“The Most Convenient Wayes”: Travel and Transportation by Land in Early America

A “‘most howling wilderness’” was an essential outline of conditions under which the people of America, from the earliest English settlement until shortly before the Revolution, in those days, and for long afterward, lived and moved about early America. Travel was done on foot, on horseback, by wagon, or by boat. (Fig. 1) Water routes were used whenever possible; horses were useless except near settlements or on beaten paths. Extended journeys often had to be on foot. The land was so vast, full of Native Americans and wild animals, that for more than a century and a half, the white population hugged a little strip of seacoast 150 miles wide, from north to south. Most of our knowledge about colonial and early American travel has been pieced together from fragments such as diaries, personal letters, and travel accounts by domestic and foreign travelers. Many include motives for the first travel movements, such as a natural wish to settle and get in touch with neighbors, the desire for a better life, and an occasional impulse that sometimes led part of a colony to pull up stakes and move elsewhere.

Trails were the cornerstone of land travel. European settlers frequently relied on established Native American overland trails to reach their destinations in less time or with fewer obstacles than any other route between the two points. They were between twelve and eighteen inches in width, and sometimes were worn a foot deep. For land travel, Natives often created paths connecting one stream to another. (Figs. 2 and 3)

First Road Legislation

The first highway legislation in American history was passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses in September 1632. In the language of the day, the act provided that “Highwayes shall be layd in such convenient places as are requisite according as the Gov. and Counsell or the commissioners for the monthlie corts shall appoynt, or accordinge as the parishioners of every parish shall agree.” The act required each man in the colony to work on the roads a given number of days each year, a custom dating at least from the feudal period of the Middle Ages in England, or to pay another to work in his place. It remained in effect for more than 250 years and served as the primary source of workers for road and bridge construction.

The success of the tobacco crop also influenced Virginia’s transportation needs. Its success in cultivating tobacco led many old Indian paths to become tobacco-rolling roads, known as “Rolling Roads.” The name came from the practice of packing the harvested tobacco in barrels called hogsheads and rolling them to the wharves, frequently a distance of several miles. The rollers ordinarily tried to follow the high ground and avoided fords or shallow stream crossings because water leaking through the barrels would damage the tobacco. The practice of following old paths and branching off at times onto higher ground accounts for many early meandering country roads. (Fig. 4)

Major Colonial Roads

Here are some of the major roads of the colonial period that your ancestors may have traveled:

• The King’s Highway: The idea of King Charles II in 1660, this 1,300-mile-long road was not completed until 1735. Also called the Great Coast Road, the traveler using it would make the journey in at least two months. It ran from Boston to Savannah, Georgia. The portion between Boston and New York, first used in 1673, was called the Boston Post Road.
• The Great Wagon Road: Also called the Great Valley Road, it was discovered in 1716 and ran 455 miles from Philadelphia to the Yadkin River, then to Augusta, Georgia. Its heaviest use was between 1740 and 1770. It split in South Carolina near Camden and Ninety Six before merging again to head to its southern terminus. It was the main route of travel for northern settlers moving south, particularly the Scots-Irish and Palatine Germans.
• The Carolina Road: Began around 1740 and ran from Frederick, Maryland, to an Indian trading post on the Occaneechie Island in the Roanoke River, on the Virginia-North Carolina border. It was favored for its numerous springs, milder temperatures, and relatively safe fords across major rivers and streams. It was over 730 miles long at its peak
• The Fall Line Road, or Southern Road: Ran 170 miles from Philadelphia to Fredericksburg, then to Augusta, Georgia, eventually ending in Montgomery, Alabama. By 1735, it connected most growing mill towns along the fall line, a geographic drop-off separating the coastal from the piedmont areas. It was the first road into the interior connecting towns away from the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas.
• The Upper Road: This was a 585-mile road extending from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to Macon, Georgia. It started around 1740 as an alternative route to the Fall Line Road.
• The Wilderness Road: Ran two hundred miles through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky, ending at Crab Orchard. It was designed by Daniel Boone as a path only for horseback travel and the driving of livestock. The Kentucky Legislature paid to upgrade the pathway to a wagon road in 1792.

You can find a chronological list of early migration trails and roads in the FamilySearch Wiki. For an outstanding, detailed map of all kinds of colonial roads in 1775, this map is a must-see.

Road Building

In the colonial period, the building of a road began with a petition or court order, which you can find in county court records. The court would name road crews to work on a specific section of roads under a “supervisor.” The crew was usually composed of men living along the proposed road, and they were assigned a specific section to work on. The order would usually list the property owners in that section.

Who Traveled?

Eighteenth-century colonial travel was arduous, expensive, and often dangerous. Most travelers were men on business or official trips. The wealthy could afford horses and carriages, making it easier to travel for pleasure, while the poor walked and rarely did so. Households traveled with horses and wagons. Many people would travel on foot for extraordinary distances to get supplies or to visit friends and family.

Modes of Land Travel

The first step up for a colonial traveler with extra money was buying a horse. Even poor whites purchased a horse and saddle as soon as they could afford them. Horses sold for as little as five pounds, but a fine racehorse cost as much as five hundred pounds.

The Conestoga (Fig. 1) was used to transport large amounts of materials over long distances on rough roads. Its curved shape shifted cargo toward the center and prevented items from sliding on mountain slopes. It could carry as much as six tons of freight, and was named after the Conestoga River near what is now Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Conestoga was the earliest American form of covered wagon, used by early pioneers to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. They were pulled by four to six horses, ideally of a kind native to the area, docile, strong, and able to cover twelve to fourteen miles a day. These wagons were built by skilled craftsmen in the Susquehanna Valley, believed to be Mennonite German settlers.

The Stage Waggon (see the image at the top of the blog post) is considered among the first American carriage styles developed by American artisans. In the colonies, pleasure carriages were known as “waggons.” Stage waggon (known as stagecoach in the nineteenth century) service began in the early eighteenth century, with limited routes connecting several major population centers. Only a modest amount of staging occurred in the East a half-century before the Revolutionary War, but afterward it experienced rapid growth.

The Coachee (Fig. 6) was a plain, light waggon that cost less to build and could carry light merchandise or passengers. It was also called a family waggon, and unlike the fancier carriages, no coachmen or attendants were necessary to “drive” it or attend to the passengers. The coachee was used in the mid-Atlantic states near the end of the eighteenth century.

We can see how important land transportation was in the early years of colonial settlement, and how our ancestors traveled to the places where we find them, demonstrating a willingness to venture into new territory. Be sure to return next month for a look at the way our ancestors traveled by water in early America.