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pioneers.
The physical, intellectual and artistic trails that he blazed can come to life again with the establishment of The William Bartram Trail. By following in his footsteps, we can re-experience the heritage of the American pioneer. In commemorating Bartram, we can help to preserve a heritage of which all Americans can well be proud.
He was the first American naturalist to give the world its first clear vision of the American South, a region little known to the then civilized world.
William Bartram: The Man
William Bartram, America's first native-born American artist-naturalist, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of John Bartram and Ann Mendenhall. Their home was of stone, built by John himself on the west bank of Schuylkill River in 1737. William was born two years later. The Bartrams were Quakers, remaining diligent in their faith down through the generations. On their farm of one hundred and two acres, they created the Colonies' first botanic gardens. The gardens have remained there until the present, neglected for only a short period during the nineteenth century. William Bartram
?fe William Bartram Memorial Garden at Gloster.
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here, along with those at Biloxi and at points further west, were harassed by the Indians, especially the Choctaws. At "Pasca Oocooloo" (Pascagoula), a "Mr. Krebs," was using a cotton gin to deliver seventy to eighty pounds of clean cotton daily. Interestingly, this was almost twenty years prior to Eli Whitney's development of the gin.
In addition, there were some settlements on the Pearl River, where the inhabitants raised tobacco, indigo, cotton, rice, Indian corn and various types of vegetables. On his way back to Mobile, William Bartram observed the "beautiful bay St. Louis."
Evidently, the Choctaws posed the only native obstacle to the English occupation of the Mississippi portion of West Florida, since the Biloxi and Pascagoula tribes had migrated to Louisiana around 1763-1764 to avoid living under English rule. In addition, the Acolapissa, whom the French found living on the Pearl River, had settled on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain in either 1702 or 1705. Accordingly, Bartram made no mention of having encountered Indians during his trip along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
From 1774 and during the next five years, the population increased rapidly upward from 4900 people, due to the heavy influx of Loyalists, who sought freedom from persecution in the older colonies. Bartram's travels along the Gulf Coast coincided with the period of the American Revolution and came prior to the Spanish conquest of West Florida which was accomplished in 1781.
With the passing of time, the territory that comprised British West Florida was absorbed by the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Forty years after Bartram's voyage along the Gulf, the State of Mississippi was established.
William Bartram's Mississippi Visit
William Bartram, a thirty-eight year old naturalist from
-	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, left Mobile in the summer of 1777 "on board a large trading boat, the property of a .French gentleman, and commanded by him (he being / general interpreter for the Choctaw nation), on his return / to his plantations on the banks of Pearl River. Our bark was large, well equipped for sailing and manned with three stout negroes, to row in case of necessity."
Upon entering "the channel Oleron between the mainland and Dauphin Island" (Mississippi Sound) "from this time until we arrived at this gentleman's habitation on Pearl River, I was incapable of making any observations for my eyes could not bear the light. "No indication of time for the journey is given.
The first Bay and River they would have reached in Mississippi would have been the Pascagoula, then possibly the largest settled area on the Coast.
After that, along the shore of present Jackson County enroute to Biloxi Bay at Belle Fontaine; and then around Biloxi Bay, including present day Ocean Springs, d'Iberville, Biloxi and Deer Island.
From there to mid-Harrison County at Bear Bayou or present Long Beach, to Pass Christian; and then further around the Bay of St. Louis and into Hancock County where the main travel route into the interior of Missis-