Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America

Abstract

Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America. By Robert E. May. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Pp. xviii, 426. Illustrations, maps. Cloth, $45.00.) Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America is destined to be the standard work on filibustering in nineteenth-century America. Robert E. May, who previously delved into the secret underworld of American expansionism in his prize-winning biography, John A. Quitman: Old South Crusader (1985), explores nearly every aspect of the private military expeditions that brought notoriety and dreams of empire to generations of adventurers. In this well-written and extensively researched book, he examines the context for filibustering, explores the motivations and logistics behind such schemes, and persuasively argues that the phenomenon was not only linked to the sectional controversy over slavery but also damaged United States' foreign policy and, ironically, limited the nation's territorial expansion. May organizes his study into three parts, with the first three chapters dedicated to providing an overview of filibustering in America. This includes his investigation into the origins of so-called Aaron Burr schemes in the early years of the republic, the growth of such freebooting in the years after the Mexican War, and the place of filibustering in American popular culture. He argues that while other nations also contributed to the nefarious adventures collectively known as filibustering, it was the United States that sent forth the most and best-known expeditions. Though relatively few people actually got involved in such illegal plots (they were in direct violation of the Neutrality Act and other laws), filibustering enjoyed widespread political support and was common enough to be a part of the culture. In the second part of the book, May devotes four chapters to the actual filibustering expeditions. He examines why it was that some Americans decided to join such schemes, how the United States government failed to stop them, the logistics of the expeditions, and what it was actually like to go filibustering. Whether providing support for Narciso Lopez and his attempts to capture Cuba, sending armed parties into Mexico to loot and pillage, or mustering whole armies of mercenaries for the invasion of Central American nations like Nicaragua, a significant number of Americans were caught up in the idea of capturing territory in the name of liberty, although their motivations ranged from sheer love of adventure to ideology to power and greed. The United States government did stop a number of filibusters, although the efforts of authorities often mixed failure with half-hearted attempts to stop expeditions that officers actually hoped would succeed. May concludes that, although some adventures were nipped in the bud by timely intervention, political infighting and popular opinion hampered the government's efforts. Despite popular support, the expeditions were almost always under-funded and poorly organized. …

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