Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz’s Portrait of America in the Age of Enlightenment

Abstract

In 1788, a Polish writer and important political figure, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, made a trip to the United States where he spent several years travelling and observing American culture and society. At this time he wrote a collection of memoirs, Travels through America, which constitute a varied, illuminating, and albeit subjective image of America, its people, institutions, manners, and nature. The present study builds a ‘composite’ portrait of America through the prism of Niemcewicz’s friendship with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, his perception of females and their role in the society, as well as his images of he visited.