Personal Narratives and Transatlantic Contexts during the U.S.-Mexican War

I LEFT home for the United States in the summer of 1845, for the same reason that yearly sends so many thousands there, want of employment, writes Scottish immigrant and English soldier George Ballentine. 

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the U.S. received into its midst waves of immigrants from across the globe. Immigrant experiences like Ballentine's were often related and recorded through the form of personal narrative and autobiography. 

Within these narratives, many immigrants continue to reference conditions in their homeland, creating a comparative structure that relates to transatlantic, trans-paci c, and hemispheric histories of circulation and migration. Ballentine's immigrant experience was a speci cally transatlantic experience which adopted hemispheric implications as a result of his travels throughout the U.S.

Mexican borderlands. His Autobiography of an English Soldier2 o ers a key way through which to highlight his history of immigration and introduce students to an important literary form: the personal narrative.