"A MOCKERY SO GROSS AND MONSTROUS": SLAVERY IN DICKENS'S MANUSCRIPT OF "AMERICAN NOTES FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION"

JOEL J. BRATTIN (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) Dickens returned to England after his first trip to America in 1842 with several criticisms of what he had seen in the New World, which he expressed clearly in his travel book, American Notes for General Circulation, published in October of that same year. Unpublished passages, crossed out passages, passages added in proof, extensively revised passages, passages not actually by Dickens, and even passages in someone else's handwriting — all play their part in revealing Dickens's abhorrence of slavery, and his methods of communicating the depth of his feelings.1 Dickens began the manuscript of his book with an introduction, which he labeled “Chapter the First [/] Introductory [/] And necessary to be read.” In the manuscript, he characterizes slavery as that hideous blot and foul disgrace, which makes “the Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America” an unanimous lie; and their solemn assertions that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness; and that to secure these rights Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed; a mockery so gross and monstrous: before which common honor and common sense do so sicken and fall down; that even these noble sentiments, with such alloy, inspire but loathing and disgust. Chapter four, treating Dickens's visit to Lowell, contains another brief passage treating race relations in the north before the Civil War.