Audio
“Territorial Lifeline,” Old Trace Exhibit Shelter, Milepost 8, Panel C
Transcript
This panel, the third of four exhibits, is titled “Territorial Lifeline.” It has a color illustration of a post rider on horseback on a muddy portion of the Old Trace and an 1804 map of postal routes.
[Text] After independence, the United States faced a challenge. Many remote, frontier emigrants lived in the shadow of the French or Spanish empires in North America.
In the Old Southwest, the Jefferson Administration threw a communication lifeline to Natchez, the political and economic capital of the Mississippi Territory. After treaties with the Chickasaw and Choctaw, the federal government sent regular post riders through tribal homelands back and forth between Nashville and the isolated Natchez District.
Natchez Trace post riders traveled alone through dense forest and murky swamps, and braved perilous river crossings. The lifeline they created sustained communication, expanded trade, and solidified ties with a distant, but strategic frontier outpost.
The post rider in the illustration wears a slouch hat that is dripping water. His long coat reaches to his riding boots and has a cape across the shoulders. Leather bags are draped behind his saddle. Water pools along the muddy, sunken trace. On an otherwise gray, sunless day, the trees show a hint of autumn color.
The map outlines the boundaries of the Mississippi Territory created in 1798 east of the Mississippi River and the network of postal routes that, circa 1804, connected the territory with the rest of the United States.
The Natchez District, the political seat of the territory, surrounds the city of Natchez. Yet only one postal road connects Natchez to the rest of the network . The Orleans and Louisiana territories occupy the west bank of the Mississippi River. Spain claimed portions of what is now Florida, Texas, and disputed land on both sides of the Orleans Territory.
The Old Natchez Trace passed through Choctaw and Chickasaw lands to connect the roughly 4,500 settlers in the Natchez District with a wider network of postal roads. Although most post roads ran between cities along the eastern seaboard, a few linked communities—Nashville, Lexington, St. Louis, and Louisville—west of the Appalachian Mountains.
A round logo shows a silhouette of a post rider passing under moss- laden trees somewhere along his 8-12 day journey along the Trace.
There are two other panels to your left and one to your right. Parking and the Parkway are behind you.
Description
This panel, the third of four exhibits, is titled “Territorial Lifeline.” It has a color illustration of a post rider on horseback on a muddy portion of the Old Trace and an 1804 map of postal routes.
Duration
2 minutes, 53 seconds
Credit
NPS
Date Created
07/13/2017
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