Domestic Manners of the Americans. Second edition

Front matter

OI THE AMERICANS. LONDON : ..ilbeut & hivinoton, prixtf-rs, st. John's souahe. or THE AMERICANS. BY MRS. TROLLOPE. " On me dit que poumi que je ne parle ni de l'autorite, ni du cuJtc, ni de la politique, ni de la morale, ni des gena en place, ni de l'opera, ui des autres Les, m de personne qui tienne _. quelque chose, je puis tout imprimer librement."— Makiage de Figaro. SECOND EDITION. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR WHITTAKER, TREACHER, & CO. AVE MARIV LANE. 1832. ...

Preface

. In offering to the public these volumes on America, their author would rather be con sidered as endeavouring to excite fresh attention on a very important subject, than as pretending to furnish complete information upon it. Although much has already been written on the great experiment, as it has been called, now making in government, on the other side of the Atlantic, there appears to be still room for many interesting details on the influence which the political system of the country has produced on the principles, tastes, and manners, of its domestic life. a VI

PREFACE.

. The author of the following page., has endeavoured, in some degree, to supply this deficiency, by carefully recording the observations she had an opportunity of making during a residence of three years and six months in different parts of the United State9. She leaves to abler pens the more ambi tious task of commenting on the democratic form of the American government ; while, by describing, faithfully, the daily aspect of ordinary life, she has endeavoured to show how greatly the advantage is on the side of those who are governed by the few, instead ofthe many. The chief object she has had in view is to encourage her countrymen to hold fast by a constitution that ensures ail the blessings which flow from established habits and solid principles. If they forego these, they will incur the fearful risk of

PREFACE.

. VII breaking up their repose by introducing the jarring tumult and universal degradation which invariably follow the wild scheme of placing all the power of the state in the hands of the populace. The United States of America contain a considerable variety of interesting objects in most branches of natural science, besides much that is new, a good deal that is beautiful, and some things that are wonderful. Nevertheless, as it is the moral and religious condition of the people which, be yond every thing else, demands the attention of the philosophical enquirer, the author would consider her work as completely successful, could she but awaken a more general interest on this subject. HARROW, March, 1832. CONTENTS 01 VOLUME I.

Chapter I

Entrance of the Mississippi — Balize. On the 4th of November, 1827, I sailed from Lon don, accompanied by my son and two daughters ; and after a favourable, though somewhat tedious voyage, arrived on Christmas-day at the mouth of the Mississippi. The first indication of our approach to land was the appearance of this mighty river pouring forth its muddy mass of waters, and mingling with the deep blue of the Mexican Gulf. The shores of this river are so utterly flat, that no object upon them is perceptible at sea, and we gazed with pleasure on the muddy ocean that met us, for it told us we were arrived, and seven weeks of sailing had wearied us ; yet it was not without a feeling VOL. I. B like regret that we passed from the bright blue waves, whose varring aspect had so long furnished our chief amusement, into the murky stream which now received us.

Large flights of pelicans were seen standing upon the long masses of mud which rose above the surface of the waters, and a pilot came to guide us over the bar, long before any other indication of land was visible. I never beheld a scene so utterly desolate as this entrance of the Mississippi. Had Dante seen it, he might have drawn images of another Bolgia from its horrors. One only object rears itself above the eddying waters ; this is the mast of a vessel long since wrecked in attempting to cross the bar, and it still stands, a dismal witness of the destruction that has been, and a boding prophet of that which is to come. By degrees bulrushes of enormous growth be come visible, and a few more miles of mud brought us within sight of a cluster of huts called the Balize, by far the most miserable station that I ever saw made the dwelling of man, but I was told that many families of pilots and fishermen lived there.

For several miles above its mouth, the Missis sippi presents no objects more interesting than mud banks, monstrous bulrushes, and now and then a huge crocodile luxuriating in the slime. Another circumstance that gives to this dreary scene an aspect of desolation, is the incessant appearance of vast quantities of drift wood, which is ever finding its way to the different mouths of the Mississippi. Trees of enormous length, some times still bearing their branches, and still oftener their uptorn roots entire, the victims of the frequent hurricane, come floating down the stream. Sometimes several of these, entangled together, collect among their boughs a quantity of floating 9 rubbish, that gives the mass the appearance of a moving island, bearing a forest, with its roots mocking the heavens ; while the dishonoured branches lash the tide in idle vengeance : this, as it approaches the vessel, and glides swiftly past, looks like the fragment of a world in ruins.

As we advanced, however, we were cheered, notwithstanding the season, by the bright tints of southern vegetation. The banks continue invariably flat,' but a succession of planters' villas, b sometimes merely a residence, and sometimes sur rounded by their sugar grounds and negro huts, varied the scene. At no one point was there an inch of what painters call a second distance ; and for the length of one hundred and twenty miles, from the Balize to New Orleans, and one hundred miles above the town, the land is dd from the encroachments of the river by a high embank ment which is called the Levee; without wliich the dwellings would speedily disappear, as the river is evidently higher than the banks would be without it. When we arrived, there had been constant rains, and of long continuance, and this appearance was, therefore, unusually striking, giving to " this great natural feature" the most unnatural appearance imaginable ; and making evident, not only that man had been busy there, but that even the mightiest works of nature might be made to bear his impress ; it recalled, literaUy, Swift's mock heroic, *' Nature must give way to art ; yet she was looking so mighty, and so unsubdued all the time, that I could not help fancying she would some day take the matter into her own hands again, and if so, farewell to New Orleans.

It is easy to imagine the total want of beauty in such a landscape ; but yet the form and hue of the trees and plants, so new to us, added to the long privation we had endured of all sights and sounds of land, made even these swampy shores seem beautiful. We were, however, impatient to touch as well as see the land; but the navigation from the Balize to New Orleans is difficult and tedious, and the two days that it occupied appeared longer than any we had passed on board. In truth, to those who have pleasure in contem plating the phenomena of nature, a sea voyage may endure many weeks without wearying. Perhaps some may think that the first glance of ocean and of sky show all they have to offer ; nay, even that that urst glance may suggest more of dreariness than sublimity ; but to me, their variety appeared end less, and their beauty unfailing.

The. attempt to describe scenery, even where the objects are pro minent and tangible, is very rarely successful ; but where the effect is so subtile and so varying, it must be vain. The impression, nevertheless, is b perhaps deeper than any other; I think it possible I may forget the sensations with which I watched the long course of the gigantic Mississippi; the Ohio and the Potomac may mingle and be con founded with other streams in my memory, I may even recall with difficulty the blue outline of the Alleghany mountains, but never, while I remember any thing, can I forget the first and last hour of light on the Atlantic. The ocean, however, and all its indescribable charm, no longer surrounded us ; we began to feel that our walk on the quarter-deck was very like the exercise of an ass in a mill ; that our books had lost half their pages, and that the other half were known by rote ; that our beef was very salt, and our biscuits very hard ; in short, that having studied the good ship, Edward, from stem to stern till we knew the name of every sail, and the use of every pulley, we had had enough of her, and as we laid down, head to head, in our tiny beds for the last time, I exclaimed with no small pleasure, " To-morrow to fresh field, and pastures new."

Chapter II

New Orleans — Society — Creoles and Quadroons — Voyage up the Mississippi. On first touching the soil of a new land, of a new continent, of a new world, it is impossible not to feel considerable excitement and deep interest in almost every object that meets us. New Orleans presents very little that can gratify the eye of taste, but nevertheless there is much of novelty and interest for a newly arrived European. The large proportion of blacks seen in the streets, all labour being performed by them ; the grace and beauty of the elegant Quadroons, the occasional groups of wild and savage looking Indians, the unwonted aspect of the vegetation, the huge and turbid river, with its low and shmy shore, all help to afford that species of amusement which proceeds from looking at what we never saw before.

The town has much the appearance of a French Ville de Province, and is, in fact, an old French b colony taken from Spain by France. The names of the streets are French, and the language about equally French aud English. The market is hand some and well supplied, all produce being con veyed by the river. We were much pleased by the chant with which the Negro boatmen regulate and beguile their labour on the river; it consists but of very few notes, but the)- are sweetly harmo nious, and the Negro voice is ahnost always rich and powerful. 1 By far the most agreeable hours I passed at New Orleans were those in which I explored with my children the forest near the town. It was our first walk in " the eternal forests of the western world," and we felt rather sublime and poetical. The trees, generally speaking, are much too close to be either large or well grown ; and, moreover, their growth is often stunted by a parasitical plant, for which I could learn no other name than " Spanish moss ;" it hangs gracefully from the boughs, con verting the outline of all the trees it hangs upon into that of weeping willows.

The chief beauty of the forest in this region is from the luxuriant under-growth of palmetos, which is decidedly the loveliest coloured and niost graceful plant I know. The pawpaw, too, is a splendid shrub, and in great abundance. We here, for the first time, saw the wild vine, which we afterwards found growing so profusely in every part of America, as naturally to suggest the idea that the natives ought to add wine to the numerous products as of their plenty teeming soil. The strong pendant festoons made safe and commodious swings, which some of our party enjoyed, despite the sublime temperament above-mentioned. Notwithstanding it was mid-winter when we were ac New Orleans, the heat was much more than agreeable, and the attacks of the mosquitos incessant, and most tormenting ; yet I suspect that, for a short time, we would rather have endured it, than not have seen oranges, green peas, and red pepper, growing in the open air at Christmas.

In one of our rambles we ventured to enter a garden, whose bright orange hedge attracted our attention ; here we saw green peas fit for the table, and a fine crop of red pepper ripening in the sun. A young Negress was employed on the steps of the house ; that she was a slave made her an object of interest b to us. She was the first slave we had ever spoken to, and I beheve we all felt that we could hardly address her with sufficient gentleness. She little dreamed, poor girl, what deep sympathy she excited; she answered us civilly and gaily, and seemed amused at our fancying there was some thing unusual in red pepper pods; she gave us several of them, and I felt fearful lest a hard mis tress might blame her for it. How very childish does ignorance make us ! and how very ignorant we are upon almost every subject, where hear-say evidence is all we can get !

I left England with feelings so strongly opposed to slavery, that it was not without pain I witnessed its effects around me. At the sight of every Negro man, woman, and child that passed, my fancy wove some little romance of misery, as belonging to each of them ; since I have known more on the subject, and become better acquainted with then real situation in America, I have often smiled at recalling what I then felt. The first symptom of American equality that I perceived, wa_ my being introduced in form to a milliner ; it was not at a boarding-house, under the indistinct outline of "Miss C*****," nor in the street, through the veil of a fashionable toilette, but in the very penetralia of her temple, standing behind her counter, giving laws to ribbon and to wire, and ushering caps and bonnets into existence.

She was an Enghsh woman, and I was told that she possessed great intellectual endowments, and much information ; I really beheve this was true. Her manner was easy and graceful, with a good deal of French tournure ; and the gentleness with which her fine eyes and sweet voice directed the movements of a young female slave, was really touching : the way, too, in which she blended her French talk of modes with her customers, and her Enghsh talk of metaphysics with her friends, had a pretty air of indifference in it, that gave her a superiority with both. I found with her the daughter of a judge, emi nent, it was said, both for legal and literary ability ; and I heard from many quarters, after I had left New Orleans, that the society of this lady was highly valued by all persons of talent. Yet were I, traveller-like, to stop here, and set it down as a national peculiarity, or republican custom, that b G milliners took the lead in the best, society, I should greatly falsify facts.

I do not remember the same thing happening to me again ; and this is one instance, among a thousand, of the impression every circumstance makes on entering a new country, and of the propensity, so irresistible, to class all things, however accidental, as national and peculiar. On the other hand, however, it is certain that if similar anomalies are unfrequent 'in America, they are nearly impossible elsewhere. Id the shop of Miss C****** I was introduced to Mr. M'Clure, a venerable personage, of gentleman like appearance, who, in the course of five mimites, propounded as many axioms, as " Ignorance is the only devil :" " Man makes his own existence;" and the like. He Avas of the New Harmony school, or rather the New Harmony school was of him. He was a man of good fortune, (a Scotch man, I believe), who, after living a tolerably gay life, had " conceived high thoughts, such as Ly curgus loved, who bade flog the little Spartans," and determined to benefit the species, and immor talize himself, by founding a philosophical school at New Harmony.

There was something in the ■ K, SUsULIIsilERX STORE. hollow square legislations of Mr. Owen, that struck him as admirable ; and he seems, as far as I can understand, to have intended aiding his views, by a sort of incipient hollow square chilling ; teaching the young ideas of all he could catch, to shoot into parallelogramic form and order. This venerable philosopher, like all of his school that I ever heard of, loved better to originate lofty imaginings of faultless systems, than to watch their application to practice. With much liberality he purchased and conveyed to the wilderness a very noble collection of books and scientific instruments ; but not finding among men one whose views were liberal and eidarged as Iris own, he selected a woman to put into action the machine he had organized.

As his acquaintance with this lady had been of long standing, and, as it was said, very intimate, he felt sure that no violation of his rules would have place under her sway; they would act together as one being : he was to perform the functions of the soul, and will every thing ; she, those of the body, and perform every thing. The principal feature of the scheme was, that (the first liberal outfit of the institution having been furnished by Mr. M'Clure,) the expense of keeping it up should be defrayed by the profits arising from the labours of the pupils, male and female, which was to be performed at stated intervals of each day, in regular rotation with learned study and scientific research. But unfortunately the soul of the system found the climate of Indiana uncongenial to its peculiar formation, and, therefore, took its flight to Mexico, leaving the body to perform the operations of both, in whatever manner it liked best ; and the body, being a French body, found no difficulty in setting actively to work without troubling the soul about it; and soon becoming conscious that the more simple was a machine, the more perfect were its operations, she threw out all that related to the intellectual part of the business, (which, to do poor soul justice, it had laid great stress upon,) and stirred herself as effectually as ever body did, to draw wealth from the thews and sinews of the youths they had collected.

When last I heard of this philosophical establishment, she, and a nephew-son were said to be reaping a golden harvest, as many of the lads had been sent from a distance by indigent parents, for gratuitous education, and possessed no means of leaving it. Our stay in New Orleans was not long enough to permit our entering into society, but I was told that it contained two distinct sets of people, both celebrated, in their way, for their social meetings and elegant entertainments. The first of these is composed of Creole families, who are chiefly planters and merchants, with their wives and daughters ; these meet together, eat together, and are very grand and aristocratic ; each of their balls is a little Almack's, and every portly dame of the set is as exclusive in her principles as a lady patroness.

The other set consists of the excluded but amiable Quadroons, and such of the gentlemen of the former class as can by any means escape from the high places, where pure Creole blood swells the veins at the bare mention of any being, tainted in the remotest degree with the Negro stain. Of all the prejudices I have ever witnessed, this appears to me the most violent, and the most inveterate. Quadroon girls, the acknowledged daughters of wealthy American or Creole fathers, educated with all of style and accomplishments which money can procure at New Orleans, and with all the decorum that care and affection can give ; exquisitely beautiful, graceful, gentle, and amiable, these are not admitted, nay, are not on any terms admissible, into the society of the Creole families of Louisiana. They cannot marry ; that is to say, no ceremony can render an union with them legal or binding ; yet such is the powerful effect of their very peculiar grace, beauty, and sweetness of man ner, that unfortunately they perpetually become the objects of choice and affection.

If the Creole ladies have privilege to exercise the awful power of repulsion, the gentle Quadroon has the sweet but dangerous vengeance of possessing that of attraction. The unions formed with this unfortunate race are said to be often lasting and happy, as far as any unions can be so, to which a certain ci. of disgrace is attached. There is a French and an Enghsh theatre in the town ; but we were too fresh from Europe to care much for either; or, indeed, for any other of the town delights of this city, and we soon became eager to commence our voyage up the Mississippi. Miss Wright, then less^ known (though the author of more than one clever volume) than she has since become, was the companion of aur voyage from Em-ope ; and it was my purpose to have passed some months "with her and her sister at the estate she had purchased in Tennessee.

This lady, since become so celebrated as the advo cate of opinions that make millions shudder, and some half-score admire, was, at the time of my leaving England with her, dedicated to a pursuit widely different from her subsequent occupations. Instead of becoming a public orator in every town throughout America, she was about, as she said, to seclude herself for life in the deepest forests of the western world, that her fortune, her time, and her talents might be exclusively devoted to aid the cause of the suffering Africans. Her first object was to show that nature had made no difference between blacks and whites, excepting in com plexion ; and this she expected to prove, by giving an education perfectly equal to a class of black and white children. Could this fact be once fully established, she conceived that the Negro cause would stand on firmer ground than it had yet done, and the degraded rank which they have ever held amongst civilized nations would be proved to be a gross injustice.

This question of the mental equality, or inequa lity, between us and the Negro race, is one of great interest, and has certainly never yet been fairly tried ; and I expected for my children and myself both pleasure and information from visiting her establishment, and watching the success of her experiment. The innumerable steam boats, which are the stage coaches and fly waggons of this land of lakes and rivers, are totally unlike any I had seen in Europe, and greatly superior to them. The fabrics which I think they most resemble in appearance, are the floating baths (les bains Vigier) at Paris. The annexed drawing will give a correct idea of their form. The room to wbich the double line of windows belongs, is a very handsome apartment; before each window a neat little cot is arranged in such a manner as to give its drapery the air of a window curtain.

This room is called the gentle men's cabin, and their exclusive right to it is some what uncourteously insisted upon. The breakfast, -d'. JTemeu del'- --/ A Z>zzju?ces mLii&og '." dinner, and supper, are laid in this apartment, and the lady passengers are permitted to take their meals there. On the first of January, 1828, we embarked on board the Belvidere, a large and handsome boat ; though not the largest or handsomest of the many which displayed themselves along the wharfs ; but she was going to stop at Memphis, the point of the river nearest to Miss Wright's residence, and she was the first that departed after we had got through the custom-house, and finished our sight-seeing. We found the room destined for the use of the ladies dismal enough, as its only windows were below the stern gallery; but both this and the gentlemen's cabin were handsomely fitted up, and the latter well carpeted ; but oh ! that carpet !

I will not, I may not describe its condition ; indeed it requires the pen of a Swift to do it justice. Let no one who wishes to receive agreeable impressions of American manners, commence their travels in a Mississippi steam boat ; for myself, it is with all sincerity I declare, that I would infinitely prefer sharing the apartment of a party of well-condi tioned pigs to the being confined to its cabin. I hardly know any annoyance so deeply repug nant to Enghsh feelings, as the incessant, remorse less spitting of Americans. I feel that I owe my readers an apology for the repeated use of this, and several other odious words ; but I cannot avoid them, without suffering the fidelii description to escape me. It is possible that in this phrase, "Americans," I may be too general. The United States form a continent of almost distinct nations, and I must now, and always, be understood to speak only of that portion of them which I have seen.

In conversing with Americans I have constantly found that if 1 alluded to any thing which they thought I considered as uncouth, they would assure me it was local, and not national; the accidental peculiarity of a very small part, and by no means a specimen of the whole. " That is because you know so little of America," is a phrase I have listened to a thousand times, and in nearly as many different places. It may be so — and having made this concession, I protest against the charge of injustice in relating what I have seen.

Chapter III

Company on board the Steam Boat — Scenery of the Mississippi — Crocodiles — Arrival at Memphis — Nashoba. The weather was warm and bright, and we found the guard of the boat, as they call the gallery that runs round the cabins, a very agreeable station ; here we all sat as long as light lasted, and some times wrapped in our shawls, we enjoyed the clear bright beauty of American moonlight long after every passenger but ourselves had retired. We had a full complement of passengers on board. The deck, as is usual, was occupied by the Ken tucky flat-boat men, returning from New Orleans, after having disposed of the boat and cargo which they had conveyed thither, with no other labour than that of steering her, the current bringing her down at the rate of four miles an hour. We had about two hundred of these men on board, but the part of the vessel occupied by them is so distinct from the cabins, that we never saw them, except when we stopped to take in wood ; and then they ran, or rather sprung and vaulted over each other's heads to the shore, whence they all assisted in carrying wood to supply the steam engine ; the performance of this duty being a stipulated part of the payment of their passage.

From the account given by a man servant we had on board, who shared their quarters, they are a most disorderly set of persons, constantly gam bling and wrangling, very seldom sober, and never suffering a night to pass without giving practical proof of the respect in which they hold the doc trines of equahty and community of property. The clerk of the vessel was kind enough to take our man under his protection, and assigned him a berth in his own little nook ; but as this was not inaccessible, he told him by no means to detach his watch or money from his person during the night. Whatever their moral characteristics may be, these Kentuckians are a very noble-looking race of men; their average height considerably exceeds that of Europeans, and their countenances, excepting when disfigured by red hair, which is not unfrequent, extremely handsome.

The gentlemen in the cabin (we had no ladies) would certainly, neither from their language, man ners, nor appearance, have received that designa tion in Europe ; but we soon found their claim to it rested on more substantial ground, for we heard them nearly all addressed by the titles of general, colonel, and major. On mentioning these military dignities to an Enghsh friend some time afterwards, he told me that he too had made the voyage with the same description of company, but remarking that there was not a single captain among them ; he made the observation to a fellow passenger, and asked how he accounted for it. " Oh, sir, the captains are all on deck," was the reply. Our honours, however, were not ah military, for we had a judge among us. ' I know it is equally easy and invidious to ridicule the peculiarities of appearance and manner in people of a different nation from ourselves ; we may, too, at the same moment, be undergoing the same ordeal in their estimation; and, moreover, I am by no means disposed to consider whatever is new to me as therefore objectionable; but, nevertheless, it was impossible not to feel repugnance to many of the novelties that now surrounded me.

The total want of all the usual courtesies of the table, the voracious rapidity with wliieh the viands were seized and devoured, the strange uncouth phrases and pronunciation ; the loathsome spitting, from the contamination of which it was absolutely impossible to protect our dresses; the frightful manner of feeding with their knives, till the whole blade seemed to enter into the mouth ; and the still more frightful manner of cleaning the teeth afterwards with a pocket knife, soon forced us to feel that we were not surrounded by the generals, colonels, and majors of the old world ; and that the dinner hour was to be any thing rather than an hour of enjoyment. The httle conversation that went forward while we remained in the room, was entirely political, and the respective claims of Adams and Jackson -* * to the presidency were argued with more oaths and more vehemence than it had ever been my lot to he»r. Once a -colonel appeared on the verge of assaulting a major, when a huge seven-foot Kentuckian gentleman horse-dealer, asked of the heavens to confound them both, and bade them sit still and be d — d. We too thought we should share this sentence ; at least, sitting still in the cabin seemed very nearly to include the rest of it, and we never tarried there a moment longer than was absolutely necessary to eat.