Jane McManus Storm Cazneau (1807-1878) was a complex person who died at sea the way she lived--at the center of a storm of controversy. Whether as Aaron Burr's mistress, land speculating in Texas, behind enemy lines during the Mexican War, filibustering for Cuba or Nicaragua, promoting Mexican revolution from a dugout in Eagle Pass, or urging free blacks to emigrate to the Dominican Republic, Cazneau seldom took the easy path. She foresaw a nation with equal rights for all in a world in which representative government was the norm rather than the exception.
As a journalist, an advisor to...