DATELINE STOCKBRIDGE: Traveling in and around Stockbridge in 1775 was a difficult endeavor – The Berkshire Edge

I was going to use this space to complain about two things: the increased traffic in Stockbridge, especially at Red Lion corner, and artificial intelligence (AI). Then this happened: I realized how much faster and easier travel is now than 300 years ago, and I used AI to look up a particular fact about travel in the 18th century. When I did, one of my books was cited as the source.

There you are. So, without complaint, here is a picture of travel in the first year of the American Revolution:

In a word, it was challenging. In 1805 and 1807, Mary Bidwell lived across the street from Pamela Sedgwick. They were friends, and visiting with friends was a popular pastime. Before telephones or the internet, folks had to get together to communicate; Mary had to walk across the street. However, Mary complained: Main Street in Stockbridge (called Plain Street) was often too dirty to traverse. It would ruin the thin shoes women wore and the hems of their skirts.

Walking on foot was among the four most common modes of travel, along with horseback riding, horse-drawn wagons and carriages, and stagecoaches. The people, the horses, and vehicles traveled narrow dirt paths and trails. They were unpaved and often muddy or rutted.

Not only was travel uncomfortable it was also slow. In a stagecoach, a traveler bounced around for 15 hours to get from Connecticut to Albany and paid for the privilege. Folks traveled no more than an average of 20 miles per day, so New York City and Boston were six days apart—unless you went by boat. The preferred mode of travel was by water. Traveling from Stockbridge to Hudson, N.Y., and then traveling down river to the city was faster and smoother.

Land routes were often well-worn paths traveled for centuries by Native Americans. For example, the Mohawk Trail, Old Connecticut Path, and various post roads connected Stockbridge to Boston.

In 1775—whether moving people or products, crossing the street to visit a friend, or crossing New England to visit a city—the travel was slow, bumpy, and dependent on horses. Oxen might be used for hauling and donkeys for the less fortunate rider.

That was also the first year of the Revolutionary War. Moving troops and munitions strained the roads. Even so, the increased traffic of marching soldiers was welcome. It brought a sense of protection to isolated villages. In 1775, Bement reported an incident on his road wherein a man on horseback was viciously attacked by men who believed him to be a Tory—that is, a king’s man.

From 1775 to 1776, Henry Knox moved canons captured in the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga through the Berkshire to Boston. Those canons helped the colonists to capture Boston and its vital port.

Henry Knox was a bookseller—an unlikely professional background for a soldier and the man who would wrest Boston from the Brits.

Nonetheless, in the winter of 1775–1776, Knox undertook a nearly impossible feat: transporting 62 tons of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga in New York over 300 arduous miles to the Continental Army’s encampment outside Boston. Time to travel from the fort to the city? Fifty-six days. Time to travel 300 miles today? Six hours.

There’s more! No woman could travel alone. Whether travel was considered unsafe, women were considered unable to manage, or both is unclear. What was clear were the rules. More than that, she could not travel—period—without the permission of her husband, father, or guardian.

Finally, in 1775 Stockbridge, there was more traffic at Red Lion corner than there is today. No kidding. The inn stood much as it does today. It was a stagecoach stop. In addition, Stockbridge was at a nexus. From that corner you could travel south to Great Barrington, Sheffield, and Connecticut; north to West Stockbridge, into New York State, and on to Albany; east to Boston; west to Hudson; and a river boat to New York City. So, Red Lion corner stood at the nexus welcoming the coaches, and the soldiers marched down Main Street on their way to fight in the Revolutionary War.

Oh, what was that fact I looked up using AI? It was the width of an 18th-century roadway. Today, an urban two-lane road is approximately 46 feet. Roads in the 18th century were not standardized and frequently unpaved. Struggling with rock outcroppings and root outcroppings, travel was slow along a roadway that was a “cart-width” (yup wheel to wheel of a cart) or two rods. (A rod was approximately 6.5 feet so 33 feet wide). Given the condition of the surface, one was too narrow and the other too wide.