Domestic Manners of the Americans

This chapter consists entirely of comments about the reception of another travel book about America by Trollope’s English friend Captain Basil Hall in the United States. Much like Trollope’s own travel book, Hall’s Travels in North America was savaged by critics and felt to be insulting to the country it purported to depict. However, Trollope defends Hall from his critics and says that the criticisms go to prove the excessive touchiness of Americans.

Trollope leaves New York City to go to Niagara. On the way she sees many New York State sites: the Palisades, the Highlands, West Point, Hyde Park, Albany, Schenectady, Utica (boarding a canal boat at the Eerie Canal to reach the latter city), and Rochester, among other smaller towns.

On the various coaches and boats Trollope encounters “Yankees” (New Englanders) and provides a vivid sketch of their typical speech and characteristics. In Rochester particularly, Trollope notes the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the form of thriving factories. On reaching Lewiston, Trollope is close to the Canadian border and thus to British territory, which makes her feel more at home.

Trollope and her companions reach the town of Niagara with its world-famous falls. It is a bright day in June, and they lodge at a hotel overlooking the falls. Trollope has been “languishing” to see the falls for a long time, and their magnificence does not disappoint, even though she admits that she lacks the ability to do it justice. She and her companions spend the day exploring the falls, and Chapter 33 is devoted to describing the waters and the terrain in detail.

On June 10th, the party leaves Niagara for Buffalo in a coach and, once there, stay at the Eagle Hotel. Trollope finds Buffalo the “queerest looking” town she has seen in America because it appears to have been hastily set up. As in many American towns, Buffalo residents are proud of their quick progress and “improvement”; however, as usual, Trollope doubts whether this progress is worthwhile.

Trollope visits Lake Erie and Lake Canandaigua, where she encounters groups of Indigenous Americans. This encounter leads Trollope to compare the behavior of the whites unfavorably to the Indigenous people, especially considering an incident in their coach in which a white couple rudely seeks to force themselves into the already full car.

In the concluding chapter of the book, Trollope and her companions are back at the Adelphi Hotel in Albany on June 14th. They travel down the Hudson River back to New York, with Trollope marveling again at the beauty of the landscape at the approach to the city. They enjoy another two weeks in New York, with Trollope reemphasizing that this city is her favorite part of America. After making laborious preparations for securing their voyage home, they set sail for England.

Trollope ends her book by reiterating her dislike for American principles and character, while conceding that a number of individuals whom she met on her journey formed exceptions to this. These “friends” form a “small patrician band” that is “a race apart” from the common run of American citizens. Indeed, there exist a number of Americans who doubt the prevailing beliefs in equality and democracy, which Trollope sees as hypocritical. Trollope hopes that this minority will become the future leaders of the United States, with the result that the country will enter the family of nations as “one of the finest countries on the earth” (318).