Three Years Among the Working-Classes in the United States during the War

An encouraging 1865 account of the state of the working classes in America, aimed at intending emigrants.

James Dawson Burn (Author)

9781108002974, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 August 2009

332 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.42 kg

James Dawson Burn's 1865 book endeavours to give a true account of the industrial, social, moral and political state of the working class in America, and is addressed partly to intending emigrants. His study examines the people themselves, as well as the circumstances that influenced their conduct during the Civil War, and draws comparisons between their condition and that of the working class in Europe. Burns, writing from the perspective of an English visitor to the United States, remarks that upon seeing the visible social comfort there, he came to believe that lower-class Americans of the period were far in advance of their peers in his own country. Given that American rights and liberties provided such a strong inducement for the labouring population of Europe to flock to its shores, Burns intended his research to serve as a guide for what they could and could not expect.

Preface
1. The American people
2. The labouring population—Irish and Germans
3. The press—administration of justice—public opinion
4. Religious and moral characteristics
5. The women of America
6. The cities of America—New York
7. The steamboat and railway system of America—street traffic
8. Education—the free-school system
9. Business
10. Mineral wealth of the country
11. The late civil war
12. Sanatory fairs and charities
13. Political condition of the people
14. Commissioners of emigration—Castle Garden, New York
15. Advice to intending emigrants.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]