These advantages were added to the legal protections and greater access to freedom. 6 One of the great advantages of Landers's book is her ability to personalize the story of slavery. Thus the legend of Carolina fugitives who fled to St. Augustine becomes concrete. Landers details particulars without succumbing to antiquarianism and while adducing cases specific to the region is able to put them in the context of a larger imperial or Atlantic setting. In the history of the American Southeast, the role played by black people has for too long been understated.
Landers redresses the balance.
Perhaps nowhere in North America as in Florida was maroonage so important a facet of African-American history or so significant an influence on United States policy. It was under African influence that the Seminoles switched from being enemies of the Spanish to allies against the English. Black fighters, disguised as Indians, ambushed and defeated a United States-inspired invasion of Florida in 1812. Black units formed the bulwark of Spanish defense against Anglo-American depredations against Florida throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As much as anything else, Landers makes clear, racial politics was responsible for Florida's acquisition by the United States.