Definite Articles

Yesterday's post was about the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783.

What were the ten Articles of the treaty, you might ask?

1. The Thirteen Colonies were free and independent of Great Britain.

2. Establishment of boundaries between the United States and British North America. (A man named Mitchell had made a map of eastern North America in the mid-1700s. The writers of the Paris Peace Treaty used copies of this map during negotiations. The boundary of the new United States was drawn as a red line. Only three "red line" maps are known to exist today.)

3. Fishing rights to the new United States fishermen, off the coast of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

4. All legal debts must be paid to creditors on either side.

5. The Congress of the Confederation (Predecessor to today's Congress) would "earnestly recommend" restoration of confiscated Loyalist property.

6. United States would prevent future confiscations of the property of Loyalists.

7. All prisoners on both sides would be set free. Great Britain would, "without causing any destruction, or carrying away any Negroes or other property of the American inhabitants",
withdraw armies and fleets, and leave all American property unmolested.

8. The navigation of the Mississippi River would remain free and open to both the United States and Great Britain.

9. Territories conquered by either the United States or Great Britain prior to the provisional Articles would be returned without difficulty or compensation.

10. Ratification of the Treaty of Paris was to occur within six months from the signing by the contracting parties, "or sooner, if possible."