Domestic Manners of the Americans

After a month in Washington, at the beginning of May, Trollope and her companions travel to Stonington, Maryland, to stay with “a very old friend” (181) from England named Anna Maria Stone. They remain there for the summer with some time also spent boarding with a family in Virginia. Trollope is impressed by the beauty of the landscape along the Potomac River and the “profusion of her wild fruits and flowers” (181).

In general, Trollope finds herself at more leisure than previously on her journey in America, so as to observe more closely the society around her. In particular, she notes that compared with Western America the landowners enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle because they are constantly waited upon by enslaved people. Still, the existence of slavery renders Americans hypocritical with regard to their professed belief in equality and democracy.

Trollope recounts a harrowing experience in which an enslaved girl accidentally ingested poison. As Trollope rescued and then nursed the girl back to health, the family showed complete indifference to the girl’s fate.

As election season draws near and political campaigning begins, Trollope has occasion to note Americans’ “obtusity on all points of honourable feeling” (199). Trollope believes that a constant interest in politics corrupts American society by breeding a contentious partisan spirit.