May leaves no stone unturned in this definitive study that catalogues every major and minor U.S. filibustering expedition of the 1850s, and even some filibustering projects that never materialized. The first chapter identifies private, non-state-sponsored military expeditions that embarked for Canada, Cuba, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Subsequent chapters describe the relative ease of recruiting manpower; the significance of filibusterism in the national character of the United States; the multiple reasons for joining filibustering expeditions; efforts by the U.S. government to control the phenomenon; the process of raising money, arms, vessels, and supplies for the expeditions; the failures and often tragic consequences of filibustering efforts; diplomatic and commercial consequences for the United States; the relation of filibusterism to the North-South sectional crisis; and, finally, the legacy of filibusterism.
Each of these enormously detailed chapters is based on a mass of documentation from local and federal government sources, private correspondence, and newspapers. The...
