The Traveller 'The attention of a traveller, should be particularly attuned, in the first place, to the Various works of Nature ...."

Newsletter of the Bartram Conference Spring 2004 www.bartramtrail.org

President's Notes presentations and certainly the most entertaining visit by (aka John Hall) that the BTC he weather forecast was gloomy - wet, crowd has seen in a long time. Next year, we re- chilly and just plain nasty. The kind of assemble at Augusta. I can't wait! Tweather that makes one even fonder of a We have great plans for the coming year. In warm bed. But avoiding the storm clouds and pelting Gainesville, Charlotte Porter and others are beginning rain was not an option. As my husband and I drove work on a multi-media project that will take William toward the appointed rendezvous for the Tallapoosa Bartram into classrooms. A number of new Bartram River canoe float on the last day of the 2003 Bartram book projects are in production by various members. Trail Conference, my thoughts were just as gloomy as We are planning to publish our conference pro- the weather. I feared the nocturnal storms would have ceedings. Speakers such as Brad Sanders are making convinced folks to skip the field trip and instead, make appearances far and wide educating public audiences an early start back home -to , , about William Bartram and his world. And students , Mississippi, , Louisiana, and researchers from a variety of fields across and various parts of Alabama - even to Eng- America are embarking on Bartram-related projects. land. What a surprise waited for me at the launch site! It is a great time to stop and consider the benefits Gathered there upon our arrival was a great of belonging to the Conference. Our gaggle of wet and smiling Bartram Trail members, web site is the first stop for all internet research on swaddled in rain gear of every hue, eagerly antici- Bartram, and our number of "hits" increases annually. pating a canoe trip whatever the heavens cared to We provide information to a variety of environmental deliver. Old and young, men and women, these fan- and historical and educational organizations about tastic happy people had come from far and near to Bartram and the eighteenth-century South. The BTC view the greatly changed landscape so beautifully provides a place for like-minded people (i.e., Bartram described by Bartram over two hundred years before. nuts) to gather and enjoy discussion, fellowship and Away we went. And as canoe after canoe left the share ideas. Our newsletter is a wonderful source of launch site and we paddled toward our destination of information on Bartram-related news and events. Fort Toulouse, the clouds gave way to happier skies. What a wonderful day it was as we quietly paddled together, enjoying conversation, local landmarks and a variety of birds and vegetation. I could not help but think that William Bartram would have been very proud of our intrepid group and would have enjoyed the paddle. Like the canoe paddle, I think the rest of the conference was a great success. From the opening barbeque on the steps of the Alabama Department of Archives and History to the picnic pavilion at Fort Toulouse, we had a marvelous time. The speakers were all great and for those of you who missed the conference I can only say you missed some of the Billy Bartram (or is that John Hall1) paying a visit to the BTC meeting in most exciting scholarly presentations, beautiful Montgomery. Photo by Chuck Spomick; artifacts, the most visually appealing natural history 2 Newsletter of the Bartram Trail Conference Spring 2004

I encourage all of you to renew your member- The Bartram Trail Conference and The ship in the BTC and also consider an additional Southern Initiative donation to help fund our Fothergill Award and get other projects, such as membership brochures, under- Who says that history doesn't repeat itself? In way. We are busy planning for future events and 1975, the Bartram Trail Conference was established working to educate our children about history, litera- as part of America's Bicentennial observance to iden- ture and the natural world. Help keep this wonderful tify William Bartram's contribution to American heri- organization afloat by your membership commitment tage and the heritage of the Southeast. Part of their and your participation at our events. And if you have work involved identifying the route of the prominent an idea about a Bartram project, don't hesitate to con- native-born naturalist in eight southern states (North tact me. I look forward to seeing all of you soon .... Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ten- somewhere along Bartram's trail. nessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana). The Conference works to promote public Kathryn H Braund, President and historical sites within the general area of Bartram Trail Conference Bartram's route [1]. The original dream for the Bartram Trail was a Trail of about 2500 mi. going Canoe Paddle Planned in Alabama from Charleston, S.C. to Baton Rouge, La., which would correspond to Bartram's original route. Be- cause of development Onmuch of this land in the 200 Members of the Bartram Trail Conference are planning a one-day canoe and kayak trip on the years since Bartram's travels it was only possible to Bartram Canoe Trail in Baldwin County, Ala- construct a small section of the trail envisioned and 0e Conference created a "string of pearls concept," bama, just north of Mobile. The trip date is May which identifies sites within a approximately fifty mile 1. Depending on water levels, we will paddle from corridor that follows Bartram's most likely route [2,3]. French's Lake landing to Upper Bryant's Landing. In 2002, the American Society, together The route is not long and has been run by paddlers with the [4], established a with little experience. It passes through areas ex- regionally focused program, the Southern Appa- plored by William Bartram in 1775 and is home to a variety of birds and wildlife as well as myriad lachians Initiative (SAI), to build a conservation constituency among trail volunteers, conservation plant species. The Bartram Canoe Trail has been organizations, and agencies to help link up reorganized over the past three years by the Ala- approximately 5,000 miles of hiking trails in the bama Department of Conservation and Natural Southeast. The effort is regionally focused in Bar- Resources to provide an enjoyable experience for everyone. tram's eight southern states mentioned above plus Kentucky and southern (Bartram traveled A limited number of canoes will be provided through Virginia but not through Kentucky). Some of for those who do not have them. If you are interested in joining the expedition, contact Jim the trails are/will be in the Bartram corridor. Kautz at 770-321-9826 or [email protected] Over the past year, the SAI has formed a South- eastern Foot Trails Coalition of regional hiking and he can provide details. If you decide to join organizations to carry out this mission: (1) Promote a us, make sure you stay in touch since water con- regional network of long-distance hiking trails. (2) ditions may mean a change in launch locations. Check the BTC web site (www.bartramtrail. Protect the natural hiking trail corridors by jointly org) for information about the trip, including local raising the visibility of the value and importance of hotel and camping accommodations. hiking trails to the public. (3) Build hiking trails in the Southeast, as well as the relationships between the organizations and individuals who are seeing our foot trails. www.bartramtrail.org 3 Newsletter of the Bartram Trail Conference Spring 2004

Here is a current list of coalition members: If you are in an organization in the southeastern Alabama Hiking Trail Society; Alabama Trails states that supports the ideals of the Coalition consider Association Appalachian Trail Conference; Benton joining and throwing your support behind this impor- MacKaye Trail Association; Carolina Mountain tant project. Hiking clubs that work on trails and Club; Chattanooga Hiking Club; Cumberland Trail sponsor hikes should strongly consider joining the Conference; Association; Coalition to support this trail effort in the Southeast. Conference; Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail; You can find application forms on the web site [4]. Georgia Appalachian Trail Club; Georgia Bartram Trail Group; Kentucky Trails Association; Hiwassee JohnR. Ray Hiking Club; Mountain High Hikers; Old Dominion [email protected] Appalachian Trail Club; Palmetto Conservation Foundation-Palmetto Trails; Pine Mountain Trail Notes Conference; Rivanna Trails Foundation; Smoky [1] See the Bartram Trail Conference web site Mountains Hiking Club; Tennessee Eastman Hiking (www. bartramtrail.org). and Canoeing Club; Tennessee Trails Association. [2] Brad Sanders, Guide to William Bartram's The American Hiking Society and National Park Travels. Athens: Fevertree Press, 2002 (www. Service have established a regional office in Chat- fevertreepress.com). tanooga, Tenn. with the mission of carrying out the [3] Charles D. Spornick, Alan R. Cattier, and Robert goals of the SA!. Each member organization endorses J. Greene, An Outdoor Guide to Bartram's Travels. the mission and pledges to support it. The only cost Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2003. for membership in the Coalition is time. There is no [4] See the American Hiking Society web site for the fee. Southern Appalachian Initiative (http://www . americanhiking.orgjalliancelsai.html).

SOUTkEAST REGiONAL TRAils MAl! 4 Newsletter of the Bartram Trail Conference Spring 2004

How the Heart Opens predation and its columns of dead insects the glory of purpose no matter how small. In that plant I was Editor's Note: The following selection begins the looking for a manera de ser, a way of being - no, not chapter "How the Heart Opens, "from Janisse Ray's for a way of being but of being able to be. I was American Book Award winning Ecology of a Cracker looking for a patch of ground that supported the Childhood Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1999 survival of rare, precious, and endangered biota (www.milkweed.org). Ray's memoir of growing up in within my own heart. a junkyard, and amidst the longleaf pines of south My brothers and sister and I worked hard, Georgia, belongs on the bookshelf of any BTC cleaning bricks and hauling junk, tearing down old member; thanks to for her allowing us to share this buildings and pulling nails and stacking lumber, han- account of a botanic specimen that also fascinated ding Daddy tools and feeding the sheep and cutting William Bartram. grass, nailing shingles and ferrying Sheetrock and measuring and sawing boards, and Daddy had neither One essential event or presence can save a child, the time nor the inclination to take us hiking or cam- can flower in her and claim her for its own. The ping or fishing. Not a hard-hearted man, he could French novelist and humanist Albert Camus said, "A have paved the country with his empathy to the down- man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover trodden and his compassion for hurt animals, through the detours of art, those two or three great ' although he wouldn't waste his breath offering con- and simple images in whose presence his heart first gratulations to anyone enjoying health, happiness, and opened." success. Nature wasn't ill regarded, it was super- For me, growing up among piles of scrap iron fluous. Nature got in the way. and glittering landmines of broken glass that scattered One morning, out scrambling to get a tractor ivory scars across my body, among hordes of rubber running, he stepped on a toad. The loam of the junk- tires that streaked my legs black, among pokeweed yard was rich and fertile, streaming with healthy and locust, I attribute the opening of my heart to one earthworms, mole crickets, and warty toads camou- clump of pitcher plants that still survives on the back- flaged against the ground. They could be found in side of my father's junkyard. I know it now to be the cool, moist places - under boards and cement blocks hooded species, Sarracenia minor, that sends the red - where they burrowed to keep from dessicating. bonnets of its traps knee-high out of soggy ground. In When you picked a toad up, it peed instantly. spring it blooms loose, yellow, exotic tongues. In fifth grade my 4-H project was carnivorous plants. The only information I could find was a short Fothergill Award entry in the outdated set of Encyclopedia Americana we owned. On a poster I sketched the innards of a Ms. Elizabeth Fairhead is the recipient of the pitcher plant, showing how its upright, trumpet- 2003-2004 Fothergill Award. Ms. Fairhead was shaped leaves are lined with downward-pointing one of a number of scholars who competed for the hairs, how it lures insects through its lips with a grant of $500.00. She is a doctoral candidate at sweet-smelling nectar. The insects can descend but Michigan State University and she will use the never climb out again. I sliced open one of the Sarra- award to assist with completion of her disser- cenia stems to show the judges at the regional com- tation, which is tentatively titled, "William Bar- petition in Jesup that it was full of a ripe stew of tram and Natural History in Philadelphia, 1800- insect parts - ant bodies, fly legs, beetle wings - but 1815." The Fothergill Award is funded by gene- they weren't impressed. rous contributions of our membership. To help The pitcher plant taught me to love rain, wel- support future research, please see the member- coming days of drizzle and sudden thundering down- ship application/renewal form. pours, drops trailing down its hoods and leaves, soaking the ground. In my fascination with the pitcher plant, I learned to detest artificial bouquets of plastic and silk. Its carnivory taught me the sinlessness of 7 Newsletter ofthe Bartram Trail Conference Spring 2004

Reviews throughout the Southeast between 1797 and 1810. This viatory contains much new information on the The Collected Works of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796- cultural and natural landscapes of the turn-of-the- 1810. Ed. and Intro. by H. Thomas Foster II. nineteenth-century South. Modem geographical Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003. sleuths will undoubtedly enjoy the challenge of re- Cloth, $75.00, Paper, $34.95. tracing Hawkins's perambulations across the region. This volume makes accessible to modem readers Among historical documents on the Creek Indians the bulk of Hawkins's published works. Despite the of the late eighteenth century, William Bartram's editor's view that this compilation "constitutes the writings are rivaled in importance only by the complete works of Hawkins," he does acknowledge accumulated jottings of Benjamin Hawkins. the numerous other letters found in archives across Appointed "Principle Temporary Agent for Indian the country that remain unpublished. Hawkins was a Affairs South of the Ohio River" by President prodigious correspondent, and the volume of his Washington in 1796, Hawkins for the next twenty surviving letters suggests how great our loss from the years devoted all his considerable energy to "civi- fire that consumed many of his personal papers lizing" the southern Indians by advocating a shift immediately after his death. Some additional material from traditional farming to cattle raising and slave- has appeared in print in the American State Papers, based plantation agriculture. His efforts to impose the Indian Affairs (Washington, DC: 1832) and Letters, U.S. government's "program of civilization" met with Journals and Writings of Benjamin Hawkins, edited unequivocal rejection among the Upper Creeks of by C. L. Grant, two volumes (Savannah, Ga.: The central Alabama and directly precipitated the Red- Beehive Press, 1980). There still remains a need for a stick War of 1813-1814. fully annotated edition of Hawkins's writing, but, in Despite Hawkins's appalling misreading of Creek the meantime, Foster's compilation is a handy intro- reactions to "civilization," considerable evidence duction to Benjamin Hawkins and the early historic (much of it found in this volume) indicates how much South. he learned about the Creeks and their culture during his two decades living among them. In fact, Haw- Gregory A. Waselkov kins's writings reflect a deeper knowledge than Bar- University of South Alabama tram acquired during his comparatively brief visits to Creek Country, when he necessarily relied on white traders to answer his many questions about the native Cold Mountain. Dir. Anthony Minghella. Miramax, Southeasterners. Taken together, the writings of these 2003. two sensitive and observant Anglo-Americans offer richly complementary portraits of the Creek Indians Let me begin with a couple of caveats. First, I'm during their traumatic transition from an independent giving away the plot. So if you haven't seen Cold people to a dependent nation caught within the bor- Mountain yet, head over to your local two-dollar ders of the young United States. theater or drive-in (this one needs the big screen!) and H. Thomas Foster II has included three major check it out before reading any further. Second: I works to represent Hawkins's writings. Lengthiest of have to confess that I had my doubts about this one. the three is a facsimile reprint of the "Letters of Good books often make bad movies and a film adap- Benjamin Hawkins," originally published in 1916 as tation of Charles Frazier's novel struck me as a recipe volume 9 of Collections of the Georgia Historical for disaster. I expected the worst kind of cinematic Society. Hawkins's important "A Sketch of the Creek epic - orchestra swells over a sprawling plot; blood Country, in the Years 1798 and 1799" also appears in and guts and candle-lit love scenes; beautiful faces facsimile as it was published by the Georgia His- wandering through the rain-swept woods. Think torical Society in 1848. Thirdly, although first in this Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans; think volume, Foster has included a previously unpublished Natty Bumppo with a southern accent. "Viatory" or field log (the original is now in the Library of Congress) kept by Hawkins as he traveled 8 Newsletter ofthe Bartram Trail Conference Spring 2004

Yet the movie, like the novel, somehow works. and her daughter (Inman's legacy) tend to a lamb that Certainly some strange dislocations occur. You could will not suckle (how far this former debutante has ask, for example, where are the black folks? come!) while a voice-over by Kidman insists that she Screenwriter-director Anthony Minghella made a thinks about her one-true-Iove everyday. It's Easter Civil War flick in which slavery has all but disap- (the lamb ... get it?) and Ada sits down for a outdoor peared. The genteel Reverend Monroe (Donald holiday dinner with her makeshift family - Ruby, Sutherland) and his daughter Ada (played by the too- Ruby's pliant husband and redeemed father, the beautiful-to-believe Nicole Kidman) work (in the children, plus a stray friend. Given the good life that absence of a better word) a North Carolina farm Ruby and Ada apparently carved out for themselves, without servants or field hands. Whatever, you might in other words, the wistful homage to Inman hardly protest, this is a movie, not history - and so we turn seems convincing. The movie's ending is in fact much to the improbabilities of plot. Cold Mountain (both closer to a feminist utopia than to the conventional novel and film) intertwine two story lines through a Hollywood romance. A minor episode in the fmal romance that is itself pretty but difficult to believe. scene confirms this line ofthinking: Ruby sends her Here's how it goes: Having spoken just three doormat husband back to the kitchen to fetch some times to his beloved Ada, the hero Inman (played cider. One cannot imagine Inman fetching cider; he with graceful stoicism by Jude Law) sets off for war, does not fit in here. Were he watching from Heaven, I gets wounded, goes AWOL, and journeys back to bet, Inman would be thanking that surly member of Cold Mountain and Ada. It's all quite epic: a mix of the Home Guard for sparing him the wrath of Ruby the Odyssey, Faulkner, and Foxfire manuals. Back on Thewes. But I doubt most audiences saw it my way. the farm, meanwhile, the crystalline Nicole Kidman Funny things, pastorals. They work in com- (whoops! - Ada) transforms from Charleston trans- plicated ways. And the touchstone of Cold Mountain cendentalist to farm girl, having been rescued by the is, after all, an emotive and geographic place. Charles scrappy survivor Ruby Thewes (Renee Zellweger). Frazier and Minghella draw from not only one of the Ruby kills a surly chicken, gets food on the table and oldest modes in the western literary tradition (in the farm back to rights, then partners with Ada in classical times, two rustic shepherds would talk on a what is the closest thing to a same-sex relationship hillside, offering a veiled commentary on corrupt that our current regime will allow. They marry, in a Rome), but one of the more slippery ones. They use sense, both in their affection for one another and in nature in a conventional manner - as the counterpoint their shared love for the land, showing (without a hint of war, as the balm for a troubled mind - and they of preachiness) how two women can survive on their give the hero a copy William Bartram's Travels to own. When poor Inman makes it back to Cold Moun- remind us that, indeed, this movie is about place. tain, the war will have dealt him a fmal, crushing Bartram provides a heart's compass to guide the irony: He is no longer necessary. soldier home. Of course Ada and Inman must have their Another funny thing about pastorals: they can moment. They profess their love in a drippy scene redeem the most implausible turns of plot, giving rescued only by a comic intrusion by Ruby ("if y'all weight to a story that might otherwise feel syrupy or are going to wimble wimble all night," then some- implausible. And in Cold Mountain, it's Ruby and thing about flatulence and a cow), and the stars do Ada on the farm that one cannot quite dismiss. Inman what audiences across America paid for them to do. endured a hellish passage, for sure, but the real action But love needs more than good looks and theirs takes place back home - where the two women forge a cannot last: a stringy-blonde from the Home Guard kind of visionary landscape. (For an earlier version of (the devil incarnate) kills off Inman and the journey this prototype, check out Willa Cather's 0 Pioneers!) ends with our hero dying on the mountain (and in the Ruby has the practical know-how, Ada has the edu- arms of the woman) that he called home. cation to recognize a literary idyll; together, the two But thankfully the story does not stop there - and offer a pastoral vision, the two eyes of one sight. Place it's in the closing that Cold Mountain comes into is the movie's focal point. (Music exercises a strong thematic focus. The fmal scene jumps forward presence in the film for similar reasons. T. Bone several years, to springtime on the Monroe farm. Ada Burnett, who managed that department, recognized 9 Newsletter of the Bartram Trail Conference Spring 2004

that the fiddle-playing and shape note hymns pro- vided a true expression oflocale.) Recently Published But I'm prattling on. So to close: Why Bartram? Does he not provide a Carolyn Ross Johnston. Cherokee Women in voice for the American Southeast? By the time Inman Crisis: , Civil War, and Allotment, makes it home, his beloved Ada had all but married 1838-1907. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Ruby already - exchanging a bracelet in his absence, Press, 2003. $48.00, cloth $29.95. declaring their love, making their lives twain in the recovery of a farm. Like William Bartram's journeys American Indian women have traditionally played two hundred years before, theirs was a story of the vital roles in social hierarchies at the family, clan, land. and tribal levels. In the Cherokee Nation, speci- fically, women and men are considered equal Thomas Hallock contributors to the culture. With this study, BTC Newsletter Editor however, we learn that three key historical events in the 19th and early 20th centuries - removal, the Civil War, and allotment of their lands - forced a radical renegotiation of gender roles and relations in Cherokee society. Forthcoming Carolyn Johnston (who is related to John Ross, Nancy Hoffman and John Van Home (eds.). principal chief of the Nation) looks at how Chero- America's Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial kee women navigated these crises in ways that Reappraisal of John Bartram (1699-1777). allowed them to retain their traditional assump- Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, tions, ceremonies, and beliefs and to thereby 2003. $40. preserve their culture. In the process, they both lost and retained power. The author sees a poig- The Academy of Natural Sciences, the American nant irony in the fact that Europeans who encoun- Philosophical Society, John Bartram Association, tered Native societies in which women had signi- the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Penn- ficant power attempted to transform them into sylvania Horticultural Society, and the Phila- patriarchal ones and that American women delphia Botanical Club sponsored a three-day struggled for hundreds of years to achieve the kind symposium in May 1999 to commemorate the of equality that Cherokee women had enjoyed for three-hundredth anniversary of John Bartram's more than a millennium. birth. This collection of essays arises from that symposium. All of the essays contribute to the Johnston examines the different aspects of Chero- telling of the story of the multifaceted John kee women's power: authority in the family unit Bartram, whose life spanned most of the and the community, economic independence, eighteenth century and who was called "the personal autonomy, political clout, and spir- greatest natural botanist in the world." The work ituality. Weaving a great-grandmother theme is published in cooperation with the Library throughout the narrative, she begins with the Company of Philadelphia and John Bartram protest of Cherokee women against removal and Association. concludes with the recovery of the mother town of Kituwah and the elections of Wilma Mankiller and Volume includes contributions by several BTC Joyce Dugan as principal chiefs ofthe Cherokee members! Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokees.