Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), author of the classic Democracy in America, and Gustave de Beaumont (1802-1866) spent four frigid days and nights, December 12-16, 1831, at Sandy Bridge, now Hollow Rock. The postmaster, Zephaniah Harris, and his wife, Martha, lodged them in a primitive log inn. The Frenchmen's observations at Sandy Bridge informed what Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America (1835-1840), notably about the effects of slavery upon Southern life.