Directions
The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the assigned primary sources and place them in historical context.
Analyze the assigned primary sources. Be clear about who said what and when. (The authors of the correspondence are the central characters of the story you will write.)
Include direct quotes from at least 2 of the primary sources, and then explain why those lines help you to accurately and convincingly answer the question(s). Overall, include at least 5-6 quotes to help support your answer. Explain the meaning in your own words, and then quote the source that helped you come to such a conclusion. Be clear about who wrote the quote by stating the source before the quote.
Assignment length: About 3 paragraphs in length. A paragraph contains 5-8 sentences depending on content and writing style. Substance is more important than word count.
Submission Guidelines: Write your answers (3 paragraphs) in a separate Word or PDF file. Save it as a Word doc or PDF. Submit the assignment through the appropriate dropbox. (See Syllabus for more details on formats.)
Only used the assigned lesson and primary sources to complete this assignment. See Academic Dishonesty policy. (Avoid using outside sources including online searches or A.I. generated content.)
Note: Use last names for subsequent references. In the case of the workingman, you can refer to him as workingman or worker or the author.
Prompts
Prompt 1: How did Basil Hall’s class influence his desсrіption of the towns he traveled through and the contrast he drew between these small towns in New York versus England? How did the Workingman’s class influence his desсrіption of how New York differed from England? What did the Workingman mention that would not have occurred to Hall and vice versa.
Prompt 2: What can we conclude about the dramatic changes that were occurring in New York as a result of the Market Revolution (industrialization)? What evidence of growth do we see in both Hall’s and the Workingman’s accounts? How does the historical context from the lesson help to understand each person’s account?
Rubric for Assignment
Criteria
Exemplary (2 points)
Proficient (1.5 points)
Needs Improvement (1 point)
Unsatisfactory (0 points)
Accuracy
Answers are accurate and free or historical inaccuracies.
Answers are mostly accurate with only minor errors may be present.
A significant factual inaccuracy or inaccuracies included in the answer.
Lacks accuracy.
Historical Context
Provides detailed and accurate historical context; understands how time and place affect evidence.
Provides generally accurate historical context with minor gaps or omissions; understands how time and place affect evidence.
Historical context is limited or lacks detail, with significant omissions or inaccuracies.
Historical context is missing or inaccurate.
Selection of Relevant Evidence
Selects at least 5-6 relevant quotes from at least 2 primary sources and uses them effectively to support arguments.
Selects 4 relevant quotes from at least 2 sources, with effective use for supporting arguments.
Selects quotes that are not always relevant or do not effectively support the arguments.
Fails to use relevant quotes or uses quotes that do not support the arguments.
Source Analysis
Effectively and consistently identifies author, time, place, and purpose to determine credibility and context. Effectively applies historical thinking skills to interpret the meaning of the sources.
Identifies author, time, place, and purpose to determine credibility and context. Satisfactorily applies historical thinking skills to interpret the meaning of the sources.
Limited analysis with unclear explanations or weak connections to the questions.
No meaningful analysis of the assigned sources or failure to connect them to the questions.
Clarity
Exceptionally clear, well-organized, and coherent writing that presents arguments and evidence effectively.
Clear and coherent writing, with good organization and presentation of arguments and evidence.
Writing is unclear or poorly organized, with significant issues in presenting arguments and evidence.
Writing is incoherent or disorganized, severely affecting the assignment’s effectiveness.
Directions
The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the assigned primary sources and place them in historical context.
Analyze the assigned primary sources. Be clear about who said what and when. (The authors of the correspondence are the central characters of the story you will write.)
Include direct quotes from at least 2 of the primary sources, and then explain why those lines help you to accurately and convincingly answer the question(s). Overall, include at least 5-6 quotes to help support your answer. Explain the meaning in your own words, and then quote the source that helped you come to such a conclusion. Be clear about who wrote the quote by stating the source before the quote.
Assignment length: About 3 paragraphs in length. A paragraph contains 5-8 sentences depending on content and writing style. Substance is more important than word count.
Submission Guidelines: Write your answers (3 paragraphs) in a separate Word or PDF file. Save it as a Word doc or PDF. Submit the assignment through the appropriate dropbox. (See Syllabus for more details on formats.)
Only used the assigned lesson and primary sources to complete this assignment. See Academic Dishonesty policy. (Avoid using outside sources including online searches or A.I. generated content.)
Note: Use last names for subsequent references. In the case of the workingman, you can refer to him as workingman or worker or the author.
Prompts
Prompt 1: How did Basil Hall’s class influence his desсrіption of the towns he traveled through and the contrast he drew between these small towns in New York versus England? How did the Workingman’s class influence his desсrіption of how New York differed from England? What did the Workingman mention that would not have occurred to Hall and vice versa.
Prompt 2: What can we conclude about the dramatic changes that were occurring in New York as a result of the Market Revolution (industrialization)? What evidence of growth do we see in both Hall’s and the Workingman’s accounts? How does the historical context from the lesson help to understand each person’s account?
Rubric for Assignment
Criteria
Exemplary (2 points)
Proficient (1.5 points)
Needs Improvement (1 point)
Unsatisfactory (0 points)
Accuracy
Answers are accurate and free or historical inaccuracies.
Answers are mostly accurate with only minor errors may be present.
A significant factual inaccuracy or inaccuracies included in the answer.
Lacks accuracy.
Historical Context
Provides detailed and accurate historical context; understands how time and place affect evidence.
Provides generally accurate historical context with minor gaps or omissions; understands how time and place affect evidence.
Historical context is limited or lacks detail, with significant omissions or inaccuracies.
Historical context is missing or inaccurate.
Selection of Relevant Evidence
Selects at least 5-6 relevant quotes from at least 2 primary sources and uses them effectively to support arguments.
Selects 4 relevant quotes from at least 2 sources, with effective use for supporting arguments.
Selects quotes that are not always relevant or do not effectively support the arguments.
Fails to use relevant quotes or uses quotes that do not support the arguments.
Source Analysis
Effectively and consistently identifies author, time, place, and purpose to determine credibility and context. Effectively applies historical thinking skills to interpret the meaning of the sources.
Identifies author, time, place, and purpose to determine credibility and context. Satisfactorily applies historical thinking skills to interpret the meaning of the sources.
Limited analysis with unclear explanations or weak connections to the questions.
No meaningful analysis of the assigned sources or failure to connect them to the questions.
Clarity
Exceptionally clear, well-organized, and coherent writing that presents arguments and evidence effectively.
Clear and coherent writing, with good organization and presentation of arguments and evidence.
Writing is unclear or poorly organized, with significant issues in presenting arguments and evidence.
Writing is incoherent or disorganized, severely affecting the assignment’s effectiveness.
using this source Directions
The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the assigned primary sources and place them in historical context.
Analyze the assigned primary sources. Be clear about who said what and when. (The authors of the correspondence are the central characters of the story you will write.)
Include direct quotes from at least 2 of the primary sources, and then explain why those lines help you to accurately and convincingly answer the question(s). Overall, include at least 5-6 quotes to help support your answer. Explain the meaning in your own words, and then quote the source that helped you come to such a conclusion. Be clear about who wrote the quote by stating the source before the quote.
Assignment length: About 3 paragraphs in length. A paragraph contains 5-8 sentences depending on content and writing style. Substance is more important than word count.
Submission Guidelines: Write your answers (3 paragraphs) in a separate Word or PDF file. Save it as a Word doc or PDF. Submit the assignment through the appropriate dropbox. (See Syllabus for more details on formats.)
Only used the assigned lesson and primary sources to complete this assignment. See Academic Dishonesty policy. (Avoid using outside sources including online searches or A.I. generated content.)
Note: Use last names for subsequent references. In the case of the workingman, you can refer to him as workingman or worker or the author.
Prompts
Prompt 1: How did Basil Hall’s class influence his desсrіption of the towns he traveled through and the contrast he drew between these small towns in New York versus England? How did the Workingman’s class influence his desсrіption of how New York differed from England? What did the Workingman mention that would not have occurred to Hall and vice versa.
Prompt 2: What can we conclude about the dramatic changes that were occurring in New York as a result of the Market Revolution (industrialization)? What evidence of growth do we see in both Hall’s and the Workingman’s accounts? How does the historical context from the lesson help to understand each person’s account?
Rubric for Assignment
Criteria
Exemplary (2 points)
Proficient (1.5 points)
Needs Improvement (1 point)
Unsatisfactory (0 points)
Accuracy
Answers are accurate and free or historical inaccuracies.
Answers are mostly accurate with only minor errors may be present.
A significant factual inaccuracy or inaccuracies included in the answer.
Lacks accuracy.
Historical Context
Provides detailed and accurate historical context; understands how time and place affect evidence.
Provides generally accurate historical context with minor gaps or omissions; understands how time and place affect evidence.
Historical context is limited or lacks detail, with significant omissions or inaccuracies.
Historical context is missing or inaccurate.
Selection of Relevant Evidence
Selects at least 5-6 relevant quotes from at least 2 primary sources and uses them effectively to support arguments.
Selects 4 relevant quotes from at least 2 sources, with effective use for supporting arguments.
Selects quotes that are not always relevant or do not effectively support the arguments.
Fails to use relevant quotes or uses quotes that do not support the arguments.
Source Analysis
Effectively and consistently identifies author, time, place, and purpose to determine credibility and context. Effectively applies historical thinking skills to interpret the meaning of the sources.
Identifies author, time, place, and purpose to determine credibility and context. Satisfactorily applies historical thinking skills to interpret the meaning of the sources.
Limited analysis with unclear explanations or weak connections to the questions.
No meaningful analysis of the assigned sources or failure to connect them to the questions.
Clarity
Exceptionally clear, well-organized, and coherent writing that presents arguments and evidence effectively.
Clear and coherent writing, with good organization and presentation of arguments and evidence.
Writing is unclear or poorly organized, with significant issues in presenting arguments and evidence.
Writing is incoherent or disorganized, severely affecting the assignment’s effectiveness.
Basil Hall (1788-1844) was a British naval officer and author who is best known for his writings about his travels, including his observations of North America during the early 19th century. Hall came from a notable naval family; his father, Sir James Hall, was a renowned geologist and chemist. Basil Hall himself had a distinguished naval career, serving in various capacities that allowed him to travel extensively.
In 1827, Basil Hall published a two-volume work titled ″Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 1828.″ Here is an excerpt from his work in which he described life in Rochester, New York. Rochester, and other small towns in upstate New York, grew rapidly as a result of the Erie Canal.
What he wrote:
On the 25th of June we drove across the country to the village of Rochester, which is built on the banks of the Genesee river, just above some beautiful waterfalls, and only a few miles from the southern shore of Lake Ontario, which, I was sorry to find, was not visible from thence, owing to the dense screen of untouched forest which intervenes. The Erie Canal passes through the heart of this singular village, and strides across the Genesee River on a noble aqueduct of stone.
Rochester is celebrated all over the Union as presenting one of the most striking instances of rapid increase in size and population of which that country affords any example. It may be proper to remark, that about this period I began to learn that in America the word improvement, which, in England, means making things better, signifies, in that country, an augmentation in the number of houses and people, and above all, in the amount of the acres of cleared land. It is laid down by the Americans as an admitted maxim, to doubt the solidity of which never enters any man s head for an instant, that a rapid increase of population is, to all intents and purposes, tantamount to an increase of national greatness and power, as well as an increase of individual happiness and prosperity. Consequently, say they, such increase ought to be forwarded by every possible means, as the greatest blessing to the country…
The ladies in America obtain their fashions direct from Paris. I speak now of the great cities on the sea-coast, where the communication with Europe is easy and frequent. In the back settlements, people are obliged to catch what opportunities come in their way; and accordingly, many applications were made to us for a sight of our wardrobe, which, it may be supposed, was none of the largest. The child’s clothes excited most interest, however, and patterns were asked for on many occasions.
While touching on this subject, I hope I may be permitted to say a few words, without giving offence certainly without meaning to give any respecting the attire of the male part of the population, who, I have reason to think, do not, generally speaking, consider dress an object deserving of nearly so much attention as it undoubtedly ought, to receive. It seems to me that dress is a branch, and not an unimportant branch, of manners, a science they all profess themselves anxious to study. The men, probably without their being aware of it, have, somehow or other, acquired a habit of negligence in this respect quite obvious to the eye of a stranger. From the hat, which is never brushed, to the shoe, which is seldom polished, all parts of their dress are often left pretty much to take care of themselves. Nothing seems to fit, or to be made with any precision.
The chief source of the commercial and agricultural prosperity of Rochester is the Erie canal, as that village is made the emporium of the rich agricultural districts bordering on the Genesee river; and its capitalists both send out and import a vast quantity of wheat, flour, beef, and pork, pot and pearl ashes, whiskey, and so on. In return for these articles, Rochester supplies the adjacent country with all kinds of manufactured goods, which are carried up by the canal from New York. In proportion as the soil is brought into cultivation, or subdued, to use the local phrase, the consumers will become more numerous, and their means more extensive. Thus the demands of the surrounding country must go on augmenting [increasing] rapidly, and along with them, both the imports and exports of every kind will increase in proportion…
Out of more than 8000 souls in this gigantic young village, there was not to be found in 1827 a single grown-up person born there, the oldest native not being then seventeen years of age. The population is composed principally of emigrants from New England that is from the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Some settlers are to be found from other parts of the Union; and these, together with a considerable number from Germany, England, Ireland, and Scotland, and a few natives of Canada, Norway, and Switzerland, make up a very singular society….
Much of all this prosperity may be traced to the cheapness of conveyance on the Erie Canal…
On the 26th of June, 1827, we strolled through the village of Rochester, under the guidance of a most obliging and intelligent friend, a native [here she means a white person who has lived in the western part of the state] of this part of the country. Everything in this bustling place appeared to be in motion. The very streets seemed to be starting up of their own accord, ready-made, and looking as fresh and new, as if they had been turned out of the workmen s hands but an hour before, or that a great boxful of new houses had been sent by steam from New York, and tumbled out on the half-cleared land. The canal banks were at some places still un turfed; the lime seemed hardly dry in the masonry of the aqueduct, in the bridges, and in the numberless great saw-mills and manufactories. In many of these buildings the people were at work below stairs, while at top the carpenters were busy nailing on the planks of the roof.
Some dwellings were half painted, while the foundations of others, within five yards distance, were only beginning. I cannot say how many churches, courthouses, jails, and hotels I counted, all in motion, creeping upwards. Several streets were nearly finished, but had not as yet received their names; and many others were in the reverse predicament, being named, but not commenced, their local habitation being merely signified by lines of stakes. Here and there we saw great warehouses, without window sashes, but half filled with goods, and furnished with hoisting cranes, ready to fish up the huge pyramids of flour barrels, bales, and boxes lying in the streets. In the center of the town the spire of a Presbyterian church rose to a great height, and on each side of the supporting tower was to be seen the dial-plate of a clock, of which the machinery, in the hurry-scurry, had been left at New York. I need not say that these half-finished, whole-finished, and embryo streets were crowded with people, carts, stages, cattle, pigs…and as all these were lifting up their voices together, in keeping with the clatter of hammers, the ringing of axes, and the creaking of machinery, there was a fine concert, I assure you!
End of Basil Hall’s source.
Source: ″A Working Man’s Recollections of America,″ Knights Penny Magazine 1 (1846) 97–112. Available online through George Mason University’s History Matters (https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5839/)
Background: Early nineteenth-century cities experienced enormous growth. New York’s population tripled after 1810, numbering over 312,000 by 1840. As the population exploded, the gap between rich and poor also deepened. Writing in a British periodical in 1845, “A Working Man” described changes in the urban workplace and also in residential and leisure patterns. This workingman who a cabinet maker from England, which means he was trained as a skilled artisan and knew English before he departed for New York. As you read through this source, consider how his perspective differs from Hall’s – what might account for their different perspectives of the Market Revolution and its effects?
What he wrote:
We were not sorry to leave the boarding-house where the charges had been higher than we could well afford, and to take possession of our new house, in which, although there was nothing but the bare walls and our chests and boxes, yet there was domestic privacy, that great essential to comfort and contentment; and the more prized as we had been strangers to it from the time we set foot on shipboard in the previous month of April. It was on the 5th of July that we removed; and as we walked through St. John’s Park we saw great numbers of the black population, with gay coloured scarfs and banners, preparing to celebrate the anniversary of their manumission, by perambulating the city on the day after the great national holiday.
It was evening by the time our things were all removed. Our beds had been lost overboard at the anchorage: I therefore went out and bought several bundles of straw which we spread upon the floor, and laying blankets on the top we enjoyed sleep as sound and refreshing… The next day we drew our biggest chest to the middle of the room for a table, while the smaller trunks and boxes served as seats; and thus we went on pleased with our contrivances, until the end of the first week, when out of my surplus earnings we bought a bedstead and a two chairs, and with these we determined to be content until a small store of dollars should have been saved. We were well off as regards fuel, for my boss was pulling down an old workshop, and gave me two loads of the waste wood; among this I found sufficient to make a small bench, which I hoped to turn to good account, and made place for it in one corner of our room; the remainder I sawed into lengths for burning in the open hearth common to the inferior class of house throughout the States, and such as is seen in farm-houses in England…
In embarking for America, it was with the resolution to give the country a fair trial; that if we fell short of the anticipated benefit it would be from no inattention on my part. We contented ourselves for many months with the simple provision above described; and during the first two years, with the exception of a week’s illness, I was not absent from work for more than a single day. It may be said that if a man would resolutely pursue such a course in England, he would hardly find it necessary to emigrate; but shame stands in the way; many do not like to sink in the eyes of their neighbors and friends. To “get along” in England as thousands do in America would be considered a disgrace…
It would not perhaps, be out of place to say a few words on the fallacious notions and expectations generally entertained by actual or intended emigrants. They cross the Atlantic with very exaggerated ideas of…the advantages they expect to derive from the change of situation: but with regard to the United States, they will find a host of unforeseen difficulties awaiting them. They expect to go through life with less labour or less difficulties than they have previously endured, but they must work harder than ever if they wish to gain a comfortable living. They are in a country where, although many try to live without working, and look down with contempt on the jacket and apron, there is no sympathy with idleness. They expect to meet a people of imperfect skill and little improvement, who will give them any price for their knowledge; but on the contrary they find the new people have improved almost every object involving mechanical skill, from a stay-lace to a steam-boat; most articles of domestic use, tables, chairs, brooms, and brushes, are lighter and more tasteful than similar articles in the “old country;” and instead of being the leaders, such emigrants are content to drop into the rear, happy if they can maintain their footing. Then there are the vicissitudes of the climate, which in most seasons are intolerably severe and trying to the constitution. The new emigrant, again, has heard of the successes of some of his acquaintance who went out years ago, and he looks for equal success in his own case, losing sight of the multitudes who left their homes with the same views and have been miserably disappointed. He finds difficulties, discouragements, and expenses which were altogether unanticipated; he finds it difficult to keep pace with the stirring rivalry around him; and unless he be a man of unflinching courage and perseverance, his fate is the fate of thousands; he abandons the struggle, falls into habits…the cheapness of exhilarating drinks render but too prevalent; and his career ends hopelessly, while he has never ceased to regret his departure from home.
These remarks, however, apply principally to those who cannot exist away from the noise and excitement of a city; while they who can rely on the strength of their principles and their arms, may betake themselves to the smaller towns and villages of the interior, where the field of labour is wide and the temptation to idleness small. There, with common industry, a man may soon call himself the owner of a piece of land, on which he builds a house, and then, secure of a home, works on in all the gladness of honourable independence, in the anticipation of welcome repose in age. I know but of one objection to this: wages in country places are more often paid in kind than in money. I knew a man who for three weeks′ work, in the neighbourhood of Buffalo, was paid with a load of hay.
We soon felt the difference between an English and American summer. The weather, when we landed, and for a short time afterwards, was about as warm as the same season on the eastern side of the Atlantic; but at the beginning of July the heat became intense; the thermometer in the sun stood at 120° and at 96° in the shade. It is scarcely possible to imagine the state of feeling produced by such an extreme. While sitting perfectly still in the thinnest clothing, the perspiration streams from every pore, trickles from every hair of the head, and falls in a shower to the floor. The garments become saturated and stick to the skin, which, irritated as it already is by the“prickly heat,” a disease common to warm climates, suffers an intolerable degree of discomfort. The desire to drink is irresistible, and copious draughts of water are taken to compensate for the excessive waste; breathing, in fact, becomes almost too great an effort. The physical inconveniences here described are those of a state of repose; what then must be the weariness and exhaustion attendant on eleven or twelve hours′ labour in a confined workshop? I have felt at times so worn out as scarcely to be able to crawl home in the evening, where, seating myself in a cool place, though this was rather difficult to find with the thermometer at 90° after sunset, I seldom stirred until the lapse of some hours of darkness, or the blowing of the evening breeze gave reason to hope that sleep might be sought with a chance of success. Repose, however, attends but seldom on the pillow; the torrid atmosphere generates such swarms of bugs that with the greatest care it is impossible to completely extirpate them. These alone are sufficient to worry a weary man into madness, to say nothing of the incessant noise, like that produced the knife-grinders, caused by the locusts, and the contentious chirrup of the kaly-dids which abound in the trees that grow along each side of the street as high as the first-floor windows; and later in the season the swarms of mosquitoes with their exasperating sting and Lilliputian trumpets:—no wonder the inhabitants look so thin and haggard when their repose is thus destroyed by the very cause which renders it the more necessary.
On the public pumps in the streets printed placards were pasted with the words “DEATH TO DRINK COLD WATER;” but in spite of the warning several deaths occurred from inconsiderate drinking, principally among Irish labourers. Some of the masons who were at work on the great Astor Hotel dropped down dead from the effects of the heat. In consequence of these deaths the builders generally came to the resolution to suspend out-of-doors work every day from the hours of twelve to four, until the weather moderated. The brute creation did not escape; horses fell dead in their harness. The whole effect of these events was very startling to a stranger. The fiercest intensity of the heat, however, seldom lasts for more than three days at a time; it is then succeeded by an appalling thunderstorm, after which the temperature is a shade more bearable for a few days. Millions of flies infest the air, swarm in every room, and settle on every article of food, so as to be truly disgusting. I have seen them congregated in such numbers on the tea-table, that the butter and sugar looked like nothing else than moving masses of blackness, and the noise of their buzzing when a candle is lighted in the evening is altogether insupportable.
I underwent a severe attack of bilious fever before being thoroughly acclimated; it laid me by for a week, and eventually yielded to copious bleeding, but left me very weak for some time afterwards. The worst was, however, to come: our little daughter, who had lived through all the trials of the voyage, fell a victim to the disease so fatal to infant life throughout the United States, known as the “summer complaint,” or cholera infantum. For many days our hopes struggled with our fears we prayed that she might recover; but at last, when reduced to the extremity of attenuation, her gentle heart ceased to beat. In the hot season there is but a short interval between death and the burial: on the evening of our day of bereavement I saw our darling laid in the earth; and owing to the negligence of the grave-digger, was obliged to stand by while he dug the grave: on turning to leave the ground he ran after me, shouting that it was customary to pay cash, and he would write a receipt.
Death’s first inroad among a little family becomes a melancholy halting-place in its annals. To our eyes Time had left a footstep visible on his trackless path. A knell of sorrow sounded in our ears, whose echo yet lingers in our hearts.
[I] notice in my daily walks some of the peculiarities of the city and its inhabitants. One feature that particularly strikes a stranger is the bright and unsmoked appearance of the streets and houses. The predilections of the early Dutch colonists in favour of paint, which they introduced, with many other characteristics of their native Holland, into their new country, have come down to their descendants, or rather successors. A house painted all over with a clear brilliant white first attracts the eye: the next will be a flaring red, with the joints of the bricks “picked out” in white; its neighbor will most likely be yellow, succeeded by green, followed in turn by a front covered with red and white chequers after the fashion of a draught-hoard. All this, though not in the best taste, yet being renewed annually, serves to give the city, above the surface of the streets, a clean and cheerful appearance. The leading thoroughfares look like long green avenues during the fine season, bordered by the trees planted at the verge of the footways, whose shade is really grateful in the hot days, of which I have attempted a desсrіption in the proceding passages. The paving is, however, execrable; the roughness and inequality of the surface impede alike the progress of horses, vehicles, and human beings. At the yearly Municipal elections “ Inspectors of Streets” are duly appointed and paid, but their utility is very questionable, since the streets are seen covered with all sorts of rubbish, ashes, bones, refuse vegetables, among which pigs prowl in undisturbed felicity. The 1st of May in every year is the time chosen for removals; then household furniture of all desсrіptions, in every species of conveyance, may be seen in busy motion in all the streets, as though the owners were flying from a besieging army. For some days before and after this event the public ways, always dirty and encumbered, receive fresh contributions: old shoes, pots, pans, kettles, shattered relies of the pantry and scullery, are pitched into the streets as the readiest mode of getting rid of them. The straw beds universally used are now emptied of their worn contents, and the heaps of old straw thus scattered in all directions furnish rare sport to the young republicans, who set fire to them after nightfall, throwing in whatever combustibles may lie around; and so ends “flitting day” with a general blaze.
In consequence of the want of sewers [MC1] the drainage is all on the surface, which tends very much to increase the unsavouriness of the streets, swept but once a week during the summer, while in the winter the dirt is left undisturbed, mingled with the snow, for months together. The fatal effects of this negligence are often felt in the great heats, in the breaking out of epidemic diseases. The fearful visitation of the cholera in 1832 will long be remembered by the New Yorkers. The public health is not, however, entirely lost sight of, for during the hottest season medical advice and medicine are gratuitously given to all poor or sickly applicants in the different wards of the city: close alleys and the gutters of narrow streets are limewashed; cesspools are inspected, and when necessary purified by the throwing in of several bushels of lime…
Another peculiarity observable by a stranger is the youthfulness of the population. Young men from twenty to twenty-five are there seen in positions which in older countries are filled by men of twice that age. The appearance of the busy throngs that pass up and down the streets would lead one to deduct a third from the chance of life as compared with Britain. There is much less of variety in physical development than we are accustomed to see in Europe. The comely and portly personages met with in all parts of England are very rarely seen there; occasionally an old person of one or the other sex is encountered, but withered and sapless, as though the torrid heat; and arctic frosts had drawn out all their vital juices. The season of infancy and boyhood, like the spring of the natural year, is brief and ungenial; soon swallowed up in the assumption of a manly bearing— of the privileges of age without its experience. The want of “veneration” [want of veneration means a lack of respect] in all the social and political relations of the country…[including] between parents and children. “Honour thy father and thy mother” is a precept little regarded where the domestic ties are slight, where the fireside virtues are but little esteemed. The holy and elevating influence of age upon youth is completely lost in the engrossing claims of business on the one hand, and on the other, in the precocious desire for independence and enjoyment.
A short residence in New York is sufficient to prove that the convenience of pedestrians is not an object of paramount importance, as in London. The side walks of many of the leading thoroughfares are encroached upon in the most reckless manner. In front of nearly every “grocery” stands a huge ugly bin, from which the supply of charcoal is retailed, supported on either side by old hogsheads, barrels, and sugar-boxes, forming a mass as unsightly as it is inconvenient and dangerous. In front of timber or “lumber yards,” the occupiers raise high piles of wood on the foot and roadway, without any regard to the facilities of traffic.
Wood is the staple fuel of the inhabitants: carts loaded with it may always be seen passing from the country boats moored alongside the wharfs, to all parts of the city, where the load is “ dumped” opposite the door of the purchaser. This wood being in lengths of four feet, must then be sawed into shorter lengths, convenient for the hearth or stove; an operation performed in the street by some of the many “ wood sawyers,” most of them black people, who are continually on the look-out for a job; and when the quantity they have to cut is large, an accumulating heap of little blocks remains on the ground during the whole of their tedious labour.
End of Source.
[MC1]The phrasing “Want of…” means that they did not have sewers and that therefore they should want them.
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