What was the Embargo Act of 1807?

This Embargo Act was the United State’s attempt to not get embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars between Great Britain and France. From 1789 to 1805 the young United States enjoyed an increasing trade with the French Empire, supplying Napoleon against Great Britain. In 1807, Britain passed the Orders in Council, which forbade American trade with France. Britain wished to stop the US supply to France and feared the expanding American fleet would soon compete with theirs. Napoleon responded by forbidding all nations to trade with Britain. American merchants responded by engaging in the highly profitable and dangerous practice of blockade running, trading with both France AND Britain and incurring the wrath of each! Although American foreign policy included the concept of “freedom of the seas,” Jefferson urged Congress to suspend temporarily this cornerstone of American foreign policy to avoid war with either, or both, countries. The Embargo Act expressly forbid American ships to leave for any foreign port. The Act hit New England merchants the hardest; the resulting economic downturn rippled into a country wide depression. Three days before Jefferson’s term as president ended in 1809, Congress repealed the Act. It deferred the US’s entry into the Napoleonic Wars, but unfortunately, that deferment failed when the US finally declared war on Britain in 1812.

Rise of The American Nation, 3rd ed., Todd & Curti, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972, pg. 237.