Domestic Manners of the Americans

“I left England with feelings so strongly opposed to slavery, that it was not without pain I witnessed its effects around me.”

Still early in the book, Trollope establishes one of her main premises: the evils of slavery. Entering America by the south, Trollope sees the existence of slavery immediately in the streets of New Orleans. Trollope came to America in large part from the inspiration of Fanny Wright’s abolitionist ideals. Yet Trollope combines anti-slavery sentiment with a dislike for democracy, a combination that might be seen to have inherent tension.

“How very childish does ignorance make us! And how very ignorant we are upon almost every subject, where hear-say evidence is all we can get!”

Trollope says this in connection with her initial pity for enslaved people, without realizing what their “real situation” was. In a larger sense, the quote relates to Trollope’s conviction that her account of America will present the country as it really is, from accurate observation, and not merely from rumor or hearsay. Trollope hopes to dispel ignorance about the reality of America.

“I hardly know any annoyance so deeply repugnant to English feelings, as the incessant, remorseless spitting of Americans.”

For Trollope, Americans’ habit of spitting out their chewing tobacco in public (a practice she first sees on board the ship to New Orleans) exemplifies the coarseness of American society. Although she will provide many other examples, the spitting is the most memorable and repeatedly mentioned instance. This complaint of Trollope’s became famous and is believed to have led to a decrease in the spitting habit.

“‘Our manners are very good manners, and we don’t wish any changes from England.’”

A hotel proprietor says this to Trollope after she and her companions opt to take their tea in their rooms instead of in the common room, insisting that they are obliged to take their meals in community. The quote illustrates the pride and touchiness of Americans that Trollope claims, especially toward the “mother country,” England, toward which there are still unhealed wounds.

“The ‘simple’ manner of living in Western America was more distasteful to me from its levelling effects on the manners of the people, than from the personal privations that it rendered necessary.”

As a relatively new settlement, Western America (what we today call the Midwest) fosters a lifestyle without the creature comforts of more established societies. Trollope has trouble adjusting to such a lifestyle, but here she argues that her stronger objection is to the way that such a lifestyle coarsens people’s manners—one of her main complaints throughout the book.

“[B]ut there are points of national peculiarity of which women may judge as ably as men—all that constitutes the external of society may be fairly entrusted to us.”

Here Trollope positions herself specifically as a female writer: She argues that women are particularly skilled at describing manners and everyday life as opposed to politics and government, which are viewed as a male domain. Trollope thus defends her particular focus in Domestic Manners and her qualifications to write about common everyday life.

“Notwithstanding all this, the country is a very fine country, well worth visiting for a thousand reasons; nine hundred and ninety-nine of these are reasons founded on admiration and respect; the thousandth is, that we shall feel the more contented with our own.”

A good example of Trollope’s use of irony in the book: It is not clear how seriously she means the first statement, since she gives little motive for admiration and respect of America in the book. However, the conclusion that visiting America will make British people love Britain more (and abandon any desire to imitate America) is a strong motive running throughout the book.

“Shakespeare, Madam, is obscene, and, thank God, WE are sufficiently advanced to have found it out!”

This is uttered by an American “man of reading” with whom Trollope converses in Cincinnati. Reporting much of their conversation, Trollope uses the man as an illustration of American’s comically obtuse and puritanical mindset when it comes to high literature. Trollope implies that Americans in their cultural attitudes combine over-delicacy with arrogant ignorance, believing themselves to be on the cutting edge of progress when (for Trollope) they are just the opposite.

“But I sometimes think, sir, that your fences might be in more thorough repair, and your roads in better order, if less time was spent in politics.”

This quote is spoken by Trollope to one of her Cincinnati neighbors. One of Trollope’s complaints about America is that there is too much emphasis on politics in the form of elections, campaigning, and newspapers, and that this focus takes time and energy away from actual progress being made in society and infrastructure. Americans are so wrapped up in their much-valued freedom and independence that they end up impeding social progress. Throughout the book, Trollope uses transcribed conversations as a way to depict Americans’ attitudes in a direct way.

“All the freedom enjoyed in America, beyond what is enjoyed in England, is enjoyed solely by the disorderly at the expense of the orderly.”

It is Trollope’s contention that democracy, while claiming to give freedom to all, favors lawlessness and irresponsibility. What immediately occasions this statement is the discovery that a slaughterhouse is to be built near her house outside Cincinnati. Trollope is offended at the lack of deference shown to “the richer classes” and sees democracy as a force that puts everybody on the same low level.

“It is not in the temper of the people either to give or to receive.”

Trollope suggests that there is less almsgiving in America than elsewhere in the world, basing this supposition on a notice about the president donating a relatively small amount to the poor. She observes that Americans, obsessed with independence and self-reliance, don’t like to give or receive gifts—another feature of society that, for Trollope, renders it graceless and uncivilized. However, the instance she gives is not one of “individual charity” as she claims but of a (possibly ceremonial) state action.

“Strong, indeed, must be the love of equality in an English breast if it can survive a tour through the Union.”

This quote echoes the basic theme of the book: that realities in America disprove the goodness and wisdom of democracy. This reflects Trollope’s basic trajectory from the beginning to the end of her journey. She came to America a believer in equality, but once she saw its effects, she comes back a conservative believer in monarchy and social class.

“[E]nthusiasm is not either the virtue or the vice of America.”

This reflects a key theme in Trollope’s observations about American character: Americans are a dull people preoccupied with business, money-making, and work (what would later be termed the “Protestant work ethic”). Accordingly, Americans rarely get excited or enthusiastic about anything that doesn’t directly concern them or their business. Trollope claims this in part because of the “cold silence” with which the Cincinnatians greet the arrival of the president’s ship.

“I never saw a population so totally divested of gaiety; there is no trace of this feeling from one end of the Union to the other.”

Building on the previous quote, just as Americans are dull and obsessed with business, they have a corresponding indifference to joy, pleasure, or festivity (apart from the 4th of July). This ties in with Trollope’s larger conviction about American society’s coarseness and indifference toward the finer graces of life.

“It often appeared to me that the old women of the state made the laws, and the young men broke them.”

This quote is occasioned by the fact that amusements like the theater and gambling are widely disapproved in America and hard to sustain long-term. Trollope’s point is that Americans are governed by a puritanical ethic, but that there are efforts to break the hold of these laws. This connects with the larger theme of the puritanism of American values, including a shunning of amusements or “gaiety.”

“Let America give a fair portion of her attention to the arts and the graces that embellish life, and I will make her another visit, and write another book as unlike this as possible.”

Trollope finds the care taken to display official seals in Washington refreshing and wishes that such refinement was more widespread. Indeed, one of the major themes of Domestic Manners is the need for refinement and grace in society as contributing to a civilized way of life. Here Trollope frames her criticism in a more positive way than usual.

“But it is impossible for any mind of common honesty not to be revolted by the contradictions in their principles and practice.”

Trollope has been reflecting on the cruel and unjust treatment of the Indigenous Americans by the US government, which she finds backed up by the attitudes of the American people. She finds this in deep conflict with Americans’ claims about “liberality and the love of freedom” (168). This, for Trollope, is her main objection to American life—not its lack of refinement, but its hypocrisy. However, it could be argued Trollope herself shows an ambiguous stance on freedom and equality throughout the book, disapproving it when it produces results that are inconvenient or offensive to her.

“[T]he lamentable insignificance of the American women.”

The status of women (see Themes) is one of the issues about which Trollope is most passionate in the book. She sees women as holding an inferior status in American society, mostly confined to the home and family life, having no influence in society, and often not well-respected even at home. Trollope argues that this situation needs to change if America is ever to be a great country on a par with Europe.

“The want of warmth, of interest, of feeling, upon all subjects which do not immediately touch their own concerns, is universal, and has a most paralysing effect upon conversation.”

Another, related complaint about the American people is that they are self-centered and always focused on business, money-making, and private concerns—an extension of the high value placed on independence and individualism. For Trollope, the almost exclusive focus of Americans on pride in their independence makes for a monotonous and closed-off society which is unable to sympathize with other people or nations.

“The rare occurrence of capital punishment in America.”

In one of the most condemning claims in the book, Trollope argues that the rarity of capital punishment is not, as Americans claim, evidence of a low crime rate. Rather it is due to the fact that criminals often evade the law, especially in frontier communities where policing is sparse. This discussion is occasioned by the hanging of an Irish immigrant for a crime, which also raises the issue of immigrants being prosecuted to the exclusion of Americans.

“Nothing can exceed their activity and perseverance in all kinds of speculation, handicraft, and enterprise, which promises a profitable pecuniary result.”

According to Trollope, Americans’ greatest strong point is their industry and application to projects and causes; however, Trollope sours this judgment by adding that this is true when monetary gain is involved. Indeed, the love of money is one of the worst qualities of Americans and it poisons their minds and manners.

“No people appear more anxious to excite admiration and receive applause than the Americans, yet none take so little trouble, or make so few sacrifices to obtain it.”

Related to all the deficiencies of the American character as seen by Trollope, they believe in their own uniqueness and virtue and desperately want approval by outsiders. However, they believe they can simply coast on liberty and equality—the values of the American founding—without making personal effort at improvement in the present. For Trollope, such laziness and self-satisfaction make Americans deeply unappealing.

“In truth, were all America like this fair city, and all, no, only a small proportion of its population like the friends we left there, I should say, that the land was the fairest in the world.”

For Trollope, New York City is the great exception to her negative experience of America. She finds there “elegant hospitality,” visual beauty, and cultivated people and social life. Perhaps one of the most purely positive assessments in the book, this quote shows Trollope’s willingness to change her view of America if the country itself were to modify itself in some respects.