1814 Thomson Map of the United States and St. Lawrence River

This is an example of John Thomson's 1814 map of the United States and the course of the St. Lawrence River. The map offers much of interest, ranging from early state and territorial configurations to rarely seen references to short-lived treaties with American Indians.

A Closer Look

This is two maps on one sheet: the right map focuses on the United States from the Mississippi River eastward to the Atlantic including the Great Lakes and adjacent parts of Ontario, Quebec, and Louisiana; and the left details the course of the St. Lawrence River from the Atlantic to Lake Ontario. The United States map presents an early statehood configuration with Georgia extending westward as far as the Mississippi to include modern-day Alabama, Florida divided into eastern and western territories, and the Great Lakes controlled by the Northwest Ordinance.

East and West Florida

Florida is depicted according to an ephemeral division into eastern and western zones. This configuration emerged around 1810 when President James Madison annexed western Florida from Spain claiming it as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Though somewhat spurious, Madison's claim allowed the United States to take control of Mobile Bay thus opening an important artery into the interior of modern-day Alabama to America traders and settlers. East Florida was, at this time, still under Spanish control and would remain so until the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1821.

Northwest Territory

The vast territory between the Ohio River, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi is identified as the Northwest Territory, created in 1789 by the Northwest Ordinance. The Ordinance, or the Freedom Act, is considered the single most important act of legislation passed by the Continental Congress after the Declaration of Independence. Through the Northwest Territory, the Continental Congress established the conventions upon which the United States would expand westward. By consolidating sole distribution rights for all westward land sales into the federal government, the Congress established a precedent that would, in the course of the next 50 years, weaken the power of the individual states while simultaneously strengthening the federal government.

Short-Lived American-Indian Treaty

In what would become Ohio, there is an unusual boundary line labeled 'Boundary Line by the Treaty of 1795'. This refers to the Treaty of Greenville. On August 20, 1794, an American army commanded by Anthony Wayne defeated a Native American force led by Blue Jacket of the Shawnee at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The treaty that followed established United States hegemony over the region, forcing the American Indian nations to relinquish all claims to land south and east of a boundary that began roughly at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, then turned southward to Fort Laurens, and then westward to Fort Laramie and Fort Recovery, then finally southward to the Ohio River. The U.S. government, in turn, relinquished claims to the territory north and west of the line. This was a short lived concession and rarely appears on maps.

St. Lawrence

The left map focuses on the course of the St. Lawrence River from its mouth to Lake Ontario. The St. Lawrence was, at the time, an important artery for trade between the British territories in Quebec and Montreal and the American settlements along the Great Lakes.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared and engraved in 1814 in Edinburgh by J. and G. Menzies for inclusion in the 1817 first edition of John Thomson's New General Atlas.