Includes bibliographical references and index.

Explores America's hidden history in the first half of the nineteenth century, one of the most tumultuous but overlooked periods in the nation's early history.

In the dramatic period from 1800 through 1850, the United States emerged from its inauspicious beginning as a newborn nation, to a near-empire that spanned the continent. It was a time in which the "dream of our founders" spread in ways that few men of that Revolutionary Generation could possibly have imagined. And it was an era that led to the great, tragic conflagration that followed--the American Civil War. The narratives in this book each exemplify the "hidden history" of America, exploring a vastly more complex path to nationhood than the national myth of a destiny made manifest by visionary political leaders and fearless pioneers. Davis explores: Aaron Burr's 1807 trial; an 1813 Indian uprising; a mutiny aboard the slave ship Creole; the "Dade Massacre" and the start of the second Seminole War; the bloody "Bible Riots" in Philadelphia; and the story of Jessie Benton and Lt. John C. Frm̌ont.--From publisher description.