A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES IN 1841
By JOSEPH STURGE 1842

"'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume;
And we are weeds without it. All constraint,
Except what wisdom lays on evil men,
Is evil; hurts the faculties, impedes
Their progress in the road of science; blinds
The eyesight of discovery; and begets,
In those that suffer it, a sordid mind."

  1. [Preface to the American Edition]
  2. [Preface to the English Edition]
  3. [A Visit, &c.]
  4. [General Observations]
  5. [Appendix A: ANTI-SLAVERY EPISTLE OF "FRIENDS" IN GREAT BRITAIN.]
  6. [Appendix B: EARLY EFFORTS OF "FRIENDS" IN BEHALF OF NEGRO]
  7. [Appendix C: Report of the Committee of the Yearly Meeting of Friends, &c. ]
  8. [Appendix D: ELISHA TYSON.]
  9. [Appendix E: THE "AMISTAD CAPTIVES"]
  10. [Appendix F: Extract from an Essay by WILLIAM JAY]
  11. [Appendix G: OPIUM WAR WITH CHINA.]
  12. [Appendix H: LETTER OF A.L. PENNOCK.]
  13. [Appendix I: GERRIT SMITH'S SLAVES.]
  14. [Appendix K: The Society of Friends in America and the Colonization Society]
  15. [Appendix L: Memorial of citizens of Boston, United States, to the Lords of the Admiralty, Great Britain.]

PREFACE
TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

* * * * *

Within a few years past, several of our visitors from the other side of the Atlantic, have published their views of our country and her institutions. Basil Hall, Hamilton and others, in their attempts to describe the working of the democratic principle in the United States, have been unfavorably influenced by their opposite political predilections. On the other hand, Miss Martineau, who has strong republican sympathies, has not, at all times, been sufficiently careful and discriminating in the facts and details of her spirited and agreeable narrative.

The volume of Mr. Sturge, herewith presented, is unlike any of its predecessors. Its author makes no literary pretensions. His style, like his garb, is of the plainest kind; shorn of every thing like ornament, it has yet a truthful, earnest simplicity, as rare as it is beautiful. The reader will look in vain for those glowing descriptions of American scenery, and graphic delineations of the peculiarities of the American character with which other travellers have endeavored to enliven and diversify their journals. Coming among us on an errand of peace and good will—with a heart oppressed and burdened by the woes of suffering humanity—he had no leisure for curious observations of men and manners, nor even for the gratification of a simple and unperverted taste for the beautiful in outward nature. His errand led him to the slave-jail of the negro-trafficker—the abodes of the despised and persecuted colored man—the close walls of prisons. His narrative, like his own character, is calm, clear, simple; its single and manifest aim, to do good.