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Article: Post Roads
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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POST ROADS
POST ROADS.
Mail routes between New York and Boston took shape in the late seventeenth century. These roads traced routes that became great highways and are still known as the post roads. The Continental Congress began creating post roads during the revolutionary war. To designate a highway as a post road gave the government the monopoly of carrying mail over it; on other roads, anybody might carry the mail. At first the mail was conveyed on horseback. Later, stagecoaches carried both mail and passengers; the inns that served them became noted and prosperous hostelries. In 1787 connecting stretches of road reaching as far north as Portsmouth and Concord, N.H., as far south ...