The Americans As They Are - free ebook by Charles Sealsfield

THE AMERICANS AS THEY ARE; DESCRIBED IN A TOUR THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

BY THE AUTHOR OF “AUSTRIA AS IT IS.” LONDON: HURST, CHANCE, AND CO. ST. PAUL’S CHURCH YARD. 1828. LONDON: Printed by Bradbury and Dent, St. Dunstan’s-ct., Fleet-st....

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ADVERTISEMENT.

The publication of this tour was intended for the year 1827. Several circumstances have prevented it. The American is, as far as relates to his own country, justly supposed to be prone to exaggeration. English travellers, on the contrary, are apt to undervalue brother Jonathan and his country. The Author has twice seen these countries, of whose present state he gives a sketch in the following pages. He is far from claiming for his work any sort of literary merit. Truth and practical observation

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PREFACE.

Upwards of half a century has now elapsed since the independence of the United States became firmly established. During this period two great questions have been solved, exposing the fallacies of human calculations, which anticipated only present anarchy and ultimate dissolution as the fate of the new Republics. The possibility of a people governing themselves, and being prosperous and happy, time, the sure ordeal of all projects, has at length demonstrated. Their political infancy is over, they

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CHAPTER I.

Cincinnati.—Parting Glance at Ohio.—Character of its Government and its Inhabitants. The city of Cincinnati is the largest in the state of Ohio: for the last eight years it has left even Pittsburgh far behind. It is situated in 39° 5′ 54″ north latitude, and 7° 31′ west longitude, on the second bank of the Ohio, rising gradually and extending to the west, the north, and the east, for a distance of several miles. The lower part of the city below the new warehouse, is exposed, during the spring ti

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CHAPTER II.

Tour through Kentucky.—Bigbonelick.—Mammoths.—Two Kentuckian Characters.—Kentuckian Scenes. After a stay of six days in Cincinnati I departed; crossed the Ohio in the ferryboat, and landed in the state of Kentucky, at Newport, a small country town of Campbell county. It contains, besides the government arsenal for the western states, a court-house, and about 100 buildings, scattered irregularly upon the eminence. From thence to Bigbonelick, the distance is 23 miles; the country is more hilly tha

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CHAPTER III.

Vevay.—Geographical Sketch of the State of Indiana.—Madison.— Charlestown—its Court.—Jeffersonville.—Clarksville.—New Albany.—The Falls of the Ohio. Vevay, in Indiana, became a settlement twenty years ago, by Swiss emigrants, who obtained a grant of land, equal to 200 acres for each family, under the condition of cultivating the vine; they accordingly settled here, and laid out vineyards. The original settlers may have amounted to thirty; others joined them afterwards, and in this manner was fou

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CHAPTER IV.

Louisville.—Canal of Louisville—its Commerce.—Surrounding Country.—Sketch of the State of Kentucky and its Inhabitants, &amp;c. The road from the landing-place to Louisville, leads through one of the finest and richest alluvial bottoms on the banks of the Ohio. They are here about seventy feet above the level of the water, and sufficiently high to protect the town from inundation, but there being no outlets for stagnant waters and ponds, epidemic diseases are frequent. A lottery is now estab

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CHAPTER V.

A Keel-boat Voyage—Description of the Preparations.—Face of the Country.—Troy.—Lady Washington.—The River Sport.—Owensborough.—Henderson. The Ohio still continuing low, and there being no prospect of proceeding to New Orleans by a steam boat, I resolved to embark on board a keel boat, in company with several ladies and gentlemen, who were returning to their plantations and their homes. The preparations in such a case, are to dispose of horse and gig, where one does not choose going by land throu

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CHAPTER VI.

Mr. Owen’s of Lanark, formerly Rapp’s Settlement.—Remarks on it.—Keel-boat Scenes.—Cave in Rock.—Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.—Fort Massai. About a hundred and fifty houses, built on the Swabian plan, with the exception of Mr. Rapp’s [B] former residence—a handsome brick house—presented themselves to our view. We were introduced to one of the managers, a Mr. Shnee, formerly a Lutheran minister, who entered very soon into particulars respecting Mr. Owen’s ulterior views, in rather a pompous ma

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CHAPTER VII.

The Mississippi.—General Features of the State of Illinois and its Inhabitants. The nearer we approached the Mississippi, the lower the country became, and the more imposing the scenery. By degrees the river Ohio loses its blue tinge, taking from the mightier stream a milky colour, which changes into a muddy white when very near the junction—this junction itself is one of the most magnificent sights. On the left hand the Ohio, half a mile wide, overpowered, as it were, by its mightier rival—in f

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CHAPTER VIII.

Excursion to St. Louis.—Face of the Country.—Sketch of the State of Missouri.—Return to Trinity. The steam-boat, the Pioneer, having come up to Trinity the following day, on its way to St. Louis, Mr. B. and I resolved to take a trip to the latter place, as the best chance that offered to get away as soon as possible. We started at ten o’clock in the morning, turned round the fork, and ascended the muddy Mississippi. The first town we saw was Hamburgh, on the Illinois side, consisting of nineteen

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CHAPTER IX.

The State of Tennessee.—Steam-boats on the Mississippi.—Flat-boats. We had now passed the western extremity of Kentucky, and had the state of Tennessee on our left. The eastern banks of the Mississippi, viz. on the Tennessee side, are throughout lower than the western or Missouri shores; presenting a series of marshes from which cypress trees and canebrack seem just emerging, lining them for hundreds of miles to the southward. Farther eastward, towards the rivers Tennessee and Cumberland, the so

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CHAPTER X.

Scenery along the Mississippi.—Hopefield.—St. Helena.—Arkansas Territory.—Spanish Moss.—Vixburgh. We pursued our course at the rate of ten miles an hour, passing the Chickasaw Bluffs, Memphis, a small settlement on the Tennessee side, and a number of smaller and larger islands, from two to six miles in length, but seldom more than one in breadth. The sediment of the Mississippi is continually forming new sand banks, at the same time that its irresistible power carries away old ones. That river w

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CHAPTER XI.

The Town of Natchez.—Excursion to Palmyra Plantations.—The Cotton Planters of the State of Mississippi.—Sketch of the State of Mississippi.—Return to Natchez. Rain, and a subsequent frost, had a week before our arrival dispelled that scourge of the south—the yellow fever. The inhabitants had returned from the places of safety, to which they had fled in every direction, and intercourse was again re-established, the town having resumed all the activity I had found in it three years before. The roa

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CHAPTER XII.

Arrival at New Orleans.—Cursory Reflections. It is certainly mournful for a traveller to dwell among the monuments of Pompeii, of Herculaneum, and of Rome. There, if he feels at all, he feels among these wrecks of past grandeur, that he is nothing. A totally different sensation possesses the mind on entering an American city. In these man beholds what he can contend with, and what he can accomplish, when his strength is not checked by the arbitrary will of a despot. New Orleans, the wet grave [F

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CHAPTER XIII.

Topographical Sketch of the City of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans occupies an oblong area, extending 3960 feet along the eastern bank of Mississippi, embracing six squares, 319 feet in length, and of equal breadth. Above and below this parallelogram are the suburbs. Higher up is the suburb of St. Mary, still belonging to the city corporation; farther up, the suburbs Duplantier, Soulel, La Course, L’Annunciation, and Religieuses; below, the suburbs of Marigny, Daunois, and Clouet; in the r

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CHAPTER XIV.

The situation of New Orleans considered in a commercial point of view. New Orleans groaned for a long time under the yoke of the most wretched tyranny; its crowned possessors so far from doing any thing towards the improvement of a plan which, considered in a commercial light, has not its equal on the face of the earth, contributed as much as was in their power to circumscribe it. After two hours rain, every kind of communication in the city itself was quite impracticable; paving or lighting the

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CHAPTER XV.

Characteristic features of the Inhabitants of New Orleans and Louisiana.—Creoles.—Anglo-Americans.—French.—Free People of Colour.—Slaves. At the time of the cession of Louisiana to the United States (1803), this country with its capital was inhabited by Creoles—descendants of French settlers. Many reasons as they may have to congratulate themselves upon their admission into the great political Union, whether considered in a religious or political point of view, there were, however, several cause

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CHAPTER XVI.

Public Spirit.—Education.—State of Religious Worship.—Public Entertainments, Theatres, Balls, &amp;c. Heterogeneous as this population may seem, and as it really is, in manners, language, and principles, they all agree in one point—the pursuit after—“money.” Americans, English, French, Germans, Spaniards, all come hither—to make money, and to stay here as long as money is to be made. Half the inhabitants may be said to be regularly settled; the rest are half-settlers. Merchants, store-keeper

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CHAPTER XVII.

The Climate of Louisiana.—The Yellow Fever. That a country, the fourth part of which consists of marshes, stagnant waters, rivers, and lakes, and which is so near the torrid zone, cannot be altogether healthy, is not to be denied. Although Louisiana is not so salubrious a country as the creoles or settlers inured to the climate, would persuade us that it is; on the other hand it is not the seat of the plague, or of continued disease, as the North Americans or Europeans imagine. Louisiana is no d

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CHAPTER XVIII.

Hints for Emigrants to Louisiana.—Planters, Farmers, Merchants, and Mechanics. Whoever emigrates from a northern to a southern climate, experiences more or less a change in his constitution; his blood is thinned, and in a state of greater effervescence, and his frame weakened in consequence. The least derangement in the digestive system in this case, produces a bilious fever. The new comers emigrating to Louisiana, are either planters, farmers, merchants, or mechanics. The former, being more or

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CHAPTER XIX.

Geographical Features of the State of Louisiana.—Conclusion. Louisiana lies under the same degree of north latitude as Egypt, and bears a striking resemblance to that country. Their soil, their climate, and their very rivers, exhibit the same features, with the exception, that the Mississippi runs from north to south, whereas the Nile takes an opposite course. Close to the eastern bank of the former, we find a continued series of Cyprus, swamps, and lakes, sometimes intersected by a tributary st

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TABLE OF THE STATES, COUNTIES, CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES.

Pittsburgh , county town of Alleghany county. Alleghany (river), Monongehela (river). Oeconomy , Rapp’s Settlement in Beaver county. Zanesville , capital of Muskiagum county. New Lancaster , capital of Fairfield county. Columbus , capital of the State of Ohio . Chilicothe , capital of the Sciota county. Franklintown , capital of Franklin county. Cincinnati , capital of Hamilton county. Newport , capital of Campbell county, in Kentucky . Vevay , capital of New Switzerland county, in the State of

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