Alabama Review

The Old Federal Road in Alabama is a vivid and witty travel companion. The first part tells the history of the Old Federal Road and the second lays out a guide for touring Alabama’s Old Federal Road. The work blends historical context with the experiential to connect us to a time during which the “land and its people were remade” (93).

The first section draws on recent scholarship on Creek Indians in the Southeast to provide a succinct and inclusive history of the ancient path that would one day become a road. The foundation was “laid by Indian feet” (7) which used the path for generations. Deer skin traders and native peoples traversed the footpath up to the Seven Years’ War. At war’s end in 1763, the Spanish and French were ejected while the British set up trading posts in Mobile and Pensacola, making “formerly minor paths to the Gulf Coast … major routes” (11). After the American Revolution, American settlers charged into what are now Georgia and Tennessee, straining Creek-US relations. The US government demanded road and waterways through Creek territory while pushing a “civilization policy” (12) to transform Creeks and other Indians into settled farmers. Creeks, through whose land much of the Old Federal Road passed, farmed proficiently and had already selectively adopted many Anglo practices. The authors give ample time to Creek resistance to Americans passing through and squatting on their land, as well as to those Creeks who leveraged the needs of travelers for their own gain.

The broad outlines of nineteenth-century changes are likely familiar, but the authors, by anchoring their work around the road, add important depth to that outline. Readers will not be surprised that the Louisiana Purchase instigated a transformation along the worn path. But not just Anglo settlers journeyed to the new territory. The federal government and military needed improved access to the territory for communication and defense, particularly in regard [End Page 256] to the real prize of the Purchase, the port of New Orleans. Further, the Creek were not completely sidelined by Anglo immigration in the early 1800s. Many travelers hired Creek Indians as post riders. Creeks, like Samuel Moniac, constructed houses on the route to provide fresh horses, fodder, and a stopping place on the unpopulated roadway.

The year 1811 proved a pivot point in pushing the “barely tolerable path” (5) to a wheel-worthy road. Importantly, the authors highlight the federal government’s role in this change. In 1811, the US Army widened the trail and built bridges along it. In the early 1800s, the government forced Creeks to cede much of their land. And whites increasingly owned the inns and stage stops along the road while Creeks were relegated to menial jobs. The Old Federal Road, the authors note, was a “conduit that enabled both immigration and deportation” (90), moving Creek inhabitants out and cotton planters with enslaved peoples in. The United States had transformed the area from Creek territory to the Cotton South.

The work is enlivened with carefully chosen illustrations that are equally inclusive. A detailed 1773 French map of Louisiana (10) highlights existing Indian trails, including some that became the Alabama Old Federal Road. An 1802 Georgia passport giving a white man permission to travel through Creek Nation territory (17) indicates Creek control of their land. Multiple illustrations of Creek Indians give faces and form to Creeks living along the path (64-65). Photos of the contemporary landscape add life to the tour guide section of the work. My favorite is the photo of an evening primrose (139), a flower written about by William Bartram, who traveled to the area in 1775. The lovely primrose grows only around Stockton, Alabama.

The book’s second part is sub-divided into three sections—into the Eastern, Central, and Southern segments...