From The Economist of August 9th 1851.
Sample: from “Moby-Dick” (1851) by Herman Melville, showing US English in both Standard and Black (or at least minstrelese) form:
Sullenly taking the offered lantern, old Fleece limped across the deck to the bulwarks; and then, with one hand dropping his light low over the sea, so as to get a good view of his congregation, with the other hand he solemnly flourished his tongs, and leaning far over the side in a mumbling voice began addressing the sharks, while Stubb, softly crawling behind, overheard all that was said.
“Fellow-critters: I’se ordered here to say dat you must stop dat dam noise dare. You hear? Stop dat dam smackin’ ob de lip! Massa Stubb say dat you can fill your dam bellies up to de hatchings, but by Gor! you must stop dat dam racket!
Literate Black people, like Frederick Douglass, then as now, wrote in Standard English.
Maps:
The British Empire in 1850. English was also spoken in California, Utah, Liberia, and the eastern US.
E is for English: a linguistic map of Britain and Ireland in 1850. Via indo-europeanlanguages.blogspot.com.
Race map of North America in 1850. Most of the White people in this map spoke English except for those in and near Quebec. New outposts of English: San Francisco, Salt Lake City.
A race map of southern Africa and the Antipodes in 1850. Nearly all the White people in this map spoke English. By 1851, Afrikaners had migrated into the grey part of map during the Great Trek (1835-40).
- Speakers: 77 million (as a first or second language), putting it third worldwide:
- 350m – Mandarin Chinese
- 87m – Hindi
- 77m – English
- 69m – Russian
- 66m – German
- 48m – Spanish
- 46m – French
- 43m – Japanese
- 31m – Swahili
- 25m – Italian
- Countries: US (the East, California, Utah), Liberia, and the British Empire (especially Britain, Ireland, Canada West, British West Indies, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Falklands, Australia, New Zealand),
- Script: Roman (26 letters: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z)
- Language family: Germanic branch of the Indo-European family
New words: drapetomania, graffiti, student teacher, bullied, yeshiva, gynaecologist, carbohydrate, Boolean, Pecksniffian, bloke, toff, stove-pipe (hat), soft wares (woolen or cotton fabrics), radiator (for rooms), nocturne, saxophone, godless communism, canard, curio, Cretaceous, or bust, etc.
Preferred spellings: aging, aluminum, analyze, centre, connection, cosy, encyclopaedia, foetus, fulfil, hemorrhage, honour, judgment, practising, recognise, spelt, to-day, travelling, whiskey, yoghourt.
Preferred words and expressions:
- Abyssinia > Ethiopia (as a country name)
- American Indian > Red Indian
- Amoy > Xiamen
- Asiatics > Asians
- Bible > Scripture (but just barely)
- he who > someone who
- hyphenization > hyphenation
- interrogation point > question mark
- Jehovah > Yahweh
- melancholy > depression
- Moslem > Mohammedan (just barely)
- Near East > Middle East
- nine day’s wonder > flash in the pan
- negro equality > racial equality
- negroes > blacks > Negroes
- sharpshooter > sniper
- sneaked > snuck
- surname > family name > last name
- ten per cent > 10% > ten percent
Media diet: According to Thoreau, people back then mainly read the Bible, the newspaper, and cheap, contemporary fiction.
- Bible: mainly the King James translation or Authorized Version.
- newspapers: the biggest were:
- UK: Times of London
- US: New-York Daily Tribune (edited by Horace Greeley)
- bestsellers: in the UK in 1851:
- Wilkie Collins: Mr. Wray’s Cash-Box
- Charles Kingsley: Yeast: A Problem
- Eliza Lynn: Realities
And, of course, there were blackface minstrel shows.
In the UK, “David Copperfield”, “Vanity Fair”, “Jane Eyre”, and “Wuthering Heights” were all bestsellers of the past five years.
In the US, Frederick Douglass’ Newspaper was then active. And “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was being serialized, one chapter a week. In 1852 it will outsell even the Bible for a time.
– Abagond, 2021.
Sources: Google Books Ngram Viewer, Online Etymology Dictionary, Victorian Web, Data is Beauty, “Moby-Dick” (1851).
See also:
- Black American writing, early 1800s
- 1851 media diet – my version
- 1851 in maps, pictures, songs
- English
- Thoreau’s library
- Frederick Douglass
- The Economist
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Abagond 
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