An American Journal, 1839-40

Richard Champion Rawlins sailed to the United States in 1839 to collect his family's share of the estate of his grandfather. His tour of America was planned with precision and to recorded a meticulous, exuberant and entertaining account of his travels, covering nearly 10,000 miles by stage, omnibus, steamboat, canal barge and railroad, from the east coast to the western frontier of the then 26 States, and from New Orleans to Quebec, crossing the Atlantic under sail and returning under steam. His diaries present a perceptive, balanced account of political, social and family life in both slave and free States in the early years of the Union, written by a young man with an impeccable Anglo-American pedigree. Richard Champion Rawlins, a 20-year-old Liverpool cotton broker, sailed to the United States in 1839 to collect his family's share of the estate of his grandfather, Richard Champion, a Bristol merchant, nephew by marriage of the Whig MP Charles James Fox, a close ally of Edmund Burke, and a supporter of the colonists. Champion was appointed Deputy Paymaster-General in the short-lived Whig coalition of 1783, and the following year emigrated to South Carolina.
His youngest daughter returned to England where she married Charles Edward Rawlins, and their son was the future diarist. A sister remained in the States and married Wilie Vaughan, and the two families had always kept in touch. Richard's tour of America was planned with precision - to spend three months with the Vaughans in Cincinnati, three months in the slave State of Louisiana buying cotton with the legacy and shipping it to England, and six months on tour - and to record for his family a meticulous, exuberant and entertaining account of his travels, covering nearly 10,000 miles by stage, omnibus, steamboat, canal barge and railroad, from the east coast to the western frontier of the then 26 States, and from New Orleans to Quebec, crossing the Atlantic under sail and returning under steam. His cousin John Champion Vaughan was a leading member of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party, and introduced him to his influential friends--judges, educators and Chio State Senators--and to the new Common Schools and Mechanics Institute with which they were associated. Rawlins listened intently to their views on the issues of the day and impressed them with his thirst for knowledge.
They gave him introductions to Senators and Congressmen in Washington, until hand by hand he reached the White House to be received by President Van Buren. The diaries, unearthed recently, present a perceptive, balanced account of political, social and family life in both slave and free States in the early years of the Union, written by a young man with an impeccable Anglo-American pedigree.