Etiquette on antebellum railroads

As steam travel increased in the antebellum era, so to did conversations about etiquette. Etiquette guides added sections on how to behave on steamboats and railroads. But not all aspects of etiquette were detailed in rulebooks. Some aspects were determined by the passengers themselves, in the moment.

One such example of this comes from no less a personage than Frederick Douglass. In 1848, Douglass told of an exchange he witnessed between two passengers on a train. He named these passengers “Out of Seat” and “In the Seat,” instantly indicating the nature of their rift. Out of Seat wanted to return to where he was sitting, and In the Seat was determined to hold on to his place. In the Seat based his claim on a rule as understood among passengers: “when a seat is vacant it is as free for one gentleman as another.” Out of Seat argued that the seat should remain his since he was going to return and appealed to the man in the neighboring seat. But the neighbor remained “silent, evidently wishing to avoid a row.” Perhaps sensing an advantage, In the Seat added to his argument: “A man’s right to a seat ceases when he leaves it and there is nothing of his left in it to show that he intends to return to it again. This seat was entirely vacant when I took it.” Here In the Seat appealed to a common understanding among passengers. When Out of Seat turned surly, other passengers raised their voices to enforce the rules of etiquette with their laughter at Out of Seat and shouts of “Hold to your Seat.” Out of Seat finally realized that he would not win, and went “peaceably into another car amid the jeers of the surrounding passengers.” Passengers enforced the rules of etiquette through their public displays of contempt for the rule-breaker.

Douglass’s tale confirms that when considering how people behaved on steam transit, we need to look not just at the printed rules, but also the actual descriptions of travel itself. Passengers created—and enforced—etiquette on antebellum steam transit.

Source: North Star, September 15, 1848.