A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States

In 1852, Frederick Law Olmsted, began his first journey down the Eastern Seaboard to visit the slave states of Washington, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.

His dispatches to The New York Times form the basis of this fascinating account of slavery before the American Civil War.

This first-person account of the pre-war South presents a stark depiction of those states which relied upon a slave economy.

He provides a vivid description of how both the slave-owning elites and the African-American populations lived and worked, supporting his observations with critical analysis.

“A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States remains a classic on a par with Alexis de Tocqueville’s endlessly cited critique of a generation earlier.” The New York Review of Books

“As an argument against slavery, his book seems to us worth any number of Uncle Tom’s Cabins; for he writes upon the subject without noise or passion, and contents himself with stating in a simple manner what he has observed, and what conclusions he has founded upon his observations.” The Saturday Review

“No one can ever understand rightly the industrial and economic history of the southern states without a definite conception of the practical workings of slavery itself. These are the considerations which make Mr. Olmstead’s book of permanent value.” Francis W. Shepardson, Journal of Political Economy

“Some of the most interesting works that have been written on America … are the production of a native, Mr. F. L. Olmsted.” The British Quarterly Review

A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States is essential reading for anyone interested in nineteenth century American history and the development of the abolition movement before the American Civil War.

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator and landscape architect. He was particularly famous for assisting in the design of many of America’s most loved parks, including Central Park in New York City, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Elm Park in Worcester, Massachusetts. He wrote three different accounts of his travels across America. A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States is his most famous and was published in 1856. Olmsted died in 1903.

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