Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832)

I think the only thing in America that really impressed Mrs. Trollope (in a good way, at least), was Niagara Falls. And she had a very sharp tongue indeed. ( )

The great Scots poet, Robert Burns, who wrote in both English and in Scots, wrote the oft-quoted words: “O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us!” Citizens and residents of the 19th Century United States actually had two opportunities to experience just that. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and Frances Trollope’s Domestic Manners of the Americans. The first work was ultimately two volumes long and contained a great deal of detailed information with analysis and commentary on life in America based upon the French author’s two year visit begun in 1831. The latter work is much shorter and more anecdotal, recounting Mrs. Trollope’s personal experiences traveling and living in the United States from 1828-1831. Frances Trollope was the mother of two prominent English authors, her oldest son Thomas Adolphus Trollope and third son Anthony Trollope, and this work launched her own writing career in England after it was published there in 1832. Although acclaimed in England, it was widely criticized in America.

Mrs. Trollope’s travels in America extended from her arrival in New Orleans in 1828, a voyage up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she lived for two years as she and her family struggled to succeed in managing their department store, the Bazaar. Finally abandoning this attempt and resolving to return to England, she voyaged again up the Ohio River to Wheeling, Virginia and from there traveled overland (via Hagerstown, Maryland) to the Atlantic seaboard. She spent time in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, before finally sailing for England and home where she wrote and published this memoir of her visit in 1832.

Mrs. Trollope presents her story as a chronological narrative, frequently using the telling of a particular anecdote to then address a broader theme such as the role and practice of religion in America, or how the conduct of relations between the genders in America compares and contrasts with how they are conducted in England. The work is available in various editions from a number of publishers, but I would encourage you to look for one that includes the original illustrations that clearly augment Mrs. Trollope’s comments in the text (and I would encourage Dover Publications to include them in its edition as its editors apparently overlooked one passage in the book that is in fact useless and uninformative without Mrs. Trollope’s illustrations!). ( )

Mrs Trollope (the mother of Anthony) was one of the earliest and most enterprising members of the stream of European intellectuals who visited the USA in its early years and wrote about their experiences. She didn't originally set out to be a tourist, though: she travelled to darkest Tennessee with her children in 1828, intending to join Fanny Wright's Nashoba Commune. When she saw the commune, she packed her bags and left at once, appalled at the conditions there, and then found herself stranded in Cincinnati for a couple of years before she could raise the money to travel back to England. These circumstances are only vaguely hinted at in the book, but obviously go a long way to explain her generally negative impression of Americans and the United States.
Trollope's views aren't entirely negative, of course: she is full of admiration for much of the natural scenery she sees, and considers at least Washington, Philadelphia and New York to be very attractive cities, in their different ways. But she sees the "egalitarianism" of a society that keeps slaves and oppresses native Americans as repugnant and hypocritical, she is very scathing about the excesses of American religion, and (aptly, given the reception her book got in the US) teases Americans about the way their devotion to free speech crumbles if an outsider should venture to criticise their country. Perhaps that's not a uniquely American failing, though.

Mrs Trollope consciously tries to stick to social observation and does not get involved in detailed discussions of US politics. Her account of life in the mid-west in the 1830s makes it sound like Afghanistan under the Taliban, mutatis mutandis: American men are consistently described as ill-mannered, constantly spitting, putting their feet on the seats, gambling, and smelling of onions and whisky. They are also apparently devoted to the pursuit of the almighty dollar to the exclusion of all more aesthetic pursuits. Women are domestic drudges, tied to their kitchens and laundries because of the prejudice against working as domestic servants (by white people). If women ever go out, it is to attend endlessly long church services and revival meetings. Men and women are segregated rigorously in public places, and strict dress regulations are enforced on women (ankles may not be displayed). Pleasant diversions (theatre, art, music, education, etc.) are either banned by law, boycotted on prudish religious grounds, or avoided as a waste of time that could be employed in making money. In short, for a modern European reader seeking to have prejudices confirmed, it's a goldmine! ( )

Fanny Trollope is a delightful narrator, and this is a fresh slice of life in early America, spitting and all. Fanny is not amused. ( )