What is the Amelia Island Affair?
It was a historic episode after the island became a resort for smugglers in 1817, housing as many as 300 square-rigged vessels in its harbor, a self-called “brigadier general”, leader of a pirates’ gang, and his many followers violating the law making the island a miniature republic. Later the island was captured by the United States and returned to the New Spain (Mexico) prior to 1821.
