In 1830, she laid before her Monthly Meeting, a prospect of going to
America. This concern was cordially united with, and she and her husband
were liberated for the service in that land. In reference to this very
weighty engagement, she thus writes to her dear cousin, Elizabeth Fry:--

Darlington, 2nd Month, 4th, 1830.

"My dearest Betsy,

I believe some of thy tenderest sympathies will be aroused, on hearing
of the momentous prospect now before us of visiting North America. I
dare say many, many years ago, thy imagination sent me there,--call it
by that name, or the more orthodox one of faith,--so has mine, but I
saw it without baptism; now, I pass into it under baptism, which in
depth far exceeds any thing I have known before; the severing work it
is to the ties of nature, to my dear Father, Mother, and Children,
breaks me all to pieces, but I have much, if not entirely, been spared
from doubts; all I seem to have had to do was to submit; this is a
great comfort, for which I desire to be thankful, and for that peace
which in the midst of deep suffering has so far rested upon it.

Thy very affectionate
H. C. BACKHOUSE."

Her labours in America were very abundant, and there is reason to
believe, blessed to very many. During the five years she spent on that
Continent, she visited the greater part of the meetings of Friends, and
in doing so, shrank from no hardship or privation consequent upon
travelling in districts recently settled.