ABSTRACT
The Richard Rowland letters are welcome additions to this collection because they were written from Missouri to Rowland’s sister in England (in Bristol for the first, and Leicestershire for the second), and they record observations about Americans there: they were perceived as too nosey and inquisitive, just as Charles Dickens had perceived them in his American Notes, published after his 1842 tour of America. And the American girls ‘chatter like Magpies’. Also, Rowland observed that Missourians’ ‘pride and boast is not to work’, having slaves to work for them – which affirms what anti-slavery observers had said about the culture as well. Interesting details on farms, foods and culture are made in the letter of 1840. The letter of 1844 describes a ‘trip to the Mountains’ and records fascinating observations on American Indians and the West through English eyes.
