CHARLES DICKENS
March 16-17, 1842

Charles Dickens crossed the Atlantic in 1842 to tour America. From Washington, Dickens rode the stagecoach to Fredericksburg, then traveled on by rail. He stayed at the Exchange Hotel on 14th and Franklin Streets, where there was an extravagant dinner given in his honor. In Richmond, the acclaimed English novelist discovered “pretty villas and cheerful houses in its streets, and Nature [that] smiles upon the country round.”

Yet, the slavery that pervaded the city tainted Dickens’ view of Richmond’s beautiful scenery. Within the landscape, Dickens recognized the “air of ruin and decay abroad, which is inseparable from the system.” He left the city “with a grateful heart that [he] was not doomed to live slavery was.” Dickens’ American Notes circulated widely in the United States and Great Britain, becoming a part of the rising abolitionist movement.

Frederic G. Kitton, Charles Dickens and sister Fanny, circa mid-nineteenth century