From Plotzk to Boston

Description

From Plotzk to Boston is an 1899 travelogue by writer and emigrant advocate Mary Antin. It documents her trip from her native land of Polotsk in the Russian Empire – referred today as modern Belarus – to America in 1894, concentrating mostly on her experiences in remote environments, the histrionic struggles her family went through, and the privations that came along their voyage to and future habitation in Boston, Massachusetts. Her earliest important work, it established the underpinning for her postliminary life account and very popular, The Promised Land published in 1912.

The travelogue starts with Mary’s recall of the monetary strains and stories of American good fortune that cleared her native land of Polotsk in 1891, causing an enormous rush of settling from Russia to America. Sacrificing to have a livelihood and attracted by the affiance of a finer life out of the country, her father travels with his family to the United States and leaves by himself for Boston to work to pay for the trip for his own family. Departing Polotsk with her mother, two sisters, and brother 3 years after, Mary recounts their journeys to Europe and crossed the Atlantic to be with her father. Going westbound to Russia by riding on a train, the family traversed in populous towns and cities that Mary jotted down for their elation and scientifically new surroundings in contrast to the desolated native life that she apperceived. Simultaneously, she contemplates on the disaccord heartwarming situation of her family, who felt combined pains of scruple, melancholy and strong fondness for the home and the persons that they are departing.

Mary Antin christened as Maryashe Antin was mostly known for her 1912 account of her life, The Promised Land, a memoir of her settlement and later Americanization.
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