sometimes salt-beef. The bread was only cakes
made of hog's-lard and wheaten flour, and
was never buttered. The dinner was salt-
beef and bread, and sometimes potatoes (which
were very bad, all over the country); at other
times, as a treat, a cow cabbage, which was
preserved in a cellar to keep it from frost;
and water to drink! This was in the winter.
They only had fresh beef when they killed a
cow which they could milk no more; nor was
there any butter used in the house for the
four months during which the junior
Parkinson resided in it.

Mr. Parkinson had employed a servant who
had lived in "those boasted backwoods," as
he calls them. The servant was an Irishman,
and had been hired by a man who had
purchased land in Kentucky, in order to clear it,
and grow Indian corn. "How," he asks, "did
they live?" They built themselves a log-
house, which was open at the sides, by reason
of the logs not lying close to each other.
There was no entrance to it save at the top,
like the hatchway of a ship. When they had
raised their corn, and wanted it ground, they
had forty miles to go to a mill, which, with
returning, was two days' journey. When the
master was absent, on these occasions, the
servant was left alone, and was much
frightened by the owls screeching—supposing
the Indians were coming to kill him in the
night; it being a common custom of these
savages to come into the house, and lie by the
fire, nor did the inhabitants dare to prevent
them.

There were no good servants or labourers
to be had in America: so, at least, Mr.
Parkinson thought. Working-men emigrating,
were sure to be lamentably disappointed.
They were speedily ruined on their arrival,
and were ashamed to return to their native
country in a reduced state, to be made the
scoff of their former acquaintance. More than
this, working-men had it seldom in their power
to get back; for if they had no money to pay
their passage, the captains of ships would not
bring them from America, on the terms on
which they were taken. These terms were
peculiarly infamous, and as we have no reason
to doubt the Genuine Britisher's trust-
worthiness in matters of fact, however much he
may be prejudiced in matters of opinion, we
are compelled to witness the disclosure of an
atrocious system of White Slavery in America
existing and flourishing after the Declaration
of Independence, after the Revolution,
after the Peace, by which the United States
were erected into a Free Republic; nay,
existing within the present century. There
were men in all the American ports ready
to buy emigrants as slaves on their first
arrival; and as slaves they were sold, for
certain terms of years, by the ship-captains to
reimburse them for the passage-money from
Europe. But these miserable creatures wanting
clothing, and not having the means of
purchasing it during their stated time of
servitude, were compelled to get the money
of their masters, and were so kept in the
same state the greatest part of their lives.
Anything more abominable than the following
story, it is difficult to imagine. A Dutchman
who had lost all his property, which was
considerable, by the war with France, met with
the captain of an American ship, who offered
him and his two sons, a free passage to
America; but at the end of the voyage the captain
offered them all for sale to pay for the passage.
They were bought by Messrs. Ricketts, who
paid the captain ready money for them, and
were to repay those gentlemen by labour for
a certain term of years. The old Dutchman,
naturally obstinate, and not unnaturally
indignant, at having been thus villanously
kidnapped, refused to work, and was therefore
(as was usual) whipped with the
cowhide, in the same way as the negroes. The
old man, however, notwithstanding several
renewed inflictions of this punishment,
held out firmly, and still persisting in his
obstinacy, and being very old, the
Messrs. Ricketts kindly gave him his
liberty, and kept his two boys to work out
the sum.

With regard to servants, the Genuine
Britisher comes out in his strongest colours. He
warns Englishmen that the liberty and
equality dreamed of by some who emigrated
from these kingdoms to America would not
be found very pleasant. He would, as a
servant, have to eat, drink, and sleep, with
the negro slaves; for, as the master cannot
keep three tables, the white servant, unless
he dine with his master, ("and I have heard
of their doing that," writes Mr. Parkinson,
with true British horror), must necessarily
feed at the second table, which was that of
the darkies. Another thing about which
Mr. Parkinson complains most lamentably is,
that among the white people in America they
were all Mr. and Sir, or Madam and Miss—
so that in conversation you could not
discover which was the master and which the
man—which the mistress or which the
maid.

Now, our tourist explained, this custom of
being called Mr. and Sir sat so uneasily upon
an English servant, that he was sure speedily
to become the greatest puppy imaginable, and
much unpleasanter, even, than the negro.
Then, he adds, as all men imitate their
betters in pride and consequence, when the
negroes met together they were all Mr. and
Madam among themselves. It was the same
with respect to the manner of wearing their
hair—almost every one, child or man, had his
hair powdered or tied in a club. The negroes
the same; but as the hair of the negroes
is short, it was customary to hang lead to
it during the week, that it might have
length enough to be tied on the Sunday.

The Genuine Britisher's complaints increase
thick and threefold throughout the volume;
but they are so numerous that I cannot dwell