Correa in the United States 1812-1820

Abbé José Correa da Serra

The last portion of José Correa da Serra’s long-term exile from his native Portugal was spent in the United States (see earlier posts 1,2,3).  After leaving France, this botanist-diplomat landed in Norfolk, Virginia in 1812 and made Philadelphia his favored city.  Soon he was known to the botanist Benjamin Barton, who had written the first botany text written in the United States, and he traveled to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to meet Henry Muhlenberg, who would publish a book on North American plants.  In 1813, he visited Thomas Jefferson for the first time, and the two got along so well that as I mentioned in the first post, one of Monticello’s bedrooms was referred to by the family as Correa’s room.  Like Jefferson, Correa knew Paris well and also had spent years in England.  He was politically astute and was also scientifically literate like the former president.  When Jefferson was writing a proposal for a university in Virginia, Correa gave him advice on the structure and also on the curriculum, particularly in the areas of botany and agriculture (Davis, 1955). 

            When he arrived in the US, Correa was 62 years old but managed to do some significant traveling in a day when long journeys were always arduous.  In 1812, he went to New York City and then north to Lake George and into Vermont, as far north as the Canadian border.  His aim was then to go west to visit Niagara Falls, but the War of 1812 with Britain disrupted these plans.  The conflict also made communication with Europe more difficult and held up the transfer of funds from the Portuguese government to Correa.  The situation worsened to the point that Correa traveled to Boston, intending to sail back to Europe, but funds arrived in time to allow him to stay.  While in botanist, he befriended the young botanist Jacob Bigelow and looked through Correa’s herbarium which is no longer extant (Ewan, 1956). In June 1814, he traveled to Pittsburg and then on to Lexington, KY, making botanical and agricultural observations as he went; he later presented a paper at the American Philosophical Society on the soils of Kentucky.  From there he again visited Monticello where he met a young neighbor of Jefferson’s Francis Gilmer whose interest in botany Correa encouraged. 

            By September of the same year, Correa was again at Monticello, this time intending to head to Cherokee settlements, receiving a letter of introduction from Jefferson to a Cherokee agent.  Francis Gilmer was eager to accompany Correa and so in September 1814 the two set out with Jefferson for Poplar Forest, his retreat near the Blue Ridge Mountains.  On the way they stopped at the Natural Bridge and Correa speculated on how it had come to be.  Gilmer kept a careful notebook of his and Correa’s botanical observations.  The two then traveled through southwest Virginia to Knoxville where they spent several days botanizing and visiting Cherokee territory.  Gilmer’s notes included five pages on Cherokee vocabulary.  They then went to Athens, Georgia and met William Greene, a mathematics professor at the University of Georgia who was also interested in botany.  They traveled on to Augusta on the Savannah River and then to Charleston, South Carolina.  I live about a half hour east of Augusta in Aiken, South Carolina, and I’ve driven up to the University of Georgia a number of times; it’s over a two-hour trip.  From my home to Charleston is at least two and a half hours.  But Correa were traveling through relatively unpopulated territory over trails rather than roads.  This was indeed a significant journey. 

            Correa’s reason for visiting Charleston, besides its being the heart of culture in the Carolinas, was to meet Stephen Elliott, who was, of course, a botanist.  He knew of Correa’s trip from Muhlenberg and another Pennsylvania botanist, Zacchaeus Collins, and greeted the travelers warmly.  Correa was only planning to stay overnight, but as he wrote later, he remained for two weeks being entertained by Elliott and others, including the Rutledges, descendants of John Rutledge one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  From Charleston they went once again to Monticello, reaching there in early December.  Correa told Jefferson that Elliott, who wrote two volumes on the plants of South Carolina and Georgia, was the ablest botanist he had met in the US.  Correa then spent Christmas with Gilmer in Winchester, Virginia and traveled on to Delaware to usher in the New Year with his Paris friend Pierre du Pont. 

            Of course, Correa ended his trip in Philadelphia, where he remained botanically active.  At the University of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Barton was unable to teach his botany course in 1815, so Correa took on the assignment and did so well that he repeated it in 1816.  By that time, he had written a short text reworking Muhlenberg’s book on North American plants with a natural classification system.  This was thought to be the first presentation of such a system in the US.  However, during his later years in the country he had less time for travel and botany because he was occupied with diplomatic affairs.  He received an official assignment from the Portuguese government and submitted his credentials to President James Madison and Secretary of State James Monroe.  The relationship between the two countries was strained over shipping issues, with US privateers attacking Portuguese ships traveling between Europe and Brazil.  In 1820 when the political situation finally improved in Portugal he returned, but by then he was not well.  He did receive many honors, but died in 1823. 

References

Davis, R. B. (1955). The Abbé Correa in America, 1812-1820: The Contributions of the Diplomat and Natural Philosopher to the Foundations of Our National Life. Correspondence with Jefferson and Other Members of the American Philosophical Society and with Other Prominent Americans. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 45(2), 87–197. https://doi.org/10.2307/1005770

Ewan, J. (1956). Correa da Serra and American Botany. Rhodora, 58(686), 45–48.