Domestic Manners of the Americans

More about the book

In Domestic Manners of the Americans, Frances Trollope shares her experiences in America from 1827 to 1830, including her journey up the Mississippi from New Orleans and a two-year stay in Cincinnati, followed by visits to Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. Published in 1832, the book became a transatlantic best-seller, offering candid critiques of American customs such as spitting, religious extremism, women's fashion, the relentless pursuit of wealth, and the injustices faced by women, slaves, and Native Americans. With wit and satire, Trollope aimed to alert her fellow countrymen to the implications of democratic freedoms amid significant social changes in England. Her condemnation of slavery and the hypocrisy supporting it sparked abolitionist discussions on both sides of the Atlantic. Mark Twain later praised her work as the most accurate depiction of American life in the nineteenth century. This volume is part of Oxford World's Classics, which has provided a diverse range of literature for over a century, ensuring accessible scholarship with accurate texts, expert introductions, clarifying notes, and up-to-date bibliographies for further exploration.