illiam Bartram was a man of many contrasts and contradictions: indolent and ineffective in business, but highly motivated and successful in the study of natural history; shy and reclusive, yet willing to expose himself to dangers most contemporaries would have refused to consider.
From Henry Laurens, we get our earliest physical and psychological description of William, given while the young man was trying to make a go of his indigo plantation in Florida in 1766. Laurens describes him at the age of 27 as “of a tender and delicate frame of body and intellects.”(44) He then goes on to assess his situation in Florida:
“Possibly, sir, your son, though a worthy, ingenious man, may not have resolution, or not that sort of resolution, that is necessary to encounter the difficulties incident to and unavoidable in his present state of life … No colouring can do justice to the forlorn state of poor Billy Bartram. A gentle, mild young man, no wife, no friend, no companion, no human inhabitant within nine miles… scant of the bare necessaries, and totally void of all the comforts of life, except an inimitable degree of patience.”(45)
It is worthy of note that the gloomy descriptions of Bartram’s situation were written by someone other than William (though with his encouragement) for it serves to confirm the “patience” and stoical self-sufficiency for which Bartram prided himself. Throughout the account of his four-year southern trip, Bartram makes frequent reference to his solitary wanderings. Although at one point he compares my present situation in some degree to Nebuchadnezzar’s. when expelled from the society of man and constrained to roam in the mountains and wilderness,”(46) he is generally quite unaffected (and sometimes pleased) by his solitude. Considering the many hardships he encountered, the positive tone of his Travels is remarkable, especially when compared to other explorers accounts of roughly the same period. (47)
Bartram’s often mentioned, but infrequently discussed, Quaker background undoubtedly had an important impact on his life. The keen intellectual curiosity of both John and William is reflective of traditional Quaker values of the period. (It should be remembered that patronage support for both Bartrams came primarily from Quakers and that many of the members of the intellectual circle in which they traveled were members of the Society of Friends.) William’s modest nature and respect for his fellow man, so evident in his writings, are fully in keeping with Quaker ideals. His sympathetic view of the American Indian-to be discussed elsewhere in this report-and his relative lack of concern over personal acclaim are more easily understood when seen in the context of Quaker philosophy.
William’s views on the subject of human rights-specifically on the slavery issue-are also in line with his Quaker upbringing. John Bartram had freed his slaves, paid them a fair wage, taught them to read and write, and even shared his meals with them, so the issue of equality was far from a theoretical one for William.(48) In an illuminating document at the Pennsylvania Historical Society, we find evidence that William addressed (or at least intended to address) members of Congress on the subject sometime after 1787. (49) Reminding them of the Constitution’s assumption “that all men are born free and have an equal unalienable right to life, liberty and prosperity, etc.,” he went on to argue: “God is no respecter of Persons…The Black, White, Red and Yellow People are equally dear to him and under his protection and favour… Do we not continue in a woefull predicament by suffering the Black People who are fellow citizens of our Nation to be held in perpetual Bondage and slavery…?”(50) [See Supplement 2.] This address, written in Bartram’s own hand, reveals the depth of his convictions. One wonders what course American history might have taken had his words been heeded.
Unlike his father, William Bartram was a poor correspondent. To make matters even more difficult for historians, he rarely recorded the few letters he did write and rarely saved those he received. However, from what survives of his own writing and from the accounts of others, we can attribute such characteristics as modesty, generosity, and optimism to his personality. In a revealing letter to his nephew written in 1804, Bartram tells us much about his own views of life. “Be social and friendly to everyone even to him that hath been thy adversary,” he advised…
“…avoid the society of those who are religious, immoral, and intemperate. Yet render assistance, and acts of benevolence even to those when in distress … Respect the religion and laws of every Nation … Be honest and frugal, yet magnanimously liberal, as the circumstance may authorize. Be charitable, and always be foremost to administer relief to the poor and distressed … Be cool and temperate in conversation and debate on every subject and shew deference and submission to thy superior; and to old people…”(51)
This unselfconscious advice must surely reflect Bartram’s own character, or at least his ideals. It ends with a postscript: “P.S. My dear James fear and adore God.”
Because Bartram’s own standards of integrity were so important to him, he was particularly sensitive when the motives and accuracy of his scientific observations were questioned by others. The criticism he seems to have taken most to heart, was that evolving from his observations on the alligators of Florida.
In introducing this subject, Bartram was characteristically cautious. “How shall I express myself so as to convey an adequate idea of it to the reader, and at the same time avoid raising suspicions of my want of veracity,” he wrote.(52) So vivid and horrifying were his accounts of alligator behavior, however, that the suspicions were raised despite his care and have continued to be a source of great controversy for the better part of two hundred years. Although many of Bartram’s observations have been vindicated by recent behavioral study, their repeated denial by Bartram’s contemporaries (and many subsequent writers) had a tremendous adverse effect on Bartram’s overall credibility as a scientific observer.(53)
There is no more revealing documentation of Bartram’s sensitivity on this subject than a journal entry by English traveler Henry Wansey:
“Monday, June 9, 1794—Went with Mr. St. George and Mr. Henry over the ferry of the Schuylkill, to visit Mr. Bartram, the famous botanist, who gives us such surprising stories, in his publication of his fierce battles with the alligators, on the coasts of Georgia, etc., while botanizing. He lives about nine miles from Philadelphia, retired from the bustle of life, on an estate of his own, on the banks of the Schuylkill. I saw his greenhouse and shrubbery: here, I confess, I was much disappointed, to find so little to look at. One of my companions joking the old gentleman about the alligators that he had formerly fought with, he became so reserved, that we could get but little conversation from him.”(54)
It is quite possible that the public skepticism with which Bartram’s alligator observations were received, added to his reclusive tendencies and discouraged him from more public participation in scientific discussion. It may also explain his failure to publish more frequently. Bartram was not a competitive person, as his failures in business reveal. He probably saw no reason to rush his discoveries into print (as many of the next generation of scientists were to do) only to have them face the criticism of jealous young competitors.(55) In a way, this is unfortunate, for his failure to do so has cost him the credit for much good work. On the other hand, perhaps Bartram’s integrity and non-competitive spirit will ensure his reputation a more admirable place in history.
44. Earnest, John and William Bartram, op. cit., p. 106.
45. Ibid., p. 107.
46. Bartram’s Travels, p. 228.
47. Constantine Rafinesque (1783–1840), in his autobiography A Life of Travel and Adventure in North America, Philadelphia, 1836, gives vivid descriptions of the hardships he encountered during his botanical explorations. Scottish botanist David Douglas (1798–1834) makes many gloomy observations in his journals of exploration in the Pacific Northwest. See Douglas, Journal of Travels in North America, 1823–1827, London, 1914.
48. According to William, John “zealously testified against slavery; and, that his philanthropic precepts, on this subject, might have their due weight and force, he gave liberty to a most valuable male slave, then in the prime of his life, who had been bred up in the family almost from infancy;” Darlington, Memorials, op. cit., pp. 41–42. Testimony of John’s liberality regarding the slavery issue is provided by Crevecoeur in Letters From An American Farmer, 1782, see Darlington’s Memorials, op. cit., pp. 53–55, for a discussion between Bartram and his foreign visitor on slavery and Bartram’s servants.
49. The manuscript must postdate 1787 because the speech makes reference to the Constitution which was not in existence until that year. The assumption that the talk was intended for the Congress rests on the content of the address, and references to the listeners as “Ye Chiefs of this Nation whom the people have chosen and appointed” and “Ye Chiefs of the National Council...(who) sat in the Assembly.”
50. Part of the text (reproduced in Supplement 2) was published in N. B. Fagin’s William Bartram, Interpreter of the American Landscape, op. cit., pp. 16–17.
51. The letter, preserved in the diary of its recipient, Dr. James Bartram, was first published in Fagin’s William Bartram, Interpreter, op. cit.; see “Appendix,” pp. 201–203.
52. Bartram’s Travels, p. 124; Harper, p. 78.
53. Dr. Kraig Adler, “William Bartram’s Observations on Amphibians and Reptiles,” Bartram Trail Conference Technical Study, 1978, pp. 2–3 and 17–18. [Part of this study is reproduced in Supplement 6 of this report. ]
54. David J. Jeremy, Ed., Henry Wansey and His American Journal, 1794, American Philosophical Society, 1970, p. 112. Bartram’s sensitivity toward criticism is further documented by an interesting letter from William Baldwin (1779–1819) to William Darlington (1782–1863) dated August 20th, 1817. In it, Baldwin described a visit to Bartram’s garden:
“Aware of the suspicions which some entertain of his veracity, it was truly a feast to me to observe how his timeworn countenance brightened up at the vindication of his character, which I informed him I was prepared to offer [after retracing his route.]”
Darlington, Reliquiae Baldwinianae, 1843, republished New York, 1969, pp. 237–240.
55. One of the few scientific articles Bartram published after his return from the South was: “Anecdotes of an American Crow,” Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. 1, part 1, 1804. In it he was very careful to qualify his description by stating: “We [I] do not here speak of the crow, collectively, as giving an account of the whole race...but of a particular bird of that species, which I reared from the nest.” p. 90. Other publications were: “Description of Certhia"; “Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians,” written in 1789 (for Benjamin Smith Barton) and published in The Transactions of the American Ethnological Society (Vol. III) in 1851; and “Observations on the Pea Fly or Beetle, and Fruit Curculio,” Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture I, 1808, pp. 317–323.
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