Anonymous Travel Diary from Boston to New Orleans

The fifty-two page travel diary documents an unnamed Northern man's travels from New England to the South. He used various means of transportation including stagecoach, railroads, and steamboats. His journey took him from Boston to New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and then to Florida where he spent the most amount of time. He described various Florida towns in detail: Tallahassee, Quincy, Chattahoochie, Apalachicola, Iola, and Cambridge. From Florida he traveled up to Columbus, Georgia, and then into Montgomery, Alabama,before heading south to Mobile. From Mobile, he traveled to New Orleans.

The writer comments extensively--usually unfavorably--on Southern cooking. He describes many aspects of Southern life and culture, with many observations on slavery and enslaved persons with whom he comes in contact. In Macon, Georgia, he witnessed the murder trial of a Black man, reporting that the man was acquitted. He describes the towns and cities he passes through and stays in, noting their architecture and business climate, often delivered with pithy and interesting anecdotes. His March 9 entry mentioned that a bridge over the Chattahoochee River had been designed by an enslaved person; this unnamed enslaved person was undoubtedly Horace King. The journal is especially interesting for its extensive descriptions of life and conditions in Florida.