Black and White

The British barrister Henry Latham's thoughtful letters, describing three months he spent in the United States, were published in 1867. His intention in recording the details of his travels was to encourage other Englishmen and women to visit their American cousins and make their own judgements as to their true manner and spirit. He expressed the hope that greater social contact would foster better understanding between the two nations. Latham remarked that Americans of that period were far more hospitable and hearty than the English, and observed that there existed in the land of freedom a highly motivating suspicion that contentment was a spurious kind of virtue invented by the English aristocracy. To his accounts of cities from Niagara and New York to Atlanta and New Orleans, Latham added supplementary chapters reflecting on the chances of survival for Black and indigenous Americans.