January 1835
George William Featherstonhaugh (1780–1866), a British subject, served both the government of the United States and Great Britain. As United States geologist, he surveyed large portions of the West. His knowledge of the territory resulted in a British appointment to the commission to resolve the Anglo-American dispute about the Oregon Territory’s northern border. Subsequently, he was appointed as a British consul in western France, where he died. His writings express the objectivity and interests of a scientific mind. Of course, it is not surprising that he disliked slavery and the slave trade or even that he was disgusted by American manners, but he also disapproved of democracy itself. He was positively impressed, however, by the South’s physical resources.
Unlike most European travelers of the time, his travels were limited to the South. His son, who accompanied him, may have helped him recall his observations, but Featherstonhaugh himself keep daily notes, which he transcribed into his journal weekly.
G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Excursion Through the Slave States, (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1844), 144–145.
After a tolerably interesting and peaceful voyage [up the Alabama River from Mobile], we reached Montgomery in the afternoon of the 12th of January, and here the steamer was to stop some time. The Coosa was still navigable forty miles to Wetumpka, a place near the falls of the river, but the captain intending to remain some time here before he proceeded up, I determined to leave the boat. It would have been agreeable to me to have visited the falls, because, from the information I received, the rocks there were gneiss, and this was one of the points of limitation of the sedimentary beds, from which the ocean had last retired: besides, I heard that bituminous coal, which is also found on the Black Warrior and other parts of Alabama, existed on a partial line not far from the Wetumpka falls, which is exactly the manner in with the Chesterfield coal-field in Virginia is situated in relation to the falls on the James River at Richmond: and one of the interesting questions suggested by the geology of North America is as to whether there is a line of coal-fields in the United States east of the Alleghany mountains, running in detached basins from Virginia to Alabama. If the foliage had been out, the country would have been beautiful; but considering the softness of the climate here, and the great fertility of the soil in Alabama, it is not surprising that people should flock—as they do—to this favoured part of the United States. Still, with all its advantages, I must say that I would rather be a visiter than a sojourner in the land: the persecuting malaria, which never pardons the country a single season, is of itself a great objection, and the universal and extravagant use of tobacco by the people would be to me another of equal magnitude; so, what with the effluvia of nature and man combined, this fine country, with all its advantages, seems to fall very far short of a terrestrial Paradise.
I was glad to leave the boat, which was a very dirty concern, and nothing could be less tempting than our fare; some of the passengers were kind and communicative, but others were too fond of gambling, and spitting, and smoking to permit the enjoyment of much comfort. These were not Mobile people, but individuals going to different plantations, roads to which come out upon the river; and at most of these communications we either landed or took in persons on the way, but they were all coarse in their manners, and in many instances very disgusting. In an inordinate love of tobacco they all agreed, and it appeared to me that those whom the mania for this weed had seized in the strongest degree were always the most careless about their manners, as if it were out of character for a tobacco-eater to be decent. A few of the men employed on board the steamer were Muskogee, or Creek Indians; this was the first time I had seen aborigines employed as labourers, and from the activity they showed when we stopped to take in fuel, I could not but think that if a different policy had been observed towards this unfortunate race, good domestic servants and labourers might have been furnished from them in time, more intelligent than the negro, and fitted to the climate; but these considerations come too late—the fate of the Indians is sealed.
From the landing we had to walk a mile to Montgomery, a small straggling town with a population of from two to three thousand inhabitants, built upon a deposit of sand and red bluish clay, which, with occasional patches of rotten limestone in the local prairies of the neighbourhood, constitute the general soil of this part of the country.
The two principal streets are very broad, in the style common to all the southern towns, and from the great number of stores in them, amounting at least to one hundred, it would seem to be a place of extensive inland business; but of all the horrid filthy places into which I ever entered in any country, I think the principal hotel here, which was the one to which we were directed by common consent of all those we made inquiries of, bears the dirty palm. Everything about it seemed to breathe of whiskey and tobacco, and the walls of the bed-room to which I was shown were so incommunicably squirted over with a black-coloured tobacco-juice, and with more disgusting things, that it was evident the visitors to the place were, as to manners, but little raised above the inferior animals. There was an unfinished hotel then building opposite, but what the other hotels were which were not, “principal,” I had not time to ascertain. I regretted much, however, that I had not gone to one of them, upon the very chance that they could not be worse, and might be better, following the principle that a gentleman of my acquaintance once pursued in writing from the country to his agent in New York: “The servants you have sent me with good character have all turned out so ill, that you will oblige me by sending those I am in want of at present with as little character as possible.” And the plan succeeded for those with good characters thinking they could always get other places, did just as they pleased, whilst the others being anxious to keep their places, were more circumspect in their conduct.
There was little temptation to remain here, and I turned my attention to leaving the place as soon as I found out how uncomfortable it was likely to be. Upon inquiry I found that the roads through the Indian territory of the Creek nation, through which I had now to pass to get into the State of Georgia, were excessively broken up, especially the Indian bridges which cross the great swamps, and that in consequence thereof the letters were forwarded on horseback, the mail-coach being unable to run; so that I had got into a cleft stick, and must either remain here until the roads became passable for the mail—which was not expected until the spring—or must take a private conveyance and pay any price they might think proper to exact of me. The landlord was the person I had to deal with, and he ended a monstrous account of the difficulties with an equally monstrous price for conducting us in a miserable vehicle and a pair of wretched horses to Columbus, in Georgia, the distance being ninety miles. After a good deal of chaffering, I finally agreed to give him sixty-five dollars, which, with a gratuity to the driver, amounted to about four shillings a mile in English money.