The North Carolina hinterland in “The Journal of a Lady of Quality” by Janet Schaw

Abstract

Travelogographic studies of recent decades allow us to reproduce the dual worldview of a traveler who finds himself immersed in a foreign and alien culture. A travelogue can tell us a lot about the culture that it describes, and about the one that shaped its author. Female travelogues of the 18^th century are of considerable interest in this regard, as British ladies of the period began to take long trips, discovered the exotic East, like Mary Wortley Montagu, or no less exotic Russia, like Elizabeth Justice, Elizabeth Dimsdale or Jane Rondeau. The Journal of a Lady of Quality by Janet Schaw stands in line with the general tradition of the British female travelogue of the 18^th century. This document, written in epistolary form and describing Miss Schaw’s journey to North Carolina, reveals several important aspects about the imagology of revolutionary America in British society. There is both the perception of America as a non-Western society, and the interpretation of its supposedly non-Western features in the context of the Enlightenment geographical determinism. There is also the reaction of a conservative-minded author to a society in a state of revolution. It is also interesting that Ms. Schaw retransmits the common clichés of British propaganda of her time, which allows us to judge the mechanisms and the degree of effectiveness of the pro-government media in the UK. Finally, The Journal of a Lady of Quality sheds light on the problems of identity within the British Empire of the 18^th century.