A Year's Residence in the United States of America

William Cobbett (1763-1835) was an English farmer and political reformer. He is best known for his Rural Rides (1830), also reissued in this series, which documents the life of nineteenth-century British agricultural workers and calls for social change. In 1816-7 Cobbett campaigned energetically for parliamentary reform, but when new anti-Radical legislation was passed he fled to North America and settled on a Long Island farm. This book, first published in 1818 and reissued here in its second edition (1819), contains Cobbett's account of his year in exile. It describes the climate, soil and crops he observed and the vegetables he grew, as well as the economics of farming in America. Part 2 discusses American customs, laws, and religion. Part 3 contains a description of the mid-West by Thomas Hulme, followed by Cobbett's rebuttal of Hulme's view of the 'Western Countries' as a desirable destination for emigrant British farmers.