Domestic Manners of the Americans

Richly informative on American manners and morals in the early ninteenth century, this famous travel account also reveals much about the contrast between British and American culture.

Introduction. Entrance of the Mississippi. New Orleans…Society…Creoles and Quadroons…Voyage up the Mississippi. Company on board the Steam Boat…Scenery of the Mississippi…Crocodiles…Arrival at Memphis…Nashoba. Departure from Memphis…Ohio River…Louisville…Cincinnati. Cincinnati…Forest Farm. Servants…Society…Evening Parties. Market…Museum…Phrenological Society…Miss Wright’s Lecture. Absence of public and private Amusement…Churches and Chapels…Influence of the Clergy…A Revival. Schools…Climate…Water Melons…Fourth of July…Pigs…Moving Houses. Removal to the country…Walk in the forest…Equality. Religion. Peasantry, compared to that of England…Early marriages…Charity…Independence and equality…Cottage prayer–meeting. Theatre…Delicacy…Visit of the President. American Spring…Public ball…Separation of the sexes. Camp–Meeting. Omitted. Departure from Cincinnati…Society on board the Steam–boat…Arrival at Wheeling. Departure for the Mountains in the Stage…Scenery of the Alleghany…Haggerstown. Baltimore…Catholic Cathedral…St. Mary’s College. Voyage to Washington…Capitol…City of Washington…Congress…Indians…Funeral of a Member of Congress. Omitted. Small Landed Proprietors…Slavery. Fruits and Flowers of Maryland and Virginia…Elections. Journey to Philadelphia…Chesapeak and Delaware Canal…City of Philadelphia. Washington Square…American Beauty. Quakers…Presbyterians…Itinerant Methodist Preacher…Market…Influence of females in society. Return to Stonington…Thunder–storm…Emigrants…Illness…Alexandria. American Cooking…Evening Parties…Dress…Sleighing…Money–getting Habits…Tax–Gatherer’s Notice…Indian Summer. Education. Journey to New York…Delaware River…Stage–coach…City of New York…Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies…Public Garden…Churches….Morris Canal Carriages. Omitted. Journey to Niagara…Hudson…West Point…Hyde Park…Albany…Yankees…Trenton Falls…Rochester…Genesee Falls…Lockport. Niagara…Arrival at Forsythes…First sight of the Falls…Goat Island…The Rapids…Buffalo…Lake Erie…Canandaigua…State–coach adventures. Return to New York…Conclusion.

John L. Larson is Professor of History, Assistant Department Head, and Director of Graduate Education at Purdue University. Since 1994 he has been coeditor, with Michael Morrison, of the Journal of the Early Republic . His publications include Bonds of Enterprise: John Murray Forbes and Western Development in America′s Railway Age (1984) and Internal Improvement: National Public Works and the Promise of Popular Government in the Early United States (2001).