ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the importance of the port of entry for British travellers to the United States, centring on the experiences of Charles Dickens on his 1842 American tour. This interest stems from my research into British and American nineteenth-century travel writers in the US which argues that point of view has a significant role to play on the experience which travellers have and write about. I argue that the transatlantic passage and initial landfall can provide a point of view with which to view the United States. This volume is concerned with New England’s relationship with Old England. I wish to consider the role which Boston played in welcoming Dickens the traveller to the United States, but argue that New York became the pre-eminent port of arrival for the British and was ultimately therefore of more use to Dickens the author. I will broach views which include New York as part of a greater New England identity and identify some reasons for the shift away from Boston to New York and the implications this had for Dickens. Before setting foot on American soil, however, travellers from the Old World had to contend with the transatlantic passage. It is with this that I begin my discussion.
