(PENNSYLVANIA) Plant James Letter by a recent immigrant from

Sale 2263 - Lot 225

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Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

"RIGHT ANGLES, CUTE LAWYERS, DELICIOUS BUTTER AND DELIGHTFUL WOMEN" (PENNSYLVANIA.) Plant, James. Letter by a recent immigrant from England to Pennsylvania. Autograph Letter Signed to friend Mark Wood in England. 3 pages on one sheet, cross-written on each, worn at folds with archival tape repairs. Philadelphia, 8 November 1846

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James Plant was born in England circa 1820, and in 1846 made his way to Pennsylvania, where he worked as a farm laborer for a countryman who had settled outside of Philadelphia. He here describes Philadelphia as a city "famed for right angles, cute lawyers, delicious butter and delightful women." He found the American pace of work daunting: "the men are such dreadful fast workers that it is almost surprising there is any work to do." He noted that "nothing looks permanent and lasting, and a farm compared with a modern English one has the appearance of wreck or ruin, but the Americans boast themselves upon being a remarkable people and in some respects they are. . . . The country is a noble one." He concludes, though, that "the people, while they possess many excellent qualities, are not so honestly straightforward as our own countrymen."
Plant remained on Wilson's farm for at least three years, and then apparently married an American girl, working as a Philadelphia woolen mill clerk through at least 1880.