How the British blockade closed American commerce

After May 1813 the blockade was complete from New York southward, with its more severe application to New England delayed until the following year. Roosevelt connects that delay to British hopes that New England's opposition to the war would develop into revolt. Fast privateers and some naval cruisers could still escape, but the risk was too great for ordinary merchant ships. Limited trade remained possible through Spanish Florida and the northern New England coast. Elsewhere, merchant ships lay idle while shipwrights and sailors found work building and crewing privateers. British control of the approaches and estuaries also exposed coastal towns and rivers to attack.