Experiencing Empire: Power, People, and Revolution in Early America

281 Pages·2017·1.95 MB·English

by  Patrick Griffin

Experiencing Empire
Early American Histories
Douglas Bradburn, John C. Coombs, and S. Max Edelson, Editors
Experiencing
Empire
Power, People, and Revolution
in Early America
Edited by Patrick Griffin
University of Virginia Press
Charlottesville and London
University of Virginia Press
© 2017 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-f ree paper
First published 2017
ISBN 978-0-8139-3988-9 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-8139-3989-6 (ebook)
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
from the Library of Congress.
Cover art: Detail of A New Generall Chart for the West Indies of
E. Wright’s Projection vut. Mercator’s Chart, Sold by W. and I. Mount
and T. Page on Tower Hill, London. (Courtesy of the Osher Map Library,
University of Southern Maine)
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Imagining an American Imperial-
Revolutionary History 1
Part I: Empire and Provincials
The Baubles of America: Object Lessons from the Eclectic
Empire of Peter Williamson 27
Timothy J. Shannon
Imperial Vineyards: Wine and Politics in the Early
American South 50
Owen Stanwood
Sex and Empire in Eighteenth- Century St. Louis 71
Patricia Cleary
On Their Own Ground: Native Power and Colonial
Property on the Maine Frontier 88
Ian Saxine
Part II: War, Revolution, Empires
Efficient and Effective: The Deceptive Success of British
Strategy at Fort Stanwix during the Seven Years’ War 111
James Coltrain
Rethinking Failure: The French Empire in the Age of John Law 127
Christopher Hodson
John Almon’s Web: Networks of Print, Politics, and
Place in Revolutionary London, 1760–1780 147
Michael Guenther
Part III: The Ghosts of Empire
Forgiving and Forgetting in Postrevolutionary America 171
Donald F. Johnson
Abbe’s Ghost: Negotiating Slavery in Paris, 1783–1784 189
David N. Gellman
Seeing Like an Antiquarian: Popular Nostalgia and
the Rise of a Modern Historical Subjectivity in the 1820s 212
Seth Cotlar
Conclusion: What Time Was the American Revolution?
Reflections on a Familiar Narrative 233
T. H. Breen
Afterword 247
Joyce E. Chaplin
Notes on Contributors 263
Index 265
Acknowledgments
The essays in this collection have their origins in a conference held at North-
western University in June 2013 in honor of T. H. Breen. The conference
would have never come off without the work of Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe. A
first-r ate historian and an able administrator (a rara avis, in other words),
Beth helped shape the intellectual content of the conference and saw to the
logistical details. No Beth, no volume. I also owe a great debt to Sam Fisher,
who helped me with a great many details. Lisa Gallagher similarly did yeo-
man’s work on formatting the essays.
The contributors deserve a special word of thanks. They were delightful,
and they met deadlines! I doubt I will ever utter that phrase again. Dick Hol-
way was his usual enthusiastic, visionary self. This does not surprise me, as I
have known Dick for so long. He is a pro’s pro and knows a good collection
when he sees it. He, too, is a delight to work with. The external reviewers
gave me some sage advice. I was impressed with how closely they read the
essays and the introduction. I found their insights invaluable, and I think the
collection is much stronger for their efforts.
I learned after the fact that the late Drew Cayton was an earlier reader. His
reading had a great effect on how I framed the introduction. Such was always
the case whenever I gave Drew anything to read. There was no scholar more
selfless than Drew Cayton. He is terribly missed, but I would like to think in
some way his thoughts live on in this volume.
Finally, I would like to thank Tim Breen. I first got to know Tim as a men-
tor. Now I regard him as a dear friend. There is really little I could do to thank
him for all he has done for me over the course of my career. This volume is
but a small token.

Experiencing Empire