Archer is leaving Kentucky and passing into the free state of Indiana…
Next day proceeded on our way to Lewisville (now called Louisville) a handsome well built business-like place on the Ohio River. Staid sometime in market house which was abundantly supplied with fish, flesh, fruit and vegetables. Supplied ourselves with provisions and left the second town on the Ohio River. Nearly forty steamboats were lying in the river near the town. Crossed the river in a horse boat, with a drunken, ill-mannered unaccommodating and extortionate ferryman. Toll $3.18-3/4. After passing through Shippings-port and Portland we landed in New Albany in Indiana, a finely situated village. A place of some business and which would be important if it were not swallowed up by the start and capitol of Lewisville. Passed 6 miles into Indiana over very steep bad roads. Encamped agter a big rain. The first county after our entrance into the state was Floyd, a rough broken county, heavily timbered with filthy, degraded, laxy population. New Albany is the county town.*
What an exciting day this must have been for everyone! The bustling city and its market, with all the steamboats lined up at the levee, waiting to be loaded. Oh how easy it would have been to slip away if you were an enslaved member of the caravan. But wait, we are crossing that beautiful river and proceeding through Indiana – a free state. What that must have felt like to Archer and the others. Not privy to the plans, the enslaved had no control over where they were or where they were going.
Digital ID: (digital file from original) det 4a10070 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/det.4a10069
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-det-4a10069 (digital file from original) LC-DIG-det-4a10070 (digital file from original)
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Days are growing shorter, and Missouri is steadily coming closer…They have been traveling for weeks…
*This is the journal of William Campbell (1805-1849) leading four families from Lexington, in Rockbridge County, Virginia to St. Charles County Missouri, written in 1829. There are 55 people in this caravan, 25 of which are enslaved. Among the enslaved is Archer Alexander.\This journal is located in the collections of the Leyburn Library, Special Collections and Archives, located at the Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia, and for which we are deeply indebted to Lisa McCown. Editor and author is Dorris Keeven-Franke. The next journal entry is September 24, 1829… https://archeralexander.blog/2023/09/24/24-september-1829/
ARCHER ALEXANDER 
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