A reinterpretation of a key moment in the political history of the
United States-and of the Americans who sought to decouple American
ideals from US territory. Published in Cooperation with the William
P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist
University Most Americans know that the state of Texas was once the
Republic of Texas-an independent sovereign state that existed from
1836 until its annexation by the United States in 1846. But few are
aware that thousands of Americans, inspired by Texas, tried to
establish additional sovereign states outside the borders of the
early American republic. In Breakaway Americas, Thomas Richards,
Jr., examines six such attempts and the groups that supported them:
"patriots" who attempted to overthrow British rule in Canada;
post-removal Cherokees in Indian Territory; Mormons first in
Illinois and then the Salt Lake Valley; Anglo-American overland
immigrants in both Mexican California and Oregon; and, of course,
Anglo-Americans in Texas. Though their goals and methods varied,
Richards argues that these groups had a common mindset: they were
not expansionists. Instead, they hoped to form new, independent
republics based on the "American values" that they felt were no
longer recognized in the United States: land ownership, a strict
racial hierarchy, and masculinity. Exposing nineteenth-century
Americans' lack of allegiance to their country, which at the time
was plagued with economic depression, social disorder, and
increasing sectional tension, Richards points us toward a new
understanding of American identity and Americans as a people
untethered from the United States as a country. Through its wide
focus on a diverse array of American political practices and
ideologies, Breakaway Americas will appeal to anyone interested in
the Jacksonian United States, US politics, American identity, and
the unpredictable nature of history.
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