What’s that?
You may say that Kaintucks are people from Kentucky but that is only sorta right. For our intents and purposes, Kaintucks are the farmers and part-time boatmen who took goods down the Mississippi River to the growing town of Natchez in the late 1700s to about 1810. That was easy, for the most part, as the river flows in that direction. It was not so easy going back up.
After hitting Natchez and unloading their goods, the Kaintucks dismantled their boats and either sold the lumber or dragged it back up the Natchez Trace. Remember, the Trace was just a bunch of paths heading to Nashville.
More than 10,000 men WALKED north in 1810 alone. It was 500 miles, and took 25-40 days, depending on who you ask. And how many robbers were on the road. Plus weeds and fallen trees and vines and shrubs and snakes.
Bands of travelers moved closer together, with intense caution, through the glassy tunnels of the Trace, for all the proportion went away, and they followed one another like insects goin at down through the heavy grass.
Eudora Welty
Note the whiskey barrels (made you look). Must be from Kentucky which we know from a previous SGA tour. Also horses.
