| Atlantic Loyalties: Americans in Spanish West Florida, 1785-1810 Subjects: West Florida -- History; Baton Rouge (La.) -- History; British Americans -- West Florida -- History; British Americans -- West Florida -- Ethnic identity; Frontier and pioneer life -- West Florida; Allegiance -- West Florida -- History; West Florida -- Et; Integrating social, cultural, economic, and political history, this is a study of the factors that grounded--or swayed--the loyalties of non-Spaniards living under Spanish rule on the southern frontier. In particular, Andrew McMichael looks at the colonial Spanish administration's attitude toward resident Americans. The Spanish borderlands systems of slavery and land ownership, McMichael shows, used an efficient system of land distribution and government patronage that engendered loyalty and withstood a series of conflicts that tested, but did not shatter, residents' allegiance. McMichael focuses on the Baton Rouge district of Spanish West Florida from 1785 through 1810, analyzing why resident Anglo-Americans, who had maintained a high degree of loyalty to the Spanish Crown through 1809, rebelled in 1810. ANDREW McMICHAEL is an associate professor of history at Western Kentucky University. McMichael is also the author of History on the Web and an assistant editor of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 30 . |