Editing Treaty of Ghent (section)

==Agreement==
On December 24, 1814, the members of the British and American negotiating teams signed and affixed their individual seals to the document. That did not itself end the war, which required formal ratification of the treaty by both governments, which came in February 1815.<ref name= "Engelman1960">{{cite news |last= Engelman |first= Fred L. |date= December 1960 |title= The peace of Christmas Eve |url= http://www.americanheritage.com/content/peace-christmas-eve |magazine= [[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]] |volume= 12 |issue= 1 |access-date=December 24, 2007}}</ref>

The treaty released all prisoners and restored all captured lands and ships between the United States and Britain ([[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] and Spanish [[West Florida]] territory west of the [[Perdido River]] were not returned to Spain, who allied with Britain and the [[Red Sticks|Red Stick]] faction of the [[Muscogee Nation|Muscogee]] in the War of 1812, by the United States). Returned to the United States were approximately {{Convert|10000000|acre|ha km2}} of territory near lakes [[Lake Superior|Superior]] and [[Lake Michigan|Michigan]] and in [[Maine]].<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first= William G. |editor1-last= Dean |editor2-first= Conrad |editor2-last= Heidenreich |editor3-first= Thomas F. |editor3-last= McIlwraith |editor4-first= John |display-editors = 3 |editor4-last= Warkentin |year=1998 |title=Concise Historical Atlas of Canada |publisher= [[University of Toronto Press]] |at= plate 38 |isbn= 9780802042033 |ref= {{SfnRef|Dean et al.|1998}} }}</ref> American-held areas of [[Upper Canada]] (now [[Ontario]]) were returned to British control, but the Americans only returned [[Pensacola]] to [[Spanish Florida]]. All of [[West Florida|Spanish West Florida]] west of the Perdido River, including the important port of Mobile, was occupied by the Americans in 1813, but the Treaty of Ghent did not force the Americans to leave this section of West Florida. The treaty made no changes to the prewar boundaries on the U.S.-Canada border.<ref name="ghent1814" />

The British promised to return all [[Free Negro|freed slaves]] that they had liberated during the war back to the United States. However, in 1826, Britain instead paid the U.S. government US$1,204,960 ({{Inflation|US|1204960|1826|fmt=eq}}) to compensate American slaveholders.{{sfn|Lindsay|1920|p=391–419}} Both nations also promised to work towards the abolition of the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref name="ghent1814">{{cite web |title= Treaty of Ghent; 1814 [transcription] |url= http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/ghent.asp |website= avalon.law.yale.edu |publisher= British-American Diplomacy: [[Avalon Project]]: [[Lillian Goldman Law Library]]: [[Yale Law School]]: [[Yale University]] |type= transcribed full text of treaty }}</ref>

The negotiations in Ghent were concluded in 1814, in anticipation that the two governments would pursue further discussions in 1815 to frame a new commercial agreement between the United States and the British Empire.

[[Pierre Berton]] wrote of the treaty:
<blockquote>It was as if no war had been fought, or to put it more bluntly, as if the war that was fought was fought for no good reason. For nothing has changed; everything is as it was at the beginning save for the graves of those who, it now appears, have fought for a trifle [...]. [[Battle of Lake Erie|Lake Erie]] and [[Battle of Baltimore|Fort McHenry]] will go into the American history books, [[Battle of Queenston Heights|Queenston Heights]] and [[Battle of Crysler's Farm|Crysler's Farm]] into the Canadian, but without the gore, the stench, the disease, the terror, the conniving, and the imbecilities that march with every army.{{sfn|Berton|1981|p=418}}</blockquote>