Double-Crossings: The Trans-American Patriotism of Francis Berrian

“Double-Crossings: The Trans-American Patriotism of Francis Berrian” examines Timothy Flint’s unusual novel Francis Berrian, or The Mexican Patriot (1826), which tells the story of an itinerant New Englander who joins in the Mexican struggle for independence from Spain. By tracing Berrian’s border-crossing adventures, this essay shows how Flint’s novel re-orients US citizenship in relation to the history and culture of the newly emerging Mexican republic, a move which ultimately encouraged readers to imagine American identity in more hemispheric and multinational terms.