Preface

een through the eyes of a literary or natural historian, a philosopher, ethnographer or student of religion, Bartram’s Travels is a rich and revealing document.

Unfortunately, for all of its qualities, it does not have a clear or accurate sense of chronology. Whether this is a result of Bartram’s conscious attempt to give shape to the story as a literary creation (as has been suggested in an earlier section of this report) or whether it resulted from Bartram’s own confusion in writing the book years after the trip itself, cannot be said with certainty. Probably both explanations have some truth to them. In any case, such inconsistencies in dating and chronology make an accurate day-by-day account of Bartram’s southern travels impossible.

In view of the wild state of the land and the tremendous extent of Bartram’s trip (approximately 2,400 miles), his accuracy in describing the route taken is remarkable. By current standards, however, his descriptions are sometimes difficult to interpret. Substantial physical changes in much of the area through which Bartram traveled and his sometimes sketchy accounts of exactly where he was at any given time make a definitive description of his route almost as difficult to provide as a time chart of his activities. The late Dr. Francis Harper, a widely respected Bartram scholar, spent many years of his life researching both subjects and to him we are greatly indebted. When no more recent information was available, his work served as a basis for the route described here. In many instances, however, additional research and the emergence of data not available to Dr. Harper has convinced us that variations from his theoretical route can be substantiated.

Any single interpretation of the physical route of an explorer whose descriptions are sometimes vague and whose dates are often confused through a land that has been changed by two hundred years of natural and human influences is subject to criticism. Often, the route must be theorized on grounds of common sense. When traveling from one spot to another (for the purpose of getting there, not botanizing) we have sometimes assumed that the lone naturalist followed a pre-existing Indian trail or trading path. Such paths frequently became federal highways and many maintain that status today. An historical route down the center of an interstate highway is, therefore, not as coincidental as it might at first appear. Clearly such a route is no longer suitable for hiking, but the purpose of this section of the report is to record the past and discuss the present. Future proposals (including those for possible Bartram Heritage Trail routing) will be taken up in Section III.

The description of the Southeast and the discussion of Bartram’s Travels that follow are based on the historical data presently available, input from the Federal/State Bartram Trail Study Task Force, and the extensive field research of a large number of dedicated professionals and highly qualified private citizens. In the interests of space, a certain amount of detailed information about Bartram’s travels has necessarily been omitted. All information gathered during the course of this study is available for public scrutiny at the Bartram Trail Conference Headquarters.

R.M.P.