The Englishwoman
in America – Isabella Bird
I had thought this book was written on the same trip as
and slightly before Lady’s Life in
the late 1870s. But in fact this book is her first book. It was written in the
middle 1850s when Bird was in her early 20s and recovering from surgery on her
spine (yikes, imagine the risk, back then).
I imagine that the fact she was in some degree of pain
during this trip explains her sometimes acerbic censoriousness about the
good-hearted denizens of The Land of the Free. But she saves most of her
ammunition for travel by steamboat and rough coaches of various kinds driven by
half-drunken drivers.
She’s quite young to be so priggish too. In the later
books, she’s more mellow and less apt to coat opinions with religion. She is
also impressionistic and obscure as to her route – it is impossible to figure
out how she made her way from one place to another. She knew a lot about botany
and some of geology but little of geography.
I liked her snippy but perceptive comments about my
fellow Americans because 19
th century Americans were, in my opinion,
conceited about being the most enlightened lovers of liberty. Considering they
lived in one of the last countries that had legal chattel slavery, I think they
had a nerve thinking they were so exceptionally free. She is not as heatedly
critical of the “peculiar institution” as Charles Dickens in
American
Notes but she makes her points and moves on to descriptions of places and
people. Maybe she was wary of all the hell Americans gave Dickens and Mrs. Trollope (Tony's ma) after their cutting books. Bird is especially good with hotels
- American hotels at that time had no counterpart in the world.
And she’s wary about too much democracy. She spent time
in New York City at a time when Know-Nothings and Catholics were fighting. She
writes:
For three days a dropping fire
of musketry was continually to be heard in New York and Williamsburgh, and
reports of great loss of life on both sides were circulated. It was stated that
the hospital received 170 wounded men, and that many more were carried off by
their friends. The military were called out, and, as it was five days before
quiet was restored, it is to be supposed that many lives were lost. I saw two
dead bodies myself; and in one street or alley by the Five Points, both the
sidewalks and the roadway were slippery with blood. Yet very little sensation
was excited in the upper part of the town; people went out and came in as
usual; business was not interrupted; and to questions upon the subject the
reply was frequently made, "Oh, it's only an election riot," showing
how painfully common such disturbances had become.
Those nonchalant New Yorkers.
I should say that in addition to eastern and Great Lakes
states, she spends time in Canada. She uses terms that are unfamiliar to us
today. For instance, Upper Canada is our present-day Ontario. Quebec was Lower
Canada. She says very nice things about Canada, though she’s narrow-minded about
Indians and French speakers.
This book is long, slightly more than 300 pages, so it
may be more than a reader is looking for. I liked it because I liked the author’s fearlessness,
astute observations, and readable style.
