Public-domain ebook
Language: en1,837 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Travel Writing·History - American·History - Modern (1750+)
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #11329.
Henry A. Murray’s Lands of the Slave and the Free is a sprawling travelogue‑essay that weaves together first‑hand observations of the United States, Canada, Cuba and the Caribbean with a polemical discussion of slavery. The work opens with a satirical tirade against a “critic” who would legislate corporal punishment for enslaved people, then launches into a catalog‑like itinerary that moves from London to New York, down the Mississippi, through New Orleans to Havana, and onward to Canadian cities. Each chapter is titled with a geographic waypoint, “From New York to Louisville,” “The Queen of the Antilles,” “Canada”, and is filled with detailed sketches of hotels, railways, river scenes, and social customs, interspersed with the author’s reflections on law, education, and the institution of slavery.
The prose is unmistakably Victorian, marked by ornate diction, digressive asides, and a self‑conscious authorial voice that treats the book itself as a traveling companion. Its mixture of travel description, statistical tables, and moral argument will appeal to readers fascinated by 19th‑century social commentary, historians of North‑American expansion, and collectors of period travel literature who enjoy dense, encyclopedic works that capture the era’s blend of curiosity and reformist zeal.
The opening · free to read
Conceive a would-be critic, after various spasmodic efforts at severity, selecting from among many comprehensive measures suggested by me for the future emancipation, and for the present benefit, of the slave, the proposition of "a proper instrument for flogging, to be established by law," and that with the evident intention of throwing ridicule on the idea. If the critic were occasionally subject to the discipline of the various instruments used for the punishment of the negro, his instinct would soon teach him that which appears to be at present beyond the grasp of his intellect, viz., the difference between a cow-hide and a dog-whip; and if he knew anything of his own country, he could scarcely be ignorant that the instruments used for corporal punishment in army, navy, and prisons, are established by law or by a custom, as strong as law. But enough of this Athenian Reviewer, I offer for his reflection the old story, "Let her alone, poor thing; it amuses her, and does me no harm." The next time he tries to sling a stone, I hope he will not again crack his own skull in the clumsy endeavour.
"Ill nature blended-with cold blood Will make a critic sound and good. This useful lesson hence we learn, Bad wine to good sound vinegar will turn." OLD PAMPHLET.
I now launch my barque upon a wider ocean than before. The public must decide whether her sails shall flap listlessly against the masts, or swell before a stiff and prosperous breeze.
H.A.M.
CONTENTS.
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