The New North

In late December 1700, John Lawson and a group of eight Englishmen and Native Americans set off on a 500-mile, two-month trek into the Carolina backcountry. The expedition began in Charles Town and headed north and west as far present-day Hillsborough, North Carolina, and then turned east, ending up in the settlement of Bath on the Pamlico Sound in February 1701. During the journey, Lawson kept a detailed journal, made sketches and maps, and gathered specimens of plants and animals. The backcountry had not been officially explored, but both natives and European newcomers inhabited it. Lawson's group followed well-established trading paths, and along the way they enjoyed the hospitality of English and French traders and colonists. Lawson comments on the quality of agriculture, the potential for lucrative exports, the availability of cheap land, the democratic structure of colonial government, and the general physical health and moral character of the "Carolinians" along the coast and in the hinterlands. Lawson takes little notice of the lives of African slaves and white servants.