Excursion Through the Slave States, from Washington on the Potomac to the Frontier of Mexico: With Sketches of Popular Manners and Geological Notices

ISBN-13: 9781108032803 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 406 str.

George William Featherstonhaugh

Opis

The English geologist George William Featherstonhaugh (1780 1866) was commissioned to undertake a survey of the Arkansas territory in America, and spent 1834 5 travelling through the southern slave states to reach his destination. He was shocked by the slave system of the south, saying he 'had never seen so revolting a sight'. When he began to write about his experiences, Featherstonhaugh was urged not to publish his work in the US, as his opinions might 'irritate a powerful interest', and his manuscript remained unpublished until 1844, after his return to England. His lively two-volume account of his adventures contains a fascinating mixture of scientific and sociological detail. It is a closely observed record of Southern society in the period before the Civil War that candidly documents the violence experienced by Black slaves, Native Americans and frontier settlers. Volume 1 describes the Alleghany Mountains, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri."