American Sanctuary: Mutiny, Martyrdom, and National Identity in the Age of Revolution, Paperback

In 1797 the bloodiest mutiny ever suffered by the Royal Navy took place on the British frigate HMS Hermione off the coast of Puerto Rico. Jonathan Robbins, a reputed American sailor who had been impressed into service, made his way to American shores. President John Adams bowed to Britain's request for his extradition. Convicted of murder and piracy by a court-martial in Jamaica, Robbins was hanged. Adams's catastrophic miscalculation ignited a political firestorm, only to be fanned by Robbins's failure to receive his constitutional rights of due process and trial by jury by an American court.

American Sanctuary brilliantly lays out in riveting detail the story of how the Robbins affair, amid the turbulent presidential campaign of 1800, inflamed the new nation and set in motion a constitutional crisis, resulting in Adams's defeat and Thomas Jefferson's election as the third president of the United States. Robbins's martyrdom led directly to the country's historic decision to grant political asylum to foreign refugees--a major achievement in fulfilling the promise of American independence.

A. ROGER EKIRCH was born in Washington, DC, and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. He is the author of "Poor Carolina," Bound for America, Birthright, and At Day's Close. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Huffington Post. He holds degrees from Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins University, and has received a Guggenheim fellowship. He lives in Roanoke, Virginia, and is a professor of history at Virginia Tech.