… is from a caption to an image on the final page – just before page 459 of the text – of the pictures section of Gordon Wood’s marvelous 2009 volume, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815; specifically, the caption accompanies this painting – “Travel By Stagecoach Near Trenton, New Jersey” (circa 1811-1813) – by Pavel Svinin:
Stagecoach was the major means of travel in the early Republic. Since the coaches averaged about two to three miles per hour, the trip from New York to Philadelphia could take at least three days.
