Domestic Manners of the Americans

Trollope and her companions leave Philadelphia and return to Stonington. Back in Stonington, they experience an extraordinary thunderstorm “of terrific violence,” typical of the fall in this region.

Trollope laments the condition of manual laborers working on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, many of whom are Irish immigrants who left home to seek a better life in America. These workers endure strenuous labor under extreme weather and unhealthful conditions, and for less pay than other ethnic groups. Trollope recalls the instance of an Irish youth who fell sick and died in the area, whom she saw buried without much ceremony in a strange land. Given the poor treatment accorded immigrants in the United States, Trollope advises her British readers to immigrate to Canada instead.

The seasonal transition from summer to autumn once again causes Trollope to fall ill with a fever. She is advised to move to a different location for a “change of air,” and so she travels to Alexandria, Virginia, about 15 miles away. There she spends a few weeks recovering. She watches the watercraft sailing the Potomac, sees the winter snows melt into freshets that carry “vast blocks of ice” (229) floating through town, and witnesses a solar eclipse.