Gunboats on the Paraguay: The U.S. Naval Expedition of 1858-1859 and the South's Dream of a Latin American Slave Empire

In 1858, President James Buchanan, sent a fleet of warships across the Atlantic Ocean to threaten war on landlocked Paraguay. The United States government claimed it was acting in response to the death of a seaman, Samuel Chaney, who was killed in a skirmish with the Paraguayan armed forces, as well as what it saw as the Paraguayan government's hostile behaviour towards an American company operating in Asuncion.

Behind the scenes, a group of New England industrialists allied with Southern m...