An embargo is a suspension of international trade by a government. Although the Embargo of 1807 is well known as an idealistic and misguided policy meant to avoid war and provide economic pressure on European powers to change policies that inhibited the neutral commerce of the United States, there were other embargoes passed during the revolutionary and early republic era. On one level, the nonimportation movements that accompanied the resistance movement (1764-75) in opposition to the Stamp Act (1765), Townshend duties (1767), and the Tea Act (1773) were all forms of an embargo, although these measures were passed by nongovernmental committees and ad hoc extralegal entities. Similarly, the First Continental Congress's Association, which set up a timetable for nonimportation, nonexportation, and nonconsumption, was a form of embargo.

After independence, the United States used embargoes several times. During the war crisis with Great Britain in 1794, the United States instituted an embargo on all trade leaving North American ports. This measure, passed for 30 days on March 26, 1794, and then extended to 60 days, put pressure on the British since their West Indies colonies were dependent on the United States for foodstuffs. As a result of the embargo, wheat prices in Jamaica more than doubled. The United States repealed the embargo after two months as tensions with Great Britain eased and John Jay left for England to negotiate a settlement that became known as Jay's Treaty (1794).

On April 1, 1812, President James Madison issued a 60-day embargo which Congress extended to 90 days. Expecting the outbreak of war with Great Britain, Madison believed that during the embargo, most of the merchant ships at sea would return to the United States and then be prevented from leaving port. The embargo therefore minimized the exposure of merchant ships to capture by the British navy. During the War of 1812 (1812-15), the president instituted another embargo in December 1813 to break off trade with the British, which had continued despite the fact that the United States was at war with Great Britain. This measure was so sweeping--it literally did not allow any ship to sail from a port except privateers and naval vessels--that it was repealed in April 1814.

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