Historic Road Rich with Stories of Evolving Food Traditions
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n the spring of 1830, Mrs. Anne Royall, one of early America’s best-selling travel writers, set out from Augusta, Georgia, on the “great mail route, from Washington City to New Orleans.” At Columbus, Georgia, before she crossed the Chattahoochee River for her trek across Creek Indian territory, Mrs. Royall was told she would have “a poor chance for dinner.” She secured a peach pie from her Columbus host, and at Fort Mitchell, an army base that was her first stop on the west side of the river, she selected “a considerable ration of dried venison and bread” (likely cornbread) at a store run by the Indian agent’s brother. As a result, she and her fellow passengers “fared pretty well” as their stage chugged into the wilderness of the Creek Nation (Royall 2:147 1831). Much to her surprise, when
Lucas Tavern in Waugh, Alabama, located on the old Federal Road, Courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
the stagecoach stopped to change horses at “the only house where dinner was likely to be had,” she was surprised to find that “lo!—dinner was set” (Royall 2:148 1831). Mrs. Royall’s apprehension about what she would eat on the “Federal Road” journey was typical. Careful attention to accounts of dining adventures are not only entertaining but instructive, providing insight about traveler expectations as well as the changing foodways of the early South. Alabama’s historic Federal Road, as Mrs. Royall noted in her book, was originally a post road designed to provide faster mail communications between the east coast and the Louisiana Purchase. Work began in 1806, after much wrangling with the Creek Indians, whose territory was bisected by the road. At first, the road was no more than a horse path for post riders. But, in time, it was widened and expanded by numerous side routes, while the addition of bridges, causeways, and ferries assisted travelers at river and swamp crossings. The road
ran through forests and uninhabited areas, making it essential to build “stops” or “stands” to provide fresh horses for post riders and accommodation for travelers. At first, Creek owners operated these stands, but they were soon edged out as hostility toward Indians mounted in the 1820s and 1830s. Most stands were crude log or frame buildings that offered little in the way of comfort. 175 By the 1820s, traffic increased dramatically along the road as travelers and emigrants trundled west to sightsee or settle, and several of the inns slowly established a reputation for comfort and hospitality. The thousands who traveled along the Federal Road from the end of the Creek War through Indian Removal in the late 1830s encountered a variety of foods and dining experiences that reveal the changing nature of foodways and the commercialization of hospitality in the region as well as the cultural reordering of the entire region. One of the first stands established along the road was built around 1808 by Samuel Moniac, a