Domestic Manners of the Americans

An Englishwoman's engaging and often outspoken account of her travels in nineteenth-century America.

Frances Milton Trollope (Author)

9781108003957, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

304 pages, 10 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

Frances Trollope candidly describes her travel experiences in the United States during 1827–1831 in her two-volume book Domestic Manners of the Americans. First published in 1832, it records her views on many aspects of American daily life, especially targeting the supposed lack of manners among Americans. On reaching America, Mrs. Trollope encountered a country that was completely different from what she had expected. She expresses her disgust at the copious handshaking, spitting-habits, tobacco chewing, expressions of self-righteousness, and hypocrisy of the Americans and vents her outrage at the existence of the slave trade in a country that boasted of equality. Her criticisms of American culture are interspersed with descriptions of elections, cathedrals, markets, public balls, literature, and religion. This second volume covers her travels through Philadelphia, New York, Niagara, Hudson, and Albany, and offers an engaging account of a nineteenth-century Englishwoman's impressions of America.

21. Stonington
22. Small landed proprietors
23. Fruits and flowers of Maryland and Virginia
24. Journey to Philadelphia
25. Washington Square
26. Quakers
27. Return to Stonington
28. American cooking
29. Literature
30. Journey to New York
31. Reception of Captain Basil Hall's book
32. Journey to Niagara
33. Niagara
34. Return to New York.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]