Wednesday, September 4, 2013

What does the document "A Ride on the Erie Canal" suggest about the revolution the country was undergoing?During the 1st half of the 19th century?

Because you tagged this with "Frances Trollope," I assume
that you are asking about an excerpt from her Domestic Manners of the
Americans
, Chapter 32 (see link below).  If so, this document shows that
America was becoming a country more aggressively concerned with money and trade and less
concerned with the sort of manners that were more important in Europe and in past times
in the US.


This time period saw an explosion of economic
activity with the creation of the Erie Canal, the Lowell Factories, and to some extent
even railroads.  America was becoming more and more of a market society (as opposed to
one of self-sufficient subsistence farming.  This, one can argue, made Americans more
pushy and concerned with their money and themselves.


This
can be seen in Trollope's description of the canal boat ride.  The people are pushy and
do not speak politely and deferentially to one another.  The "Yankees" are described in
ways that show them to be arrogant and excessively (to Trollope) concerned with money
and business.


These observations show that the US was
rapidly pushing towards a more economically-oriented society where manners and gentility
took a back seat to economics and money.

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