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Hinton Rowan Helper Hinton Rowan Helper was born near Mocskville, North Carolina, in 1829. In 1851 he went to California by way of Cape Horn, and spent nearly three years on the Pacific coast. He was appointed United States consul at Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1861, and held this office until 1867. In 1867 he returned to Asheville, North Carolina, where he resided until he settled in New York. He travelled extensively through North, South, and Central America, in Europe, and also in Africa. He proposed a "Three Americas Railway," which would have eventually formed one connected line from the Bering strait to the Strait of Magellan. He was the originator and efficient promoter of the commercial commission from the United States to Central and South America. Besides his landmark work "The Crisis of the American South", he also wrote "The Land of Gold" (1855); "Nojoque, a Question for a Continent" (1867); and "The Three Americas Railway" (1881). In his final years, Helper was a bitter and impoverished man. His wife went blind and she returned to Buenos Aires with their son in 1899, leaving him alone in Washington. All his funds had gone into promoting his railway dream, and although a commission was appointed to study the idea, he was not named a member of it. The Crisis of the American South More information on The Crisis of the American South |
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