This Bright Era of Happy Revolutions: French Consul Michel-Ange-Bernard Mangourit and International Republicanism in Charleston, 1792-1794

As French consul to the Carolinas and Georgia, Michel-Ange-Bernard Mangourit was dispatched in 1792 to capitalize on the fledgling alliance between the young republics as a means to spread the French Revolution into Spanish holdings in the Floridas and Louisiana. "This bright era of happy revolutions," as Joseph Clay, Jr., of Georgia deemed it, was ripe with opportunity for establishing transatlantic republican solidarity with a foothold in Charleston. In his analysis of the public and clandestine activities of Mangourit during his short tenure in Charleston, Robert J. Alderson, Jr., presents a case study of the challenge given to U.S. republicanism by its French counterpart.