This edition offers the complete text of the first published edition of Mary Howitt’s Our Cousins in Ohio (1849), based on the letters sent by her immigrant sister in Cincinnati to her family in England. Supplementing the base text are a detailed record of all variants in the first London edition (1849), a critical introduction, explanatory notes, a selection of supplementary materials drawn from contemporary sources, a guide to the historical figures on which Howitt’s characters were based and a guide to further scholarship on Howitt. Subjects include the daily activities of the immigrant family, as well as significant historical material, such as slavery, abolition and the persistence of northern racism; the Shakers; Native American boarding schools; the Mexican-American war; and more.