Travel Writing.

Francois Andre Michaux was a French doctor who visited America in the first decade of the nineteenth century. France's Interior Ministry had sent Michaux to inspect the plants of the Ohio River valley. Interested in more than plants, Michaux, like many other European travelers, wrote a book about his experiences, The North American Sylva, or A Description of the Forest Trees, of the United States, Canada and Nova Scotia (1817—1819). From his book we get a detailed picture of life in America, and because he saw more of the country than many people who would live their entire lives in it, from his account we can reconstruct the nature of travel in America. Michaux intended to explore the interior of the United States, seeing the Ohio River and the new settlements in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Charleston to Philadelphia.

Michaux landed in Charleston, South...