Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Exiles and Refugees on the Gulf Coast, 1815-1835 (review)

As one of the many themes in Rafe Blaufarb's study, he unmasks yet another myth of the antebellum South. It centered around noble French expatriates who allegedly formed a settlement in Alabama to grow grapevines and olive trees. The background to this event, however, dwarfs the exaggerated tale of the settlement. It began in Europe with the defeat of Napoléon that drove his partisans abroad, many to the United States, to avoid the proscriptions of a vengeful Louis XVIII. Exiles included Joseph Bonaparte, erstwhile king of Spain, who settled down to a comfortable low-profile republican life in New Jersey. Many of Napoléon's recently minted aristocratic and entrepreneurial refugees found the American republic congenial. Americans initially greeted notable exiles as heroes, accepted their titles, and reveled in their choice of the United States as a haven.

The story of military refugees, possibly as many as four hundred army officers who reach these shores differed. This was the Age of Revolution, and audacious mercenaries sought employment in armies committed to action, including the revolutionary forces that essayed to overthrow Spain's New World colonies. The United States often served as a launching pad for expeditions and adventurers seeking fame, fortune, and power in illicit enterprises. Indirectly, the Society for the Cultivation of the Vine and Olive served some military conspirators who sought fast money to finance their filibustering expedition against New Spain. Another group of exiles, however, mostly from Saint Domingue who had fled the slave insurrection, genuinely sought prosperous grape and olive tree plantations. They stayed and developed their grants, even though success came through cotton. Nobles and Tara-like plantations, however, were noticeable by their absence. Americans, who purchased abandoned and offered grants, soon joined these exiles.

The vine and olive settlement also worried the Spaniards in nearby West and East Florida, which the United States wanted to acquire without a messy and costly war. U.S. incursions into the Floridas were common in the 1810s. Privateering flourished then, and adventurers, such as Louis-Michel Aury and Jean and Pierre Lafitte, seized Spanish territory at Amelia Island off Florida and at Galveston on the Texas coast.

Important for Texans was the effort of the vine and olive colony's military members who raised money to fund their transport to Alabama. But led by Gen. Charles Lallemand, they sailed instead in late 1817 to Galveston to prepare an attack on New Spain. The general pushed up the Trinity River to Champ d'Asile, a military camp in territory disputed between Spain and the United States. If he expected volunteers and investors to provide desperately needed assistance, he was disappointed. Champ d'Asile soon dissolved, except in French mythology where its retelling long persisted. This failed expedition, nevertheless, helped rouse Spain and the United States to negotiate the 1819 Transcontinental Treaty that transferred the Floridas and fixed a common boundary from Louisiana to the West Coast.

This synopsis of Blaufarb's study scarcely scratches the surface of all the subjects the author broaches, especially U.S., Spanish, and French foreign policies; filibustering expeditions; the numerous and varied people involved; appendices with the active and inactive vine and olive grant recipients; and biographical sketches of grantees. Succinctly stated, the book is a tour de force that encourages wider reading to learn more about long slighted events in United States history.