John James Audubon’s essay TheOhio describes the traveling experience that he and his family

encountered while traveling down its river to return to his native state of Kentucky. He

juxtaposes the scenes of nature with a description of the countries settling. The essay provides

a view of the enterprising view of the way that people viewed the new territory in the early

nineteenth century.

John Audubon tells us of his travels in an almost poetic form. In great detail he attempts

to show the reader exactly how his trip down the Ohio river was. He describes very eloquently

minute details from the African American rowers to the wildlife he saw on the river. The

importance of his description is that it shows us what things were like in that region during that

time. The region was both wild and somewhat civilized when Audubon visited it. In one

paragraph he would describe how raw the region was and in another he would talk about

passing a number of river boats loaded with cargo.

One of the most memorable parts of the essay is when Audubon takes his family across

the river because he hears noise which he believes to be a native American war party only to

discover that it is a Methodist camp. This shows the reader that the people on the frontier were

still conscious of the fact that the native population were still a danger or at least a fear for the

people moving westward.

Audubon does his best to describe the way that he thought that Ohio was when he

traveled through that area and commands that other authors describe the country in its purest

most natural form. He states “ They will analyze, as it were, into each component part, the

country as it once existed, and will render the picture, as it ought to be, immortal.” (Audubon
290) The reason for this is because he wanted to capture for future generations the way that

the country was when it was still young and unsettled.

The essay The Ohio describes how that area of the country was when it just began to

become settled. It provides for the reader a description of how things were in the newly settled

territories during that time. It is a good account because it gives us an idea of what the settler

or frontiersmen during that time could expect.