The Travels of Richard Traunter: Two Journeys through the Native Southeast in 1698 and 1699

In the final years of the seventeenth century, Richard Traunter—an experienced Indian trader fluent in three Indigenous languages—made a number of trips into the interior of Virginia and the Carolina colonies, keeping a record of his travels and the people he encountered. This primary-source edition of Traunter’s account makes his crucial text, held in private collections for more than three hundred years, widely available for the first time.

Traunter’s journals shed light on colonial societ...