OF

A RESIDENCE AND TOUR

IN

THE UNITED STATES

OF

NORTH AMERICA,

FROM APRIL, 1833, TO OCTOBER, 1834.

"As far as experience may shew errors in our establishments, we are bound to
correct them; and, if any practices exist contrary to the principles of justice and
humanity, within the reach of our laws or our influence, we are inexcusable if we
do not exert ourselves to restrain and abolish them."-D. WEBSTER, Discourse at
Plymouth on the second centenary of the settlement of New England.

"The distinction of color is unknown in Europe."-Speech of Chancellor KENT
in the New York State Convention.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

MDCCCXXXV.

75-341.19

US 10048.35.

1154

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

1861, Jan. 15. Gray Fund,

(3 vol./

$1.60

2844

49.

INTRODUCTION.

A FEW words may perhaps be necessary to explain the chief objects of the following Work.

Having left England in company with two of his countrymen, one of whom (Mr. William Crawford) had been sent out by our Government to inspect the prisons of the United States, the Author was induced to remain after their return; and, finding the journal he had kept, contained what he thought might essentially serve the cause of humanity, he determined to sacrifice his reluctance to appear in print, and give a full and faithful picture of the cruelties he had witnessed.

If too much space should appear to be taken up by the same subject, it should be remembered that slavery, as it exists in America, comes home to our 66 business "" as well as to our "bosoms"; and appeals no less to English pockets than to English sympathies; for the slave trade, which has cost us

so much blood and treasure, springs naturally from the compulsory system of the new world, and must follow its fate. We have paid upwards of ten millions sterling between the years 1825 and 1834 (inclusive) for the suppression of that traffic, and have aggravated its horrors in proportion to our activity and expenditure. Our ships of war have forced an open commerce into the hands of the smuggler; and our bounties for captured negroes have called into action the worst passions, and the most cruel devices. Let the moral influence of England be substituted in America for her cannon on the Atlantic; and the black man will gain by our philanthropy what he now loses by our money. Commerce and civilization will spread their healing wings over Africa; and Christianity will follow in their train. It may be added, that we have a closer and a deeper interest in the question of American slavery; for, if the Southern portion of the Union should endeavor to prevent its discussion, and resist or separate from the other, a civil or a servile war would ensue, and the interruption of its staple cultivation would cut off from our cotton factories the

chief sources of their prosperity, before a supply could be obtained from our Eastern settlements, or from other quarters of the globe.

The Author would observe that, in deviating from the usual mode of spelling some words, he had no desire to set up a new standard, where it would more become him to conform to what exists. He has quoted frequently from American writers, and he has adopted their orthography, because he wished to preserve uniformity.

The title "Journal" has been retained, though not strictly in accordance with the order of dates.