New England was hard hit by the War of 1812 with Great Britain. The war severely injured the maritime and commercial economy and inflamed the difference in interests between the Northeast and the rest of the country, where agriculture was the mainstay.

Anticipating the harm another war with England would bring, New England's regional leaders opposed it from the outset. Party politics played a major role. Federalists, dominant in the Northeast, at every turn badgered and challenged the war policies of the administration and its majority Democratic Republican Party. New England's churchmen, still heavily influenced by Puritanism, railed against the ungodly actions of the national government. But economic issues proved to be a greater source of dissension.

From earliest times, the history of New England has been tied to the sea. Merchants, fishermen, and others dependent on an open ocean were devastated by the embargoes and blockades of the war. Unemployment deepened, businesses failed, and privation spread.

This book pulls together material from period sources (diaries, journals, logs, letters, government documents, newspapers) scattered throughout the archives, libraries, museums, and town halls to piece together the history of America's northeastern seacoast from Connecticut to Maine. The author livens the narrative by blending entertaining tales of common folk with the march of epic events and clashes.