"Millions of Americans moved west to settle the Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains during the turbulent nineteenth century. In 1851, Dr. James Dudley Gray (1821-1894) set out for Iowa from Marietta, Ohio, a family migration that was started by his oldest brother a decade earlier. Sorrow and Satisfaction: The Life of Dr. James D. Gray shows what it meant to settle the frontier, suffer bankruptcy, migrate to the west, witness religious persecution, create a new town, confront "Locofoco" politicians, assist enslaved people on the Underground Railroad, work as a country doctor and Civil War surgeon, and watch a new community prosper and wither away. Grays story also includes his unrequited love for his cousin Mary, who refused to marry him. His letters to her chronicle his life from 1841 to the Civil War.

But if his life was tinged with romance, it is also about abolition, womens rights, technological improvements, and reform. From 1847 to 1848, he was half owner of an abolitionist newspaper published across the river from Wheeling, in the slave state of Virginia. The venture was not a success, but the paper vividly records his progressive views. Grays abolitionism was based not on religion but on "the rights of man." Author David E. Nye, a preeminent historian of technology, analyzes Dr. Grays life for insight on the social and political environment of his time. Sorrow and Satisfaction provides a valuable resource for scholars in history as well as everyday readers looking for a perspective on historical differences in technology, daily activities, and political issues"-- Provided by publisher.