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In 1700, John Lawson left London and landed in Charleston, South Carolina. For reasons unknown, he undertook a two-month journey through the still-mysterious Carolina backcountry. His travels yielded, A New Voyage to Carolina in 1709, one of the most significant early American travel narratives, rich with observations about the region's environment and Indigenous people.

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In 2014, writer Scott Huler made a decision to leave his home for his own journey by foot and canoe, retracing Lawson's route through the Carolinas. What he finds are surprising parallels between Lawson's time and our own, with the locals and their world poised along a knife-edge of change between a past they can't forget and a future they can't quite envision. 

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Exhibit courtesy of City of Raleigh Historic Resources and Museum Program-City of Raleigh Museum.

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FREE ADMISSION!

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