Family History Writing Challenge- Day 8-The Federal Road

The path that the Womacks and Colemans had followed from Georgia to the Tombigbee Settlement had been nothing but a primitive path through the wilderness. The treaty with the Creeks issued in 1790 required passports, issued by Benjamin Hawkins, for anyone to travel through the Creek Nation.  In 1805, that changed.

A treaty with the Creek Nation allowed the U.S. to have a horse path, four feet wide, from Washington to Mobile, and gave U.S. citizens the right to travel freely on the path. The U.S. government wanted a path for mail service between Washington (D.C.) to New Orleans, which the U.S. had acquired in 1803, along with the Louisiana Purchase from France. They also wanted a route for military to reach the southern border of the expanding United States territories more quickly, should they need to protect that area. The treaty agreed that the Creeks would provide rest houses for travelers and horses, and provide boats or ferries at river crossings- services for which they could charge fares. These services would be regulated by Benjamin Hawkins, the Indian agent, who worked on the route and hired Creeks as post riders for the rode. Hawkins encouraged Jim Cornells, and Sam Moniac, mixed-breed Creeks, to build inns near the path to house travelers and care for their horses. They built on the junction of the Federal Road and the path which headed south to Pensacola- a lucrative trading spot. By 1812, Sam Moniac had a tavern in this location, which was frequented by a local concoction of whites, mixed bloods, and Indians alike.

The Federal Road to Mobile, Saint Stephens, Natchez, and New Orleans

The road was widened again in 1811, this time by the U.S. army. Between 1811 and 1812, Hawkins reported approximately 3700 immigrants traveling west on the road- with at least 120 wagons and 30 carts. Some traveled as much as 30-40 miles per day- but most went half of that, burdened with large families accompanied by family slaves, their entire household belongings, and their farm animals. Meanwhile, the Creeks, who had at first thought to benefit from this arrangement, were realizing that the flow of humanity trudging along this road were not all just passing through. Many planned to make their homes along the way- lands on which the Creeks had long used for hunting, land on which they had their own villages and farms.

Wealthy Creeks, who had successfully assimilated to western ways, acquiring large herds of cattle, and extensive fields of crops worked by slaves, had situated their plantations on the Alabama River, which facilitated easy shipment downriver to the seaports of Mobile and Pensacola. But many other Creeks were soon worried about keeping their small farms or their more traditional Indian ways of life, safe from the onslaught of white settlers and white ways.