The United States: An Emerging Empire

Exploring the Early Americas The Jay I. Kislak Collection

Pre-Contact America | Explorations and Encounters | Aftermath of the Encounter

Languages and Religion | Competition for Empire | Documenting New Knowledge

Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1758–1805).
“An account of the proceedings of Captain Nelson of His Majesty’s ship Boreas, relative to the illegal trade carried on between the Americans and the British West India Islands,” ca. 1787.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (133)

Horatio Nelson

In 1784, Captain Horatio Nelson was given command of the Boreas, a twenty-eight-gun frigate, with orders to enforce the British Navigation Act, which restricted trade in the British colonies to British ships. The act had become a major problem after the American Revolution because American vessels dominated trade between the West Indies and the former colonies. When Nelson seized four American ships that had violated the Navigation Act, the captains sued him for illegal seizure. Nelson spent eight months sequestered on his ship, waiting for the decision of the local court. The eventual decision was in favor of the British Navy.

Thomas Jefferys (d. 1771).
The Natural and Civil History of the French Dominions in North and South America.
London: Thomas Jefferys, 1760.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (130)

French Possessions

Issued during the French and Indian War, this publication maps and describes many of the French possessions that were to become British colonies at the wars conclusion in 1763. Jefferys supplied information of major importance to the British, given their ongoing animosities with France, about the sugar industry in the Antilles and the beaver trade in North America.

Bernardo de Galvez.
“Diario de las operaciones de la expedicion contra la Plaza de Panzacola.”
[Havana: 1781].
Dated and signed Bernardo de Gálvez, Panzacola 12 de mayo de 1781.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (132)

The Spanish Seizure of Pensacola, Florida

In 1776, Spain sent Bernardo de Gálvez to serve as colonel of the Louisiana Regiment. Gálvez did much to aid the American patriots. He secured the port of New Orleans so that only American, Spanish, and French ships supplying the American forces could travel the Mississippi River. When Spain formally declared war against Great Britain, Gálvez conducted a campaign against the British along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast. Here Galvez’s poem celebrates his seizure of Pensacola, Florida, from the British. Many scholars believe this victory broke the British hold on Florida and was pivotal in ensuring that Spain would gain Florida in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

Thomas Jefferson.
Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Monticello, Virginia, November 30, 1813.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (134)

Jefferson on Independence for South America

In this letter Thomas Jefferson writes to the Marquis de Lafayette expressing his hopes and misgivings about emancipation for South America. “I join you, sincerely, my friend in wishes for the emancipation of South America. That they will be liberated from foreign subjugation I have little doubt. But the result of my inquiries does not authorize me to hope they are capable of maintaining a free government. . . . they may have some capable leaders yet nothing but intelligence in the people themselves can keep these faithful to their charge. . . . A republic of kings is impossible.”

George Washington, 1732–1799.
Diary written in the leaves of the 1762 Virginia Almanack, 1762.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (135.1)

George Washington Diary

Both a manuscript and a printed book, George Washington’s 1762 almanac documents the activities at his Mount Vernon plantation. He describes mainly planting tobacco and raising cattle and sheep, although financial matters and slaves are also mentioned. Washington kept a diary from 1747, when he was a teenage surveyor, until his death in 1799, with the notable exception of the period during most of the Revolutionary War. With the addition of this 1762 record, the Library of Congress now holds thirty-seven of the forty-one known original Washington diaries.

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