The Very Worst Road

travellers' accounts of crossing Alabama's Old Creek Indian territory, 1820-1847

Plot

This is a collection of sixteen antebellum accounts traveling the Federal Road from Columbus, Georgia to Montgomery, Alabama. These accounts, which are full of the interests and prejudices of their writers, provide insight into the frontier nature of early Alabama; European and Northern attitudes toward Southern whites and Native Americans; and the relationship of whites, Native Americans and African Americans. The authors of the accounts convey the flavor of the Old Southwest with scholarly attention to detail, with ignorance and prejudice and, frequently, humor.