The Rogue Republic: How Would-Be Patriots Waged the Shortest Revolution in American History (review)

During the morning of September 23, 1810, storekeeper Philemon Thomas led armed Americans against the dilapidated Spanish fort in Baton Rouge, West Florida. Within minutes the Americans had captured the Spanish bastion along with Commandant Carlos De Hault DeLassus. A convention of delegates representing the area soon issued a Declaration of Independence, raised a single-star blue flag, and requested annexation into the United States. By mid-October, the independent Republic of West Florida (comprising parts of present-day Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida) had drafted a constitution based on the American model. President James Madison instructed officials and troops to occupy the "Rogue Republic" as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. After seventy-eight days, the country's original lone star republic was consolidated into the constellation of the Stars and Stripes without war and without financial costs.

William C. Davis's account of the West Florida Rebellion uses the life of the three Kemper brothers—Nathan, Reuben, and Samuel—to describe how bold and decisive Americans swept across the Gulf region, incorporating these lands into the United States. Arriving in the lower Mississippi Valley during the late 1790s, Reuben and Nathan Kemper tried their hands at the mercantile business, as flatboat operators, and earning a living from the land. Before 1804 Spanish policy had won the loyalties of the region's multinational inhabitants by granting access to cheap and abundant lands, providing political stability, and protecting private property. In return settlers—Spanish and foreign inhabitants alike—had displayed a willingness to abide by Spanish law, supported the local government, tacitly accepted the Roman Catholic faith, and even swore fidelity to the Spanish Crown. The Kempers found it difficult to obtain financial success in these Spanish-controlled lands.

After the Kempers lost their property through legal proceedings, Spanish authorities expelled them from the province. Reuben and his brothers gathered supporters from the Mississippi Territory, and in 1804 they raided West Florida and moved against Baton Rouge, trying to foment a rebellion that could become a revolution. Instead, Americans in the area generally refused to join the Kemper filibuster because they were happy with the liberal Spanish land policy and with the government's protection of slavery; the Kemper raids ultimately degenerated into a crime spree rather than a revolution.

Between 1804 and 1810, however, attitudes in West Florida changed radically, revealing considerable discontent and providing the foundation for revolution. Legitimate Spanish imperial authority disintegrated when Napoleon appointed his brother Joseph as emperor. The appointment of DeLassus, who enforced strict policies prohibiting the amassing of land, eroded local Spanish control. The American embargo of 1807 further undermined the region's economic stability, effectively curtailing trade between American New Orleans and Spanish Baton Rouge. This chaos almost immediately altered the loyalty of the region's inhabitants.

The strength of Davis's account of the West Florida Revolution is that he weaves a colorful and dramatic story, centering on the actors who stood in the vanguard of American Manifest Destiny. The Kemper brothers, especially Reuben, were in the middle of almost every disruption in the Gulf region during the period 1800-1821. Once West Florida had been incorporated into Louisiana, however, the Kempers fell from favor. Samuel appears again during the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition into Texas (1812-1813), and Reuben and Nathan participated in the American defense of New Orleans during the British campaign of 1814-1815. By1821 the Spanish had lost control over most of the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico, retrenching farther west in Texas; by the end of 1821 Mexican independence had wrested Texas from Spanish hands.

Historians such as Andrew McMichael, Frank L. Owsley Jr., James Cusick, Peter Kastor, James E. Lewis Jr., and this reviewer have all offered interpretations that address the Americanization of the Gulf Coast. These authors generally contend that on the local level inhabitants...