Purchase
The Patriot War and the American Invasion of Spanish East Florida
University of Georgia Press
April 2007
On Sale: April 15, 2007
392 pages
ISBN: 0820329215
EAN: 9780820329215
Paperback
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction History
Resurrecting a forgotten chapter in transatlantic history,
James G. Cusick tells how, just before the United States
went to war against Great Britain in 1812, an ill-advised
invasion of a Spanish colony became a stage on which the
young republic clumsily acted out its imperial ambitions and
racial fears. With the halfhearted backing of President
James Madison and Secretary of State James Monroe, a party
of Georgians invaded East Florida, confident that partisans
there would help them swiftly wrest the colony away from
Spain. The raid was a strategic and political disaster. Few
sympathizers materialized, official U.S. support dissolved,
and an extended guerrilla war ensued.
This was the
"other war of 1812," or the Patriot War. Cusick, a lively
storyteller as well as a meticulous scholar, conveys the
savagery of the borderlands conflict that pitted American
adventurers and anti-Spanish partisans against Spanish
loyalists and their allies, who included Seminole Indians
and escaped slaves. At the same time, Cusick looks at the
American motivations behind the invasion, including
apprehensions about Florida's growing population of
unregulated blacks and geopolitical intrigues involving
Spain, Britain, and France.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy