The merchant of Manchac: The letterbooks of John Fitzpatrick, 1768-1790

The Merchant of Manchac is a collection of letters from John Fitzpatrick, who was exiled from Louisiana in 1769 and settled in the small British settlement Manchac establishing himself as a trader and planter, to his customers, suppliers, and friends describing the river trade, growth of Manchac as a center for British contraband trade between British West Florida and Louisiana, and the disruptions brought by the American Revolution. This book is a source of firsthand information about the development of colonial Louisiana and the period of British ascendancy on the Gulf Coast.