Every family historian eventually asks at the same question: What was the world like for the people whose names fill our family tree? Records and documents present insights, but they are just glimpses. My current work in progress starts in Frankfurt where I set the stage. The family immigrates to Washington City (DC) looking for a better life. I wanted to understand the community they joined, the realities of their lives, and possibly a better understanding of the decisions they made based on what was happening in the world around them.
I began exploring the geography and social culture which would help transform the historical facts into a living world. A world I could place myself and my characters in. Washington City as it was called in 1834 was referred to as “the city of magnificent Intentions” for a good reason. I had a few books on the subject, but they were textbooks with historical information gathered from a variety sources. It certainly helped but there was just a sprinkling of firsthand knowledge written in them.
I was excited to delve even deeper into the city where my family had lived almost two hundred years ago. I dug to find writings of those who saw of the city for themselves in 1834-1836. Each of the authors I discovered had different reasons for writing about Washington City. I may never understand the differences in viewpoint, but it was fascinating to read each of them.
Frances Trollope
She was a controversial writer of the time and unlike other writers she wrote in her 1832 book that Washington City was “light, cheerful, and airy,” and it reminded her of the fashionable watering-places in England.
“Instead of the busy bustling hustle of men . . . you see very well-dressed personages lounging leisurely up and down Pennsylvania Avenue”; congressmen were paid handsomely to simply sit around and “talk a little.”
However, her son Anthony wrote his impressions in 1862 in his travel book. He wrote, “But Washington is but a ragged, unfinished collection of unbuilt broad streets, as to the completion of which there can now, I imagine, be but little hope. Of all places that I know it is the most ungainly and most unsatisfactory: I fear I must also say the most presumptuous in its pretensions.”
Harriet Martineau
Born in England, Harriet Martineau was journalist and writer of books in a variety of genres. She was a suffragette in later years. She extensively traveled the US in 1835 to examine American politics and the culture behind it. She wrote about the hypocrisy in America, citing the ideals of democracy and yet the acceptance of the slave trade and slavery itself and was against slavery. She inserted herself into American politics by attending Congressional meetings and speaking with men of power in Washington City.
She published “Society in America” in 1838, after spending two years in a variety of cities between 1834-1836. On Washington City Harriet Martineau wrote:
“Washington is no place for persons of domestic tastes. Persons who love dissipation, persons who love to watch the game of politics, and those who make a study of strong minds under strong excitements, like a season at Washington; but it is dreary to those whose pursuits and affections are domestic.” This summarized her 5-week time in Washington.
She wrote details about every aspect of life such as the foods like canvas-back duck, the muddy roads, and the changing of the weather at a moment’s notice. Harriet described the way the city was laid out without a real plan and the difficulty in travel because of the distances between.
She observed the people coming in and out of the city, writing about native American chiefs, southerners, cowboys, and the elite politicians and their wives. Each coming to the city on a temporary basis but there on a political mission. Many boarding houses sprung up to house these temporary residents.
Her level of description along with maps from the time period enabled me to visualize my characters and their life in Washington. Harriet herself makes an appearance in my novel.
James Silk Buckingham
James Buckingham spent almost four years in the United States in the late 1830’s. His intention was to write about society in America for a British audience. He wanted to bridge the gaps between the US and Britian with writing for cultural understanding. His book “America, Historical, Statistic and Descriptive” written in 1841 provided details that aided my descriptions of the historical time in Washington City. His descriptions all lined up with Harriet Martineau’s.
Mrs. Sarah E Vedder
Sarah Prettyman Vedder wrote with a completely different intention. She grew up in Washington DC. Her book “Washington City Seventy-Nine Years Ago; 1830-1909,” was written with the idea of preserving her personal history for her children.
Mrs. Vedder wrote at length about her experiences in school. She made many observations of the houses and who lived in them, but not stating the way the city was laid out until much later in the book. But as I read the detail about the distances between houses it was clear. Such as: “There were no more than twenty houses in the neighborhood, scattered here and there.”
She described the people, their homes and shops that made up the area of the city in which she grew up. Throughout her book there are many little gems of history and gossip including her opinions in the form of cultural anecdotes on the political figures of the time.
Reflection
Deep research of Washington City allowed me to more clearly see the world my family lived in and the society that shaped their daily lives. Through Harriet Martineau’s observations and other historical sources, I was able to view both the beauty and the contradictions of the city during this period. The culture, politics, geography, and social divisions of Washington all influenced the experiences of the people who lived there, including my ancestors. This research not only deepened my knowledge of the time period but also helped me imagine my characters and their lives more vividly as I wrote my novel.
Do you have an area that you love to research? I would love to hear more about it. Leave a comment or click reply to send me an email.
Are you planning any author events in Washington D.C.?
Fantastic quotes! Are your ancestors from DC?
We lived in one of the few remaining alleyway carriage houses in DC and I’ve loved learning about the history of DC’s alleyways. Thank you for this great article!