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 the
american
exception
volume 2

Frank J. Lechner
The American Exception, Volume 2
 Frank J. Lechner

The American
Exception, Volume 2
Frank J. Lechner
Department of Sociology
Emory University
Atlanta, USA

ISBN 978-1-137-58719-0    ISBN 978-1-137-58720-6 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58720-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957035

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

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Cover illustration: © Leigh Prather / Alamy Stock Photo

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

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 Preface to Volume 2

Both the preface and Chap. 1 in volume 1 explain the purpose and thrust
of this project. This volume completes it by analyzing exceptionalist claims
about the U.S. economy, government, media, and the military and foreign
affairs. Table 1 presents an overview of all the substantive chapters.

Table 1 Chapter overview

Institutional sector Illustrative case Main analysis Identity Global
discourse dimension
Religion Megachurches Evangelicalism and Civil religion Exporting
(Vol. 1, Chap. 3) the religious America’s God
exception
Law Capital Adversarial legalism The International
(Vol. 1, Chap. 4) punishment and the legal Constitution law
exception
Sports Baseball Football and the Race and sports Global games
(Vol. 1, Chap. 5) sports exception
Economy Housing Growth and Opportunity World
(Vol. 2, Chap. 1) the economic and mobility economy
exception
Government Health The welfare state Race and Immigration
(Vol. 2, Chap. 2) insurance and the citizenship
governmental
exception
Media Music Television and the Imagining Global movies
(Vol. 2, Chap. 3) media exception America
Military and foreign Wars on terror Military force and America’s Empire
policy the power exception mission
(Vol. 2, Chap. 4)

v
 Contents

1 “People of Plenty”: The American Economic Exception   1

1.1 Housing and the American Dream    2
1.2 Growth and the American Economic Exception   13
1.3 Opportunity, Mobility, and American Identity   29
1.4 The U.S. in the World Economy   41

2 “Land of Liberty”: The American Governmental Exception  61

2.1 Health Insurance and the American
Governmental Exception   63
2.2 The Welfare State and the American
Governmental Exception   71
2.3 Citizenship, Race, and American Identity   86
2.4 American Immigration in World Society 100

3 “No Business Like Show Business”:

The American Media Exception 119
3.1 America in Music 121
3.2 Television and the American Media Exception 130
3.3 Imagining America 143
3.4 America in Global Movies 159

vii
viii Contents

4 “Dangerous Nation”: The American Power Exception 177

4.1 Wars on Terror and the American Power Exception  178
4.2 Military Force and the American Power Exception 189
4.3 America’s Mission and American Identity 202
4.4 America and Global Empire  211

Index231
 List of Abbreviations

ACA Affordable Care Act

AFDC Aid to Families with Dependent Children
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis
EITC Earned Income Tax Credit
FCC Federal Communications Commission
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
FERA Federal Emergency Relief Act
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GOP Grand Old Party (Republican Party)
GSE Government-Sponsored Enterprise
IMF International Monetary Fund
MNE Multinational Enterprise
NAAC National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
NAS National Academy of Sciences
NBC National Broadcasting Company
OAI Old Age Insurance
OASI Old Age and Survivors Insurance
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
PPACA Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
PPP Purchasing Power Parity
RCA Radio Corporation of America
SSDI Social Security Disability Insurance
SSI Supplemental Security Income
WMD Weapons of Mass Destruction
WTC World Trade Center
ix
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 Comparative economic statistics 15

Table 1.2 Comparative statistics on mobility and inequality 39
Table 1.3 The U.S. in the world economy 48
Table 2.1 Comparative welfare state data 83
Table 4.1 The American military in comparison 191

xi
 CHAPTER 1

“People of Plenty”:
The American Economic Exception

Americans are an exceptional “people of plenty” (Potter 1954). Since

colonial times, North America has promised wealth and opportunity to
new settlers. As an independent country, the United States became first a
commercial and then an industrial power, overtaking Britain by the early
1900s. During the “American Century,” the U.S. led the way in creat-
ing a new kind of consumer economy that transformed daily life around
the globe. After World War II, it instigated a reorganization of the world
economy, forging a new financial infrastructure while promoting trade.
At the end of the twentieth century, primarily American innovations
ushered in the information age, yet another revolution mostly Made in
USA. In their usual fashion, finding vindication of the country’s virtues in
its practices, Americans have also given special meaning to material prog-
ress. That progress has mattered greatly to individual Americans, whose
uncommonly eager striving for material success has provoked much visitor
commentary over the years. Giving the pursuit of happiness a particular
slant, as the birthright of individuals and the mark of an exceptional social
system, they made it central to the national identity. Without some real
success to back it up, evident in the country’s economic size, leadership,
and abundance, all other talk about exceptionalism would have rung hol-
low. Its exceptional growth machine proved it was not bragging.

© The Author(s) 2017 1

F.J. Lechner, The American Exception, Volume 2,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58720-6_1
2 F.J. LECHNER

As the first section of this chapter shows, many Americans have long
identified the “American Dream” of material success with a house and
yard in a suburban neighborhood; boosted by ample government sup-
port, housing became a key sector in the economy, with less-than-dreamy
consequences around 2008. The next section looks more broadly at the
design, fuel, and performance of the American growth machine, show-
ing by comparison how the country’s peculiar “variety of capitalism” out-
paced others until recently. The third part of the chapter returns to the
link between economic activity and national identity by asking how, or if,
the idea of a socially equal “land of opportunity” remained viable in a very
economically unequal society. The concluding section again broadens the
perspective by focusing on aspects of the economic impact the U.S. has
had in the world at large, both through economic competition and by set-
ting rules for the world economy.

1.1   Housing and the American Dream

In the early morning of September 15, 2008, the old New York invest-
ment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed. Culminating a period of rising
economic trouble, the implosion sent shock waves through the world’s
financial system. America’s exceptional problems, laid bare by the Lehman
fiasco, triggered a deep and widespread crisis.
The trouble had started with housing, long a key sector of the American
economy, but percolated quickly through the whole financial system
(FCIC 2011; Blinder 2013; Wolf 2014). For years, with government
backing, lenders eager to increase profits had loaned ever-larger sums to
ever-larger groups of borrowers eager to get their share of the “American
Dream.” The rise in American house prices, about 70% in major cities
between 2001 and 2006 (Glaeser and Sinai 2013: 1), convinced lenders
to keep lending and borrowers to keep borrowing. By 2006, some 69% of
Americans owned their homes, but about 20% of new mortgages went to
borrowers with poor credit who received high-interest, “subprime” loans
(Keys et al. 2013). More ominously, prices had begun to decline. That
derailed the plans of owners who had assumed large obligations expecting
to ease their burden by refinancing their loans on better terms or by enjoy-
ing the windfall of growing home equity. As a result, more borrowers,
especially in the riskier subprime category, began to default than experts
had expected, which decreased the value of securities based on mortgage
debt and caused lenders to lose serious money on their mortgage bets.
 “PEOPLE OF PLENTY”: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC EXCEPTION 3

Because those innovative securities had come to play an important role as

collateral in short-term lending, signs of trouble triggered a run on invest-
ment banks that used them for that purpose, forcing them to sell assets
(Gorton and Metrick 2013). Early in 2008, the investment bank Bear
Stearns, brought low by the resulting losses, had to be rescued by oth-
ers to avoid a messy bankruptcy. Later in the year, none stepped forward
to save Lehman. Like many of its peers, the firm had borrowed heavily
to invest in subprime mortgages, leveraging minimal equity to maximize
profits. Unlike its counterparts, which mostly sold those mortgages in the
form of bond-like securities to outside investors, it had held on to a higher
share. When those investments soured, Lehman could not cover its losses.
Its stock plummeted and clients left. Unable to pay its bills or find a res-
cuer, it had to declare bankruptcy, with debts exceeding assets by more
than $100 billion. Other firms scrambled to pick up Lehman’s pieces but
failed to contain the damage.
That damage was severe. The Dow Jones index lost more than 500
points later that September 15, followed by drops of over 4000 points in
the months to come. In the last quarter of 2008, the country lost more
than half a million jobs per month. Lehman’s demise hit its many credi-
tors and partners hard, thus spreading the pain. Uncertain about their
partners’ health, banks stopped dealing with each other, causing a credit
crunch that paralyzed business. The world’s largest insurance company,
AIG, which had insured much mortgage-related debt, tottered before
government officials arranged a takeover, an action so drastic it was later
declared illegal. At least one money-market fund invested in Lehman could
no longer repay the full value of customer deposits, raising consumer anxi-
ety. Already stressed before Lehman’s failure, other banks suffered further
losses, endangering the American and global financial system to such an
extent that the U.S. government stepped in with a $700 billion package
to recapitalize banks and restore confidence. In the next few years, house
prices would fall by 30%, reversing a 71% rise in the previous decade,
14% of mortgages would go delinquent or into foreclosure, housing starts
would decline by 68%, and house values would decrease by some $9 tril-
lion (Smith and Wachter 2011: 2). Home ownership rates that had risen
from 64.2% in 1995 to 69.2% in 2004 receded by mid-2016 to 62.9%
(Callis and Kreslin 2016: 5).
As the housing market went into a trough, the U.S. economy entered
a deep recession. The depth of the crisis showed how important housing
had become to the country’s economic health. Rising to 6.1% of GDP
4 F.J. LECHNER

just prior to the crisis—and 18.6% if all housing-related services were

included—homebuilding had boosted growth and employment (NAHB
2016). Mortgage lending had benefitted financial institutions. Owners
took advantage of rising prices to take out equity and raise their consump-
tion. To be sure, America’s bubble was not unique: other housing markets
had heated up, imprudent financing occurred in many places, and tum-
bling values in several countries amplified the general recession (Hilbers
et al. 2008; FCIC 2011: 158, 415). Yet at a time of global stress the
U.S. stood out in the sheer scale and complexity of its troubles. Those
troubles, caused in part by the economic conditions and creative finan-
cial alchemy of the 2000s, also had deep domestic roots. Long-standing
policies, such as government support for mortgage lending, rules allow-
ing a 30-year payback period on loans, and tax deductions for interest
payments, had promoted home ownership. To Americans, it represented
more than shelter: owning meant pursuing the “American Dream.” In
post-war America, the dream became real for millions in the suburbs that
redefined American life, solidifying the link between mere shelter and
national identity. Government had facilitated that transformation, dis-
tinctively shaping the political economy of housing long before the crisis
of 2008. Though uniquely important both for historical reasons and in
the run-up to the crisis, that political economy also displays features of
America’s exceptional economic organization and prowess. At the local
level, Harvey Molotch (1976) argued, American political, developer, and
professional elites typically collaborated closely to intensify land use, turn-
ing the city into a “growth machine.” The idea applies more broadly to
the system as a whole, for through the entwinement of government, busi-
ness, and interest groups across many sectors the U.S. itself became an
unusually powerful growth machine.

1.1.1  
Building the Dream in a Suburban Nation
Even before the actual founding of the United States, earnest colonists
thought hard about their homes, initiating the “continuing American
theme” of using them to express the values of a Tocquevillean demo-
cratic, socially equal community (Wright 1981: xv, 4). In the nineteenth
century, Gwendolyn Wright argues, the task of “defining the American
home” even became a “national mission” of promoting plain “republican”
homes to instill “democratic” virtue, paradoxically creating national unity
by fostering intense individualism in detached homes that reflected per-
 “PEOPLE OF PLENTY”: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC EXCEPTION 5

sonal independence, family pride, and freedom of choice (Wright ibid. 75,
87–9). “A separate house surrounded by a yard is the ideal kind of home,”
said one preacher of the housing gospel (cited in Jackson 1985: 45).
“Unlike every other affluent civilization,” a contemporary author affirms,
“Americans have idealized the house and yard” (Hayden 2003: 4). Of
course, not all homes fit the democratic ideal—slave quarters suited owner
control, industrial housing served employer interests. By contemporary
standards, the homesteads idealized as truly American also left much to
be desired. In the Little House series of children’s books, for example, Pa
Ingalls builds homes that bake in the stifling Minnesota heat or let in the
snow of a South Dakota winter. But mundane obstacles did not dampen
Americans’ enthusiasm for pursuing happiness in homes and hearths of
their own, later labeled the “American Dream.” As Tocqueville noted,
material well-being, properly pursued, helped define what it meant to be
American. Housing was part of the larger project of America’s “second
creation” (Nye 2003), the way in which the new nation mastered nature,
cleared space, surveyed the land, and used its tools to build its cabins and
thereby its collective character. As its housing record shows, in America
prosperity and identity, economy and culture, were never far apart.
Because dense and dirty nineteenth-century cities made little room for
the house-and-yard dream, many groups looked for a way out as those cit-
ies grew. Across the river from Manhattan, for example, developers turned
Brooklyn into an early suburban haven for commuters who could use the new
steam ferries, and the borough’s population exploded from 1603 in 1790 to
over 800,000 a century later (Jackson 1985: 27). From the 1850s onward,
streetcar lines enabled Bostonians to settle miles from the old city center, in
culturally distinct and politically independent suburbs (Warner 1962: 1–2).
Why pay rent, asked Chicago marketers hawking homes, tapping into a long
American tradition to entice customers to buy in their new suburbs (Hayden
2003: 79–89). In the decades after the Civil War, especially the white middle
class escaped to the growing suburbs, into homes advertised as having “All
Modern Improvements” (including gas light and bathrooms!), where fami-
lies could find refuge and women their proper place—the “materialization of
what America was supposed to offer” (Wright 1981: 94–9). Werner Sombart
thought roast beef and apple pie stifled Americans’ revolutionary inclina-
tions; he might have added homes and yards to his list.
Already by 1900, that changed American life profoundly. Even as
new immigrant groups still settled in urban neighborhoods, other classes
kept their distance, literally and figuratively. Groups that once lived close
6 F.J. LECHNER

together now stayed farther apart. However democratic the impulse

behind the movement, inspired by a common ideology of ownership,
building the dream also meant dividing communities. Political fragmenta-
tion followed social division: though some suburbs chose to join cities to
get better services, many insisted on running their own affairs—around
Pittsburgh, for example, Allegheny County alone counted 65 municipali-
ties (Teaford 2008: 13–5). The common dream also divided the country.
Sombart already thought American workers were too ethnically divided for
socialism to take root; physical distance added to the difficulty. Backyard
barbecues were unlikely to fire up socialist fervor in the first place.
Another wave of suburban expansion, especially in booming Florida,
occurred in the 1920s, with suburbs growing twice as fast as cities (Wright
1981: 157ff.). Houses changed: reflecting progressive ideas for modern
living, home design became simpler, as in the “bungalow,” and porcelain-­
outfitted kitchens occupied a more prominent place. Those houses just
had to be filled with new consumer gadgets coming on the market, such
as electric appliances that cut down on women’s domestic drudgery (and
the demand for servants). The 15 million cars added during the decade,
useful for commuting suburbanites, helped to “democratize” the good
life (Baxandall and Ewen 2000: 14). Mail-order packages (Sears started
a building catalog in 1908) enabled do-it-yourself construction (Hayden
2003: 97–103), but at the same time developers tried to keep tight con-
trol with restrictive covenants (Wright ibid. 157). By 1930, before the
Depression squelched the exuberance of the 1920s, rings of suburbs
encircled most American cities and housing had become big business. A
“people of plenty” had glimpsed new possibilities.
Another war set the stage for yet more suburban expansion. After a
period of hardship, Americans, not for the first time, “hungered for a
world of plenty, the wonders of technology, and a home of their own”
(Baxandall and Ewen 2000: 82). The New Deal had raised expectations:
it “had convinced the majority of ill-housed people that they had a right
to decent housing, and the federal government would protect that right”
(Baxandall and Ewen ibid. 88). The federal government met the expec-
tations by supporting loans to homebuyers in order to spur growth and
ownership. Federally planned highways opened up new areas for develop-
ment. New financing helped to unlock pent-up demand. Often aided by
local officials and banks, big builders looked for opportunities to develop
large new communities of efficiently mass-produced housing. Together,
those factors fueled a suburban boom reflected in some 10 million ­housing
 “PEOPLE OF PLENTY”: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC EXCEPTION 7

starts between 1946 and 1953 (Hayden 2003: 132). Among them were
thousands of simple new homes erected on a lima bean field outside Los
Angeles, which formed the new planned city of Lakewood, population
over 60,000 by 1960. Not far away, Anaheim, California, grew by more
than 100,000 residents just in the 1950s. On an even larger scale than in
the 1920s, Americans bought stuff for their new abodes: a car for com-
muting or shopping, refrigerators for the kitchen, TV sets for the living
room, and of course lawn mowers to maintain the yard—thus making
the suburban boom an economic engine for the new consumer economy
(Beauregard 2006). At the peak of its global power, enjoying a prosperity
that boosted the traditional self-image of a people of plenty, America was
in its cultural prime.
On the East Coast, the Levitt family firm played a major role, starting
its first creatively named “Levittown” in a potato field on Long Island,
New York, in 1949, later adding two other Levittowns in Pennsylvania
and nearby in New Jersey (Kelly 1993). Each community, created from
scratch, consisted of thousands of new homes on small lots. At first, buy-
ers could choose only variations on a single home plan, making the “Cape
Cod” design a staple of East Coast suburban life, and infrastructure was
barebones—the Long Island Levittown even lacked proper sewers. The
towns were all white: at least until the state of New Jersey intervened,
the Levitts tried to keep blacks out, and resident protests greeted a black
family trying to settle in the Pennsylvania Levittown. A bit dreary by cur-
rent standards, with treeless streets lined by similar wooden homes, the
Levittowns nonetheless appealed to families eager to escape cramped
urban neighborhoods in New York and Philadelphia. As growing trees
altered the sterile look, residents soon broke the Levitt mold by tinkering
with their houses, adding a room here, a gable there. More than a ­refuge
for white, upwardly mobile city workers, the towns actually attracted
different classes with different interests, religions, lifestyles, and educa-
tional backgrounds—for some, Levittown was a destination, for others,
a stepping-­stone (Gans 1967). The initial lure of a sheltered residential
community later posed problems, for without much business activity,
Levittown, New York, had to endure high property taxes to fund local
schools, and lack of local opportunity made them “Leavittowns” for many
of the children who had motivated their parents’ move in the first place.
Though only by the mid-1960s a plurality of Americans lived in sub-
urbs, the 1950s boom already changed the face of the nation. Television,
which entered suburban homes in full force during the decade, conveyed
8 F.J. LECHNER

­lack-and-white images of stereotypical “sitcom suburbs” where happy

b
families that looked alike enjoyed material comforts in large homes tended
by caring mothers, far from places of work or industry (discussed further
in Chap. 3). The ideal of the detached home-plus-yard, in low-density
neighborhoods where most people were owners, took hold on a massive
scale. Pushing Tocquevillean democracy into new places, millions of hardy
pioneers bravely ventured forth into distant cul-de-sacs to settle along the
“crabgrass frontier.” Suburbia, a classic study concluded, was the “quint-
essential physical achievement of the United States” (Jackson 1985: 4).
For all the precedents in American history and culture, the post-­war boom
changed the American way of life and projected a new identity to the world,
invigorating a form of exceptionalism. Creating the frontier anew, the U.S.
may have been the first country fully to embrace the new settlement pattern:
“Here, the United States was truly exceptional” (Beauregard 2006: 15).
Not everyone liked it. From an early stage, progressive intellectuals
derided the burbs as boring and banal (Surowiecki 1997). In the title of
a famous essay, critic Lewis Mumford declared suburbia a “wilderness.”
Inhabiting that wasteland, he said (quoted in Surowiecki ibid.),

[t]he [suburban] man is a man without a city—in short a barbarian. Small

wonder that bathtubs and heating systems and similar apparatus play such
a large part in his conception of the good life. These are the compensations
that carry him through his perpetual neurosis.

Responding to the boom of the 1950s, many critics seized on suburbs to

diagnose presumed faults in American national character (Patterson 1996:
337–41). Sociologist David Riesman (1958), in another telling essay title,
lamented “the suburban sadness” of people without an inner core who
languished in homogenized “unpleasure.” John Keats piled on in The
Crack in the Picture Window (quoted in Surowiecki ibid.):

For literally nothing down … you too can find a box of your own in one
of the fresh-air slums we’re building around the edges of American cities
… inhabited by people whose age, income, number of children, problems,
habits, conversations, dress, possessions, and perhaps even blood type are
also precisely like yours. [The suburbs] are developments conceived in error,
nurtured by greed, corroding everything they touch.

With even greater indignation, James Kunstler in The Geography of

Nowhere (1994: 10) later attacked the “jive-plastic commuter tract home
 “PEOPLE OF PLENTY”: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC EXCEPTION 9

wastelands” where strikingly complacent Americans, unaware of their sad

fate, live like overfed clowns in a hostile cartoon. Movies dealing with
suburbia, such as American Beauty, take the same line, often depicting
stunted lives in stifling settings. Similarly, far from treating the suburbs
as fulfilling any American dream, American novels “typically point to the
downfall of that dream” (Jurca 2001: 6). In short, the tyranny of the
majority took physical form in suburbs, where people were manipulated
by real estate interests into “excessive” consumption and women seek-
ing sociability instead suffered isolation in a cult of domesticity (Hayden
2003: 7, 18). Just as suburbs came to embody an exceptional dream, they
also helped to crystallize a progressive critique of that dream and the vul-
gar culture it seemed to foster.
Most Americans failed to get the critical message and continued to iden-
tify the dream with their own piece of real estate. The economic revival of
the 1980s produced yet another suburban, even “exurban” boom. Popular
culture celebrated a new version of the home-and-yard ideal, with shelter
magazines and a cable TV channel stoking “house lust” (McGinn 2008).
Essentially new towns such as Arlington, Texas, and Mesa, Arizona, out-
stripped old cities such as Pittsburgh and St. Louis (Teaford 2008: 79ff.).
National companies operating on a far larger scale than the Levitts played
a key role in expanding the “boom burbs.” Atlanta stood out as “sprawl
city,” with its far-flung, loosely connected exurbs creating a metropolitan
area that added more people in the 1990s than any other and became one
of the least densely populated in the country (Bullard et al. 2000). To the
northeast of the city proper, for example, Gwinnett County grew rapidly,
thanks to a prototypical suburban “growth machine” of county officials
and private developers collaborating closely to create new subdivisions and
shopping malls, preferably sited near highway exits. Unlike the Levittowns
of old, Gwinnett comprised apartments and industrial zones in addition
to the classic detached homes. Its housing stock varied as well, ranging
from modest wood-sided homes to elaborate brick mansions. Originally
as white as Levittown in New Jersey, Gwinnett’s population also diversi-
fied quickly, especially by attracting immigrant groups, boosting a national
suburban “diversity explosion” (Frey 2015).
In the boom of the 2000s, such diverse, full-service, big-house Sunbelt
suburbs led the way, changing the country’s demographic center of gravity.
Due to their growth, the proportion of Americans living in suburbs climbed
to over 50% for the first time in the 2000s. American houses did indeed get
bigger and better: in 1973, 43% of newly completed ­single-­family houses
10 F.J. LECHNER

came with air-conditioning, 23% had four or more bedrooms, 48% had at
least a two-car garage, and median square footage was 1545; by 2014, 91%
came with AC, 46% had four or more bedrooms, 85% had the big garage,
and median square footage was up to 2517, with 36% squeezing at least
three bathrooms into that larger space (HUD 2014). Its record earned the
U.S. the #1 spot on a 2016 index of housing quality in developed countries
that took into account rooms per person, basic facilities, and level of expen-
ditures (OECD 2016). Judging by such measures of material progress, the
American growth machine had been exceptionally successful.

1.1.2  An Exceptional Growth Machine?

In housing as in other sectors, the American growth machine is a creature
of the country’s political economy. In the early Republic, governmental
aid took the form of land sales and grants, which stimulated pioneering
farmers, private investors, and railroad companies to make land produc-
tive. Though critical to future growth, such state aid did not require a large
apparatus, and until the early twentieth century the American govern-
ment remained small in relation to the larger economy. Early Progressive
reforms enlarged the state role, but in housing the key changes occurred
in the 1930s in response to the Great Depression, when unemployment
and plunging home values caused bank failures and credit tightening.
The crisis spurred political creativity (Schwartz 2010; Cannato 2010). To
backstop troubled banks, the Hoover administration set up Federal Home
Loan Bank Board to supervise and provide credit to savings and loans.
To prevent foreclosures, Congress authorized the Home Owners’ Loan
Corporation in 1933, which purchased defaulted mortgages and then
refinanced them. To encourage new lending, the 1934 Federal Housing
Act created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which insured
mortgages that fit certain quality criteria, initiating the standard 30-year,
20%-down, fixed-rate mortgage. To subsidize public housing, the 1937
Housing Act authorized a new agency that would fund project construc-
tion, amounting to thousands of units before the war slowdown, and its
Section 8 provided for rental assistance and vouchers that would come to
serve millions of low-income families. To stimulate actual lending, the fed-
eral government took an even more direct role in 1938 via the new Federal
National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), a “Government-­Sponsored
Enterprise” (GSE) that created a “secondary market” for FHA-insured
loans and thereby enabled banks to make more loans. These agencies first
 “PEOPLE OF PLENTY”: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC EXCEPTION 11

stopped the bleeding by stabilizing the housing and ­mortgage markets,

but their greatest impact came after World War II, when the FHA and
Fannie Mae helped to fuel a housing boom that raised ownership rates
from 44% in 1940 to 62% in 1960, definitively making the U.S. a nation
of homeowners (Schwartz ibid. 18–19). That only reinforced housing’s
political salience, which led to further federal intervention with a pro-
gressive twist, as the 1968 Federal Housing Act took aim at discrimina-
tion, the 1968 creation of new GSE “Freddie Mac” gave Fannie Mae
a competitive partner in the secondary mortgage market, and the 1977
Community Reinvestment Act mandated broader bank lending to under-
served communities. Perhaps most striking in this comparatively peculiar
range of political interventions are the GSEs that play such a large role in
mortgage funding, backing a majority of new loans in the years after the
financial crisis.
If the U.S. goal was to become #1 in home ownership, it failed in that
race, since several countries—including the U.K., Australia, Spain, and sev-
eral in Eastern Europe—have typically had higher rates; similarly, in giving
tax relief on mortgage interest, a prime ownership-boosting tool, the U.S.
only runs in the middle of the pack (Andrews and Caldera Sánchez 2011).
Nor is the U.S. special in its suburban expansion: however, exceptional
it may have seemed to contemporary historians, rising affluence led to
some sprawl everywhere (Bruegmann 2005). Nor was the U.S. unique in
the run-up to the crisis of 2008: across many developed countries, easier
lending and new types of mortgage finance drove up home prices around
the end of the century, and in many of those countries the instability in
­housing markets carried over into the wider economy (Andrews et al.
2011). The biggest bull may have suffered the hardest landing, but the
pain was widely shared.
That landing makes an especially grim chapter in the growth machine’s
success story. By 2008, as noted, building the dream had turned into chas-
ing financial illusions (Blinder 2013; FCIC 2011). On a scale not known
before, lenders gambled on rising prices and manufactured new financ-
ing, such as adjustable-rate mortgages with little or no money down, for
borrowers not required to prove income. Packaged into pools and “secu-
ritized” in the form of bonds, such mortgages could be sold to inves-
tors believing, on the authority of accommodative rating agencies, that
the whole carried predictably lower risk than its seemingly scary parts. A
bubble mentality blurring their sense of risk, many borrowers gambled on
rising prices as well to refinance their high mortgages, in the belief that
12 F.J. LECHNER

they could unwind burdensome large bets while gaining equity. Global
investors facing low interest rates on bonds and looking for higher yields
created demand for the new mortgage-backed products, in the U.S. and
elsewhere. Recycled into American investments, billions of dollars earned
by the Chinese and in the Middle East helped to increase bond prices and
lower rates, enabling American financial risk-taking and indirectly juicing
homeowner consumption (Schwartz 2009). Due to securities innovation,
the people originating mortgages could easily pass them on, not having to
check on clients’ creditworthiness while earning high fees for their service.
Under existing rules, financial institutions could make big, potentially
very profitable bets on mortgage-backed securities with mostly borrowed
money. Other innovations, such as credit default swaps, stimulated mort-
gage trading by enabling investors to insure themselves against defaults.
Big banks engaging in such moves left themselves particularly exposed, in
both the U.S. and Europe (Fligstein and Habinek 2014). Not wanting
to be left out, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also loosened underwriting
standards, taking on ever-riskier mortgages (about a quarter of the sub-
prime total).
In the context of the time, chasing the financial dreams may have
seemed rational for every player involved. Repayment risk on the mort-
gages undergirding the stream of new bonds and derivatives seemed low.
In retrospect it is clear, of course, that when the music stopped, as was
bound to happen, many would suffer. Small signs of trouble, especially in
the subprime market, quickly caused a downward cascade. The creative
financing that had made the boom possible now triggered dramatic losses
for many institutions and investors. Even though as late as 2007 Federal
Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that “we do not expect significant
spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the
financial system” (quoted in Blinder 2013: 88), perhaps for the first time
housing caused a major recession on a national scale. The housing bubble
was also a bond bubble, a real estate crisis also a financial system crisis, the
domestic implosion also a global disaster.
The sheer scale of the recession and the sensitivity of housing triggered
a forceful political reaction, which pushed toward still greater government
involvement in the economy. The Troubled Asset Relief Program spent
some $400 billion (net costs were lower) to shore up ailing banks and insur-
ance company AIG and to rescue troubled car companies; the GSEs were
put into “conservatorship” under the Federal Housing Finance Agency,
with Treasury support of about $200 billion; an Exchange Stabilization
 “PEOPLE OF PLENTY”: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC EXCEPTION 13

Fund provided $50 billion as a form of insurance to money-­market funds;

and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of
2010 gave greater regulating authority to the Fed while requiring more
safeguards in bank operations (Treasury 2013). As private lending via secu-
ritization collapsed, mortgage funding soon became even more dependent
on GSE backing, which at over $5 trillion covered over 90% of origina-
tions (Watt 2014), a dominant market position that generated significant
dividends to the Treasury. But the old political impulse to spread home
ownership soon returned, as the head of the agency supervising the GSEs
in 2014 set new guidelines that lowered the minimum down payment in
the mortgages they backed to 3% (Watt ibid.). The progressive thrust in
that governmental response carried over to an Obama administration pol-
icy announced in 2015, “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing,” a set
of rules that aimed to change many suburbs by requiring localities that
received federal funding to address any imbalances in high-­density, low-
income housing (HUD 2015). Though less ambitious than the New Deal,
the post-crisis initiatives, taken together, marked a new step in the gover-
nance of the U.S. economy. The initial crisis management helped to stem
economic decline. Whether the numerous interventions might also keep
the old growth machine going is a question the next section tries to clarify.

1.2   Growth and the American Economic

Exception
Even before British settlers arrived, North America inspired visions of
abundance. Writing to promote “Western planting,” in a continent appar-
ently not endowed with precious metals, Richard Hakluyt in 1584 argued
that it would help Britain to save souls “who have sat so long in darkness,”
outflank Spain, which had caused English trades to grow “beggarly and
dangerous,” and more importantly, “yield unto us all the commodities
of Europe, Africa, and Asia as far as we were want to travel, and supply
the wants of all our decayed trades,” providing employment for idle men
and boosting the strength of the navy (Hakluyt 2006). The first attempts
at settlement did not meet his high hopes, but over time the colonies
and the independent United States transcended the early propaganda to
become an exceptional “empire of wealth” (Gordon 2004). With good
reason, American economic historians conventionally present its “ascent”
as a “success story” (Brownlee 1974; Hughes and Cain 1998: xviii).
14 F.J. LECHNER

An early twenty-first-century snapshot conveys the extent of that

s­uccess, which put the U.S. in a uniquely strong economic position (see
Table 1.1). By 2015, notwithstanding the impact of the Great Recession,
the value of goods and services produced in the U.S. in a single year had
risen to almost $18 trillion, comprising more than 20% of world GDP
with currencies measured at exchange rates (a slightly smaller proportion
if measured in terms of purchasing power). Production and consumption
per head show even better that Americans have truly become a “people
of plenty”: in 2013, GDP per capita stood at nearly $53,000 and indi-
vidual consumption at nearly $40,000; Germany, the closest competi-
tor among major powers, trailed by about $10,000, and in the related
world ranking only some smaller countries, such as oil-rich Norway, took
higher spots. The relative value of GDP per hour worked—a critical mea-
sure of productivity usually taken as a prime indication of an economy’s
health—also showed the U.S. still slightly ahead of its major peers, at $67
versus second-place France’s $65.2. In its rate of growth, the U.S. obvi-
ously lagged rising Asian powers in recent decades—and growth declined
after 2000—but its performance since 1990, one minor and one major
recession included, still exceeds that of its Western counterparts. Though
not keeping up with Korean workaholics, American workers remain very
industrious, still logging close to 1800 hours per year on average in 2014,
yet labor participation declined after 2000, a disquieting sign partly
related to a slow post-recession employment recovery in the Obama years.
On indicators related to innovation, marks of a dynamic economy, the
U.S. also shows vigor: while Asian countries have ramped up spending on
research and development, the U.S. level exceeds that of other advanced
countries; it leads in publishing scientific and technical journal articles and
holds its own in patent applications. Of course, the point of the snapshot is
not to prove that the U.S. is “number 1” across the board—it is not. But
the standard indicators in the mid-2010s sketch a remarkable picture of
a productive, supersized growth machine that maintains some significant
advantages and has generated exceptional material benefits for Americans.
The fact that it functions, in some essential ways, as one machine, makes
the empire of wealth even more unprecedented.
Other statistics serve to spotlight some of the machine’s features. Even in
a digital age that has made share trading much easier, the New York Stock
Exchange remained the largest by far, with a 2015 listed-company market
capitalization of over $19 trillion, followed by the NASDAQ, also U.S.-
based, at $7.2 trillion and Shanghai with what was at the time an inflated
Table 1.1 Comparative economic statistics
U.S. U.K. Korea Japan Germany France China

2015 GDP 17,947.00 2691.81 1748.78 4738.29 3848.27 2647.71 10,866.00

2013 GDP/cap 52,985 38,256 33,062 36,225 43,108 37,556 9059
2013 GDP/cap, 139.9 101.0 87.3 95.6 113.8 99.2
OECD =100
2013 individual 39,548 27,951 19,581 26,348 29,695 26,670
consumption/cap
2014 GDP per hour 67.00 50.4 31.0 41.3 64.4 65.2
worked
1990-2000/00-13 3.6/1.7 2.6/1.5 6.2/4.1 1.0/0.7 1.7/1.1 2.0/1.2 10.6/10.5
GDP growth
2000/2014 hours 1836/1789 1700/1677 2512/2124 1821/1729 1452/1366 1535/1473
worked
2000/2014 labor 77.2/72.7 76.4/77.6 64.4/67.8 72.5/75.5 71.1/77.7 68.8/71.3
participation rate
2005-12 R&D 2.79 1.72 3.39 2.92 2.26 1.98 4.04
outlay, % of GDP
2011 scientific— 208,601 46,035 25,593 47,106 46,259 31,686 89,894
technical articles
2013 patents 287,831 14,972 159,978 271,731 47,353 14,690 704,936
2012 energy use per 6812/7.6 3028/12.4 5269/6.1 3543/10.1 3877/11.3 3845/9.7 2079/5.4
cap/intensity
1900 GDP/ 312,499/ 184,861/ 7966/ 52,020/ 162,335/ 116,747/ 218,074/
GDP per cap 4091 4492 777 1180 2985 2876 545
1950 GDP/ 1,455,961/ 347,850/ 16,045/ 160,966/ 265,354/ 220,492/ 239,903/
GDP per cap 9561 6939 770 1921 3881 5271 439
“PEOPLE OF PLENTY”: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC EXCEPTION

(continued)
15
 16

Table 1.1 (continued)

F.J. LECHNER

Sources:
2015 GDP (billions of dollars, current PPPs): stats.oecd.org, “National Accounts at a Glance,” accessed August 23, 2016 (China 2015: data.worldbank.org,
accessed August 23, 2016)
2013 GDP/capita (thousands of dollars, at current prices and PPPs): OECD 2015a (China: 2012 data, OECD 2014)
2013 GDP/capita, OECD = 100: OECD 2015a
2013 individual consumption/capita (dollars at current prices and PPPs): OECD 2015a
2014 GDP per hour worked (dollars at current prices and PPPs): stats.oecd.org, “Level of GDP per capita and productivity,” accessed August 23, 2016
1990–2013 GDP growth rates (average annual % per period): World Bank 2016
2000/2014 hours worked (average annual hours worked per employed person): stats.oecd.org, “Hours worked,” accessed August 23, 2016
2000/2014 labor force participation rate (15–64-year-olds): stats.oecd.org, “Labour force participation rate,” accessed August 23, 2016
2005–12 R&D as % of GDP, number of 2011 scientific and technical journal articles, number of 2013 patents filed by residents: data.worldbank.org,
“Research and development expenditure (% of GDP),” “Scientific and technical journal articles,” “Patent applications, residents,” accessed August 23, 2016
2012 energy use (kg of oil equivalent per capita) and intensity (GDP per unit of energy use in constant 2011 PPP dollars per kg of oil equivalent): data.
worldbank.org, “Energy use” and “GDP per unit of energy use,” accessed August 23, 2016
1900, 1950 GDP and GDP per capita (GDP in millions/GDP per capita in international Geary-Khamis dollars): Maddison 2003 (Korea 1900 GDP figure
is from 1911)
 “PEOPLE OF PLENTY”: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC EXCEPTION 17

$5.7 trillion (WFE 2015). Out of the 100 wealthiest billionaires in 2015,
Forbes magazine reported in its annual ranking, 40 were Americans, includ-
ing the long-time richest man, Bill Gates; Americans were also overrepre-
sented in the overall club of 1741 billionaires, with several American families
(Walton, Mars, Pritzker) and sources of wealth (hedge funds, Microsoft,
Google) making multiple appearances. In the same magazine’s ranking of
global companies, several Chinese businesses reached top spots, but mea-
sured by market value five American firms (Apple, Google, Exxon Mobil,
Berkshire Hathaway, and Microsoft) came out on top in mid-2015, with
Apple for a time achieving the highest valuation ever, and Wal-Mart in first
place in terms of gross sales. Even some American corporations hit hard by
the previous recession did very well by 2015: Wells Fargo overcame chal-
lenges in finance to overtake the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China
as the #1 bank in market value, and General Motors, benefiting from a gov-
ernment-led reorganization that infused some $50 billion and extinguished
creditor claims, returned to the #4 position among car makers. The growth
machine also acquired new fuel as so-called fracking technology extracted
energy from shale deposits, quickly raising crude oil production from a low
of 10.6 quadrillion Btu in 2008 to over 20 quadrillion Btu in 2014 and
natural gas production from a low of 18.6 to 26.5 in 2014, even with explo-
ration mostly limited to private land and some states, like New York, pro-
hibiting the new methods altogether (EIA 2015). Becoming a top global
energy producer fit its exceptional consumption of energy—in both roles,
the U.S. ranked second only to China—as Americans were by far the highest
per capita energy consumers among developed countries and needed more
energy than Europeans to produce a dollar’s worth of GDP (see Table 1.1).

1.2.1  An Exceptional Economic Path

The propagandists and investors of Hakluyt’s generation would be aston-
ished at what the “Western plantings” ultimately achieved. Yet the early
plantings already put down seeds of future success, since even before inde-
pendence the British colonies showed marked progress that enabled set-
tlers to enjoy “plenty” by the standards of the period (Galenson 1996).
The first British enterprise on American soil, the Virginia Company, almost
ended in death and disaster but turned profitable after experiments with
tobacco in 1612 created a viable cash crop, which grew to over 500,000
pounds per year in the 1620s—a boom so great that the company’s charter
was annulled and its settlements turned into a royal colony. Because land
18 F.J. LECHNER

was ample (from the colonists’ point of view) and labor scarce, wages had
to rise to entice white workers, and their opportunities soon improved
to the point that one who made good reported to relatives, “it is a great
deal better living here than in England for working people, poor working
people doth live as well here, as landed men doth live with you” and a
Virginian already noted in 1622 that “any laborious honest man may in a
shorte time become ritche in this Country” (cited in Galenson ibid. 138).
Many workers became owners: high wages could be saved to buy land, and
before its demise the company started the “headright” system of granting
land to lure immigrants, later used throughout the colonies to foster wide-
spread land ownership. Of course, forms of ownership and labor control
varied across the colonies, with family farmsteads and free labor the rule in
Pennsylvania and New England, and indentured servitude and, fatefully,
slavery more common on southern plantations. Prime products varied as
well, from tobacco and rice down South to New England fish destined
for the West Indies and grain for southern Europe. By current standards,
colonial growth may have been modest and conditions harsh, yet at the
time of the Revolution nonhuman private physical wealth per free man had
already risen to some 222 pounds sterling (or perhaps $12,000 in 1978
dollars) and “the disposable incomes of Americans were surely the highest
in the world,” which helped (white) American men attain ­superior, near-
modern physical stature of 5′8″ on average—showing that, if nothing else,
Americans ate better (Jones 1980: 58–61; Hughes and Cain 1998: 48;
Sokoloff and Villaflor 1982). By the standards of the era, in fact, the colo-
nies may have devised an early version of the growth machine: annual real
product per capita growth rates in the 1700s of between 0.3% and 0.5%,
with a population growing by about 3% per year, helped to make “the
economic and demographic accomplishments of the colonies of English
America … one of the most dramatic success stories of the preindustrial
world” (Galenson ibid. 207).
In building its empire of wealth, the U.S. demonstrated the power of
growth by addition: from the 1770s to the early 1900s, land and water
under U.S. control grew to over 3 million square miles, the labor force
expanded by a factor of 48 and the stock of capital 388-fold (Gallman
1996: 13). Agriculture, long the largest sector in the economy, showed
the fruits of that addition, as wheat and corn output went from 72 and
70 million bushels, respectively, in 1839, to 399 and 404 million bush-
els just four decades later; since that far outpaced population growth,
Americans by the century’s end ate still better than they had in the 1770s
 “PEOPLE OF PLENTY”: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC EXCEPTION 19

(Gallman and Wallis 1992: 7). Even before full-fledged, fossil-fuel-based

industrialization, Americans also advanced by steady improvement. Eli
Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793 boosted cotton produc-
tion tremendously, from about 60,000 bales in 1790 to about 4 million
in 1860. That cotton fed not just English industry but also the water-­
powered mills of New England, factories first developed during the War
of 1812 in which new machines and a finer division of labor increased
productivity (Engerman and Sokoloff 1996: 373). Whitney also played
a pioneering role in another productivity enhancement by manufactur-
ing guns with interchangeable parts, and this so-called American system
of manufactures soon carried over to other industries and led to early
exports of machine tools to Britain (Mowery and Rosenberg 1996: 806).
Using their improved tools in larger urban manufactories, many indus-
tries, from boot-making to metal-working, raised productivity (Engerman
and Sokoloff ibid. 377). Canals preceded railroads in accelerating trans-
portation—the 1825 Erie Canal, for example, was a smashing success,
reducing the cost of shipping a ton of from Buffalo to New York City from
$100 to $10, lowering shipping times by a third, and promoting western
settlement (Hughes and Cain 1998: 143). More and better products, car-
ried more cheaply over longer distances—new stoves, for example, greatly
improved domestic comfort (Gallman and Wallis 1992: 6)—met expand-
ing consumer demand first on a regional and then a national scale, in an
“extraordinary expansion of markets” (Sokoloff 1992: 373). That market
revolution in turn stimulated further improvement. Foreign visitors in the
first half of the century caught some of the economic excitement. Every
bee in the American hive, Mrs. Trollope noted, constantly pursued money
with total “unity of purpose,” driven by both necessity and a spirit of
enterprise (Trollope 1832: 54–5, 242). Similarly, Tocqueville commented
that he knew of no country “where the love of money holds a greater place
in the human heart,” where people pursue well-being with such “feverish
ardor” and share a “taste for material enjoyments” that causes them “sin-
gular agitation” amid their abundance (2010: 85, 943–4).
Americans lived up to that reputation. Nearly unprecedented growth
early in the nineteenth century led up to even greater advancement in
the 1850s, when mechanization took hold more widely, just in time to
set the stage for a different kind of agitation and industrial-scale kill-
ing in the Civil War. Economic expansion quickly resumed afterward.
To take just two indicators, in the half century after 1850 total miles
of railroad track rose from about 9000 to over a quarter million and
20 F.J. LECHNER

steel production exploded from 19,643 tons in 1867 to over 10 million

by 1900, more than doubling again in the following decade (Census
1949: 187, 200, 202). If the colonial success story was one of the most
dramatic in history, the post-independence story needs other superla-
tives. Though it faced numerous difficulties and several depressions, the
Republic compiled a remarkable record as its gross national product
grew 175-fold up to 1909 at an average rate of 3.9% per year, matched
by no European country and only for shorter periods and on smaller
scales by settler societies like Canada, Australia, and Argentina (Gallman
1996: 5). Starting at about one-third of British output, U.S. GDP over-
took that of the former mother country in 1872, at $106.360 billion
versus $105.795 billion (in 1990 dollars), and previous world leader
China within the subsequent two decades (Maddison 2003: 49, 84,
170). Output per capita, perhaps a more significant marker of strength,
also grew steadily, at less than 1% per year until about 1830, then at
1.5% up to the Civil War, and taking off at an unprecedented 2.5% after-
ward (Gallman ibid. 22–3). That would enable the U.S. to best Britain
in GDP per capita by 1901, at $4464 versus $4450 (in 1990 dollars),
becoming the richest country in the world by that standard (Maddison
ibid. 61, 88). At the start of World War I, thanks to the largest industrial
and one of the largest agricultural sectors in the world, U.S. production
exceeded that of the U.K., Germany, and France combined (Gallman
ibid. 5, 55). Judging by the country’s relentless economic advance and
the “exceptional” development of its manufacturing (Engerman and
Sokoloff 1996: 394), the nineteenth century, perhaps more than the
twentieth, deserves to be called the “American century.”
America was not done yet. Though neither the internal combustion
engine nor the assembly line was original to the U.S., the country’s bur-
geoning car industry of the early 1900s set a pattern in developing both
(Mowery and Rosenberg 1996). A large, dispersed population provided
latent market demand for cheap transportation that could help people
navigate American distances. Ample natural resources in the form of
new petroleum finds, starting in Pennsylvania in the 1860s, favored
gasoline engines. In an essentially uncontrolled but very dynamic mar-
ket environment, many firms competed for business before barriers to
entry rose and consolidation set in. Building on the old American sys-
tem of manufacturers, entrepreneurs like Henry Ford devised forms of
mechanized, continuous processing to speed up mass production of a
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the most cordial reception. He spoke Arabic extremely well, which he
said he learned solely from the Koran.
March 17.—After breakfast the sultan sent for me; his residence
was at no great distance. In front of it there is a large quadrangle,
into which several of the principal streets of the city lead. We passed
through three coozees, as guardhouses, without the least detention,
and were immediately ushered into the presence of Bello, the
second sultan of the Felatahs. He was seated on a small carpet,
between two pillars supporting the roof of a thatched house, not
unlike one of our cottages. The walls and pillars were painted blue
and white, in the Moorish taste; and on the back wall was sketched a
fire-screen, ornamented with a coarse painting of a flower-pot. An
arm-chair, with an iron lamp standing on it, was placed on each side
of the screen. The sultan bade me many hearty welcomes, and
asked me if I was not much tired with my journey from Burderawa. I
told him it was the most severe travelling I had experienced between
Tripoli and Sackatoo, and thanked him for the guard, the conduct of
which I did not fail to commend in the strongest terms.
He asked me a great many questions about Europe, and our
religious distinctions. He was acquainted with the names of some of
the more ancient sects, and asked whether we were Nestorians or
Socinians. To extricate myself from the embarrassment occasioned
by this question, I bluntly replied we were called Protestants. “What
are Protestants?” says he. I attempted to explain to him, as well as I
was able, that having protested, more than two centuries and a half
ago, against the superstition, absurdities, and abuses practised in
those days, we had ever since professed to follow simply what was
written “in the book of our Lord Jesus,” as they call the New
Testament, and thence received the name of Protestants. He
continued to ask several other theological questions, until I was
obliged to confess myself not sufficiently versed in religious
subtleties to resolve these knotty points, having always left that task
to others more learned than myself. He now ordered some books to
be produced which belonged to Major Denham, and began to speak
with great bitterness of the late Boo Khaloom, for making a predatory
inroad into his territories; adding, in his own words, “I am sure the
bashaw of Tripoli never meant to strike me with one hand, while he
offers a present with the other: at least it is a strange way for friends
to act. But what was your friend doing there?” he asked abruptly. I
assured the sultan, that Major Denham had no other object than to
make a short excursion into the country. The books being brought in,
proved to be the Nautical Almanack, two Reviews, Lord Bacon’s
Essays, and Major Denham’s Journal; all which the sultan returned
to me in the most handsome manner. Before taking leave, however, I
had to explain the contents of each, and was set to read them, in
order to give him an opportunity of hearing the sound of our
language, which he thought very beautiful. The sultan is a noble-
looking man, forty-four years of age, although much younger in
appearance, five feet ten inches high, portly in person, with a short
curling black beard, a small mouth, a fine forehead, a Grecian nose,
and large black eyes. He was dressed in a light blue cotton tobe,
with a white muslin turban, the shawl of which he wore over the nose
and mouth in the Tuarick fashion.
In the afternoon I repeated my visit, accompanied by the gadado,
Mahomed El Wordee, and Mahomed Gumsoo, the principal Arab of
the city, to whom I had a letter of introduction from Hat Salah at
Kano. The sultan was sitting in the same apartment in which he
received me in the morning. I now laid before him a present, in the
name of His Majesty the King of England, consisting of two new
blunderbusses highly ornamented with silver, the double-barrelled
pistols, pocket-compass, and embroidered jacket of the late Dr.
Oudney; a scarlet bornouse trimmed with silver lace, a pair of scarlet
breeches, thirty yards of red silk, two white, two red, and two
Egyptian turban shawls, the latter trimmed with gold; four pounds
each of cloves and cinnamon; three cases of gunpowder, with shot
and balls; three razors, three clasp-knives, three looking-glasses; six
snuff-boxes, three of paper, and three of tin; a spy-glass, and a large
English tea-tray, on which the smaller articles were arranged. He
took them up one by one. The compass and spy-glass excited great
interest; and he seemed much gratified when I pointed out that by
means of the former, he could at any time find out the east to
address himself in his daily prayers. He said, “Every thing is
wonderful; but you are the greatest curiosity of all!” and then added,
“What can I give that is most acceptable to the King of England?” I
replied, “The most acceptable service you can render to the King of
England, is to co-operate with His Majesty in putting a stop to the
slave trade on the coast: as the King of England sends every year
large ships to cruise there, for the sole purpose of seizing all vessels
engaged in this trade, whose crews are thrown into prison; and of
liberating the unfortunate slaves, on whom lands and houses are
conferred, at one of our settlements in Africa. “What!” said he, “have
you no slaves in England?” “No. Whenever a slave sets his foot in
England, he is from that moment free.”—“What do you then do for
servants?” “We hire them for a stated period, and give them regular
wages: nor is any person in England allowed to strike another; and
the very soldiers are fed, clothed, and paid by Government.” “God is
great!” he exclaimed; “You are a beautiful people.” I next presented
the sheikh of Bornou’s letter. On perusing it, he assured me I should
see all that was to be seen within his dominions, as well as in Youri
and Nyffee, both of which, I informed him, I was anxious to visit. He
expressed great regret at the death of Dr. Oudney, as he wished
particularly to see an English physician, who might instruct his
people in the healing art. In the evening I made a present to the
gadado of a scarlet bornouse, a pair of scarlet breeches, a red
Turkish jacket, two white, and one red turban shawls, three razors,
three knives, three paper snuff-boxes, and three of tin, three looking-
glasses, two pounds of cloves, and two pounds of cinnamon. The
gadado is an excellent man, and has unbounded influence with the
sultan, to whose sister he is married.
March 18.—Weather clear and warm. Although I was very ill all
day, the courtyard of my house was crowded with people, from
sunrise to sunset; all of whom I had to see with the greatest
patience, and to answer their numberless questions, such as, “Have
you rain in your country?” “Have you wheat?” “Have you goats,
sheep, and horses?” But the obvious and favourite interrogatory
was, “What are you come for?” This I always attempted to explain to
their satisfaction; telling them, “I came to see the country, its rivers,
mountains, and inhabitants, its flowers, fruits, minerals, and animals,
and to ascertain wherein they differed from those in other parts of
the world. When their friends travelled among strange nations, did
they not on their return ask them what they had seen? The people of
England could all read and write, and were acquainted with most
other regions of the earth; but of this country alone they hitherto
knew scarcely any thing, and erroneously regarded the inhabitants
as naked savages, devoid of religion, and not far removed from the
condition of wild beasts: whereas I found them, from my personal
observation, to be civilized, learned, humane, and pious.”
March 19.—I was sent for by the sultan, and desired to bring with
me the “looking-glass of the sun,” the name they gave to my sextant.
I was conducted farther into the interior of his residence than on my
two former visits. This part consisted of coozees, pretty far apart
from each other. I first exhibited a planisphere of the heavenly
bodies. The sultan knew all the signs of the Zodiac, some of the
constellations, and many of the stars, by their Arabic names. The
“looking-glass of the sun” was then brought forward, and occasioned
much surprise. I had to explain all its appendages. The inverting
telescope was an object of intense astonishment; and I had to stand
at some little distance, to let the sultan look at me through it; for his
people were all afraid of placing themselves within its magical
influence. I had next to show him how to take an observation of the
sun. The case of the artificial horizon, of which I had lost the key,
was sometimes very difficult to open, as happened on this occasion:
I asked one of the people near me for a knife to press up the lid. He
handed me one much too small, and I quite inadvertently asked for a
dagger for the same purpose. The sultan was instantly thrown into a
fright: he seized his sword, and half drawing it from the scabbard,
placed it before him, trembling all the time like an aspen leaf. I did
not deem it prudent to take the least notice of his alarm, although it
was I who had in reality most cause of fear; and on receiving the
dagger, I calmly opened the case, and returned the weapon to its
owner with apparent unconcern. When the artificial horizon was
arranged, the sultan and all his attendants had a peep at the sun;
and my breach of etiquette seemed entirely forgotten. After the
curiosity of all was satisfied, I returned to my house. I had now a
severe headach, and was seized with violent vomiting. In the
evening the sultan sent me two sheep, a camel-load of wheat and
rice, some plantains, and some of the finest figs I had ever tasted in
Africa.
March 20.—I returned the visit of Mahomed Gomsoo, the chief of
the Arabs; taking him a present of a scarlet bornouse, jacket and
breeches, two white turbans, two razors, two knives, two snuff-boxes
of paper, and two of tin, a pound of cinnamon, and two cases of
gunpowder, with some balls and flints. I was warned at Kano of his
excessive greediness; but at the same time recommended to make
him a handsome present, and to endeavour by all means to keep
him in good humour, on account of his great influence. On receiving
the presents, Gomsoo promised to give me a letter to the sultan of
Youri, who was his particular friend, and with whom he had lived
many years. He also said he was there when the English came down
in a boat from Timbuctoo, and were lost; which circumstance he
related in the following manner:—They had arrived off a town called
Boosa, and having sent a gun and some other articles as presents to
the sultan of Youri, they sent to purchase a supply of onions in the
market. The sultan apprised them of his intention to pay them a visit,
and offered to send people to guide them through the ledges of rock
which run quite across the channel of the river a little below the town,
where the banks rise into high hills on both sides. Instead of waiting
for the sultan, however, they set off at night, and by day-break next
morning, a horseman arrived at Youri, to inform the sultan that the
boat had struck on the rocks. The people on both sides of the river
then began to assail them with arrows, upon which they threw
overboard all their effects; and two white men arm in arm jumped
into the water, two slaves only remaining in the boat, with some
books and papers and several guns: one of the books was covered
with wax-cloth, and still remained in the hands of the sultan of Youri.
He also told me, and his account was confirmed by others, that the
sultan of Youri was a native of Sockna in the regency of Tripoli, and
prided himself extremely on his birth; but that he was such a
drunkard, whenever any person of consequence came to visit him,
that nothing proved so acceptable a present as a bottle of rum.
I learned, besides, from Gomsoo, that he had been detained a
prisoner three years, in a country called Yoriba, on the west side of
the Quarra; which, he said, entered the sea at Fundah, a little below
the town of Rakah. The latter is opposite to Nyffee; is a place of
great trade between the interior and the coast, and all kinds of
European goods, such as beads, woollen and cotton cloth, pewter
and copper dishes, gunpowder, rum, &c., are to be had there in
exchange for slaves. The inhabitants of Yoriba he represented to be
extremely ill disposed. I may here mention, that during my stay in
Sackatoo, provisions were regularly sent me from the sultan’s table
on pewter dishes, with the London stamp; and one day I even had a
piece of meat served up in a white wash-hand basin, of English
manufacture.
On my return home from Gomsoo’s, I found a message had been
left for me to wait on the sultan, with which I complied immediately
after breakfast. He received me in an inner apartment, attended only
by a few slaves: after asking me how I did, and several other chit-
chat questions, I was not a little surprised when he observed, without
a single question being put by me on the subject, that if I wished to
go to Nyffee, there were two roads leading to it—the one direct, but
beset by enemies; the other safer, but more circuitous: that by either
route I should be detained, during the rains, in a country at present in
a state of open rebellion, and therefore that I ought to think seriously
of these difficulties. I assured him I had already taken the matter into
consideration, and that I was neither afraid of the dangers of the
road nor of the rains. “Think of it with prudence,” he replied, and we
parted. From the tone and manner with which this was spoken, I felt
a foreboding that my intended visit to Youri and Nyffee was at an
end. I could not help suspecting the intrigues of the Arabs to be the
cause; as, they know well, if the native Africans were once
acquainted with English commerce by the way of the sea, their own
lucrative inland trade would from that moment cease. I was much
perplexed the whole day how to act, and went after sunset to consult
Mohamed Gomsoo: I met him at the door of his house on his way to
the sultan, and stopped him, to mention what had passed, and how
unaccountably strange it appeared to me that the sultan, after having
repeatedly assured me of being at liberty to visit every part of his
dominions, should now, for the first time, seem inclined to withdraw
that permission; adding, that before I came to Sackatoo, I never
heard of a king making a promise one day, and breaking it the next.
All this, I knew, would find its way to the sultan. Gomsoo told me I
was quite mistaken; for the sultan, the gadado, and all the principal
people, entertained the highest opinion of me, and wished for
nothing so much as to cultivate the friendship of the English nation.
“But it is necessary for me to visit those places,” I remarked, on
leaving him; “or how else can the English get here?” As I anticipated,
he repeated to the sultan every word I had said; for I was no sooner
at home than I was sent for by the sultan, whom I found seated with
Mahomed Gomsoo, and two others. He received me with great
kindness, and Mahomed Gomsoo said he had made the sultan
acquainted with our conversation. I thanked him, and expressed my
earnest hope I had neither said nor done any thing to offend him.
The sultan assured me that my conduct had always met with his
approbation, and that, although he was freely disposed to show me
all the country, still he wished to do so with safety to myself. An army,
he added, was at this moment ravaging the country through which I
had to pass, and, until he heard from it, it would be unsafe to go; but
he expected farther information in three or four days. He drew on the
sand the course of the river Quarra, which he also informed me
entered the sea at Fundah. By his account the river ran parallel to
the sea coast for several days’ journey, being in some places only a
few hours’, in others a day’s journey, distant from it. Two or three
years ago the sea, he said, closed up the mouth of the river, and its
mouth was at present a day or two farther south; but, during the
rains, when the river was high, it still ran into the sea by the old
channel. He asked me if the King of England would send him a
consul and a physician, to reside in Soudan, and merchants to trade
with his people; and what I had seen among them, which I thought
the English would buy? Here again I enforced the discontinuance of
the slave trade on the coast, as the only effectual method of inducing
the King of England to establish a consul and a physician at
Sackatoo; and that, as the sultan could easily prevent all slaves from
the eastward passing through Haussa and Nyffee, it would be the
consul’s duty to see that engagement faithfully fulfilled. With respect
to what English merchants were disposed to buy, I particularized
senna, gum-arabic, bees’ wax, untanned hides, indigo, and ivory. I
also endeavoured to impress on his mind that Soudan was the
country best situate in all Central Africa for such a trade, which
would not only be the means of enriching himself, but, likewise, all
his subjects; and that all the merchandise from the east and from the
west would be conveyed through his territories to the sea. “I will give
the King of England,” says he, “a place on the coast to build a town:
only I wish a road to be cut to Rakah, if vessels should not be able to
navigate the river.” I asked him if the country he promised to give
belonged to him? “Yes:” said he, “God has given me all the land of
the infidels.” This was an answer that admitted of no contradiction.
He then spoke of Mungo Park, and said, that had he come in the
rainy season, he would have passed the rocks; but that the river fell
so low in the dry season, boats could only pass at a certain point. He
told me, that some timbers of the boat, fastened together with nails,
remained a long time on the rocks; and that a double-barrelled gun,
taken in the boat, was once in his possession; but it had lately burst.
His cousin, Abderachman, however, had a small printed book taken
out of the boat; but he was now absent on an expedition to Nyffee.
The other books were in the hands of the sultan of Youri, who was
tributary to him. I told the sultan, if he could procure these articles for
the King of England, they would prove a most acceptable present,
and he promised to make every exertion in his power.
March 21.—Confined to my bed all day with headach and bilious
vomiting. In the afternoon I was visited by Mahomed Gomsoo, who
was going on a journey to Kano. He casually mentioned, that it was
a fortunate circumstance we did not accompany Hadje Ali Boo
Khaloom, when he brought the bashaw’s present last year; as the
rogue had opened the bashaw’s letter before presenting it to Bello,
and erased out of the list several of the presents named in it, which
he embezzled, and substituted for them some of inferior quality. The
news of his brother’s wanton inroad into the sultan’s territories, with
the bashaw’s forces arriving at the same time, Bello sent Hadje Ali
back without any present, and would not even admit him into his
presence. His conduct, he assured me, had exasperated the sultan
against all the Arabs in the bashaw’s dominions. Both Bello and his
father have, it seems, been much cheated by the Arabs in all their
dealings, twenty sometimes coming at a time on a begging
excursion, with the story of being poor shreefs; and, if not presented
with thirty or forty slaves, besides food and camels, they were sure
to bully the Felatahs, telling them they were not Mussulmans, and
would never see paradise, on account of the number of the faithful
they had put to death in the conquest of Soudan.
March 22.—Clear and warm. My fever a little abated. In the
afternoon the sultan sent for me again, to discuss the advantages
and best method of establishing a permanent intercourse with
England. I expressed myself exactly in the same terms I had done
before, carefully avoiding the mention of any thing which might
awaken the jealousy of the Arabs.
The direct road to Youri is only five days’ journey; but, on account
of the rebellious state of the country, it was necessary to take a
circuitous route of twelve days. Numbers of the principal people of
Sackatoo came to me, to advise me to give up the idea of going; all
alleging that the rains had already commenced at Youri, and that the
road was in the hands of their enemies. They repeated the same
tales to the servants who were to accompany me, and threw them all
into a panic at the prospect of so dangerous a journey.
March 23.—Very ill all day. I discovered that the Arabs were also
tampering with my servants. One of them, named Absalom, was
accosted to-day in the market by one of the merchants of that nation,
who told him, if ever he arrived at Youri, without meeting with
disasters by the way, the sultan there would assuredly sell him, and
that he would never be allowed to return.
March 24.—I felt much better. The sultan sent for me this
forenoon about the guide who was to accompany me to Youri. One
man had already refused, and I had to tempt another with a promise
of 40,000 cowries, unknown to the sultan; who kindly took much
pains to impress upon me the necessity of my return within twenty-
six days, on account of the capricious character of the people of that
place. From every person here dissuading me from the attempt, I
had too good reason to fear that a regular plan was laid to obstruct
my further progress. Even El Wordee went so far as to say, that it
was contrary to the wishes of the sheikh that we should either go to
Youri or Nyffee, and complained sadly of being afflicted with a
dysentery, which very opportunely made its attack the instant I
expressed a wish to visit Youri; and, although I protested against his
accompanying me, I have no doubt he both practised on my
servants, and used his influence with the gadado to oppose my
departure. At last El Wordee, and Mahomed Sidi sheikh, a native of
Tuat, and fighee to the sultan, came to tell me, that no person would
venture to accompany me, from the road to Youri being infested with
Kafirs, and that it was impossible to travel in safety without an army. I
remained silent; for had I once begun to give vent to my feelings, I
might have committed myself. I thank God I had never once lost my
temper amid all these crosses and vexations, and in spite even of
this deathblow to all my hopes of reaching Youri. The whole tissue of
dangers, however, I believed to be a mere fabrication; for the Arabs,
having learned what the sultan said with respect to the English
opening a trade with his people by the way of the sea, and well
knowing how fatal this scheme would prove to their traffic in the
interior, probably now attempted to persuade both the sultan and the
gadado that the English would come and take the country from them:
by which insinuations they induced the sultan to embrace this
disingenuous expedient to disengage himself from his promise.
March 25.—Clear and warm. Early this morning I was sent for by
the sultan, and, although suffering from fever, I went immediately. He
was seated in an inner coozee, with only one eunuch in attendance.
The conversation again commenced concerning the projected trade
with England, when I repeated the same arguments. He inquired if
the King of England would give him a couple of guns, with
ammunition and some rockets? I assured him of His Majesty’s
compliance with his wishes, if he would consent to put down the
slave trade on the coast. I further pointed out to him that Sackatoo
was the best situate town in all Northern Africa for commerce,
without which a nation was nothing; that rich merchants make rich
kings; and that it was in the power of the King of England to make
him one of the greatest princes in Africa, when all the trade from the
east and west of that continent would centre in his dominions: at the
same time advising him strongly to have a port on the sea coast,
where he might have ships, and where his people would be taught
by the English the art of ship-building, unless he preferred to send
some of them to our settlements on the coast to learn to work as
carpenters or blacksmiths, where their religion would be respected,
and, after learning these trades from us, they would be enabled to
instruct their countrymen. By weighing these important
considerations in his mind, he would see that it was both his own
interest, and the interest of his people, to form a strict friendship with
the English; for when once he had ships, his people might trade to
every part of the world, and could even make the pilgrimage to
Mecca by a much safer route than at present by land, being able to
go there and return in six months; and, at the same time, bring with
them all the produce of the East.
March 26.—I was much better. Being Friday, the Mahommedan
Sabbath, a crowd of people from the country came to see me, after
being at the mosque, and the square in front of my house was
completely filled. I was sitting in the shade, on a mat spread on the
ground, and Mahomed El Wordee with me: both he and my servants
were in great fright at the increasing numbers of country people, and
El Wordee begged of me either to have my guns loaded, or to
threaten to fire among the multitude, if they did not go away; or else
to send a message to the gadado to have them dispersed. By way of
aggravating his alarm, I said to him, with provoking indifference, “Let
them look at me, and welcome; they are like all other country people,
and will do me no harm.” A number of boys squeezing through the
crowd, whenever they caught a glimpse of me, called out to their
companions, “Wishod en ila hullah ila hullah wahod Mohamoud wa
rhasoul illah, hada el Kaffir;” or more briefly, “ila el ullah Mohamoud
wa rhasoul illah, hada el Kaffir,”—“I bear witness there is no God but
one God, and Mahomet is his prophet; there is the Infidel,” and
immediately took to their heels. At last one of my servants stole
through the crowd and informed the gadado, who sent and dispersed
the people, to the great satisfaction of El Wordee; when I was
allowed to enjoy the remainder of the day undisturbed.
March 27.—Clear and warm. In the morning I was very ill with
ague, and at eleven the sultan sent for El Wordee and me, with a
request to bring my English saddle along with me. We were
conducted farther into the interior of his residence than I had ever
been before: the sultan was sitting reading in one corner of a square
tower: on showing him my English saddle, he examined it very
minutely, and said it was exactly like the ancient Arab saddle,
described in one of his books. It was a second-hand saddle which
we bought at Malta, and having often also served myself and my
servant for a pillow, I had it re-stuffed at Kano: on seeing the maker’s
card, “Laurie, Oxford-Street, London,” under the saddle lap, the
sultan, surmising perhaps that it was a charm, requested me to
explain its meaning; upon which I told him, that in England a
tradesman generally attached his name to the articles made by him,
which, if of superior quality, brought him into notice.
He again renewed the subject of the establishment of an English
consul and physician at Sackatoo, as well as of the likelihood of
receiving guns and rockets from England, which he now
recommended to be sent by the way of Tripoli and Bornou, under the
escort of El Wordee. To the latter part of this proposal I gave a direct
negative: I assured him, that unless he undertook to convey them to
Rakah at his own expense, they would not be sent at all, as the
expense and delay by the other route were obstacles of too serious
a nature to be repeated; besides, should the bashaw of Tripoli even
allow the guns to pass, the sheikh of Bornou, who was famed for
prudence and foresight, would forfeit all claim to that character, if he
did not seize them on reaching his territory. “Oh! no,” said the sultan,
“he will never do that; he is my friend.” I again expatiated on the
futility of this mistaken confidence, so opposite to sound policy. At
this discourse El Wordee seemed to be quite crest-fallen; and it
plainly appeared that this was his own device, in order that he might
be sent by the bashaw along with another English mission; and after
fleecing them throughout the route, have another opportunity here of
playing the same game over again. All my former suspicions were
now confirmed; and I attribute, in a great measure, to his
machinations the necessity of abandoning my journey to Youri. I
once more assured the sultan, that it was only by the sea-coast he
must expect to maintain an intercourse with England. He then
promised, that if I would wait till after the rains, he would send me to
the governor of Zeg Zeg, with orders to convey me to the coast.
Having heard of our newspapers, he desired me to send for them,
calling them the “Huber el dineah,” or “News of the world.” Being set
to read extracts from them, I happened to mention that thousands of
them were printed daily, when he exclaimed, “God is great; You are a
wonderful people.” He asked me about the Greeks, and inquired if
they were joined by any other Christians; the discussion of which
subject I contrived to evade. He then remarked, “You were at war
with Algiers, and killed a number of the Algerines.” I assured him that
they were a ferocious race, never at peace amongst themselves
(having even killed three of their own deys in one month), and
persisting in the practice of making slaves of Europeans, until
forcibly compelled by us to relinquish it.
In this conversation, he repeated “You are a strange people, the
strongest of all Christian nations: you have subjugated all India.” I
said, we merely afforded it our protection, and gave it good laws. I
mentioned, particularly, that many Mahometan states had put
themselves under our protection, knowing we were a people that
never interfered with the rights of others, whether civil or religious,
but caused the laws to be impartially administered among all sects
and persuasions. The King of England, I often told him, had, in fact,
as many Mahometan subjects as the Grand Signor; and I took care
to enlarge upon the favourite topic of several ships conveying the
inhabitants of India annually to Mecca.
The sultan again drew on the sand the course of the Quarra, with
the outline of the adjoining countries. I now requested him to order
one of his learned men to make me a chart of the river, on paper,
which he promised to have done. The sultan re-stated that Fundah is
the name of the place where the Quarra enters the sea, during the
rainy season; and that Tagra, a town on the sea-coast, where many
Felatahs reside, is governed by one of his subjects, a native of
Kashna, named Mohamed Mishnee. In the evening I saw him again,
when he told me that he was going on an expedition against some of
his enemies, but would not be away more than five days, desiring
me not to be uneasy during his absence, and assuring me that I
should want for nothing.
To announce to the people any public measure, such as the
present expedition, the city crier is sent round, who first proclaims,
“This is the will of the sultan;” the people replying “Whatever the
sultan does, is good; we will do it:” the crier stops in like manner at
the end of every sentence, when the people renew the same
assurances of submission. The crier always commences at the
sultan’s gate, from which he proceeds to the market-place. It was
proclaimed on this occasion, that all those who were to accompany
the expedition must provide themselves with eight days’ provisions.
At eight in the evening, the sultan left the capital with his army.
March 28.—This forenoon I had a visit from a famous Marauboot,
or holy man: he was accompanied by a great retinue, and repeated
the Fatha at his entrance, for the first time this ceremony had been
performed before me in Haussa. He began by asking me, abruptly,
to become a Moslem: I said, “God willing, I might; but I require much
previous instruction in religious matters before I can think of
changing my faith.” At this answer the bystanders began to laugh
immoderately, to the evident discomposure of the holy man’s gravity:
for my part, I could not discover any wit in what I said, although it
had the effect of relieving me from further impertinent questions on
religious subjects; and he soon left me, rather disconcerted at his
want of success. After sunset I had a visit from Ateeko, the brother of
the sultan, to whom I had sent a present of a scarlet jacket,
breeches, and bornouse: when he was seated, and the usual
compliments were over, I apologized on the score of ill health, and
the remoteness of his abode, for not having already paid him a visit.
He now told me he had a few things which belonged to the
Englishman who was at Musfia, with the late Boo Khaloom, but as
no person knew what they were, he would gladly sell them to me,
ordering his servant at the same time to produce a bundle he held
under his arm. The servant took from the bundle a shirt, two pair of
trowsers, and two pieces of parchment, used for sketching by Major
Denham. The only other articles, Ateeko said, were a trunk, a broken
sextant, and a watch; but the watch had been destroyed, as he
alleged, in their ignorant eagerness to examine its structure. He then
invited me to visit him the following morning, when we might fix the
price of what I wished to buy, to which I assented; and he bade me
good night; but, on re-considering the matter, I thought it prudent first
to consult the gadado, particularly as the sultan was absent. I began
to fear lest a bad construction might be put upon my visit to this
mean prince, who, on the death of his father, Bello the first, had
aspired to the throne, and had even had himself proclaimed sultan in
Sackatoo; from the mere circumstance of his brother Bello, the
present sultan, having expressed the intention, during his father’s
lifetime, of resigning the splendour of sovereignty for the tranquillity
of a learned and holy life. Ateeko even had the audacity to enter his
brother’s house, preceded by drums and trumpets; and when Bello
inquired the cause of the tumult, he received the first intimation of his
brother’s perfidy, in the answer “The sultan Ateeko is come.” Bello,
nowise disconcerted, immediately ordered the usurper into his
presence, when Ateeko pleaded, in vindication of his conduct, his
brother’s proposed disinclination to reign; to which the sultan only
deigned to reply, “Go and take off these trappings, or I will take off
your head:” Ateeko, with characteristic abjectness of spirit, began to
wring his hands, as if washing them in water, and called God and the
Prophet to witness that his motives were innocent and upright; since
which time, he has remained in the utmost obscurity.
March 29.—I visited the gadado very early, and informed him of
what had taken place last night. He told me by no means to go while
the sultan was absent, as my visit at this juncture might be regarded
with a very jealous eye by the people; who would not hesitate to
charge me with a plot to place prince Ateeko on the throne, by the
assistance of England. The gadado undisguisedly expressed his
contempt of Ateeko’s conduct, and assured me that it was entirely
without the sanction of the sultan.—In the afternoon I was again
seized with bilious vomiting.
March 30.—Cloudy and warm. El Wordee came to-day in the
name of the gadado, to ask me to sell him a silk tobe and some
other articles, although it was well known to him I had nothing of the
kind in my possession; and had it been otherwise, he was also
aware I would not sell them. I suspected that he was manœuvring in
some way for himself; and as soon as he was gone, I went to the
gadado, and asked him if he had sent any message to me, when it
turned out as I conjectured. The good old gadado said he felt quite
ashamed that any thing should have been asked in his name; and
shaking his head, he said he feared El Wordee was —— then
checking himself, he earnestly requested me to take no further
notice of it.
March 31.—I was confined to the house all day with ague. During
the time I had been in Sackatoo, I had, at the recommendation of
both the sultan and gadado, ridden out every morning for the benefit
of my health; but instead of choosing the high grounds, I had
generally taken my rides by the banks of the river, where there were
many stagnant pools of water, and the land was low and swampy. To
this I attributed my ague. The Arabs are likewise much afflicted with
it at this season of the year. With the gadado’s advice, I took my
morning rides in future on the high grounds.
April 1.—Morning cool and clear. I discovered that one of my bags
of cowries had been cut open; and having good reason to suspect
my servant Absalom of the theft, as he was known to have made a
number of extravagant presents to one of the gadado’s female
slaves, of whom he was passionately enamoured, I was obliged to
dismiss him my service, although both a smart and a brave fellow,
uniting at once in his person the important functions of barber and
butler.
April 4.—Cool and clear. My ague had left me. In the evening the
sultan returned to town.
April 5.—This morning Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom arrived from Kano.
Although he left the town of Quarra with a large kafila, consisting of a
thousand people, and protected by an escort of fifty horsemen, yet
they were attacked between the lake of Gondamee and the wells of
Kamoon, by the people of Goober and Zanfra, who after killing one
shreef, two Arabs of Tripoli, and seventeen Felatahs, and taking the
negroes prisoners, captured all the baggage except that of Hadje Ali.
He fortunately escaped with his camels, though less by his own
bravery than through the address of one of his slaves, who kept
cheering up his master’s spirits, and urging the camels to their
utmost speed, until they completely outstripped their pursuers. The
shreef who was killed left two young children, to whom I sent ten
dollars, by way of encouraging others to contribute to their relief.—In
the afternoon I paid my respects to the sultan, on his return from the
army. Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom accompanied me; but the sultan did
not deign to look towards the place where he sat, although he was
extremely kind to me, inquiring how I did, and if any thing had
happened in his absence.
A slave belonging to Mahomed Moode, the gadado’s brother,
whose duty it was to run with his spears by his horse’s side, had
feigned lameness, to be excused attending his master. For this
offence his legs were heavily shackled, in which miserable plight he
often contrived to crawl to the square before my door, and at length
begged me to intercede with his master for his release. In the
evening, when his master came as usual to see me, I asked him to
pardon the slave, who was immediately sent for, and his fetters
taken off. It is but justice to say, his master appeared as grateful to
me for affording him the opportunity of liberating his slave, as if I had
done him a personal favour. The mode of punishing slaves in
Sackatoo is by putting them in irons, and throwing them into a
dungeon under the common prison of the city. The dungeon is
reported to be extremely filthy and abominable. Here they remain
without any food, but what is gratuitously supplied by their fellow
slaves, until their master releases them. This punishment is much
dreaded, and its duration depends entirely on the caprice of the
master.
April 6.—Clear and cool.
April 7.—Having obtained the permission of the gadado to
purchase from Ateeko the sorry remains of Major Denham’s
baggage, I went early this morning with El Wordee to the prince’s
house, which is situate at the west end of the town. After waiting
some time in the porch of a square tower, we were introduced into
an inner coozee hung round with blue and yellow silk, in sharp
pointed festoons, not unlike gothic arches. Ateeko soon made his
appearance, and after a few compliments, we proceeded to
business. He brought out a damaged leathern trunk, with two or
three shirts and other articles of dress, much the worse for wear, and
the sextant and parchment already mentioned. The sextant was
completely demolished, the whole of the glasses being taken out, or
where they could not unscrew them, broken off the frame, which
remained a mere skeleton. He seemed to fancy that the sextant was
gold, in which I soon undeceived him; and selecting it with the
parchment and one or two flannel waistcoats and towels, likely to be
useful to Major Denham, I offered him 5000 cowries, at which he
appeared much surprised and mortified. El Wordee whispered in my
ear,—“Remember he is a prince, and not a merchant.” I said, loud
enough for his highness to hear, “Remember that when a prince
turns merchant, he must expect no more than another man; and as
that is the value of the articles, it is a matter of indifference to me
whether I buy them or not.” Ateeko frequently repeated his belief of
the sextant being gold; but at length the bargain seemed to be
concluded, and I requested him to send a slave to my house with the
articles I had picked out, to whom I would pay the money. The slave,
however, was recalled before he got half way, and his suspicious
master took back the sextant frame, in dread of being overreached
by me in its value, which I did not fail to deduct from the price agreed
on.
The prince’s residence, like those of other great men in this
country, is within a large quadrangular enclosure, surrounded by a
high clay wall, with a high tower at the entrance, in which some of
the slaves or body-guard lounge during the day, and sleep at night.
The enclosure is occupied by coozees, some of them in a very
ruinous condition. He told me that he possessed a great number of
slaves; and I saw many females about his person, most of them very
beautiful. He also stated, that he kept two hundred civet cats, two of
which he showed me. These animals were extremely savage, and
were confined in separate wooden cages. They were about four feet
long, from the nose to the tip of the tail; and with the exception of a
greater length of body and a longer tail, they very much resembled
diminutive hyenas. They are fed with pounded Guinea corn, and
dried fish made into balls. The civet is scraped off with a kind of
muscle shell every other morning, the animal being forced into a
corner of the cage, and its head held down with a stick during the
operation. The prince offered to sell any number of them I might wish
to have; but they did not appear to be desirable travelling
companions. Ateeko is a little spare man, with a full face, of monkey-
like expression. He speaks in a slow and subdued tone of voice; and
the Felatahs acknowledge him to be extremely brave, but at the
same time avaricious and cruel. “Were he sultan,” say they, “heads
would fly about in Soudan.”
After taking leave of the prince, we rode by appointment to view a
new mosque, which was building at the expense of the gadado, not
far distant from Ateeko’s house. Like all mosques, it was of a
quadrangular form, the sides facing the four cardinal points, and
about 800 feet in length. On the eastern side there were two doors.
The western entrance had a small square apartment on the right
hand in entering, where the people perform their ablutions before
prayers. The roof of the mosque was perfectly flat, and formed of
joists laid from wall to wall, the interstices being filled up with slender
spars placed obliquely from joist to joist, and the whole covered
outside with a thick stratum of indurated clay. The roof rested on
arches, which were supported by seven rows of pillars, seven in
each row. The pillars were of wood, plastered over with clay, and
highly ornamented. On the south side of the body of the building
there was a small recess appropriated solely to the sultan’s use.
Some workmen were employed in ornamenting the pillars, others in
completing the roof; and all appeared particularly busy, from the
circumstance of the gadado himself being here to receive me. The
gadado was very inquisitive to know my opinion, every two or three
minutes asking me what I thought of the building. The master builder,
a shrewd looking little man, continually laughing, was seated in a
position whence he could conveniently overlook all the workmen. He
informed me he was a native of Zeg Zeg, and that his father having
been in Egypt, had there acquired a smattering of Moorish
architecture, and had left him at his death all his papers, from which
he derived his only architectural knowledge. He was particularly
solicitous to possess a Gunter’s scale, which I afterwards sent to the
sultan.
 April 8.—Clear and cool. I was confined to the house all day with
ague. Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom, who has paid me two or three visits,
which I never return, sent me half a sheep, and accompanied the
present with great offers of his services, of which I took no notice,
but ordered the present to be given to the poor. I always treated this
man with civility; but took good care never to follow any of his
suggestions, or to allow myself the smallest freedom of conversation
before him.
A number of poor children came to ask alms every morning, to
whom I was in the habit of giving two or three cowries a piece. Their
cry was, “Allah attik jinne,” or “God give you paradise;” a style of
begging that a kafir like me could not withstand; and when almost all
Africa doomed me to eternal perdition, I considered it obtaining their
suffrages at a cheap rate. Amongst the older beggars, there was
one, a native of Bornou, who had once been governor of a town
called Sockwa near Katagum, and had come to Sackatoo in
consequence of having made certain complaints against Duncowa,
which being on investigation found to be untrue, he had been
degraded. He was said to be rich; but in order to save his wealth,
now feigned madness. Every night after sunset, he used to sing
extempore before the gadado’s door; and I was frequently the
subject of his songs, particularly if I had given him any thing in the
course of the day. He generally set the people around him in a roar
of laughter.
April 9.—This morning I paid the gadado a visit, and found him
alone, reading an Arabic book, one of a small collection he
possessed. “Abdullah,” said he, “I had a dream last night, and am
perusing this book to find out what it meant. Do you believe in such
things?” “No, my lord gadado; I consider books of dreams to be full
of idle conceits. God gives a man wisdom to guide his conduct, while
dreams are occasioned by the accidental circumstances of sleeping
with the head low, excess of food, or uneasiness of mind.”
“Abdullah,” he replied, smiling, “this book tells me differently.” He
then mentioned, that in a few days the sultan was going on another
expedition, and wished him to join it, but that he preferred remaining,