Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America (review)

The dean of filibustering studies, Robert E. May, has produced his magnum opus, the culmination of more than thirty years of scholarly work focused on the shifty characters who took manifest destiny into their own hands in the decade before the Civil War by making unsanctioned attacks on foreign counties with the intention of territorial conquest. Here May widens the scope of his earlier works, including The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire (1972) and John A. Quitman: Old South Crusader (1985), to provide the definitive account of the political, social, diplomatic, and military history of the 1850s filibustering movement. Scholars of antebellum America and of nineteenth-century U.S.–Latin American relations will find this essential reading and an invaluable reference source for decades to come.

Chapter 1 addresses the early history of filibustering, from Aaron Burr's misadventures and the development of increasingly stringent anti-filibustering legislation, to the gradual shift of freebooter attention from Canada in the 1830s, to Latin America and the Caribbean after the U.S.-Mexico War. The bulk of this study, however, is devoted to the excursions of the 1850s, some, like Narciso López's attempts on Cuba, well known, and many more obscure. Particularly impressive is May's documentation of expeditions that never made it off U.S. soil. May convincingly argues for the significance of filibustering in 1850s America by providing statistics on the number of filibustering recruits and the depth of their popular support and by revealing the place of the movement in American popular culture through the close examination of a wide array of cultural artifacts. He documents the various motivations of filibustering recruits (neatly tying filibustering to the U.S.-Mexico war), considers the political context of these missions, and provides a detailed account of the mechanics of the expeditions, from financing to transport and supply. May closes with two chapters that assess the long-term consequences of filibustering on sectionalism and U.S. foreign policy, concluding, in no uncertain terms, that filibustering was seriously destructive to both tranquility at home and U.S. interests abroad.

There are a number of significant arguments here. His documentation of aborted missions helps May prove that support for filibustering was perhaps more widespread than any previous historian has argued. Far from being the desperate act of a few pro-slavery zealots, men from across the political and economic spectrum embraced aggressive expansionism. At the same time, however, May makes a compelling case that American presidents during the era were united, across party affiliation, in their opposition to these illegal excursions, and devoted substantial resources to their eradication. Finally, May does a masterful job of sorting out the complex motivations of filibusters, from desperation to boredom, and idealism to avarice, and shows that few filibusters in the 1850s were as pure as their words. Whatever men heading to Mexico, Cuba, and Central America might say about spreading democracy, the new frontier glittered with financial promise.

Important as these conclusions are, the greatest value of the book just might reside in its wealth of detail. Decades of painstaking research into a staggering array of English-language sources—from local historical collections, to court proceedings, newspapers, plays and novels, diplomatic correspondence and congressional documents—are clearly evident. Say one was interested in learning the exact trajectory of William Walker and his troops in their failed attempt to establish an independent Republic of Sonora in 1853–54. Utilizing May's excellent index, the scholar could quickly learn exactly when and where Walker traveled in Mexico, and how many troops were with him, on an almost day-by-day basis. Lengthy footnotes testify not only to May's meticulous research methodology but also provide adequate support for the countless small but meaningful factual claims that make this study so impressive. Despite its level of detail, the volume never becomes tedious, largely because May writes well and has a good ear for...