Background
Harman Blennerhassett was born on October 8, 1765 in Hampshire, England; the son of Conway Blennerhassett, an Irish country gentleman of English stock settled in Co. Kerry, and his wife, Elizabeth Lacy.
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Breaking With Burr: Harman Blennerhassett'S Journal, 1807
( For fifty-three days in the steamy summer of 1807, Harm...)
For fifty-three days in the steamy summer of 1807, Harman Blennerhassett, arrested for his part in Aaron Burrs conspiracy to sever the United States, was confined in the Richmond Penitentiary awaiting his trial for treason. Breaking with Burr: Harman Blennerhassetts Journal, 1807 is the first complete publication, newly transcribed from the manuscript, of his private diary of that experience. Blennerhassett, a rebellious and brilliant Irish aristocrat who had been socially ostracized for marrying his niece, emigrated to American with his bride in 1796. By 1805 the wealthy and adventurous couple had established their own private Eden, renowned for its elegance and hospitality, on an island in the Ohio River. It was then that Harman Blennerhassett met Aaron Burr and become mesmerized by the former Vice Presidents grandiose scheme to launch a flotilla down the Mississippi, with the ultimate objective of taking over the Spanish territories and establishing a western empire with Burr at its head and Blennerhassett in his choice of diplomatic appointment. With the same romantic idealism that led them to build their island paradise on the Ohio, the Blennerhassetts fueled Burrs Napoleonic dream. They provided money for boats and supplies and let their estate become the expeditions eastern staging point. But Jeffersons 1806 proclamation against Burrs expedition led to the designation of the Blennerhassetts island as the locus of treason and reduced the would-be emperor to fugitive. Both Burr and Blennerhassett were eventually arrested and brought to Richmond for one of the most celebrated trials in American judicial history. Blennerhassetts journal, which records for his wife and a few friends the events and aftermath of the Burr trials, is an intimate yet often eloquent account, not only of the arguments, intrigues, and personalities involved, but also of the American social scene of the early nineteenth century. Included are striking vignettes and dramatic moments drawn from the diarists visits to Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. But the recurrent theme of the journal, and its chief interest, is the interior trial it recounts: the chronicle of Blennerhassetts growing disillusionment with Burr, his almost daily struggle to comprehend the enigmatic schemer, and his frustrating attempts to make Burr recognize and reimburse his losses. The introduction, notes and textual appendices of this edition will aid general and scholarly readers in appreciating Blennerhassetts work, which has been long regarded as an essential document on the Burr conspiracy and even, by some, as a minor classic in American Literature.
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Harman Blennerhasset
Edit ProfileEducation
Harman was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1790 was called to the Irish bar.
Career
In 1798 Blennerhassett bought an island in the Ohio river about 2 m. below Parkersburg, West Virginia, United States. Here in 1805 he received a visit from Aaron Burr, in whose conspiracy he became interested, furnishing liberal funds for its support, and offering the use of his island as a rendezvous for the gathering of arms and supplies and the training of volunteers. When the conspiracy collapsed, the mansion and island were occupied and plundered by the Virginia militia. Blennerhassett fled, was twice arrested and remained a prisoner until after Burr's release. The island was then abandoned, and Blennerhassett was in, turn a cotton planter in Mississippi, and a lawyer (1819 - 1822) in Montreal, Canada. After returning to Ireland, he died in the island of Guernsey on the 2nd of February 1831. His wife returned to the United States in 1840, and died soon afterward in New York City while attempting to obtain through Congress payment for property destroyed on the island.
Achievements
Works
book
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Breaking With Burr: Harman Blennerhassett'S Journal, 1807
( For fifty-three days in the steamy summer of 1807, Harm...)
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Breaking With Burr: Harman Blennerhassett'S Journal, 1807
Connections
He married in 1796 his niece, Margaret Agnew, daughter of Robert Agnew, the lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Man. Ostracised by their families for this step the couple decided to settle in America. His wife had considerable literary talent and who published The Deserted Isle (1822) and The Widow of the Rock and Other Poems (1824).
References
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Born
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Died
February 2, 1831 (aged 66) -
Nationality
Irish American -
Ethnicity