Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York

Thomas M. Truxes (New Haven, 2008).

Defying Empire is “a great opportunity to return to historical New York, where today Wall Street dominates trade and cruise ships often dominate the piers.”

— Michelle Stein, in “Notes from a Native New Yorker”

From the PROLOGUE: “The Informer”

“Manhattan sparkled in the crisp October night. Two large bonfires on the Common, thousands of candlelit windows, and a sea of ships’ lanterns, like autumn fireflies, lit the tiny city and its harbor. Four weeks earlier, Major-General James Wolfe’s British regulars had defeated a force under the marquis de Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec, the key to French control of Canada and the interior of North America. When news reached New York City, Lieutenant-Governor James DeLancey declared Friday, October 12, 1759, a day of public thanksgiving. 

But in the shadow world of New York harbor and the darkened warehouses, storerooms, and cellars of the commercial district, there lay the source of the city’s prosperity. Hundreds of barrels of flour, salted provisions, and naval stores, together with vast quantities of lumber, cordage, and dry goods of all kinds, stood ready for shipment—either directly or along clever serpentine paths—to Cape François, Port au Prince, and New Orleans. Wartime New York was growing rich through its trade with the French enemy.”