In visiting a rice plantation, my object was not so much to satisfy myself that the slave-owners of America are kind to their negroes, as to satisfy the public opinion of Charleston that English travelers are not prejudiced against Southern proprietors... -from "A Rice Plantation" Life and Liberty in America in America. The title is intentionally ironic-Charles Mackay was well aware of the paradox of studying liberty in a slave-holding nation; his biting wit and extraordinarily opinionated personality shines through in this intriguing work. Subtitled "Sketches of a Tour in the United States and Canada in 1857-8" and first published in 1860, Mackay"s impressions span the continent, from New York"s Broadway at night-which is far less the boulevard of vice Mackay expected, and nothing, he assures, to compare to the decadence of London or Paris-to the Mormons of Utah-McKay bitterly wonders why America"s freedom of religion should extend to a faith he deems "superstitious." As a...