"The traveler who looks only, and does not talk or listen carries about him the feelings & prejudices of the only land he knows, his home, and is wholly unable to appreciate the peculiar characteristics of the new people among whom he finds himself,” writes John H. B. Latrobe in his journal recording his 1834 journey to New Orleans.

Travel in early America was an adventure, and John H. B. Latrobe, son of the architect of the nation’s capitol, caught its spirit in his lively journal. Adventures on land and at sea enlivened a journey from New York to New Orleans, up the Mississippi River to Natchez and back, and across the southeastern states by stagecoach to Baltimore. Latrobe’s witty and acerbic comments on his fellow travelers, lodgings, food, politics, and a thousand other matters are constantly entertaining and enlightening. The customs of New Orleans—from quadroon balls to oysters doused in hot pepper sauce—are detailed with the fascination that made Latrobe call the city "a place after its own fashion." Southern Travels is a gem of social history.