Commodore Matthew Perry

The book's protagonist is Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry (1794-1858). Perry was a U.S. Navy Commodore and the son of Navy Captain Christopher R. Perry. Matthew Perry joined the Navy in 1809. He was quickly assigned to a ship and changed ships several times. He fought little in the War of 1812, but he did fight in the Second Barbary war. After patrolling the shores of Liberia from 1819-1820, Perry was assigned to the West Indies with the task of suppressing piracy and the slave trading. From the 1820s to the 1840s, Perry commanded the USS Shark and helped to open Key West to the United States. He was also the leader of the move towards steam ships in the United States Navy. In 1840, he became Commodore and was captain of the USS Mississippi during the Mexican-American War.

But Perry's most significant accomplishment was his negotiating the Treaty...