Swamp of Lies

• William McCarty and the Florida Territory — William McCarty was appointed Secretary of the Florida Territory in 1826 and frequently served as acting governor during Governor William Pope DuVal's absences. His surviving writings reflect his concern over the territory's political disorder and disregard for constitutional government.
• Key West Land and Shipping Disputes — The Florida Keys were a center of controversy over ship seizures, salvage claims, disputed land titles, and the conduct of territorial and federal officials. Allison McRae, district attorney for Tallahassee, was sent to Key West to investigate irregularities surrounding confiscated ships and land schemes.
• The Seminole Crisis — Treaty disputes, inadequate reservation lands, conflicts over slavery and fugitive enslaved people, violence along the Aucilla River, and growing pressure for removal intensified tensions between territorial officials, settlers, and the Seminole and Miccosukee peoples in the years preceding the Second Seminole War.
• The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal — Congressman Charles Fenton Mercer was one of the leading advocates for the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, a major national internal-improvements project intended to connect the Potomac River with western markets. The canal's ceremonial groundbreaking took place along the Potomac on July 4, 1828.
• Railroads and the Future of Transportation — The late 1820s marked the beginning of a major shift in American transportation, as canals competed with the emerging promise of railroads. Jack McCarty later invested in railroad ventures, suggesting where his confidence in the future of transportation ultimately lay.
• The Election of 1828 — The presidential contest between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson became one of the most bitter elections in early American history, reshaping national political alliances and ushering Jackson into the presidency.
• Henry Clay and Jack McCarty — In January 1829, Jack attended a Washington dinner honoring Henry Clay as Clay prepared to leave office as Secretary of State. Clay was ill and spoke only briefly, while Jack spoke on his behalf, evidence that the two men were on friendly political terms.

Sharon weaves these real events into the fabric of the story, creating a narrative that honors the actual people and moments that shaped this era.

Virginia, Washington City, and the Florida Territory, 1826–1829. Swamp of Lies moves between two very different American frontiers: Jack's familiar world of Loudoun County, Washington City, Baltimore, and Bladensburg, and William's new life in Tallahassee, the Florida wilderness, and Key West. From Strawberry Plain and the political rooms of Washington to Florida's pine forests, swamps, territorial council chambers, and island ports, the brothers inhabit worlds separated by hundreds of miles but increasingly bound by the same struggles over ambition, power, law, and honor.