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chapter four Yeomen All Frederick Law Olmsted and the Consolidation of the American Economy and Culture The spirit of capitalism . . . had to fight its way to supremacy against a whole world of hostile forces. max weber In a brief letter to his younger brother, John, Frederick Law Olmsted once wrote, “I believe that our farmers are, and have cause to be, the most contented men in the world” (qtd. in Fein 12). For a man who regularly left his own farm in the hands of other family members or various tenants, this statement seems rather ironic, for Frederick Law Olmsted was anything but content on the 185-acre Staten Island farm his father had purchased for him in 1847. Initially interested in “scientific farming,” Frederick had hoped to create a model farm that could serve as a beacon to the independent yeomen of the region, and he did spend several productive years at this employment, growing prize-winning fruits and vegetables, helping to establish a county agricultural society, and introducing a number of innovations to the traditional farming techniques employed in the area.1 After his initial excitement dissipated, however, Olmsted’s restless energy and curious mind failed to provide him with the patience to stay on his farm for any extended period of time. Instead, he followed a number of other pursuits, beginning in 1850 with a trip to England with his brother, John, and a friend, Charles Loring Brace. Upon his return, Olmsted wrote and published Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England, a book whose title is indicative both of Olmsted’s peripatetic nature and his definition of himself. Like Crèvecoeur, Olmsted pictured himself as an American farmer, even though his almost constant travels tended to undermine this self-representation. Using the little fame he had garnered from the publication of this first book, in 1852 Olmsted won a position with the New York Times as a traveling correspondent in the southern United States.2 He departed for the South in 142 chapter four December, traveling down the seaboard states and along the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, returning to New York in April 1853. A second trip took him and his brother through Kentucky and Tennessee to New Orleans, on horseback to Texas, and back to New Orleans, after which John sailed for home while Frederick covered much of the territory in the “back country” he had already seen, arriving in New York in early August 1854.3 Olmsted originally went South, he explained in a letter to Frederick Kingsbury in October 1852, “mainly with the idea that I could make a valuable book of observations on Southern Agriculture & general economy as affected by Slavery; the condition of the slaves— prospects—tendencies—& reliable understanding of the sentiments and hopes & fears of sensible planters & gentlemen that I should meet. Matter of fact matter to come after the deluge of spoony fancy pictures now at its height shall be spent” (Slavery and the South 82).4 His primary interest, he states, is agriculture and the economy. While he will certainly investigate slavery, he had assured his editor that he would not argue from a deeply partisan position. Unlike his friend Brace, Olmsted was no abolitionist, and his fairly conservative opinions on slavery and abolition arise throughout his private letters and published works. His primary goal with the newspaper series, he explains here and in the first article published in the New-York Daily Times, was to observe firsthand the customs and condition of the inhabitants of the South, white and black, and to report his findings “with candor and fidelity” (SS 86). Upon returning to New York in 1854 from his second southern trip, Olmsted began immediately to revise his letters for book publication. He revised slowly, for he wanted to include additional material discovered during his extensive research in New York libraries and his wide reading of newspapers, journals, and pamphlets. The three books that grew out of his collections of newspaper articles, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, A Journey through Texas, and A Journey in the Back Country, were published in 1856, 1857, and 1860 respectively . The Cotton Kingdom, a consolidation of these three, appeared in 1861. In addition to revising his articles, during this period Olmsted also became involved in the New York literary establishment, as an editor of Putnam’s Magazine and as a part owner of Dix, Edwards, and Company, the publishing house that brought out...

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