donald R. Hickey. The Federalists and the Coming of the War, 1811-1812. Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 75, No. 1 (March 1979), pp. 70–88
• Raymond W. Champagne Jr., Thomas J. Rueter. Jonathan Roberts and the "War Hawk" Congress of 1811-1812. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 104, No. 4 (October, 1980), pp. 434–449
• Raymond H. Hammes. The Cantine Mounds of Southern Illinois: The First Published Report of Their Existence and an 1811 Eyewitness Account of the Monks Who Lived There. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908–1984), Vol. 74, No. 2 (Summer, 1981), pp. 145–156
• Thomas Marshall Thompson. National Newspaper and Legislative Reactions to Louisiana's Deslondes Slave Revolt of 1811. Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Winter, 1992), pp. 5–29
• Peter J. Kastor. Toward "the Maritime War Only": The Question of Naval Mobilization, 1811- 1812. The Journal of Military History, Vol. 61, No. 3 (July, 1997), pp. 455–480

External links

• Media related to 1811 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons