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John Swaney's wilderness ride from Nashville to Natchez
Few men in the young United States in 1800 held a job more dangerous, more daring or more fascinating than 19-year-old John Lee Swaney. He was known as a post rider and delivered mail on horseback between Nashville and Natchez.
Swaney was employed by Colonel Benjamin J. Joselyn of Nashville, who acquired the first government contract to deliver mail between these two frontier towns. The route was estimated at 550 miles and it took Swaney under the most favorable conditions about a week to make the one-way ride through the vast wilderness. He sometimes faced hostile Indians but worst of all, dangerous outlaws.
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