Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865)

Started in 1835 as a series of satirical sketches for Joseph Howe's Novascotian, they were collected and published in book form in 1836. The narrator who is never identified by name, meets a character named Sam Slick from Slickville which is somewhere in New England. They agree to travel together after Sam demonstrates how he sells wooden clocks to people who have little money and really do not need a clock.

In the entries that are rarely longer than two pages, the narrator tells how Sam Slick satirizes the people of Nova Scotia and at times comparing them to people from the United States who he always points out are smarter and would do things differently. As an example, his clock selling technique is to leave the clock in the home for a few days so as he explains it will not be damaged as he travels over Nova Scotia's rough bridges. When he returns, the house wife has fallen in love with clock that he had set up to run and chime in his absence. He claims an American would never be so dumb as to fall for this ploy.

However, some of Slick's claims for Americans are clearly off beat and meant to show some of their inadequacies.

I have not checked the history of Nova Scotia to see if this was an issue at the time, but Slick constantly suggests that the provincial government should build a railroad from Halifax to Windsor. He says that is what Yankees would do. I wonder if Haliburton, who had been a politician, was promoting this during this period for he did use these sketches to attack politicians.… (mer)