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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: March 16, 2020 at 8:19:08 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Slavery]: Kutzler on Clavin, 'The Battle of the > Negro Fort: The Rise and Fall of a Fugitive Slave Community' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Matthew J. Clavin. The Battle of the Negro Fort: The Rise and Fall > of a Fugitive Slave Community. New York New York University Press, > 2019. 272 pp. $24.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4798-3733-5. > > Reviewed by Evan Kutzler (Georgia Southwestern State University) > Published on H-Slavery (March, 2020) > Commissioned by Andrew J. Kettler > > Overlooking a river that once divided east and west Florida, Prospect > Bluff holds a special place in the history of the early American > republic, Andrew Jackson, and resistance to slavery. The defining > event--the so-called Battle of Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River > in July 1816--carries a heavy interpretive load. It was at once a > postscript to the War of 1812, one of several violations of Spanish > sovereignty that led to the Adams-Onís Treaty, and a prologue to > aggressive westward expansion. In hands of recent scholars like > Nathaniel Millett and, now, Matthew J. Clavin, Prospect Bluff > represents a complex crossroads of national interests and ideas that > enhance our understanding of the early United States, the Atlantic > world, and the exchange between the two. > > In _The Battle of Negro Fort: The Rise and Fall of a Fugitive Slave > Community_, Clavin imagines Prospect Bluff as a turning point in the > United States' "transformation into a white republic, which served > both the interests and the ideology of an emerging Slave Power" (p. > 14). Although Clavin follows Millett's _The Maroons of Prospect Bluff > and their Quest for Freedom in the Atlantic World_ (2013) closely in > structure, it is his interpretive framing and accessible narrative > that make this book inviting to a nonspecialist reader. Following up > on his conquests in the Creek Civil War and the War of 1812, Jackson > saw in the maroon colony at the abandoned British fort a "pretext for > war" against Spanish Florida (p. 12). "That the US government felt > compelled to destroy this symbol [of African American freedom]," > Clavin writes, "proved the nation's commitment to slavery while > illuminating the extent to which ambivalence over the institution had > disappeared since the nation's founding" (pp. 13-14). Wrapped in > language of national security, proslavery expansionists argued, in > effect, that protecting white freedom required destroying a lone > symbol of black freedom across an international boundary. > > The destruction of the maroon colony indicates to Clavin that > affinity between slaveowners and the US government was real, and the > Slave Power existed long before northern abolitionists put a name to > it and called it a conspiracy. Benjamin Hawkins, for example, a man > who spent two decades at the Creek Agency in Georgia, doubled as "a > ruthless slave trader" (p. 27). He turned his government outpost into > a holding pen for runaway men, women, and children; moreover, Hawkins > offered Native Americans cash rewards for capturing black fugitives. > "Decades later, in the middle of the nineteenth century, southern > slaveowners would threaten disunion if the government did not further > assist them in the recovery of fugitives slaves," Clavin writes. "But > such threats were unnecessary at the turn of the nineteenth century > with federal agents, including Hawkins, serving as slave catchers" > (pp. 27-28). Key government officials were committed to protecting > slavery at home and on the frontier borderlands. The action against > Prospect Bluff carried that commitment across well-known > international lines. > > In Clavin's telling, American motivations in the War of 1812 included > the proslavery goal of eradicating safe havens for self-emancipating > African Americans who fled across the southern border. Conflicts > against both the Redsticks and the British provided possible pretexts > for invading Spanish Florida. British strategy played into this > pretext by occupying Spanish Florida, arming factions of the Creek > and Seminole nations, and freeing enslaved people in exchange for > military service. War provided the context for an interracial > alliance--the symbol of liberation--at Prospect Bluff in 1814. Peace, > on the other hand, became the first harbinger of disaster for the > free black community that remained after the British left. > > Publishers are notorious for letting marketing decisions determine > book titles--sometimes over the impassioned pleas of authors. For a > book whose subtitle points to the origins and destruction of a > so-called fugitive slave community, it is noticeable that only one > chapter examines the internal dynamics of Prospect Bluff. This is > curious for two reasons that have to do with the book's main > competitor, Millett's _Maroons of Prospect Bluff_. In Millett's > denser and more comprehensive analytical narrative, he takes four > chapters to contextualize the community. Clavin, in contrast, > summarizes the day-to-day life at Prospect Bluff simply as "a typical > maroon colony" and an atypical community because of the role the > British played in creating, supplying, and arming it (p. 80). > > The brief attention to the free black community is also surprising > because Clavin's main disagreement with Millett involves what > Prospect Bluff settlement meant to those inside it. According to > Clavin, the residents of Prospect Bluff lived under "martial law" > rather than, as he quotes Millet, "a sophisticated and modern > political system" (p. 86). Likewise, Clavin concedes that the > defenders of Prospect Bluff fought in British uniforms and under the > Union Jack, but he rejects Millett's assertation that "the members of > the community acted as British subjects who were defending sovereign > territory in resisting the American invasion" (p. 119). In Clavin's > view, then, the Prospect Bluff community cared more about survival > and autonomy than political philosophy and national allegiance. > > One reason Clavin may have chosen not to focus on life inside the > Prospect Bluff settlement is that the meaning of its destruction > matters more to his central argument. Even calling it "Negro Fort," a > name coined by white men who wanted kill or recapture its residents, > points to the significance of its destruction. This is where _The > Battle of Negro Fort_ is strongest. As a symbol of black freedom, > white southerners were determined to bring about its downfall with or > without official sanctioning. "Approximately one year after Negro > Fort became the largest independent community of fugitive slaves in > the history of the present-day United States, Jackson endeavored to > bring about its ruin," Clavin writes. "Ordering a combined army-navy > invasion of Spanish Florida, he launched an illegal, > unconstitutional, and undeclared war against fugitive slaves" (p. > 101). > > Critics at the time and some modern historians have placed most of > the blame on Jackson for the illegal invasion that led to the battle > at Prospect Bluff and, two years later, the First Seminole War. In > contrast, Clavin shows how Jackson gambled, correctly, on the > direction of US foreign policy both times. Jackson hedged his first > bet in Florida by delegating the task of destroying Prospect Bluff to > Edmund P. Gaines. This allowed the general the flexibility to "avoid > culpability if the assault proved unsuccessful or particularly > controversial" (p. 108). After the fact, Jackson interpreted the > silence coming from Washington as a good sign. "Public acts," he told > a subordinate, "if not publicly censured, are tacitly approved" (p. > 135). In other words, Jackson correctly predicted the confluence of > southern sectional interests and US foreign policy. > > Jackson was not alone. The proto-Slave Power required collaborators > in the free states and within the US government. Following Jackson's > invasion in the First Seminole War, Secretary of State John Quincy > Adams embraced what Clavin describes as "a pro-Jackson, pro-slavery, > pro-southern point of view" in a letter to the US minister to Spain > that was republished in the _National Intelligencer_ (p. 158). > Depicting the free black settlement and its survivors among the > Seminoles as a menace to a white republic, Adams "provided the > blueprint for Jackson's defenders in the congressional hearings that > followed" (p. 158). Adam's involvement was remarkable for two > reasons. As a man who became only the second early president not to > own slaves (the other president being his father), Adam's > acquiescence to proslavery foreign policy shows how pervasive the > sentiment was in the so-called Era of Good Feelings. Adam's > involvement is also significant because of his opposition to the > admission of Missouri as a slave state only one year later. During > that controversy, Adams vividly described a "phalanx" of > representatives from the slave states metaphorically overrunning the > disorganized representatives of the free states.[2] Adams would spend > much of the rest of his life opposing the proslavery interest that > Jackson, with Adam's assistance, had helped unleash. > > Clavin's _Battle of Negro Fort_ is an accessible, worthwhile read > about a still-underappreciated topic. Rather than merely an aberrant > invasion led by a rogue general, the destruction of Prospect Bluff > and the First Seminole War resurface in Clavin's writing as a key > turning point in the creation of a white republic and the rise of the > Slave Power. More than just fugitives from slavery died when the > fort's powder magazine exploded. One of the casualties was any > uncertainty about the relationship between the US government and the > future of slavery in an expanding, proslavery empire. Forget New > Orleans of 1814-15, and put the battle of Negro Fort in your next > early republic lecture. > > Note__ > > [1]. David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason, _John Quincy Adams and > the Politics of Slavery: Selections from the Diary _(New York: Oxford > University Press, 2017), 77-78. > > Citation: Evan Kutzler. Review of Clavin, Matthew J., _The Battle of > the Negro Fort: The Rise and Fall of a Fugitive Slave Community_. > H-Slavery, H-Net Reviews. March, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54587 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
