Sea Girt Soul: Commodore Robert Field Stockton

Grandson of a Signer. Conqueror of California. The Architect of a Divided Empire.Robert Field Stockton was born to the American aristocracy, carrying the weight of his grandfather’s Declaration of Independence into the rigors of the young US Navy.From hunting slavers off the coast of Africa to scattering pirates in the Caribbean, Stockton’s zeal for American expansion knew no bounds. The inventor of the steam battleship, he secured Texas and conquered the California coast for a growing Union.But Stockton’s brilliance was matched only by his contradictions. A man of high Christian ideals who founded a nation for freed slaves, he was simultaneously a Jersey tycoon who reaped the riches of a slave-owning dynasty.Sea Girt Soul follows the meteoric rise of a Commodore who stood at the pinnacle of power—with a Senate seat, a sprawling Jersey Shore estate, and whispers of the Presidency—all while remaining tragically blind to the "self-evident truths" that would soon tear his country apart. Stockton’s life is more than a biography; it is a mirror of a young America in the throes of its most conflicted hour. Read more