Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
December 19, 1817
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 90
Notes:
Fernandina is on Amelia Island, Fla. Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845) was a Scottish soldier, adventurer, and confidence trickster. In June 1817 MacGregor, who styled himself the "Brigadier General of the United Provinces of New Granada and Venezuela and General-in-Chief of the Armies of the Two Floridas . . . captured Amelia Island under a mandate from revolutionary agents to conquer Florida from the Spanish, and there proclaimed a short-lived 'Republic of the Floridas' . . . he overran the island with a small force, but left for Nassau in September." Wikipedia, s.v. "Gregor MacGregor" and "Amelia Island affair"; David Sinclair, The Land That Never Was: Sir Gregor MacGregor and the Most Audacious Fraud in History (Boston, 2004)
