Ordered to join the Pacific Squadron in 1854, the sloop of war Decatur sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, through the Strait of Magellan to Valparaiso, Honolulu, and Puget Sound, then on to San Francisco, Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, while serving in the Pacific until 1859, the eve of the Civil War. Historian Lorraine McConaghy presents the ship, its officers, and its crew in a vigorous, keenly rendered case study that illuminates the forces shaping America's antebellum navy and foreign policy in the Pacific, from Vancouver Island to Tierra del Fuego. One of only five ships in the squadron, the Decatur participated in numerous imperial adventures in the Far West, enforcing treaties, fighting Indians, suppressing vigilantes, and protecting commerce. With its graceful lines and towering white canvas sails, the ship patrolled the sandy border between ocean and land. Warship under Sail focuses on four episodes in the Decatur's Pacific Squadron mission: the harrowing journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Magellan; a Seattle war story that contested American treaties and settlements; participation with other squadron ships on a U.S. State Department mission to Nicaragua; and more than a year spent anchored off Panama as a hospital ship. In a period of five years, more than 300 men lived aboard ship, leaving a rich record of logbooks, medical and punishment records, correspondence, personal journals, and drawings. Lorraine McConaghy has mined these records to offer a compelling social history of a warship under sail. Her research adds immeasurably to our understanding of the lives of ordinary men at sea and American expansionism in the antebellum Pacific West. Listen to Lorraine McConaghy talk about the book: http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=collection_podcasts

Warship under Sail: The USS Decatur in the Pacific West (Emil and Kathleen Sick Book Series in Western History and Biography)

History

McConaghy, Lorraine

Americas

University of Washington Press

Free Boy is the story of a 13-year-old slave who escaped from Washington Territory to freedom in Canada on the West's underground railroad.When James Tilton came to Washington Territory as surveyor-general in the 1850s he brought with his household young Charles Mitchell, a slave he had likely received as a wedding gift from a Maryland cousin. The story of Charlie's escape in 1860 on a steamer bound for Victoria and the help he received from free blacks reveals how national issues on the eve of the Civil War were also being played out in the West.Written with young adults in mind, the authors provide the historical context to understand the lives of both Mitchell and Tilton and the time in which the events took place. The biography explores issues of race, slavery, treason, and secession in Washington Territory, making it both a valuable resource for teachers and a fascinating story for readers of all ages.

Free Boy: A True Story of Slave and Master (V. Ethel Willis White Books xx)

Biographies & Memoirs

Bentley, Judy

Bentley, Judith M.

Community & Culture

Raise Hell and Sell Newspapers, the lively biography of Alden J. Blethen, traces the newspaperman's life from his birth in 1845 to his death in 1915. Longtime editor-in-chief of The Seattle Times, Blethen became the most powerful and influential publisher in the Northwest and one of the foremost newspapermen of his generation. Authors Sharon A. Boswell and Lorraine McConaghy tell the compelling story of this self-made man during a period of dramatic change in American life. Alden Blethen arrived in Seattle broke in 1896, after making and losing fortunes as a newspaper owner and publisher in Kansas City and Minneapolis. One year later, the Klondike gold rush transformed the muddy Puget Sound seaport into a magnificent boomtown. Using a loan from his brother-in-law, Blethen purchased a share in The Seattle Times. During the next two decades, as Seattle grew into the queen city of the Northwest, Blethen transformed The Times into the region's largest paper and reclaimed his family's fortune.

Raise Hell and Sell Newspapers: Alden J. Blethen & the Seattle Times

Boswell, Sherry A.

Historical

Washington State Univ Pr

This colorful and fascinating collection documents the story of Washington Territory--when it was the "new land north of the Columbia River--all the way to today's NASA landsat map of the State of Washington. New Land North of the Columbia features an 1860 letter protesting the escape of an Olympia slave to Victoria on the Puget Sound Underground Railroad. There's also territorial Governor Pickering's telegram to Abraham Lincoln sent on the brand-new telegraph--and Lincoln's hand-signed response. Other ephemera include posters and letters that support and condemn women's right to vote, prohibition of the sale of alcohol, and aid to the unemployed during the Great Depression. Here are documents about the massive, secret Hanford Engineering Works that was Washington's Manhattan Project. The book includes an ad for the first Lame Fest concert featuring Mudhoney and Nirvana, the original box that contained Windows 95, and a poster calling all protesters to the 1999 WTO conference. Historian Lorraine McConaghy has traversed the state and sifted through the files of three dozen archives to cull the 400 fascinating documents that bring to life Washington's last 150 years.

New Land, North of the Columbia: Historic Documents That Tell the Story of Washington State from Territory to Today

Sasquatch Books

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Books by McConaghy, Lorraine