1817: Monroe

James Monroe

Democrat-Republican from Virginia, elected to office in 1816.

Expanded Slavery to Missouri

In 1820, Monroe agreed to let Missouri join the U.S. as a pro-slavery state and let Maine separate from Massachusetts and join the U.s. as a free state. Monroe promised that if any territories north of the northern border of what is now Oklahoma applied to become states in the future, slavery would not be permitted there.

Ordered Attacks on Seminole and Creek Nations

In 1818, Monroe sent General Andrew Jackson to Georgia's border with Florida, which was then a part of Spain. Slave owners in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina complained that the Seminole and Creek nations who lived in the Florida sawamps were protecting runaway slaves and leading raids against white farmers in the border region. Monroe, who held 75 African-American men, women, and children captive as slaves on his own farms, sympathized with the slavers. Jackson's army invaded Florida, captured a Spanish fort, took control of the Spanish port of Pensacola, and kicked out the Spanish governor. Jackson also ordered his soldiers to kill two British citizens because he thought they had encouraged the Seminoles to raid American settlements. Jackson's violent cts and the threat that he might do worse helped Monroe convince Spain to sell Florida to the U.S.