{"id":"01KG8AKVQ88DEYFXGKWAZ7SB2X","cid":"bafkreif5tmncd7z6iikqgaodbu6rfrwdoaxllg7ze4ugy5r3bx6zfoocla","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7969,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":7901,"text":"clung to his arms and legs; and, in God’s name, conjured him not to\r\ndesert them. He seemed bent upon rushing down to the water, and\r\ndrowning himself, in some despair, and craziness of wretchedness. In\r\nthese haunts, beggary went on before me wherever I walked, and dogged\r\nme unceasingly at the heels. Poverty, poverty, poverty, in almost\r\nendless vistas: and want and woe staggered arm in arm along these\r\nmiserable streets.\r\n\r\nAnd here, I must not omit one thing, that struck me at the time. It was\r\nthe absence of negroes; who in the large towns in the “free states” of\r\nAmerica, almost always form a considerable portion of the destitute.\r\nBut in these streets, not a negro was to be seen. All were whites; and\r\nwith the exception of the Irish, were natives of the soil: even\r\nEnglishmen; as much Englishmen, as the dukes in the House of Lords.\r\nThis conveyed a strange feeling: and more than any thing else, reminded\r\nme that I was not in my own land. For _there,_ such a being as a native\r\nbeggar is almost unknown; and to be a born American citizen seems a\r\nguarantee against pauperism; and this, perhaps, springs from the virtue\r\nof a vote.\r\n\r\nSpeaking of negroes, recalls the looks of interest with which\r\nnegro-sailors are regarded when they walk the Liverpool streets. In\r\nLiverpool indeed the negro steps with a prouder pace, and lifts his\r\nhead like a man; for here, no such exaggerated feeling exists in\r\nrespect to him, as in America. Three or four times, I encountered our\r\nblack steward, dressed very handsomely, and walking arm in arm with a\r\ngood-looking English woman. In New York, such a couple would have been\r\nmobbed in three minutes; and the steward would have been lucky to\r\nescape with whole limbs. Owing to the friendly reception extended to\r\nthem, and the unwonted immunities they enjoy in Liverpool, the black\r\ncooks and stewards of American ships are very much attached to the\r\nplace and like to make voyages to it.\r\n\r\nBeing so young and inexperienced then, and unconsciously swayed in some\r\ndegree by those local and social prejudices, that are the marring of\r\nmost men, and from which, for the mass, there seems no possible escape;\r\nat first I was surprised that a colored man should be treated as he is\r\nin this town; but a little reflection showed that, after all, it was\r\nbut recognizing his claims to humanity and normal equality; so that, in\r\nsome things, we Americans leave to other countries the carrying out of\r\nthe principle that stands at the head of our Declaration of\r\nIndependence.\r\n\r\nDuring my evening strolls in the wealthier quarters, I was subject to a\r\ncontinual mortification. It was the humiliating fact, wholly unforeseen\r\nby me, that upon the whole, and barring the poverty and beggary,\r\nLiverpool, away from the docks, was very much such a place as New York.\r\nThere were the same sort of streets pretty much; the same rows of\r\nhouses with stone steps; the same kind of side-walks and curbs; and the\r\nsame elbowing, heartless-looking crowd as ever.\r\n\r\nI came across the Leeds Canal, one afternoon; but, upon my word, no one\r\ncould have told it from the Erie Canal at Albany. I went into St.\r\nJohn’s Market on a Saturday night; and though it was strange enough to\r\nsee that great roof supported by so many pillars, yet the most\r\ndiscriminating observer would not have been able to detect any\r\ndifference between the articles exposed for sale, and the articles\r\nexhibited in Fulton Market, New York.\r\n\r\nI walked down Lord-street, peering into the jewelers’ shops; but I\r\nthought I was walking down a block in Broadway. I began to think that\r\nall this talk about travel was a humbug; and that he who lives in a\r\nnut-shell, lives in an epitome of the universe, and has but little to\r\nsee beyond him.\r\n\r\nIt is true, that I often thought of London’s being only seven or eight\r\nhours’ travel by railroad from where I was; and that _there,_ surely,\r\nmust be a world of wonders waiting my eyes: but more of London anon.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS9XB90CSQV2ZADZDR2R","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVQ0RCSNQRBZXXNCR2MB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVQ0M4TAADEKF8E6CBRJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.152Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.844Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}