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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 18:47:53 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 18:47:53 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/44626-0.txt b/44626-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..884f18c --- /dev/null +++ b/44626-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4091 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44626 *** + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + https://archive.org/details/plantationremini00burw + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + The author's name on the cover and in the copyright notice + seems to be a pseudonym. According to the catalog of the + Library of Congress, the author was Letitia M. Burwell. + + + + + +PLANTATION REMINISCENCES + +by + +PAGE THACKER. + +1878. + + + + +Copyrighted in 1878 by Page Thacker. + + + + +DEDICATION. + + +Dedicated to my nieces, who will find in English and American +publications such epithets applied to their ancestors as: "Cruel +slave-owners;" "inhuman;" "Southern task masters;" "hard-hearted;" +"dealers in human souls," &c. From these they will naturally recoil +with horror. My own life would have been embittered had I believed +myself descended from such; and that those who come after us may know +the truth I wish to leave a record of plantation life as it was. The +truth may thus be preserved among a few, and the praise they deserve +awarded noble men and virtuous women who have passed away. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +For several years I have felt a desire to write these reminiscences, +but did not conclude to do so until receiving, a few months ago, +a letter from Mr. Martin F. Tupper--the English poet--in which he +wrote: "Let me encourage you in the idea of writing 'Plantation +Reminiscences.' It will be a good work; and it is time the world was +learning the truth. I myself have learned it and shall not be slow in +telling it to others." + + + + +PLANTATION REMINISCENCES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +That my birth place should have been a Virginia plantation; my lot in +life cast on a Virginia plantation; my ancestors, for nine generations, +owners of Virginia plantations, remain facts mysterious and inexplicable +but to Him who determined the bounds of our habitations, and said: "Be +still, and know that I am God." + +Confined exclusively to a Virginia plantation, during my earliest +childhood, I believed the world one vast plantation bounded by negro +quarters. Rows of white cabins with gardens attached; negro men in the +fields; negro women sewing, knitting, spinning, weaving, house-keeping +in the cabins, with negro children dancing, romping, singing, jumping, +playing around the doors, formed the only pictures familiar to my +childhood. + +The master's residence--as the negroes called it, the "great +house"--occupied a central position, and was handsome and attractive; +the overseer's being a plainer house, about a mile from this. + +Each cabin had as much pine furniture as the occupants desired; pine +and oak being abundant, and carpenters always at work for the comfort +of the plantation. + +Bread, meat, milk, vegetables, fruit and fuel were as plentiful as +water in the springs near the cabin doors. + +Among the negroes--one hundred--on our plantation, many had been taught +different trades; and there were blacksmiths, carpenters, brick masons, +millers, shoemakers, weavers, spinners, all working for themselves. +No article of their handicraft ever being sold from the place, their +industry resulted in nothing beyond feeding and clothing themselves. + +My sister and myself, when very small children, were often carried to +visit these cabins, on which occasions no young princesses could have +received from admiring subjects more adulation. Presents were laid at +our feet--not glittering gems--but eggs, chesnuts, popcorn, walnuts, +melons, apples, sweet potatoes, all their "cupboards" afforded, with a +generosity unbounded. This made us as happy as queens; and filled our +hearts with kindness and gratitude to our dusky admirers. + +Around the cabin doors the young negroes would quarrel as to who should +be his or her mistress; some claiming me, and others my sister. + +All were merry-hearted, and among them I never saw a discontented face. +Their amusements were dancing to the music of the banjo, quilting +parties, opossum hunting, and, sometimes, weddings and parties. + +Many could read, and in almost every cabin was a Bible. In one was +a Prayer-book, kept by one of the men--a preacher--from which he +read the marriage ceremony at the weddings. This man opened a night +school--charging twenty-five cents a week--hoping to inspire some +literary thirst among the rising generation, who, however, preferred +their nightly frolics to the school, so it had few patrons. + +Our house servants were numerous, polite and well trained. My mother +selected those most obliging in disposition and quick at learning, who +were brought to the house at ten or twelve years of age, and instructed +in the branches of household employment. + +These small servants were always dressed in the cleanest, whitest +long-sleeved aprons, with white or red turbans on their heads. No +establishment being considered complete without a multiplicity of +these; they might be seen constantly darting about on errands from the +house to the kitchen and the cabins; up stairs and down stairs, being +indeed omnipresent and indispensable. + +It was the custom for a lady visitor to be accompanied to her room at +night by one of these black, smiling "indispensables," who insisted so +good naturedly on performing all offices, combing her hair, pulling off +her slippers, &c., that one had not the heart to refuse, although it +would have been sometimes more agreeable to have been left alone. + +The negroes were generally pleased at the appearance of visitors, +from whom they were accustomed to receive some present on arriving or +departing, the neglect of which was considered a breach of politeness. + +The old negroes were quite patriarchal; loved to talk about "old +times," and exacted great respect from the young negroes, and also from +the younger members of the white family. We called the old men "Uncle," +and the old women "Aunt," cognomens of respect. + +The atmosphere of our own home was consideration and kindness. The mere +recital of a tale of suffering would make my sister and myself weep +with sorrow. And I believe the maltreatment of one of our servants--we +had never heard the word "slave"--would have distressed us beyond +endurance. We early learned that happiness consisted in dispensing +it, and found no pleasure greater than saving our old dolls, toys, +beads, bits of cake, or candy for the cabin children, whose delight at +receiving them richly repaid us. If any of the older servants became +displeased with us, we were miserable until we had restored the old +smile by presenting some choice bit of sweet meat, cake or candy. + +I remember once, when my grand-mother scolded nurse Kitty, saying: +"Kitty, the butler tells me you disturb the breakfast cream every +morning, dipping out milk to wash your face," I burst in tears, and +thought it hard when there were so many cows poor Kitty could not +wash her face in milk. Kitty had been told that her dark skin would +be improved by a milk bath, which she had not hesitated to dip every +morning from the breakfast buckets. + +At such establishments one easily acquired a habit of being waited +upon--there being so many servants with so little to do. It was natural +to ask for a drink of water, when the water was right by you, and have +things brought which you might easily have gotten yourself. But these +domestics were so pleased at such errands one felt no hesitation in +requiring them. A young lady would ask black Nancy or Dolly to fan her, +whereupon Nancy or Dolly would laugh good naturedly, produce a large +palm leaf and fall to fanning her young mistress vigorously, after +which she would be rewarded with a bow of ribbon, candy or sweet cakes. + +The negroes made pocket money by selling their own vegetables, poultry, +eggs, &c.--made at the master's expense, of course. I often saw my +mother take out her purse and pay them liberally for fowls, eggs, +melons, sweet potatoes, brooms, shuck mats and split baskets. The men +made small crops of tobacco or potatoes for themselves on any piece of +ground they chose to select. + +My mother and grand-mother were almost always talking over the wants +of the negroes,--what medicine should be sent--who they should +visit--who needed new shoes, clothes or blankets,--the principle +object of their lives seeming to be providing these comforts. The +carriage was often ordered for them to ride around to the cabins to +distribute light-bread, tea and other necessaries among the sick. And +besides employing the best doctor, my grand-mother always saw that they +received the best nursing and attention. + +In this little plantation world of ours was one being--and only +one--who inspired awe in every heart, being a special terror to small +children. This was the Queen of the Kitchen--Aunt Christian--who +reigned supreme. She wore the whitest cotton cap, with the broadest of +ruffles; was very black and very portly, and her sceptre was a good +sized stick, kept to chastise small dogs and children who invaded her +territory. Her character, however, having been long established she had +not often occasion to use this weapon, as these enemies kept out of her +way. + +Her pride was great, for, said she: "Haven't I been, long before this +here little master whar is was born, bakin' the best light-bread and +waffles and biscuit; and in my old master's time managed my own affars!" + +She was generally left to manage "her own affars," and being a pattern +of neatness and industry her fame went abroad from Botetourt, even unto +the remotest ends of Mecklenburg county. + +That this marvellous cooking was all the work of her own hands I am, +in later years, inclined to doubt, as she kept several assistants, a +boy to chop wood, beat biscuit, scour tables, lift off pots and ovens; +one woman to make the pastry and another to compound cakes and jellies. +But her fame was great; her pride lofty, and I would not now pluck one +laurel from her wreath. + +This honest woman was appreciated by my mother, but we had no affinity +for her, in consequence of certain traditions on the plantation about +her severity to children. Having no children of her own, a favorite +orphan house-girl, whenever my mother went from home, was left to her +care. This girl--now an elderly woman, and still our faithful and loved +servant,--says she remembers to this day her joy at my mother's return +home, and her release from Aunt Christian. "I will never forget," to +use her own words, "how I watched the road every day, hoping that +mistress would come back, and when I saw the carriage I would run a +mile, shouting and clapping my hands." + +Smiling faces always welcomed us home as the carriage passed through +the plantation, and on reaching the house we were received by the +negroes about the yard with liveliest demonstrations of pleasure. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +It was a long time before it dawned upon my mind there were places +and people different from these. The plantations we visited seemed +exactly like ours. The same hospitality everywhere, the same kindliness +existing between the white family and the blacks. + +Confined exclusively to plantation scenes, the most trifling incidents +impressed themselves indelibly upon me. + +One day while my mother was in the yard attending to the planting of +some shrubbery, we saw approaching an old, feeble negro man, leaning +upon his stick. His clothes were nearly worn out, and he, haggard and +thin. + +"Good day, Mistess," said he. + +"Who are you?" asked my mother. + +"My name is John," he replied, "and I belonged to your husband's uncle. +He died a long time ago. Before he died he set me free and gave me +a good piece of land near Petersburg, and some money and stock. But +all--my money and land--all gone, and I was starving. So I come one +hundred miles to beg you and master please let me live and die on your +plantation. I don't want to be free no longer. Please don't let me be +free." + +I wondered what was meant by being "free," and supposed from his +appearance it must be some very dreadful and unfortunate condition of +humanity. My mother heard him very kindly, and directed him to the +kitchen where "Aunt Christian" would give him a plenty to eat. + +Although there were already a number of old negroes to be supported, +who no longer considered themselves young enough to work, this old man +was added to the number, and a cabin built for him. To the day of his +death he expressed gratitude to my mother for taking care of him, and +often entertained us with accounts of _his_ "old master's times," which +he said were the "grandest of all." + +By way of apology for certain knotty excrescences on his feet, he +used to say: "You see these here knots. Well, they come from my being +a monstrous proud young nigger, and squeezin' my feet in de tightest +boots to drive my master's carriage 'bout Petersburg. I nuver was +so happy as when I was drivin' my coach-an'-four, and crackin' de +postillion over de head wid my whip." + +These pleasant reminiscences were generally concluded with: "Ah! young +Misses, _you'll_ nuver see sich times. No more postillions! No more +coach-an'-four! And niggers drives _now_ widout they white gloves. Ah! +no, young Misses, _you'll_ nuver see nothin'! _Nuver_, in _your_ time." + +With these melancholy predictions would he shake his head, and sigh +that the days of glory had departed. + +Each generation of blacks vied with the other in extolling the virtues +of their particular mistress and master and "_their times_;" but +notwithstanding this mournful contrast between the past and present, +their reminiscences had a certain charm. Often by their cabin firesides +would we listen to the tales of the olden days about our forefathers, +of whom they could tell much, having belonged to our family since the +landing of the African fathers on the English slave ships, from which +their ancestors had been bought by ours. Among these traditions none +pleased us so much as that an unkind mistress or master had never been +known among our ancestors, which we have always considered a cause for +greater pride than the armorial bearings left on their tombstones. + +We often listened with pleasure to the recollections of an old blind +man--the former faithful attendant of our grand-father--whose mind +was filled with vivid pictures of the past. He repeated verbatim +conversations and speeches heard sixty years before--from Mr. Madison, +Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Clay, and other statesmen, his master's special +friends. + +"Yes," he used to say, "I staid with your grandpa ten years in +Congress, and all the time he was Secretary for President Jefferson. He +nuver give me a cross word, and I nuver saw your grandma the least out +of temper neither, but once, and that was at a dinner party 'we' give +in Washington, when the French Minister said something disrespectful +about the United States." + +Often did he tell us: "The greatest pleasure I expect in heaven, is +seeing my old master." And sometimes, "I dream about my master and +mistress when I am sleep, and talk with them and see them so plain it +makes me so happy that I laugh out right loud." + +This man was true and honest--a good Christian. Important trusts had +been confided to him. He frequently carried the carriage and horses to +Washington and Baltimore--a journey of two weeks--and sometimes sent to +carry a large sum of money to a distant county. + +His wife, who had accompanied him in her youth to Washington, also +entertained us with gossip about the people of that day, and could +tell exactly the size and color of Mrs. Madison's slippers, how she +was dressed on certain occasions, "what beautiful manners she had," +how Mr. Jefferson received master and mistress when "we" drove up to +Monticello, what room they occupied, &c. + +Although my grand-father's death occurred thirty years before, the +negroes still remembered it with sorrow; and one of them, speaking of +it, said to me, "Ah, little mistess, 'twas a sorrowful day when de news +come from Washington dat our good, kind master was dead. A mighty wail +went up from dis plantation, for we know'd we had loss our bes friend." + +The only negro on the place who did not evince an interest in the white +family was a man ninety years old, who, forty years before, announced +his intention of not working any longer--although still strong and +athletic--because, he said, "the estate had done come down so he hadn't +no heart to work no longer." He remembered, he said, "when thar was +three and four hundred black folks, but sence de British debt had to be +paid over by his old master, and de Macklenbug estate had to be sold, +he hadn't had no heart to do nothin' sence." And "he hadn't seen no +_real_ fine white folks--what _he_ called real fine white folks--sence +he come from Macklenbug." All his interest in life having expired with +an anterior generation; we were in his eyes but a poor set, and he +refused to have anything to do with us. Not being compelled to work, +he passed his life principally in the woods, wore a rabbit-skin cap +and a leather apron. Having lost interest in, and connection with the +white family, he gradually relapsed into a state of barbarism, refusing +towards the end of his life to sleep in his bed, preferring a hard +bench in his cabin, upon which he died. + +Another very old man remembered something of his father, who had come +from Africa; and when we asked him to tell us what he remembered of his +father's narrations, would say: + +"My father told us that his mother lived in a hole in the ground, +and when the English people come to Africa she sold him for a string +of beads. He said ''twas mighty hard for him, when he fus come to +dis country, to wear clothes.' Sometimes he would git so mad wid us +chillun, my mammy would have to run and hide us to keep him from +killin' us. Den sometimes at night he would say: 'He gwine sing he +country,' den he would dance and jump and howl and skeer us to death." + +They spoke always of their forefathers as the "outlandish people." + +On some plantations it was a custom to buy the wife when a negro +preferred to marry on another estate. And in this way we became +possessed of a famous termagant, who had married our grand-father's +gardener, quarrelled him to death in one year and survived to quarrel +forty years longer with the other negroes. She had no children--not +even a cat or dog could live with her. She had been offered her +freedom, but refused to accept it. Several times had been given away; +once to her son--a free man--and to others with whom she fancied +she might live, but, like the bad penny, was always returned to +us. She always returned in a cart, seated on top of her chest and +surrounded by her goods and chattels, dressed in a high hat, long black +plume--standing straight up--gay cloth spencer and short petticoat, +the costume of a hundred years ago. Although her return was a sore +affliction to the plantation, my sister and myself found much amusement +in witnessing it. The cold welcome she received seemed not to affect +her spirits, but re-establishing herself in her cabin she quickly +resumed the turbulent course of her career. + +Finally one morning the news came that this woman, old Clara, was dead. +Two women went to sweep her cabin and perform the last sad offices. +They waited all day for the body to get cold. While sitting over the +fire in the evening, one of them happening to glance at a small mirror +inserted in the wall near the bed, exclaimed: "Old Clara's laughing!" +They went nearer and there was a horrible grin on the face of the +corpse! Old Clara sprang out of bed exclaiming, "Git me some meat and +bread. I'm most perish'd!" + +"Old woman, what you mean by foolin' us so?" asked the nurses. + +"I jes want see what you all gwine do wid my _things_ when I _was_ +dead!" replied the old woman, whose "things" consisted of all sorts of +old and curious spencers, hats, plumes, necklaces, caps and dresses, +collected during her various wanderings and worn by a long past +generation. + +Among these old cabin legends we sometimes collected bits of romance, +and were often told how, by the coquetry of a certain Richmond belle, +we had lost a handsome fortune, which impressed me even then with the +fatal consequences of coquetry. + +This belle engaged herself to our great uncle--a handsome and +accomplished gentleman--who, to improve his health, went to Europe; but +before embarking made his will, leaving her his estate and negroes. +He died abroad, and the lady accepted his property, although she was +known to have been engaged to twelve others at the same time! The story +in Richmond ran that these twelve gentlemen--my grand-father among +them--had a wine party, and towards the close of the evening some of +them becoming communicative, began taking each other out to tell a +secret when it was discovered they all had the same secret--each was +engaged to Miss Betsy M----. This lady's name is still seen on fly +leaves of old books in our library--books used during her reign by +students at William and Mary College--showing that the young gentlemen, +even at that venerable Institution, allowed their classic thoughts +sometimes to wander. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +As soon as my sister and myself had learned to read and cipher, we were +inspired with a desire to teach the negroes who were about the house +and kitchen; and my father promised to reward my sister with a handsome +guitar if she would teach two boys--designed for mechanics--arithmetic. + +Our regular system was every night to place chairs around the dining +table, ring a bell and open school; she presiding at one end and I at +the other of the table, each propped on books to give us the necessary +height and dignity for teachers. + +Our school proved successful. The boys learned arithmetic and the +guitar was awarded. All who tried learned to read, and from that day we +have never ceased to teach all who desired to learn. + +Thus my early life was passed amid scenes cheerful and agreeable, nor +did any one seem to have any care except my mother. Her cares and +responsibilities were great, with one hundred people continually upon +her mind, who were constantly appealing to her in every strait, real or +imaginary. But it had pleased God to place her here, and nobly did she +perform the duties of her station. She often told us of her distress +on realizing for the first time the responsibilities devolving upon +the mistress of a large plantation, and the nights of sorrow and tears +these thoughts had given her. + +On her arrival at the plantation after her marriage, the negroes +received her with lively demonstrations of joy, clapping their hands +and shouting: "Thank God, we got a mistess!" Some of them throwing +themselves on the ground at her feet in their enthusiasm. + +The plantation had been without a master or mistress twelve years; my +father--the sole heir--having been off at school and College. During +this time the silver had been left in the house, and the servants had +kept and used it, but _nothing had been stolen_. + +The books, too, had been undisturbed in the library, except a few +volumes of the poets which had been carried to adorn some of the cabin +shelves. + +It was known by the negroes that their old master's will set them free +and gave them a large body of land in the event of my father's death; +and some of his College friends suggested he might be killed while +passing his vacations on his estate. But this only amused him, for he +knew too well in what affection he was held by his negroes, and how +each vied with the other in showing him attention--spreading a dinner +often for him at their cabins when he returned from hunting or fishing. + +I think I have written enough to show the mutual affection existing +between the white and black races--and the abundant provision generally +made for the wants of those whom God had mysteriously placed under our +care. + +The existence of extreme want and poverty had never entered my mind, +until one day my mother showing us some pictures, entitled "London +Labor and London Poor," we asked her if she believed there were such +poor people in the world, and she replied: "Yes, children, there are +many in this world who have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat." + +Still we could not realize what she said, for we had never seen a +beggar. But from that time it began to dawn upon us that all the world +was not a plantation, with more than enough on it for people to eat. +And when we were old enough to read and compare our surroundings with +what we learned about other countries, we found that our laboring +population was more bountifully supplied than that of any other land. +We read about "myriads of poor, starving creatures, with pinched faces +and tattered garments," in far off cities and countries. We read of +hundreds who, from destitution and wretchedness, committed suicide. We +read these things, but could not fully sympathise with such want and +suffering; for it is necessary to witness these in order to feel the +fullest sympathy, and we had never seen anything of the kind on our own +or our neighbor's plantations. + +Their religious instruction, I found, had not been more neglected +than among the lower classes in England, Ireland, France, Russia and +elsewhere. Every church--there was one of some denomination near every +plantation--had special seats reserved for the negroes. The minister +always addressed a portion of his sermon particularly to them, and held +service for them exclusively on Sabbath afternoon. Besides, they had +their own ministers among themselves, and had night prayer meetings in +their cabins whenever they chose. + +Many prayers ascended from earnest hearts for their conversion, and +I knew no home at which some effort was not made for their religious +instruction. + +One of our friends--a Presbyterian minister and earnest +Christian--devoted the greater part of his time to preaching and +teaching them. And many pious ministers, throughout the State, +bestowed upon them time and labor. + +I once attended a gay party where the young lady of the house--the +center of attraction--hearing that one of the negroes was suddenly very +ill, excused herself from the company, carried her Prayer-book to the +cabin, and passed the night by the bedside of the sick man, reading +and repeating verses to him. I have also had young lady friends who +declined attending a wedding or party when a favorite servant was ill. + +On one occasion an English gentleman--Surgeon in the Royal +Artillery--visiting at our house, accompanied us to a wedding and +hearing that two young ladies had not attended on account of the +illness of a negro servant, said to me: "This would not have been in +England, and will scarcely be believed when I tell it on my return." + +The same gentleman expressed astonishment at one of our neighbor's +sitting up all night to nurse one of his negroes who was ill. He was +amused at the manner of our servants' identifying themselves with the +master and his possessions, always speaking of "our horses," "our +cows," "our crop," "our mill," "our blacksmith's shop," "our carriage," +"our black folks," &c. He told us he observed also a difference between +our menials and those of his own country, in that, while here they +were individualized, there they were known by the names of "Boots," +"'Ostler," "Driver," "Footman," "Cook," "Waiter," "Scullion," &c. + +On our plantations the most insignificant stable boy felt himself of +some importance. + +When I heard Mr. Dickens read scenes from Nicholas Nickleby, the tone +of voice in which he personated Smike sent a chill through me, for I +had never before heard the human voice express such hopeless despair. +Can there be in England, thought I, human beings afraid of the sound of +their own voices? + +There was a class of men in our State who made a business of buying +negroes to sell again farther south. These we never met, and held in +horror. But even they, when we reflect, could not have treated them +with inhumanity; for what man would pay a thousand dollars for a +piece of property, and fail to take the best possible care of it? The +"traders" usually bought their negroes when an estate became involved, +for the owners could not be induced to part with their negroes until +the last extremity--when everything else had been seized by their +creditors. Houses, lands, everything went first, before giving up the +negroes; the owner preferring to impoverish himself in the effort to +keep and provide for these--which was unwise, financially, and would +not have been thought of by a mercenary people. + +But it was hard to part with one's "own people," and see them +scattered. Still our debts had to be paid; often security debts after +the death of the owner, when all had to be sold. And who of us but can +remember the tears of anguish caused by this, and scenes of sorrow to +which we can never revert without the keenest grief? Yet, like all +events in this chequered human life, even these sometimes turned out +best for the negroes, when by this means they exchanged unpleasant for +more agreeable homes. Still it appeared to me a great evil, and often +did I pray that God would make us a way of escape from it. But His ways +are past finding out, and why He had been pleased to order it thus we +shall never know. + +Instances of harsh or cruel treatment were rare. I never heard of +more than two or three individuals who were "hard" or unkind to their +negroes, and these were ostracised from respectable society, their very +names bringing reproach and blight upon their descendants. + +We knew of but one instance of cruelty on our plantation, and that was +when "Uncle Joe," the blacksmith, burnt his nephew's face with a hot +iron. The man carries the scar to this day, and in speaking of it, +always says: "Soon as my master found out how Uncle Joe treated me he +wouldn't let me work no more in his shop." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The extent of these estates precluding the possibility of near +neighbors, their isolation would have been intolerable but for the +custom of visiting which prevailed among us. Many houses were filled +with visitors the greater part of the year, usually remaining two or +three weeks. Visiting tours were made in our private carriages--each +family making at least one such tour a year. Nor was it necessary to +announce these visits by message or letter, each house being considered +always ready, and "entertaining company" the occupation of the people. +Sometimes two or three carriages might be descried in the evening +coming up to the door through the Lombardy poplar avenue--the usual +approach to many old houses--whereupon ensued a lively flutter among +small servants, who speedily got them into their clean aprons, and +ran to open gates, and remove parcels from carriages, and becoming +generally excited. Lady visitors were always accompanied by colored +maids, although sure of finding a superfluity of these at each +establishment. The mistress of the house always received her guests in +the front porch, with a sincere and cordial greeting. + +These visiting friends at my own home made an impression upon me that +no time can efface. I almost see them now--those dear, gentle faces--my +mother's early friends; and those delightful old ladies in close +bordered tarletan caps, who used to come to see my grandmother. These +last would sit round the fire knitting and talking over their early +memories; how they remembered the red coats of the British; how they +had seen the Richmond theater burn down, with some of their family +burned in it. How they used to wear such beautiful turbans of _crepe +lise_ to the Cartersville balls, and how they used to dance the minuet. +At mention of this, my grandmother would lay off her spectacles, put +aside her knitting, rise with dignity--she was very tall--and show us +the step of the minuet, gliding slowly and majestically around the +room. Then she would say: "Ah, children, you will never see anything +so graceful as the minuet. Such jumping around as _you_ see would not +have been considered 'genteel' in _my_ day!" + +My mother's friends belonged to a later generation, and were types +of women, whom to have known I shall ever consider a blessing and +privilege. They combined intelligence with exquisite refinement and +agreeability; and their annual visits gave my mother the greatest +happiness, which we soon learned to share and appreciate. + +As I consider these ladies models for our sex through all time, I +enumerate some of their attractions: + +Entire absence of pretense made them always agreeable. Having no +"parlor" or "company" manners to assume, they preserved at all times a +gentle, natural, easy demeanor and conversation. They had not dipped +into the sciences, attempted by some of our sex at the present day; but +the study of Latin and French, with general reading in their mother +tongue rendered them intelligent companions for cultivated men. They +also possessed the rare gift of reading well aloud, and wrote letters +unsurpassed in penmanship, ease and agreeability of style. + +Italian and German professors being rare in that day, their musical +acquirements did not extend beyond the simplest piano accompaniments +to old English and Scotch airs, which they sang in a sweet, natural +voice, and which so enchanted the beaux of their time that they--the +beaux--never afterwards became reconciled to any higher order of music. + +These model women also managed their household affairs admirably; and +were uniformly kind, but never familiar with their servants. They kept +ever before them the Bible as their constant guide and rule in life, +and were surely, as nearly as possible, holy in thought, word and deed. +I have looked in vain for _exactly such_ women in other lands, but have +failed to find them. + +Then there were old gentlemen visitors--beaux of my grandmother's +day--still wearing cues, wide ruffled bosoms, short pants and knee +buckles. These pronounced the _a_ very broad; sat a long time over +their wine at dinner, and carried in their pockets gold or silver +snuff-boxes presented by some distinguished individual at some remote +period. + +Our visiting acquaintance extended from Botetourt county to Richmond, +and among them were jolly old Virginia gentlemen and precise +old Virginia gentlemen; eccentric old Virginia gentlemen and +prosy old Virginia gentlemen; courtly old Virginia gentlemen and +plain-mannered old Virginia gentlemen; charming old Virginia gentlemen +and uninteresting old Virginia gentlemen. Many of them had graduated +years and years ago at William and Mary College. + +Then we had another set, of a later day--those who graduated in the +first graduating class at the University of Virginia, when that +institution was first established. These happened--all that we knew--to +have belonged to the same class, and often amused us--without intending +it--by reverting to that fact in these words: + +"_That_ was a remarkable class! Every man in that class made his mark +in law, letters or politics! Let me see: There was Toombs. There was +Charles Mosby. There was Alexander Stuart. There was Burwell. There +was R. M. T. Hunter;" and so on, calling each by name except himself, +knowing that the others never failed to do that! + +Edgar Poe and Alexander Stephens, of Georgia, were also at the +University with these gentlemen. + +Although presenting an infinite variety of mind, manner and temperament, +all the gentlemen who visited us, young and old, possessed in +common certain characteristics; one of which was a deference to +ladies, which made us feel that we had been put in the world especially +to be waited upon by them. Their standard for woman was high. They +seemed to regard her as some rare and costly statue set in a niche to +be admired and _never taken_ down. + +Another peculiarity they had in common, was a habit--which seemed +irresistible--of tracing people back to the remotest generation, and +appearing inconsolable if ever they failed to find out the pedigree of +any given individual for at least four generations. This, however, was +an innocent pastime, from which they seemed to derive much pleasure and +satisfaction, and which should not be regarded, even in this advanced +age, a serious fault. + +Among our various visitors, was a kinsman--of whom I often heard, +but do not recollect--a bachelor of eighty years, always accompanied +by his negro servant as old as himself. Both had the same name, +Louis,--pronounced like the French--and this aged pair had been so +long together they could not exist apart. Black Louis rarely left his +master's side; assisting in the conversation if his master became +perplexed or forgetful. When his master talked in the parlor, black +Louis always planted his chair in the middle of the door-sill, every +now and then correcting or reminding with: "Now, master, dat warnt Col. +Taylor's horse dat won dat race dat day. You and me was thar." Or, +"Now, master you done forgot all 'bout dat. Dat was in de year 1779, +and _dis_ is de way it happened," &c., much to the amusement of the +company assembled. All this was said, I am told, most respectfully, +although the old negro in a manner _possessed_ his master, having +entire charge and command of him. + +The negroes often felt great pride in "_their_ white people," as they +called their owners, and loved to brag about what "_their_ white +people" did and what "_their_ white people" had. + +On one occasion it became necessary for my sister and myself to ride +a short distance in a public conveyance. A small colored boy, who +helped in our dining-room, had to get in the same stage. Two old +gentlemen--strangers to us--sitting opposite, supposing we had fallen +asleep, when we closed our eyes to keep out the dust, commenced talking +about us. Said one to the other: "Now those children will spoil their +Sunday bonnets." Whereupon our colored boy spoke up quickly: "Umph! +_you_ think _them's_ my mistesses' Sunday bonnets? Umph! you _jes +ought_ to see what they got up thar on top the stage in thar band +box!" At this we both laughed, for the boy had never seen our "Sunday +bonnets," nor did he know that we possessed any. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +English books never fail to make honorable mention of a "roast of +beef," "a leg of mutton," "a dish of potatoes," "a dish of tea," &c., +while with us the abundance of such things gave them, we thought, not +enough importance to be particularized. Still my reminiscences extend +to these. + +Every Virginia housewife knew how to compound all the various dishes +in Mrs. Randolph's Cookery book, and our tables were filled with every +species of meat and vegetable to be found on a plantation; with every +kind of cakes, jellies and blanc-mange to be concocted out of eggs, +butter and cream, besides an endless catalogue of preserves, sweet +meats, pickles and condiments. So that in the matter of good living, +both in abundance and the manner of serving, a Virginia plantation +could not be excelled. + +The first speciality being good loaf bread, there was always a hot loaf +for breakfast, hot corn bread for dinner and a hot loaf for supper. +Every house was famed for its loaf bread, and, said a gentleman once to +me: "Although at each place it is superb, yet each loaf differs from +another loaf, preserving distinct characteristics which would enable me +to distinguish, instantly, should there be a convention of loaves, the +Oaklands loaf from the Greenfield loaf, and the Avenel loaf from the +Rustic Lodge loaf." + +And apropos of this gentleman, whom, it is needless to add, was +a celebrated connoisseur in this matter of loaf bread, it was a +noticeable fact with our cook, that whenever he came to our house the +bread in trying to do its best always did its worst! + +Speaking of bread, another gentleman expressed his belief that at the +last great day, it will be found that more housewives will be punished +on account of light bread than anything else; for he knew some who were +never out of temper except when the light bread failed! + +Time would fail me to dwell, as I should, upon the incomparable +rice waffles, and beat biscuit, and muffins, and laplands, and +Marguerites, and flannel cakes, and French rolls, and velvet rolls, and +ladies-fingers constantly brought by relays of small servants, during +breakfast, hot and hotter from the kitchen. Then the tea waiters handed +at night, with the beef tongue, the sliced ham, the grated cheese, +the cold turkey, the dried venison, the loaf bread buttered hot, the +batter-cakes, crackers, the quince marmalade, the wafers all pass in +review before me. + +The first time I ever heard of a manner of living different from this, +was when it became important for my mother to make a visit to a great +aunt in Baltimore, and she went for the first time out of her native +State--neither herself nor her mother had ever been out of Virginia. My +mother was accompanied by her maid, Kitty, on this expedition, and when +they returned both had many astounding things to relate. My grandmother +threw up her hands in amazement on hearing that some of the first +ladies in the city, who visited old aunt, confined the conversation of +a morning call to the subject of the faults of their hired servants. +"Is it possible?" exclaimed the old lady. "I never considered it well +bred to mention servants or their faults in company." + +Indeed, in our part of the world, a mistress became offended if +the faults of her servants were alluded to, just as persons become +displeased when the faults of their children are discussed. + +Maid Kitty's account of this visit, I will give as well as I can +remember in her own words, as she described it to her fellow-servants: +"You never see sich a way for people to live! Folks goes to bed in +Baltimore 'thout a single mouthful in thar house to eat. And they can't +get nothin' neither 'thout they gits up soon in the mornin' and goes +to the market after it themselves. Rain, hail or shine, they got to +go. 'Twouldn't suit _our_ white folks to live that way! And I wouldn't +live thar not for nothin' in this world. In that fine three story house +thar ain't but bare two servants, an' they has to do all the work. +'Twouldn't suit _me_, an' I wouldn't live thar not for nothin' in this +whole creation. I would git _that_ lonesome I couldn't stan' it. Bare +two servants! and they calls themselves rich, too! And they cooks in +the cellar. I know mistess couldn't stand that--smellin' everything out +the kitchen all over the house. Umph! _them_ folks don't know nothin' +_tall_ 'bout good livin', with thar cold bread and thar rusks!" + +Maid Kitty spoke truly when she said she had never seen two women +do all the housework. For, at home, often three women would clean +up one chamber. One made the bed, while another swept the floor and +a third dusted and put the chairs straight. Labor was divided and +subdivided; and I remember one woman whose sole employment seemed to +be throwing open the blinds in the morning and rubbing the posts of my +grandmother's high bedstead. This rubbing business was carried quite +to excess. Every inch of mahogany was waxed and rubbed to the highest +state of polish, as were also the floors, the brass fenders, irons and +candlesticks. + +When I reflect upon the degree of comfort arrived at in our homes, I +think we should have felt grateful to our ancestors; for as Quincy has +written: "In whatever mode of existence man finds himself, be it savage +or civilized, he perceives that he is indebted for the greater part of +his possessions to events over which he had no control; to individuals +whose names, perhaps, never reached his ear; to sacrifices which he +never shared. How few of all these blessings do we owe to our own power +or prudence! How few on which we can not discern the impress of a long +past generation!" So we were indebted for our agreeable surroundings to +the heroism and sacrifices of past generations, and not to venerate and +eulogize them betrays the want of a truly noble soul. For what courage; +what patience; what perseverence; what long suffering; what Christian +forbearance, must it have cost our great grandmothers to civilize, +Christianize and elevate the naked, savage Africans to the condition +of good cooks and respectable maids! They--our great grandmothers--did +not enjoy the blessed privilege even of turning their servants off when +ineffient or disagreeable, but had to keep them through life. The only +thing was to bear and forbear, and + + ----"be to their virtues very kind, + To their faults," a great deal "blind." + +If in Heaven there be one seat higher than another, it must be reserved +for those true Southern matrons, who performed conscientiously their +part assigned them by God--civilizing and instructing this race. + +To the children of Israel God said: "I will give thee the heathen for +an inheritance." So He had given _us_ "the heathen for an inheritance," +and however bitterly some of us deplored it--as we did--we should have +remembered that nothing happens by chance; but that God disposes all +events for some purpose of his own. We were instruments in His hand, +and if we or our forefathers were chosen by Him to elevate a race in +the scale of comfort and intelligence we should not deplore it, but +pray that what we have done for them may be a lasting benefit and that +God's blessing may follow them in another condition of life. + +However we may differ in the opinion, there is no greater compliment to +Southern slave owners than the idea prevailing in many places that the +negro is already sufficiently elevated to hold the highest positions in +the gift of our Government. + +I once met in traveling an English gentleman, who asked me: "How can +you bear those miserable black negroes about your houses and about your +persons? To me they are horribly repulsive, and I would not endure one +about me." + +"Neither would they have been my choice," I replied. "But God sent them +to us. I was born to this inheritance and could not avert it. What +would _you_ English have done," I asked, "if God had sent them to you?" + +"Thrown them into the bottom of the sea!" he replied. + +Fortunately for the poor negro this sentiment had not prevailed among +us. I believe God endowed our people with qualities peculiarly adapted +to taking charge of this race and that no other nation could have kept +them. Our people did not demand as much work as in other countries is +required of servants; and I think had more affection for them than is +elsewhere felt for menials. + +In this connection, I remember an incident during the war which +deserves to be recorded as showing the affection entertained for negro +dependents: + +When our soldiers were nearly starved, and only allowed daily a +small handfull of parched corn, the Colonel of a Virginia regiment, +by accident got some coffee, a small portion of which was daily +distributed to each man. In the regiment was a cousin of mine--a young +man endowed with the noblest attributes God can give--who, although +famishing and needing it, denied himself his portion every day that +he might bring it to his black mammy. He made a small bag in which he +deposited and carefully saved it. + +When he arrived at home on furlough, his mother wept to see his +tattered clothes, his shoeless feet and starved appearance. + +Soon producing the little bag of coffee, with a cheerful smile he said: +"See what I've saved to bring black mammy!" + +"Oh! my son," said his mother, "you have needed it yourself. Why did +you not use it?" + +"Well," he replied, "it has been so long since you all had any coffee, +and I made out very well on water, when I thought how black mammy +missed her coffee, and how glad she would be to get it." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +The antiquity of the furniture in our homes can scarcely be +described--every article appearing to have been purchased during the +reign of George III., since which period no new fixtures or household +utensils seemed to have been bought. + +The books in our libraries had been brought from England almost two +hundred years before. In our own library there were Hogarth's pictures, +in old worm-eaten frames; and among the literary curiosities, one +of the earliest editions of Shakespeare--1685--containing under the +author's picture the lines by Ben Johnson: + + "This Figure which thou here seest put + It was for gentle Shakespeare cut-- + Wherein the Graver had a strife, + With Nature to outdo the Life. + O, could he but have drawn his Wit + As well in Brass, as he has hit + His Face; the Paint would then surpass + All that was ever writ in Brass. + But since he can not, Reader, look + Not on his Picture, but his Book." + +This was a reprint of the first edition of Shakespeare's works +collected by John Heminge and Henry Condell, two of his friends in the +company of comedians. + +The perusal of the Arabian Nights, when a small child, possessed +me with the idea that their dazzling pictures were to be realized +when we emerged from plantation life into the outside world, and the +disappointment at not finding Richmond paved with gems and gold like +those cities in Eastern story, is remembered to the present time. + +Brought up amid antiquities, the Virginia girl disturbed herself not +about modern fashions, appearing happy in her mother's old silks +and satins made over; her grandmother's laces and brooch of untold +dimensions, with a weeping willow and tombstone on it--a constant +reminder of the past--which had descended from some remote ancestor. + +She slept in a high bedstead--the bed of her ancestors; washed her +face on an old fashioned, spindle-legged washstand; mounted a high +chair to arrange her hair before the old fashioned mirror on the high +bureau; climbed to the top of a high mantle-piece to take down the old +fashioned high candlesticks; climbed a pair of steps to get into the +high-swung, old fashioned carriage; perched her feet upon the top of a +high brass fender if she wanted to get them warm; and, in short, had to +perform so many gymnastics that she felt convinced her ancestors must +have been a race of giants, or they could not have required such tall +and inaccessible furniture. + +An occasional visit to Richmond or Petersburg, sometimes animated +her with a desire for some style of dress less antique than her own; +although she had as much admiration and attention as if she had just +received her wardrobe from Paris. + +Her social outlook might have been considered limited and +circumscribed--her parents being unwilling that her acquaintance should +extend beyond the descendants of their own old friends. + +She had never any occasion to make what the world calls a "debut;" +the constant flow of company at her father's house having rendered +her assistance necessary in entertaining guests, as soon as she could +converse and be companionable. So that her manners were early formed, +and she remembered not the time when it was anything but very easy and +agreeable, to be in the society of ladies and gentlemen. + + * * * * * + +In due time we were provided--my sister and myself--with the best +instructors--a lady all the way from Bordeaux to teach French, and a +German Professor for German and music. The latter opened to us a new +world of music. He was a fine linguist, thorough musician and perfect +gentleman. He lived with us five years, and remained our sincere and +truly valued friend through life. + +After some years we were thought to have arrived at "sufficient age of +discretion" for a trip to New York city. + +Fancy our feelings on arriving in that world of modern people and +modern things! Fancy two young girls suddenly transported from the time +of George III. to the largest hotel on Broadway in 1855! + +All was as strange to us then as we are now to the Chinese. Never had +we seen white servants before; and on being attended by them at first +felt a sort of embarrassment, but soon found they were accustomed to +less consideration and more hard work than were our negro servants at +home. + +Everything and everybody seemed in a mad whirl--the "march of material +progress," they told us. It seemed to us more the "perpetual motion +of progress." Everybody said that if "old fogy" Virginia did not make +haste to join this "march," she would be left a "wreck behind." + +We found ourselves in the "advanced age;" the land of water-pipes and +dumb-waiters; the land of enterprise and money, and at the same time an +economy amounting to parsimony. + +The manners of the people were strange to us, and different from ours. +The ladies seemed to have gone ahead of the men in the "march of +progress"--their manner being more pronounced. They did not hesitate to +"push about" through crowds and public places. + +Still, we were young; and dazzled with the gloss and glitter, we +wondered why old Virginia couldn't join this "march of progress," and +have dumb-waiters, and elevators, and water-pipes, and gas fixtures, +and baby jumpers, and washing machines. + +We asked a gentleman who was with us, why old Virginia had not all +these, and he replied: "Because, while the people here have been busy +working for themselves, old fogy Virginia has been working for negroes. +All the money Virginia makes is spent in feeding and clothing negroes. +And," he continued, "these people in the North were shrewd enough years +ago to sell all their's to the South." + +All was strange to us; even the table-cloths on the tea and breakfast +tables instead of napkins under the plates as we had at home, and which +always looked so pretty on the mahogany. + +But the novelty having worn off after awhile, we found out there was +a good deal of "imitation," after all, mixed up in everything. Things +did not seem to have been "fixed up" to last as long as our old things +at home, and we began to wonder if the "advanced age" really made the +people any better, or more agreeable, or more hospitable, or more +generous, or more brave, or more self-reliant, or more charitable, or +more true, or more pious, than in "old fogy Virginia?" + +There was one thing most curious to us in New York. No one seemed to +do anything by himself or herself. No one had an individuality; all +existed in "clubs" or "societies." They had also many "isms" of which +we had never heard; some of the people sitting up all night, and going +around all day talking about "manifestations," and "spirits," and +"affinities," which they told us was "spiritualism." + +All this impressed us slow, old fashioned Virginians, as a strangely +up-side-down, wrong-side-out condition of things. + +Much of the conversation we heard was confined to asking questions of +strangers, and discussing the best means of making money. + +We were surprised too to hear of "plantation customs" said to exist +among us which were entirely new to us; and one of the Magazines +published in the city informed us that "dipping" was one of the +"characteristics" of Southern women. What could the word "dipping" +mean? we wondered, for we had never heard it before. Upon inquiry we +found that it meant "rubbing the teeth with snuff on a small stick"--a +truly disgusting habit which could not have prevailed in Virginia, +or we would have had some tradition of it at least--our acquaintance +extending over the State, and our ancestors having settled there two +hundred years ago. + +A young gentleman from Virginia--bright and overflowing with fun, also +visiting New York--coming into the parlor one day threw himself on a +sofa in a violent fit of laughter. + +"What is the matter?" we asked. + +"I am laughing," he replied, "at the absurd questions these people +can ask. What do you think? A man asked me just now if we didn't keep +blood-hounds in Virginia to chase negroes! I told him, O, yes, every +plantation keeps several dozen! And we often have a tender boiled negro +infant for breakfast!" + +"Oh, how could you have told such a story?" we said. + +"Well," said he, "you know we never saw a blood-hound in Virginia, and +I do not expect there is one in the State; but these people delight +in believing everything horrible about us, and I thought I might as +well gratify them with something marvelous. So the next book published +up here will have, I've no doubt, a chapter headed: 'Blood-hounds in +Virginia and boiled negroes for breakfast!'" + +While we were purchasing some trifles to bring home to some of our +servants, a lady, who had entertained us most kindly at her house on +Fifth Avenue, expressing surprise, said: "_We_ never think of bringing +home presents to our 'helps.'" + +This was the first time we had ever heard, instead of "servant," the +word "help," which seemed then--and still seems--misapplied. The +dictionaries define "help" to mean aid; assistance; remedy, while +"servant" means one who attends another, and acts at his command. When +a man pays another to "help" him, it implies he is to do part of the +work himself, and is dishonest if he leaves the whole to be performed +by his "help." + +The word servant is an honest Bible word, and distinctly defines a +position. Noah did not say: "Cursed be Cain, a 'help' of 'helps' shall +he be to his brethren." Nor did Abraham call his eldest "servant," +although ruling over all he had, his "help." Neither does the +Commandment say thy "man-help" or thy "maid-help." + +The word "servant" seems, after the lapse of centuries, still applied +with the same meaning by St. Paul, who does not say, "Master, give +unto your 'helps' that which is equal;" or, "Let as many 'helps' as are +under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor." + +The words "master and servant" thus lose their true significance. + +Among other discoveries during this visit we found how much more talent +it requires to entertain company in the country than the city. In the +latter the guests and family form no "social circle round the blazing +hearth" at night, but disperse far and wide, to be entertained at the +concert, the opera, the theater or club; while in the country one +depends entirely upon native intellect and conversational talent. + +And oh! the memory of our own fireside circles! The exquisite women; +the men of giant intellect, eloquence and wit at sundry times assembled +there! Could our andirons but utter speech what could they not tell +of mirth and song, eloquence and wit, whose flow made many an evening +bright. + +Well, as all delights must have an end, the time came for us to leave +these "scenes enchanting." Bidding adieu forever to the land of "modern +appliances" and stale bread, we returned to the land flowing with "old +ham and corn cakes," and were soon surrounded by friends who came to +hear the marvels we had to relate. + +How monotonous, how dull, prosy, inconvenient everything seemed after +our plunge into modern life! + +We told old Virginia about all the enterprise we had seen; and how she +was left far behind everybody and everything, urging her to join at +once the "march of material progress." + +But the mother of States persisted in sitting contentedly over her old +fashioned wood fire with brass andirons, and while thus musing these +words fell slowly and distinctly from her lips: + +"They call me 'old fogy,' and tell me I must get out of my old ruts and +come into the 'advanced age.' But I don't care about their 'advanced +age;' their water-pipes and elevators. Give me the right sort of men +and women! God loving; God serving men and women. Men brave, courteous, +true. Women sensible, gentle and retiring. + +"Have not my 'plantation homes' furnished warriors, statesmen and +orators, acknowledged great by the world? I make it a rule to 'keep on +hand' men equal to emergencies. Had I not Washington, Patrick Henry, +Light-horse Harry Lee, and others, ready for the first Revolution; and +if there comes another--which God forbid!--have I not plenty more just +like them?" + +Here she laughed with delight, as she called over their names: "Robert +Lee, Jackson, Joe Johnstone, Stuart, Early, Floyd, Preston, the +Breckinridges, Scott, and others like them, brave and true as steel. +Ha! ha! I know of what stuff to make men! And if my old 'ruts and +grooves' produce men like these, should they be abandoned? Can any +'advanced age' produce better? + +"Then there are my soldiers of the cross. Do I not yearly send out a +faithful band to be a 'shining light,' and spread the gospel North, +South, East, West, even into foreign lands? Is not the only Christian +paper in Athens, Greece, the result of the love and labor of one of +my[1] soldiers? + +"And can I not send out men of science, as well as warriors, statesmen +and orators? There is Maury on the seas showing the world what a man +of science can do. If my 'old fogy' system has produced men like these +must it be abandoned?" + +Here the old mother of States settled herself back in her chair, a +smile of satisfaction resting on her face, and she ceased to think of +_change_. + +Telling our mother of all the wonders and pleasures of New York, she +said: + +"You were so delighted, I expect you would like to sell out everything +here and move there!" + +"It would be delightful!" we exclaimed. + +"But you would miss many pleasures you have in our present home." + +"We would have no time to miss anything," said my sister, "in that +whirl of excitement!" + +"But," she continued. "I believe one might as well try to move the +Rocky Mountains to Fifth Avenue, as an old Virginian! They have such a +horror of selling out and moving." + +"It is not so easy to sell out and move," replied our mother, "when you +remember all the negroes we have to take care of and support." + +"Yes, the negroes," we said, "are the weight continually pulling us +down! Will the time _ever_ come for us to be free of them?" + +"They were placed here," replied our mother, "by God, for us to +take care of, and it does not seem that we can change it. When we +emancipate them, it does not better their condition. Those left free +and with good farms given them by their masters, soon sink into +poverty and wretchedness, and become a nuisance to the community. +We see how miserable are Mr. Randolph's[2] negroes, who with their +freedom received from their master a large body of the best land in +Prince Edward county. My own grandfather also emancipated a large +number, having first had them taught lucrative trades that they might +support themselves, and giving them money and land. But they were not +prosperous or happy. We have also tried sending them to Liberia. You +know my old friend, Mrs. L----, emancipated all her's and sent them +to Liberia, but she told me the other day she was convinced it had +been no kindness to them, for she continually receives letters begging +assistance, and yearly supplies them with clothes and money." + +So it seemed our way was "hedged about" and surrounded by walls of +circumstances too thick and solid to be pulled down, and we said no +more. + +But some weeks after this conversation, we had a visit from a +friend--"Mozis Addums"--who having lived in New York and hearing us +express a wish to live there, said: + +"What! exchange a home in old Virginia for one on Fifth Avenue? You +don't know what you are talking about! They are not even called 'homes' +there, but '_house_;' where they turn into bed at midnight; eat +stale-bread breakfasts; have brilliant parties--where several thousand +people meet who don't care anything about each other. They have no soul +life; but shut themselves up in themselves, live for themselves, and +never have any social enjoyment like ours." + +"But," we said, "could not our friends come to see us there as well as +anywhere else?" + +"No indeed!" he answered. "Your hearts would soon be as cold and dead +as your marble door-fronts. You wouldn't want to see anybody, and +nobody would want to see you." + +"You are complimentary, certainly!" + +"I know all about it; and," he continued, "I know you could not find on +Fifth Avenue such women as your mother and grandmother, who never think +of themselves, but are constantly planning and providing for others, +making their homes comfortable and pleasant, and attending to the wants +and welfare of so many negroes. And that is what the women all over the +South are doing and what the New York women cannot comprehend. How can +anybody know, except ourselves, the personal sacrifices of our women?" + +"Well," said my sister, "you need not be so severe and eloquent because +we thought we would like to live in New York! If we should sell all we +possess, we could never afford to live there. Besides, you know our +mother would as soon think of selling her children as her servants--who +indeed are beginning to possess _her_, instead of her possessing them." + +"But," he replied, "I can't help talking, for I hear our people abused, +and called indolent and self-indulgent, when I know they have valor and +endurance enough. And I believe so much 'material progress' leaves no +leisure for the highest development of heart and mind. Where the whole +energy of a people is applied to making money, the souls of men become +dwarfed." + +"We do not feel," we said, "like abusing Northern people, in whose +thrift and enterprise we found much to admire; and especially the +self-reliance of their women, enabling them to take care of themselves +and travel from Maine to the Gulf without an escort, while we find it +impossible to travel a day's journey without a special protector." + +"That is just what I don't like," said he, "to see a woman in a crowd +of strangers needing no 'special protector.'" + +"This dependence upon your sex," we replied, "keeps you so vain." + +"We would lose our gallantry altogether," said he, "if we found you +could get along without us." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +After some months--ceasing to think and speak of New York--our lives +glided back into the old channel, where the placid stream of life had +many isles of simple pleasures. + +We were, in those days, not "whirled with glowing wheel over the +iron track in a crowded car," with dirty, shrieking children and +repulsive-looking people--on their way to the small pox hospital, for +all we knew. We were not jammed against rough, dreadful-looking people, +eating dreadful smelling things, out of dreadful-looking baskets and +satchels, and throwing the remains of dreadful pies and sausages over +the cushioned seats. + +Oh, no! our journeys were performed in venerable carriages, and our +lunch was enjoyed by some cool, shady spring where we stopped in some +shady forest at midday. + +Our own venerable carriage, my sister styled, "The old ship of Zion," +saying, "It had carried many thousands, and was likely to carry many +more." And our driver we called the "Ancient Mariner." He presided on +his seat--a high perch--in a very high hat and with great dignity. +Having been driving the same carriage for nearly forty years--no driver +being thought safe who had not been on the carriage box at least twenty +years--considered himself an oracle, and in consequence of his years +and experience kept us in much awe--my sister and myself never daring +to ask him to quicken or retard his pace or change the direction of the +road, however much we desired it. We will ever remember this thraldom, +and how we often wished one of the younger negroes could be allowed to +take his place, but my grandmother said "it would wound his feelings, +and besides be very unsafe" for us. + +At every steep hill or bad place in the road it was an established +custom to stop the carriage, unfold the high steps and "let us +out"--like pictures of the animals coming down out of the ark! This +custom had always prevailed in my mother's family, and there was a +tradition that my great grandfather's horses being habituated to stop +for this purpose, refused to pull up certain hills--even when the +carriage was empty--until the driver had dismounted and slammed the +door, after which they moved off without further hesitation. + +This custom of walking at intervals made an agreeable variety, and gave +us an opportunity to enjoy fully the beautiful and picturesque scenery +through which we were passing. + +These were the days of leisure and pleasure for travelers; and when +we remember the charming summer jaunts annually made in this way, we +almost regret the "steam horse," which takes us now to the same places +in a few hours. + +We had two dear friends--Mary and Alice--who with their old carriages +and drivers--the fac similes of our own--frequently accompanied us in +these expeditions; and no generals ever exercised more entire command +over their armies than did these three black coachmen over us. I smile +now to think of their ever being called our "slaves." + +Yet, although they had this "domineering" spirit, they felt at the same +time, a certain pride in us, too. + +On one occasion, when we were traveling together, our friend Alice +concluded to dismount from her carriage and ride a few miles with a +gentleman of the party in a buggy. She had not gone far before the +alarm was given that the buggy horse was running away, whereupon +our black generalissimos instantly stopped the three carriages and +anxiously watched the result. Old Uncle Edmund--Alice's coachman--stood +up in his seat highly excited, and when his young mistress, with +admirable presence of mind, seized the reins and stopped the horse, +turning him into a by-road, shouted at the top of his voice: "Thar, +now! I always knowed Miss Alice was a young 'oman of the most amiable +courage!" and over this feat continued to chuckle the rest of the day. + +The end of these pleasant journeys always brought us to some old +plantation home, where we met a warm welcome not only from the white +family, but the servants who constituted part of the establishment. + +One of the most charming to which we made a yearly visit was Oaklands, +a lovely spot embowered in vines and shade trees. + +The attractions of this home and family brought so many visitors every +summer, it was necessary to erect cottages about the grounds, although +the house itself was quite large. And as the yard was usually filled +with persons strolling about, or reading, or playing chess under +the trees, it had every appearance--on first approach--of a small +watering place. The mistress of this establishment was a woman of rare +attraction--possessing all the gentleness of her sex with attributes of +greatness enough for a hero. Tall and handsome, she looked a queen as +she stood on the portico receiving her guests, and by the first words +of greeting, from her warm, true heart, charmed even strangers. Nor in +any department of life did she betray qualities other than these. + +Without the least "variableness or shadow of turning," her excellencies +were a perfect continuity, and her deeds of charity a blessing to all +in need within her reach. No undertaking seemed too great for her, +and no details--affecting the comfort of her home, family, friends or +servants--too small for her supervision. + +The church--a few miles distant, the object of her care and +love--received at her hands constant and valuable aid, and its minister +generally formed one of her family circle. + +No wonder then that the home of such a woman should have been a +favorite resort with all who had the privilege of knowing her. And no +wonder that all who enjoyed her charming hospitality were spell-bound, +nor wished to leave the spot. + +In addition to the qualities I have attempted to describe, this lady +inherited from her father--General B.--an executive talent which +enabled her to order and arrange perfectly her domestic affairs, so +that from the delicious viands upon her table to the highly polished +oak of the floors, all gave evidence of her superior management, and +the admirable training of her servants. + +Nor were the hospitalities of this establishment dispensed to the gay +and great alone; but shared alike by the homeless, the friendless, and +many a weary heart found sympathy and shelter there. + +Well! Oaklands was famous for many things: its fine light bread; its +cinnamon cakes; its beat biscuit; its fricasseed chicken; its butter +and cream; its wine sauces; its plum puddings; its fine horses; its +beautiful meadows; its sloping green hills, and last, but not least, +its refined and agreeable society collected from every part of our own +State, and often from others. + +For an epicure no better place could have been desired. And this +reminds me of a retired army officer--an epicure of the first water--we +often met there, whose sole occupation was visiting his friends, and +only subjects of conversation the best viands and the best manner of +cooking them! When asked whether he remembered certain agreeable people +at a certain place, he would reply: "Yes, I dined there ten years ago, +and the turkey was very badly cooked--not quite done enough!" The +turkey evidently having made a more lasting impression than the people. + +This gentleman lost an eye at the battle of Chapultepec, having been +among the first of our gallant men who scaled the walls. But a young +girl of his acquaintance always said she knew it was not bravery so +much as "curiosity" which led him to "go peeping over the walls, first +man!" This was a heartless speech, but everybody repeated it and +laughed, for the Colonel _was_ a man of considerable "curiosity!" + +Like all old homes, Oaklands had its bright as well as its sorrowful +days--its weddings and its funerals. Many yet remember the gay wedding +of one there whose charms brought suitors by the score, and won hearts +by the dozen. The brilliant career of this young lady, her conquests +and wonderful fascinations, behold, are they not all written upon the +hearts and memories of divers rejected suitors who still survive? + +And apropos of weddings. An old fashioned Virginia wedding was an +event to be remembered. The preparations usually commenced several +weeks before, with saving eggs, butter, chickens, &c., after which +ensued the liveliest egg-beating; butter-creaming; raisin-stoning; +sugar-pounding; cake-icing; salad-chopping; cocoanut-grating; lemon +squeezing; egg-frothing; wafer-making; pastry-baking; jelly-straining; +paper-cutting; silver-cleaning; floor-rubbing; dress making; +hair-curling; lace-washing; ruffle-crimping; tarletan-smoothing; +guests-arriving; servants-running; trunk-moving; girls laughing! + +Imagine all this going on simultaneously several successive days and +nights, and you have an idea of "preparations" for an old fashioned +Virginia wedding. + +The guests generally arrived in private carriages a day or two before, +and stayed often a week after the affair, being accompanied by quite an +army of negro servants, who enjoyed the festivities as much as their +masters and mistresses. + +A great many years ago, after such a wedding as I describe, a dark +shadow fell upon Oaklands. + +The eldest daughter--young and beautiful, soon to marry a gentleman of +high-toned character, charming manners and large estate--one night, +while the preparations were in progress for her nuptials, saw in a +vision vivid pictures of what would befall her if she married. The +vision showed her: a gay wedding--herself the bride--the marriage +jaunt to her husband's home in a distant county; the incidents of the +journey; her arrival at her new home; her sickness and death; the +funeral procession back to Oaklands; the open grave; the bearers of her +bier--those who a few weeks before had danced at her wedding;--herself +a corpse in her bridal dress; her newly turfed grave with a bird +singing in the tree above. + +This vision produced such an impression she awakened her sister, and +told it. + +Three successive nights the vision appeared, which so affected her +spirits she determined not to marry. But after some months, persuaded +by her family to think no more of the dream which continually haunted +her, the marriage took place. + +All was a realization of the vision; the wedding; the journey to her +new home; every incident, however small, had been presented before her +in the dream. + +As the bridal party approached the house of an old lady near +Abingdon--who had made preparations for their entertainment,--servants +were hurrying to and fro in great excitement, and one was galloping off +for a doctor, as the old lady had been suddenly seized with a violent +illness. Even this was another picture in the ill-omened vision of the +bride, who found every day something occurring to remind her of it, +until in six months her own death made the last sad scene of her dream. +And the funeral procession back to Oaklands; the persons officiating; +the grave, all proved a realization of her vision. + +After this her husband--a man of true Christian character--sought in +foreign lands to disperse the gloom overshadowing his life. But whether +on the summit of Mount Blanc or the lava-crusted Vesuvius; among the +classic hills of Rome or the palaces of France; in the art galleries of +Italy or the regions of the Holy Land, he carried ever in his heart, +the image of his fair bride and the quiet grave at Oaklands. + +This gentleman still survives, and not long ago we heard him relate, in +charming voice and style, the incidents of these travels. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Another charming residence, not far from Oaklands, which attracted +visitors from various quarters, was Buena Vista, where we passed many +happy hours of childhood. + +This residence--large and handsome--was situated on an eminence, +overlooking pastures and sunny slopes, with forests, and mountain views +in the distance. + +The interior of the house accorded with the outside, every article +being elegant and substantial. + +The owner--a gentleman of polished manners, kind and generous +disposition, a sincere Christian and zealous churchman--was honored and +beloved by all who knew him. + +His daughters--a band of lovely young girls--presided over his house, +dispensing its hospitality with grace and dignity. Their mother's death +occurring when they were very young had given them household cares, +which would have been considerable, but for the assistance of Uncle +Billy, the butler--an all-important character presiding with imposing +dignity over domestic affairs. + +His jet black face was relieved by a head of grey hair with a small +round bald centre piece; and the expression of his face was calm and +serene, as he presided over the pantry, the table and the tea-waiters. + +His mission on earth seemed to be keeping the brightest silver urns, +sugar-dishes, cream-jugs and spoons; flavoring the best ice creams; +buttering the hottest rolls, muffins and waffles; chopping the best +salads; folding the whitest napkins; handing the best tea and cakes in +the parlor in the evenings, and cooling the best wine for the decanters +at dinner. Indeed he was so essentially a part of the establishment, +that in recalling those old days at Buena Vista, the form of "Uncle +Billy" comes silently back from the past and takes its old place about +the parlors, the halls and the dining-room, making the picture complete. + +And thus upon the canvas of every old home picture come to their +accustomed places, the forms of dusky friends, who once shared our +homes, our firesides, our affections--and who will share them, as in +the past, never more. + + * * * * * + +Of all the Plantation Homes we loved and visited, the brightest, +sweetest memories cluster around Grove Hill; a grand old place in the +midst of scenery lovely and picturesque, to reach which, we made a +journey across the Blue Ridge--those giant mountains from whose winding +road and lofty heights we had glimpses of exquisite scenery in the +valleys below. + +Thus winding slowly around these mountain heights and peeping down from +our old carriage windows we beheld nature in its wildest luxuriance. +The deep solitude; the glowing sunlight over rock, forest and glen; the +green valleys deep down beneath, diversified by alternate light and +shadow--all together photographed on our hearts pictures never to fade. + +Not all the towers, minarets, obelisks, palaces, gem-studded domes of +"art and man's device" can reach the soul like one of these sun-tinted +pictures in their convex frames of rock and vines! + +Arrived at Grove Hill, how enthusiastic the welcome from each member +of the family assembled in the front porch to meet us! How joyous +the laugh! How deliciously cool the wide halls, the spacious parlor, +the dark polished walnut floors! How bright the flowers! How gay the +spirits of all assembled there! + +One was sure of meeting here agreeable society from Virginia, +Baltimore, Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky, with whom the house +was filled from May 'till November. + +How delightfully passed the days, the weeks! What merry excursions; +fishing parties; riding parties, to the Indian Spring, the Cave, the +Natural Bridge! What pleasant music, and tableaux, and dancing in the +evenings! + +For the tableaux, we had only to open an old chest in the garret and +help ourselves to rich embroidered, white and scarlet dresses, with +other costumery worn by the grandmother of the family nearly a hundred +years before, when her husband was in public life and she one of the +queens of society. + +What sprightly "conversazioni" in our rooms at night--young girls +_will_ become confidential and eloquent with each other at night, +however reserved and quiet during the day! + +Late in the night these "conversazioni" continued, with puns +and laughter, until checked by a certain young gentleman--now a +minister--who was wont to bring out his flute in the flower garden +under our windows, and give himself up for an hour or more to the most +sentimental and touching strains, thus breaking in upon sprightly +remarks and repartees, some of which are remembered to this day, +especially one which ran thus: + +"Girls!" said one. "Would it not be charming if we could all take a +trip together to Niagara?" + +"Well, why could we not?" was the response. + +"Oh!" replied another, "the idea of us poor Virginia girls taking a +trip!" + +"Indeed," said one of the Grove Hill girls, "it would be impossible. +For here are we on this immense estate, 4,000 acres, two large, +handsome residences--and three hundred negroes--_considered_ wealthy, +and yet to save our lives could not raise money enough for a trip to +New York!" + +"Nor get a silk velvet cloak!" said her sister, laughing. + +"Yes," replied the other. "Girls! I have been longing and longing for a +silk velvet cloak, but never could get the money to buy one. But last +Sunday, at the village church, what should I see but one of the Joneses +sweeping in with a long velvet cloak almost touching the floor! And +you could set her father's house in our back hall! But then she is so +fortunate as to own no negroes." + +"What a happy girl she must be!" cried a chorus of voices. "No negroes +to support! _We_ could go to New York and Niagara, and have velvet +cloaks too, if we only had no negroes to support! But all _our_ money +goes to provide for them as soon as the crops are sold!" + +"Yes," said one of the Grove Hill girls; "here is our large house +without an article of modern furniture. The parlor curtains are one +hundred years old. The old fashioned mirrors and recess tables one +hundred years old, and we long in vain for money to buy something new." + +"Well!" said one of the sprightliest girls, "we can get up some of our +old diamond rings or breastpins which some of us have inherited, and +travel on appearances! We have no modern clothes, but the old rings +will make us '_look_ rich!' And a party of _poor, rich Virginians_ +will attract the commiseration and consideration of the world when +it is known that for generations we have not been able to leave our +plantations!" + +After these conversations we would fall asleep and sleep profoundly, +until aroused next morning by an army of servants polishing the hall +floors, waxing and rubbing them with a long-handle brush, weighted by +an oven lid. This made the floor like a "sea of glass," and dangerous +to walk upon immediately after the polishing process, being especially +disastrous to small children, who were continually slipping and falling +before breakfast. + +The lady presiding over this establishment possessed a cultivated +mind, bright conversational powers and gentle temper, with a force of +character which enabled her to direct judiciously the affairs of her +household, as well as the training and education of her children. + +She employed always an accomplished gentleman teacher, who added to the +agreeability of her home circle. + +She helped the boys with their Latin and the girls with their +compositions. In her quiet way she governed, controlled, suggested +everything; so that her presence was required everywhere at once. + +While in the parlor entertaining her guests with bright, agreeable +conversation, she was sure to be wanted by the cooks--there were +six!--to "taste or flavor" something in the kitchen; or by the gardener +to direct the planting of certain seeds or roots, and so with every +department. Even the minister--there was always one living in her +house--would call her out to consult over his text and sermon for the +next Sunday, saying he could rely upon her judgment and discrimination. + +Never thinking of herself, her heart overflowing with sympathy and +interest for others, she entered into the pleasures of the young as +well as the sorrows of the old. + +If the boys came in from a fox or deer chase, their pleasure was +incomplete until it had been described to her and enjoyed with her +again. + +The flower vases were never entirely beautiful until her hand had +helped to arrange the flowers. + +The girls' laces were never perfect until she had gathered and crimped +them. + +Her sons were never so happy as when holding her hand and caressing +her. And the summer twilight found her always in the vine-covered +porch seated by her husband--a dear, kind old gentleman--her hand +resting in his, while he quietly and happily smoked his pipe, after +the day's riding over his plantation, interviewing overseers, millers, +blacksmiths and settling up accounts. + +One more reminiscence and the Grove Hill picture will be done. No +Virginia home being complete without some prominent negro character, +the picture lacking this would be untrue to nature, and without the +"finishing touch." And not to have "stepped in" to pay our respects +to old "Aunt Betsy" during a visit to Grove Hill, would have been +considered--as it should be to omit it here--a great breach of +civility; for the old woman always received us at her door with a +cordial welcome and a hearty shake of the hand. + +"Lor' bless de childen!" she would say. "How they does grow! Done +grown up young ladies! Set down, honey. I mighty glad to see you. And +why didn't your ma (Miss Fanny) come? I would love to see Miss Fanny. +She always was so good and so pretty. Seems to me it ain't been no +time sence she and Miss Emma"--her own mistress--"used to play dolls +together, an' I used to bake sweet cakes for 'em, and cut 'em out wid +de pepper-box top, for thar doll parties; an' they loved each other +like sisters." + +"Well, Aunt Betsy," we would ask, "how is your rheumatism now?" + +"Lor', honey, I nuver specs to git over that. But some days I can +hobble out and feed de chickens; and I can set at my window and make de +black childen feed 'em, an' I love to think I'm some account to Miss +Emma. And Miss Emma's childen can't do without old 'Mammy Betsy,' for +I takes care of all thar pet chickens. Me and my old man (Phil) gittin +mighty ole now; but Miss Emma and all her childen so good to us we has +pleasure in livin' yet." + +At last the shadows began to fall dark and chill upon this once bright +and happy home. + +Old Aunt Betsy lived to see the four boys--her mistress' brave and +noble sons--buckle their armor on and go forth to battle for the home +they loved so well; the youngest, still so young that he loved his pet +chickens, which were left to "Mammy Betsy's" special care; and when the +sad news, at length, came that this favorite young master was killed, +amid all the agony of grief, no heart felt more sincerely, than her's, +the great sorrow. + +Another, and still another of these noble youths fell, after deeds +of valor unparalleled in the world's history--their graves the +battlefield, a place of burial fit for men so brave. Only one--the +youngest--was brought home to find a resting place beside the graves of +his ancestors. + +The old man--their father, his mind shattered by grief--continued day +after day, for several years, to sit in the vine-covered porch, gazing +wistfully out, imagining sometimes he saw in the distance the manly +forms of his noble sons, returning home, mounted on their favorite +horses, in the gray uniforms and bright armor worn the day they went +off. + +Then, he too followed, where the "din of war, the clash of arms" is +heard no more. + +To recall these scenes so blinds my eyes with tears that I can not +write of them. Some griefs leave the heart dumb. They have no +language; and are given no language, because no other heart could +understand, nor could they if shared, be alleviated. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +It will have been observed from these reminiscences that the mistress +of a Virginia plantation was more conspicuous--although not more +important--than the master. In the house she was the mainspring, and to +her came all the hundred, or three hundred negroes with their various +wants, and constant applications for medicine and every conceivable +requirement. + +Attending to these, with directing her household affairs and +entertaining company, occupied busily every moment of her life. While +all these devolved upon her, it sometimes seemed to me that the master +had nothing to do, but ride around his estate--on the most delightful +horse--receive reports from overseers, see that his pack of hounds were +fed and order "repairs about the mill"--the mill seemed always needing +repairs! + +This view of the subject, however, being entirely from a feminine +standpoint, may have been wholly erroneous; for doubtless his mind +was burdened with financial matters too weighty to be grasped and +comprehended by our sex. + +Nevertheless, the mistress held complete sway in her own domain; and +that this fact was recognized will be shown by the following incident: + +A gentleman--an intelligent and successful lawyer--one day discovering +a negro boy in some mischief about his house, and determining forthwith +to chastise him, took him in the yard for that purpose. Breaking a +small switch, and in the act of "coming down with it" upon the boy, he +asked: "Do you know, sir, who is master on my place?" + +"Yes, sir!" quickly replied the boy. "Miss Charlotte, sir!" + +Throwing aside the switch, the gentleman ran in the house, laughed a +half hour, and thus ended his only experiment at interfering in his +wife's domain. + +His wife, "Miss Charlotte," as the negroes called her, was gentle and +indulgent to a fault, which made the incident more amusing. + +It may appear singular, yet it is true, that our women, although having +sufficient self-possession at home, and accustomed there to command on +a large scale, became painfully timid if ever they found themselves +in a promiscuous or public assemblage--shrinking from everything like +publicity. + +Still, these women, to whom a whole plantation looked up for guidance +and instruction, could not fail to feel a certain consciousness of +superiority, which, although never displayed or asserted in manner, +became a part of themselves. They were distinguishable everywhere--for +what reason, exactly, I have never been able to find out--for their +manners were too quiet to attract attention. Yet a Captain on a +Mississippi steamboat said to me: "I always know a Virginia lady as +soon as she steps on my boat." + +"How do you know?" I asked, supposing he would say: "By their plain +style of dress and antiquated breastpins." + +Said he: "I've been running a boat from Cincinnati to New Orleans for +twenty-five years, and often have three hundred passengers from various +parts of the world. But if there is a Virginia lady among them, I find +it out in half an hour. They take things quietly, and don't complain. +Do you see that English lady over there? Well, she has been complaining +all the way up the Mississippi river. Nobody can please her. The +cabin-maid and steward are worn out with trying to please her. She says +it is because the mosquitoes bit her so badly coming through Louisiana. +But we are almost at Cincinnati now; haven't seen a mosquito for a +week, and she is still complaining!" + +"Then," he continued, "the Virginia ladies look as if they could not +push about for themselves, and for this reason I always feel like +giving them more attention than the other passengers." + +"We are inexperienced travelers," I replied. + +And these remarks of the Captain convinced me--I had thought it +before--that Virginia women should never undertake to travel, but +content themselves with staying at home. However, such restriction +would have been unfair, unless they had felt like the Parisian who, +when asked why the Parisians never traveled, replied: "Because all the +world comes to Paris!" + +Indeed, a Virginian had an opportunity of seeing much choice society +at home; for our watering places attracted the best people from other +States, who often visited us at our houses. + +On the Mississippi boat to which I have alluded, it was remarked +that the negro servants paid the Southerners more constant and +deferential attention than the passengers from the non-slaveholding +States--although some of the latter were very agreeable and intelligent, +and conversed with the negroes on terms of easy familiarity--showing, +what I had often observed, that the negro respects and admires those +who make a "social distinction" more than those who make none. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +We were surprised to find in an "Ode to the South," by Mr. M. F. +Tupper, published recently, the following stanza: + + "Yes it is slander to say you oppress'd them + Does a man squander the prize of his pelf. + Was it not often that he who possessed them + Rather was owned by his servants himself?" + +This was true, but that it was known in the outside world we thought +impossible, when all the newspaper and book accounts represented us +as "miserable sinners" for whom there was no hope here or hereafter, +and called upon all nations, Christian and civilized, to "revile, +persecute and exterminate us." Such representations, however, differed +so widely from the facts around us, that when we heard them they failed +to produce a very serious impression, occasioning often only a smile, +with the exclamation: "How little those people know about us!" + +We had not the vanity to think that the European nations cared or +thought about us, and if the Americans believed these accounts, they +defamed the memory of one held up by them as a model of Christian +virtue,--George Washington--a Virginia slave-owner, whose kindness to +his "people," as he called his slaves, entitled him to as much honor as +did his deeds of prowess. + +But to return to the two last lines of the stanza: + + "Was it not often that he who possessed them + Rather was owned by his servants himself?" + +I am reminded of some who were actually held in such bondage; +especially an old gentleman who, together with his whole plantation, +was literally "possessed by his slaves." + +This gentleman was a widower, and no lady presided over his house. + +His figure was of medium height, and very corpulent. His features were +regular and handsome. His eyes were soft brown, almost black. His hair +was slightly gray. The expression of his countenance was so full of +goodness and sympathy, that a stranger meeting him in the road might +have been convinced at a glance of his kindness and generosity. + +He was never very particular about his dress, yet never appeared shabby. + +Although a graduate in law at the University, an ample fortune made +it unnecessary for him to practice this profession. Still his taste +for literature made him a constant reader, and his conversation was +instructive and agreeable. + +His house was old and rambling, and--I was going to say his servants +kept the keys, when I remembered there were _no keys_ about the +establishment. Even the front door had no lock upon it. Everybody +retired at night in perfect confidence, however, that everything was +secure enough, and it seemed not important to lock the doors. + +The negro servants who managed the house were very efficient; excelling +especially in the culinary department, and serving up dinners which +were simply "marvels." + +The superabundance on the place enabled them not only to furnish their +master's table with the choicest meats, vegetables, cakes, pastries, +&c., but also to supply themselves bountifully, and to spread in their +own cabins sumptuous feasts, wedding and party suppers rich enough for +a queen. + +To this their master did not object, for he told them "if they would +supply his table always with an abundance of the best bread, meats, +cream and butter, he cared not what became of the rest." + +Upon this principle the plantation was conducted. The well-filled +barns; the stores of bacon, lard, flour, &c., literally belonged to the +negroes, they allowing their master a certain share! + +Doubtless they entertained the sentiment of a negro boy, who on being +reproved by his master for having stolen and eaten a turkey, replied: +"Well, massa, you see you got less turkey, but you got dat much more +nigger!" + +While we were once visiting at this plantation, the master of the house +described to us a dairy just completed on a new plan, which for some +weeks had been such a hobby with him, he had actually purchased a lock +for it, saying he would keep the key himself--which he never did--and +have the fresh mutton always put there. + +"Come," said he, as he finished describing it, "let us go down and look +at it." + +"Bring me the key," he said to a small African, who soon brought it, +and we proceeded to the dairy. + +Turning the key in the door, the old gentleman said: "Now see what an +elegant piece of mutton I have here!" + +But on entering and looking around no mutton was to be seen, and +instead thereof buckets of custard, cream and blanc-mange. The old +gentleman greatly disconcerted, called to one of the servants, +"Florinda! Where is my mutton I had put here this morning?" + +Florinda replied: "Nancy took it out, sir, and put it in de ole spring +house. She say dat was cool enough place for mutton. And she gwine have +a big party to-night, and want her jelly and custards to keep cool!" + +At this the old gentleman was rapidly becoming provoked, when we +laughed so much at Nancy's "cool" proceeding, that his usual good +nature was restored. + +On another occasion we were one evening sitting with this gentleman in +his front porch, when a poor woman from the neighboring village came in +the yard, and stopping before the door, said to him: + +"Mr. R. I came to tell you that my cow you gave me has died." + +"What did you say, my good woman?" asked Mr. R., who was quite deaf. + +The woman repeated in a louder voice, "The cow you gave me has died. +And she died because I didn't have anything to feed her with." + +Turning to us, his countenance full of compassion, he said: "I ought to +have thought about that, and should have sent the food for her cow." +Then speaking to the woman: "Well, my good woman, I will give you +another cow to-morrow, and send you plenty of provision for her." And +the following day he fulfilled his promise. + +Another incident occurs to me, showing the generous heart of this truly +good man. One day on the Virginia and Tennessee train observing a +gentleman and lady in much trouble, he ventured to enquire of them the +cause, and was informed they--the gentleman and his wife--had lost all +their money and their railroad tickets at the last station. + +He asked the gentleman where he was from, and on "what side he was +during the war." + +"I am from Georgia," replied the gentleman, "and was, of course, with +the South." + +"Well," said Mr. R., pulling from his capacious pocket a capacious +purse, which he handed the gentleman, "help yourself, sir, and take as +much as will be necessary to carry you home." + +The astonished stranger thanked him sincerely, and handed his card, +saying: "I will return the money as soon as I reach home." + +Returned to his own home, and relating the incidents of his trip, Mr. +R. mentioned this, when one of his nephews laughed and said: "Well, +Uncle R., we Virginia people are so easily imposed upon! You don't +think that man will ever return your money _do_ you?" + +"My dear," replied his Uncle, looking at him reproachfully and sinking +his voice, "I was fully repaid by the change which came over the man's +countenance." + +It is due to the Georgian to add that on reaching home, he returned the +money with a letter of thanks. + + * * * * * + +In sight of the hospitable home of Mr. R. was another equally +attractive owned by his brother-in-law, Mr. B. These had the same +name--Greenfield--the property having descended to two sisters, +the wives of these gentlemen. They might have been called twin +establishments, as one was almost a fac simile of the other. At both +was found the same hospitality; the same polished floors; the same +style of loaf-bread and velvet rolls. The only difference between the +two being that Mr. B. kept his doors locked at night; observed more +system, and kept his buggies and carriages in better repair. + +These gentlemen were also perfectly congenial. Both had graduated +in law; read the same books; were members of the same church; knew +the same people; liked and disliked the same people; held the same +political opinions; enjoyed the same old Scotch songs; repeated the +same old English poetry; smoked the same kind of tobacco, in the same +kind of pipes; abhorred alike intoxicating drinks, and deplored the +increase of bar-rooms and drunkenness in our land. + +For forty years they passed together a part of every day or evening, +smoking and talking over the same events and people. It was a picture +to see them at night over a blazing wood fire, their faces bright with +good nature; and a treat to hear all their reminiscences of people +and events long passed. With what circumstantiality could they recall +old law cases; describe old duels, old political animosities and +excitements! What merry laughs they sometimes had! + +Everything on one of these plantations seemed to belong equally to the +other. If the ice gave out at one place, the servants went to the other +for it as a "matter of course;" or if the buggies or carriages were out +of order at Mr. R.'s--which was often the case--the driver would go +over for Mr. B.'s without even mentioning the circumstance, and so with +everything. The families lived thus harmoniously with never the least +interruption for forty years. + +Now and then the old gentlemen enjoyed a practical joke on each other, +and on one occasion Mr R. succeeded so effectually in quizzing Mr B. +that whenever he thought of it afterwards he fell into a dangerous fit +of laughter. + +It happened that a man who had married a distant connection of the +Greenfield family concluded to take his wife, children and servants to +pass the summer there, dividing the time between the two houses. The +manners, character and political proclivities of this visitor became +so disagreeable to the old gentleman, they determined he should not +repeat his visit, although they liked his wife. One day Mr. B. received +a letter signed by this objectionable individual--it had really been +written by Mr. R.--informing Mr. B. that, "as one of the children +was sick, and the physician advised country air he would be there the +following Thursday with his whole family to stay some months." + +"The impudent fellow!" exclaimed Mr. B. as soon as he read the letter. +"He knows how R. and myself detest him! Still I am sorry for his wife. +But I will not be dragooned and outgeneraled by that contemptible +fellow. No! I will leave home to-day!" + +Going to the back door he called in a loud voice for his coachman, and +ordered his carriage. "I am going" said he, "to Grove Hill for a week +and from there to Lexington with my whole family, and don't know when I +shall be at home again." + +"It is very inconvenient," said he to his wife, "but I must leave home." + +Hurrying up the carriage, and the family they were soon off on their +unexpected trip. + +They stayed at Grove Hill, seven miles off, a week, during which time +Mr. B. every morning mounted his horse and rode timidly around the +outskirts of his own plantation, peeping over the hills at his house, +but afraid to venture nearer, feeling assured it was occupied by the +objectionable party. He would not even make enquiries of his negroes +whom he met, as to the state and condition of things in his house. + +Concluding to pursue his journey to Lexington and half way there, he +met a young nephew of Mr. R.'s, who happened to know all about the +quiz, and immediately suspecting the reason of Mr. B.'s exile from home +enquired where he was going, how long he had been from home, &c. Soon +guessing the truth and thinking the "joke had been carried far enough," +he told the old gentleman he need not travel any further for it was all +a quiz of his uncle's, and there was no one at his house. Thereupon, +Mr. B. greatly relieved, turned back and went his way home rejoicing, +but "determined to pay R." he said, "for such a practical joke, which +had exiled him from home and given him such trouble." This caused many +a good laugh whenever it was told, throughout the neighborhood. + +The two estates of which I am writing, were well named--Greenfield, for +the fields and meadows were of the freshest green, and with majestic +hills around and the fine cattle and horses grazing upon them, formed a +noble landscape. + +This land had descended in the same family since the Indian camp fires +ceased to burn there, and the same forests were still untouched, where +once stood the Indian's wigwams. + +In this connection, I am reminded of a tradition in the Greenfield +family, which showed the heroism of a Virginia boy: + +The first white proprietor of this place, the great grandfather of the +present owners, had also a large estate in Montgomery county, called +Smithfield, where his family lived, and where was a fort for the +protection of the whites, when attacked by the Indians. + +Once, while the owner was at his Greenfield place, the Indians +surrounded Smithfield, when the white women and children took refuge in +the fort, and the men prepared for battle. They wanted the proprietor +of Smithfield to help fight and take command, for he was a brave man, +but could not spare a man to carry him the news. So they concluded +to send one of his young sons, a lad thirteen years old, who did not +hesitate but mounting a fleet horse set off after dark and rode all +night through dense forests filled with hostile Indians, reaching +Greenfield, a distance of forty miles next morning. He soon returned +with his father, and the Indians were repulsed. And I always thought +that boy was courageous enough for his name to live in history.[3] + +The Indians afterwards told that the whole day before the fight several +of their chiefs had been concealed near the Smithfield house, under a +large hay stack, upon which the white children had been sliding and +playing all day, little suspecting the gleaming tomahawks and savage +men beneath. + +From the Greenfield estate in Botetourt and the one adjacent went the +ancestors of the Prestons and Breckinridges, who made these names +distinguished in South Carolina and Kentucky. And on this place are the +graves of the first Breckinridges who emigrated to this country. + +All who visited at the homesteads just described retained ever after a +recollection of the superbly cooked meats, bread, &c., seen upon the +tables at both houses--there being at each place five or six negro +cooks, who had been taught by their mistresses the highest style of the +art. + +During the summer season several of these cooks were hired at the +different watering places, where they acquired great fame and made for +themselves a considerable sum of money by selling recipes. + +A lady of the Greenfield family, who married and went to Georgia, told +me she had often tried to make velvet rolls like those she had been +accustomed to see at her own home, but never succeeded. Her mother and +aunt who had taught these cooks, having died many years before, she had +to apply to the negroes for information on such subjects, and they, she +said, would never show her the right way to make them. Finally, while +visiting at a house in Georgia, this lady was surprised to see the very +velvet rolls, like those at her home. + +"Where did you get the recipe?" she soon asked the lady of the house, +who replied, "I bought it from old Aunt Rose, a colored cook, at the +Virginia Springs, and paid her five dollars." + +"One of our own cooks and my mother's recipe," exclaimed the other, +"and I had to come all the way to Georgia to get it, for Aunt Rose +never would show me exactly how to make them!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Not far from Greenfield was a place called "Rustic Lodge." + +This house surrounded by a forest of grand old oaks, was not large or +handsome. But its inmates were ladies and gentlemen of the old English +style. + +The grandmother, about ninety years of age, had been in her youth +one of the belles at the Williamsburg Court in old colonial days. A +daughter of Sir Dudley Digges, and descended from English nobility, she +had been accustomed to the best society. Her manners and conversation +were dignified and attractive. + +Among reminiscences of colonial times, she remembered Lord Botetourt, +of whom she related interesting incidents. + +The son of this old lady, about sixty years of age, and the proprietor +of the estate, was a true picture of the "old English gentleman." His +manners, conversation, thread-cambric shirt frills, cuffs and long +queue tied with a black ribbon, made the picture complete. His two +daughters, young ladies of exquisite refinement, had been brought up by +their aunt and grandmother to observe strictly all the proprieties of +life. + +This establishment was proverbial for its order and method, the most +systematic rules being in force everywhere. The meals were served +punctually at the same instant every day. Old "Aunt Nelly" dressed and +undressed her old mistress always at the same hour. A gentle "tapping +at the chamber door"--not by the "raven," but the cook--called the +mistress to an interview at the same moment every morning with that +functionary, which resulted in the choicest dinners, breakfasts and +suppers; this interview lasting half an hour and never repeated during +the day. + +Exactly at the same hour every morning the old gentleman's horse was +saddled, and he entered the neighboring village so promptly as to +enable some of the inhabitants to set their clocks by him. + +This family had possessed great wealth in Eastern Virginia during the +colonial government under which many of its members held high offices. + +But impoverished by high living, entertaining company and a heavy +British debt, they had been reduced in their possessions to about fifty +negroes, with only money enough to purchase this plantation upon which +they had retired from the gay and charming society of Williamsburg. +They carried with them, however, some remains of their former grandeur: +old silver, old jewelry, old books, old and well-trained servants, and +an old English coach, which was the curiosity of all other vehicular +curiosities. How the family ever climbed into it, or got out of it, and +how the driver ever reached the dizzy height upon which he sat, was the +mystery of my childhood. + +But although egg-shaped and suspended in mid-air, this coach had +doubtless, in its day, been one of considerable renown, drawn by four +horses, with footman, postillion and driver in English livery. + +How sad must have been its reflections on finding itself shorn of +these respectable surroundings, and after the revolution drawn by two +Republican horses, with footman and driver dressed in Republican jeans! + +Strange that it could have lived on and on thus Republicanized! + +A great uncle of this family, unlike the coach never would become +Republicanized, and his obstinate loyalty to the English crown, with +his devotion to everything English gained for him the title "English +Louis," by which name he is spoken of in the family to this day. An old +lady told me not long ago that she remembered when a child the arrival +of "English Louis" at "Rustic" one night, and his conversation as they +sat around the fire, how he deplored a Republican form of government, +and the misfortunes which would result from it saying: + +"All may go smoothly for about seventy years, when civil war will set +in. First, it will be about these negro slaves we have around us, and +after that it will be something else." And how true "English Louis'" +prediction has proven.[4] + +Doubtless this gentleman was avoided and proscribed on account of his +English proclivities. For at that day the spirit of Republicanism +and hatred to England ran high; so that an old gentleman--one of our +relatives whom I well remember--actually took from his parlor walls his +coat of arms which had been brought by his grandfather from England, +and carrying it out in his yard built a fire and collecting his +children around it, to see it burn, said: "Thus let everything English +perish!" + +Should I say what I think of this proceeding, I would not be considered +perhaps a true Republican patriot. + + * * * * * + +I cannot forget to mention in the catalogue of pleasant homes, +Smithfield in Montgomery county, the county which flows with healing +waters. + +Smithfield, like Greenfield, is owned by the descendants of the first +white family who settled there after the Indians, and its verdant +pastures, noble forests, mountain streams and springs, with the superb +cattle on its hills form a prospect, wondrously beautiful. + +This splendid estate descended to three brothers, who equally divided +it; the eldest keeping the homestead, and the others building +attractive homes on their separate plantations. + +The old homestead was quite antique in appearance. Inside the high +mantlepieces reaching nearly to the ceiling, which was also high, and +the high wainscotting together with the old furniture made a picture of +the olden time. + +When I first visited this place, the old grandmother, then eighty years +of age, was living. She, like the old lady at "Rustic," had been a +belle in Eastern Virginia in her youth. When she married the owner of +Smithfield sixty years before, she made the "bridal jaunt" from Norfolk +to this place on horseback, two hundred miles. Still exceedingly +intelligent and interesting, she entertained us with various incidents +of her early life, and wished to hear all the old songs which she had +then heard and sung herself. + +"When I was married" said she, "and came first to Smithfield my +husband's sisters met me in the porch, and were shocked at my pale and +delicate appearance. One of them whispering to her brother, asked, 'Why +did you bring that ghost up here?' And now," continued the old lady, "I +have outlived all who were in the house that day, and all my own and my +husband's family." + +This was an evidence certainly of the health restoring properties of +the water and climate in this region. + +The houses of these three brothers were filled with company winter and +summer, making within themselves a delightful society. The visitors at +one house were equally visitors at the others, and the succession of +dinner and evening parties from one to the other, made it difficult for +a visitor to decide at whose particular house he was staying. + +One of these brothers had married a lovely lady from South Carolina, +whose perfection of character and disposition endeared her to every +one who knew her. Everybody felt like loving her the moment they saw +her, and the more they knew her the more they loved her. Her warm heart +was ever full of other people's troubles or joys, never thinking of +herself. In her house many an invalid was cheered by her tender care; +and many a drooping heart revived by her bright Christian spirit. +She never omitted an opportunity of pointing the way to heaven; and +although surrounded by all the allurements which gay society and wealth +could bring, she did not depart an instant from the quiet path which +leads to heaven. In the midst of bright and happy surroundings, her +thoughts and hopes were constantly centered upon the life above; and +her conversation--which was the reflex of her heart--reverted ever to +this theme, which she made attractive to old and young. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +In the region of country just described and in the counties beyond +abound the finest mineral springs, one or more being found on every +plantation. At one place were seven different springs, and the servants +had a habit of asking the guests and family whether they would +have--before breakfast--a glass of White Sulphur, Yellow Sulphur, Black +Sulphur, Alleghany, Alum, or Limestone water! + +The old Greenbriar White Sulphur was a favorite place of resort for +Eastern Virginians and South Carolinians at a very early date, when +it was accessible only by private conveyances, and all who passed +the summer there went in private carriages. In this way, certain old +Virginia and South Carolina families met every season, and these +old people told us that society there was never as good, after the +railroads and stages brought "all sorts of people, from all sorts of +places." This, of course, we knew nothing about from experience, and +it sounded rather egotistical in the old people to say so, but that is +what they said. + +Indeed these "old folks" talked so much about what "used to be in their +day" at the old White Sulphur, I found it hard to convince myself I had +not been bodily present, seeing with my own eyes certain knee-buckled +old gentlemen, with long queues, and certain Virginia and South +Carolina belles attired in short-waisted, simple white cambrics, who +passed the summers there. These white cambrics, we were told, had been +carried in minute trunks behind the carriages; and were considered, +with a few jewels and a long black or white lace veil thrown over the +head and shoulders, a complete outfit for the reigning belles! Another +curiosity was, that these white cambric dresses--our grandmothers told +us--required very little "doing up;" one such having been worn by Mrs. +General Washington--so her granddaughter told me--a whole week without +requiring washing! It must have been an age of remarkable women, and +remarkable cambrics! How little they dreamed then of an era when +Saratoga trunks would be indispensable to ladies of much smaller means +than Virginia and South Carolina belles! + +To reach these counties flowing with mineral waters the families from +Eastern Virginia and from South Carolina passed through a beautiful +region known as Piedmont, Va., and those who had "kinsfolk or +acquaintance" here usually stopped to make them a visit. Consequently +the Piedmont Virginians were generally too busy entertaining summer +guests to visit the springs themselves. But indeed why should they? +For no more salubrious climate could be found than their own; and +no scenery more grand and beautiful. But it was necessary for the +tide-water Virginians to leave their homes every summer on account of +chills and fevers. + +In the lovely Piedmont region over which the "Peaks of Otter" rear +their giant heads, and chains of blue mountains extend as far as eye +can reach, were scattered many pleasant and picturesque homes. And in +this section my grandfather bought a plantation, when the ancestral +estates had been sold, in the Eastern part of the State, to repay the +British debt, which estates, homesteads and tombstones with their +quaint inscriptions are described in Bishop Meade's "Old Churches and +Families of Virginia." + +While the tide water Virginians were already practicing all the arts +and wiles known to the highest English civilization; were sending their +sons to be educated in England; receiving brocaded silks and powdered +wigs from England; and dancing the minuet at the Williamsburg balls +with the families of the noblemen sent over to govern the Colony, +Piedmont, Virginia, was still a dense forest, the abode of Indians and +wild animals. + +It was not strange, then, that the Piedmont Virginians never arrived +at the opulent manner of living adopted by those on James and York +rivers, who, tradition tells us, went to such excess in high living, as +to have "hams boiled in champagne," and of whom other traditions have +been handed down amusing and interesting. Although the latter were in +advance of the Piedmont Virginians in wealth and social advantages, +they were not superior to them in honor, virtue, or kindness and +hospitality. + +It has been remarked that, "when natural scenery is picturesque there +is in the human character something to correspond; impressions made on +the retina are really made on the soul, and the mind becomes what it +contemplates." + +The same author continues: "A man is not only _like_ what he sees, +but he _is_ what he sees. The noble old Highlander has mountains in +his soul, whose towering peaks point heavenward; and lakes in his +bosom, whose glassy surface reflects the skies; and foaming cataracts +in his heart to beautify the mountain side and irrigate the vale; and +evergreen firs and mountain pines that show life and verdure even under +winter skies!" + +"On the other hand," he writes, "the wandering nomad has a desert in +his heart; its dead level reflects heat and hate; a sullen, barren +plain--no goodness, no beauty, no dancing wave of joy, no gushing +rivulet of love, no verdant hope. And it is an interesting fact that +those who live in countries where natural scenery inspires the soul, +and where the necessities of life bind to a permanent home, are always +patriotic and high minded; and those who dwell in the desert are always +pusillanimous and groveling!" + +If what this author writes be true, and the character of the Piedmont +Virginians accords with the scenery around them, how their hearts must +be filled with gentleness and charity inspired by the landscape which +stretches far and fades in softness against the sky! How must their +minds be filled with noble aspirations suggested by the "everlasting +mountains!" How their souls must be filled with thoughts of heaven, +as they look upon the glorious sunsets bathing the mountains in +"rose-colored light;" with the towering peaks ever pointing heavenward +and seeming to say: "Behold the glory of a world beyond!"[5] + +Beneath the shadow of the "Peaks" were many happy homes and true +hearts, and among these memory recalls none more vividly than +"Otterburn" and its inmates. + +"Otterburn" was the residence of a gentleman and his wife, who, having +no children, devoted themselves to making their home attractive to +visitors, in which they succeeded so well that they were rarely without +company; for all who went once to see them went again and again. + +This gentleman's mind, character, accomplishments, manner and +appearance marked him "rare"--"one in a century." Above his fellow +men in greatness of soul, he could comprehend nothing "mean." His +stature was tall and erect; his features bold; his countenance open and +impressive; his mind vigorous and cultivated; his bearing dignified, +but not haughty; his manners simple and attractive; his conversation +so agreeable and enlivening that the dullest company became animated +as soon as he came into the room. Truth and high-toned character were +so unmistakably stamped upon him, that knowing him a day convinced one +he could be trusted forever. Brought up in Scotland--the home of his +ancestors--in him were blended the best points of Scotch and Virginia +character; strict integrity and accuracy, with whole-souled generosity +and hospitality. + +How many days and nights we passed at his house, and in childhood and +youth, how many hours were entertained by his bright and instructive +conversation! Especially delightful was it to hear his stories about +Scotland, which brought before us vividly pictures of its lakes and +mountains and castles. How often did we listen to his account of the +wedding tour to Scotland, when he carried his Virginia bride to the old +home at Greenock! And how often we laughed about the Scotch children, +his nieces and nephews, who on first seeing his wife, clapped their +hands and shouted, "Oh! mother, are you not glad uncle did not marry a +black woman?" Hearing he was to marry a Virginian, they expected to see +a savage Indian or negro! And some of the family who went to Liverpool +to meet them, and were looking through spy glasses when the vessel +landed, said they "were sure the Virginia lady had not come, because +they saw no one among the passengers dressed in a red shawl and gaudy +bonnet like an Indian!" + +From this we thought the Europeans must be very ignorant of our country +and its inhabitants--and have learned since that their children are +kept purposely ignorant of facts in regard to America and its people. + +Among many other recollections of this dear old friend of "Otterburn," +I shall never forget a dream he told us one night, which so impressed +us that before his death we asked him to write it out, which he did, +and as the copy is before me in his own handwriting, will insert it +here: + +"About the time I became of age, I returned to Virginia for the +purpose of looking after and settling my father's estate. Three years +thereafter I received a letter from my only sister, informing me that +she was going to be married, and pressing me in the most urgent manner +to return to Scotland to be present at her marriage, and to attend to +the drawing of the marriage contract. The letter gave me a good deal of +trouble, as it did not suit me to leave Virginia at that time. I went +to bed one night thinking much on this subject, but soon fell asleep +and dreamed that I landed in Greenoch in the night time, and pushed for +home, thinking I would take my aunt and sister by surprise. + +"When I arrived at the door, I found all still and quiet, and the +out door locked--I thought, however, that I had in my pocket my +check key, with which I quietly opened the door and groped my way +into the sitting-room, but finding no one there I concluded they had +gone to bed. I then went up stairs to their bed-room, and found that +unoccupied. I then concluded they had taken possession of my bed-room +in my absence, but not finding them there became very uneasy about +them. Then it struck me they might be in the guest's chamber, a room +down stairs kept exclusively for company. Upon going there I found the +door partially open; I saw my aunt removing the burning coals from the +top of the grate preparatory to going to bed. My sister was sitting up +in bed, and as I entered the room, she fixed her eyes upon me, but did +not seem to recognize me. I approached towards her, and in the effort +to make myself known, awoke, and found it all a dream. At breakfast +next morning, I felt wearied and sick, and could not eat; and told the +family of my (dream) journey the overnight. + +"I immediately commenced preparing, and in a very short time returned +to Scotland. I saw my sister married, and she and her husband set off +on their 'marriage jaunt.' About a month thereafter they returned, and +at dinner I commenced telling them of my dream, but observing they had +quit eating and were staring at me, I laughed, and asked what was the +matter; whereupon my brother-in-law very seriously asked me to go on. +When I finished they asked me if I remembered the exact time of my +dream. I told them it distressed and impressed me so strongly, that I +noted it down at the time. I pulled out my pocket-book and shewed them +the date, '14th day of May,' written in pencil. They all rose from the +table and took me into the bed-room and shewed me written with pencil +on the white mantle piece '14th of May.' + +"I asked them what that meant, and was informed that on that very +night--and _the only night_ they ever occupied that room during my +absence--my aunt was taking the coals off of the fire, when my sister +screamed out, 'brother has come!' + +"My aunt scolded her, and said she was dreaming; but she said she +had not been to sleep, was sitting up in bed, and _saw me_ enter the +room, and run out when she screamed. So confident was she that she had +seen me, and that I had gone off and hidden, that the whole house was +thoroughly searched for me, and as soon as day dawned a messenger was +sent to enquire if any vessel had arrived from America, or if I had +been seen by any of my friends." + +No one can forget, who visited Otterburn, the smiling faces of the +negro servants about the house, who received the guests with as +true cordiality as did their mistress, expressing their pleasure by +widespread mouths showing white teeth--very white by contrast with +their jet black skin--and when the guests went away always insisted on +their remaining longer. + +One of these negro women was not only an efficient servant, but a +valued friend to her mistress. + +In the absence of her master and mistress she kept the keys, often +entertaining their friends, who in passing from distant plantations +were accustomed to stop, and who received from her a cordial welcome, +finding on the table as many delicacies as if the mistress had been at +home. + +No more sincere attachment could have existed than between this +mistress and servant. At last, when the latter was seized with a +contagious fever which ended her life, she could not have had a more +faithful friend and nurse than was her mistress. + +The same fever attacked all the negroes on this plantation, and +none can describe the anxiety, care and distress of their owners, +who watched by their beds day and night, administering medicine and +relieving the sick and dying. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +Among other early recollections is a visit with my mother to the +plantation of a favorite cousin, not far from Richmond, and one +of the handsomest seats on James river. This residence--Howard's +Neck--was a favorite resort for people from Richmond and the adjacent +counties; and, like many others on the river, always full of guests--a +round of visiting and dinner parties being kept up from one house +to another,--so that the ladies presiding over these establishments +had no time to attend to domestic duties, which were left to their +housekeepers, while they were employed entertaining visitors. + +The negroes on the these estates appeared lively and happy; that is, +if singing and laughing indicates happiness; for they went to their +work in the fields singing, and returned in the evening singing, after +which they often spent the whole night visiting from one plantation to +another, or dancing until day to the music of the banjo or "fiddle." +These dances were wild and boisterous, their evolutions being like +those of the savage dances, described by travelers in Africa. Although +the most perfect timists, their music with its wild, melancholy +cadence, half savage, half civilized, can not be imitated or described. +Many a midnight were we wakened by their wild choruses, sung as they +returned from a frolic or "corn shucking," sounding at first like some +hideous, savage yell, but dying away on the air, echoing a cadence +melancholy and indescribable, with a peculiar pathos, and yet without +melody or sweetness. + +"Corn shuckings" were occasions of great hilarity and good eating. +The negroes from various plantations assembled at night around a huge +pile of corn. Selecting one among them, the most original, amusing and +having the loudest voice, they called him "Captain." The "Captain" +seated himself on top of the pile--a large lightwood torch burning in +front of him--and while he shucked improvised words and music to a +wild "recitative," the chorus of which was "caught up" by the army of +"shuckers" around. The glare of the torches on the black faces, with +the wild music and impromptu words, made a scene curious even to us who +were so accustomed to it. + +After the corn was shucked they assembled around a table laden with +roast pigs, mutton, beef, hams, cakes, pies, coffee, and other +substantials--many participating in the supper who had not in the work. +The laughing and merriment continued until one or two o'clock in the +morning. + + * * * * * + +On these James river plantations were entertained often distinguished +foreigners, who visiting Richmond desired to see something of Virginia +country life. Mr. Thackeray was once entertained at one of them. But +Dickens never visited them. Could he have passed a month, at any one +of the homes I have described, he would have written something more +flattering, I am sure, of Americans and American life than is found +in "Martin Chuzzlewit" and "Notes on America." However, with these we +should not quarrel, as some of the sketches--especially the one on +"tobacco chewers," we can recognize. + +Every nation has a right to its prejudices--certainly the English +towards the American--America appearing to the English eye a huge +mushroom affair, the growth of a night and unsubstantial. But it is +surely wrong to censure a whole nation--as some have done the Southern +people--for the faults of a few. For although every nation has a right +to its prejudices, none has a right, without thorough examination and +acquaintance with the subject, to seize a few exaggerated accounts, of +another nation by its enemies, and publish them as facts. The world in +this way receives very erroneous impressions. + +For instance, we have no right to suppose the Germans a cruel race +because of the following paragraph clipped from a recent newspaper: + +"The cruelty of German officers is a matter of notoriety, but an +officer in an artillery regiment has lately gone beyond precedent in +ingenuity of cruelty. Some of his men being insubordinate, he punished +them by means of a 'spurring process,' which consisted in jabbing spurs +persistently and brutally into their legs. By this process his men were +so severely injured they had to go to the hospital." + +Neither have we a right to pronounce all Pennsylvanians cruel to their +"helps," as they call them, because a Pennsylvania lady told me "the +only way she could manage her 'help'"--a white girl fourteen years +old--"was by holding her head under the pump and pumping water upon it +until she lost her breath;" a process I could not have conceived, and +which filled me with horror. + +But sorrow and oppression, we suppose, may be found in some form in +every clime; and in every phase of existence some hearts are "weary and +heavy laden." Even Dickens, whose mind naturally sought, and fed upon, +the comic, saw wrong and oppression in the "humane institutions" of his +own land! + +And Macaulay gives a painful picture of Madam D'Arblay's life as +waiting maid to Queen Charlotte--from which we are not to infer, +however, that all Queens are cruel to their waiting maids. + +Madam D'Arblay--whose maiden name was Frances Burney--was the first +female novelist in England, who deserved and received the applause +of her countrymen. The most eminent men of London paid homage to her +genius. Johnson, Burke, Windham, Gibbon, Reynolds, Sheridan, were +her friends and ardent eulogists. In the midst of her literary fame, +surrounded by congenial friends, herself a star in this select and +brilliant coterie, she was offered the place of waiting maid in the +palace. She accepted the position, and bade farewell to all congenial +friends and pursuits. "And now began," says Macaulay, "a slavery of +five years--of five years taken from the best part of her life, and +wasted in menial drudgery. The history of an ordinary day was this: +Miss Burney had to rise and dress herself early, that she might be +ready to answer the royal bell, which rang at half after seven. Till +about eight she attended in the Queen's dressing-room, and had the +honor of lacing her august mistress' stays, and of putting on the +hoop, gown and neckhandkerchief. The morning was chiefly spent in +rummaging drawers and laying fine clothes in their proper places. Then +the Queen was to be powdered and dressed for the day. Twice a week her +Majesty's hair had to be curled and craped; and this operation added a +full hour to the business of the toilet. It was generally three before +Miss Burney was at liberty. At five she had to attend her colleague, +Madame Schwellenberg, a hateful old toadeater, as illiterate as a +chamber-maid, proud, rude, peevish, unable to bear solitude, unable to +conduct herself with common decency in society. With this delightful +associate Frances Burney had to dine and pass the evening. The pair +generally remained together from five to eleven, and often had no other +company the whole time. Between eleven and twelve the bell rang again. +Miss Burney had to pass a half hour undressing the Queen, and was then +at liberty to retire. + +"Now and then, indeed, events occurred which disturbed the wretched +monotony of Frances Burney's life. The court moved from Kew to Windsor, +and from Windsor back to Kew. + +"A more important occurrence was the King's visit to Oxford. Then Miss +Burney had the honor of entering Oxford in the last of a long string +of carriages, which formed the royal procession, of walking after the +Queen all day through refectories and chapels, and of standing half +dead with fatigue and hunger, while her august mistress was seated at +an excellent cold collation. At Magdalen College, Frances was left for +a moment in a parlor, where she sank down on a chair. A good natured +equerry saw that she was exhausted, and shared with her some apricots +and bread, which he had wisely put in his pockets. At that moment the +door opened, the Queen entered, the wearied attendants sprang up, the +bread and fruit were hastily concealed. + +"After this the King became very ill, and during more than two years +after his recovery Frances dragged on a miserable existence at the +palace. Madame Schwellenberg became more and more insolent and +intolerable, and now the health of poor Frances began to give way; and +all who saw her pale face, her emaciated figure and her feeble walk, +predicted that her sufferings would soon be over. + +"The Queen seems to have been utterly regardless of the _comfort_, the +_health_, the _life_ of her attendants. Weak, feverish, hardly able to +stand, Frances had still to rise before seven, in order to dress the +sweet Queen, and sit up 'till midnight, in order to undress the sweet +Queen. The indisposition of the handmaid could not, and _did not escape +the notice of_ her royal mistress. But the _established doctrine of the +court was, that all sickness_ was to be _considered as a pretence until +it proved fatal_. The only way in which the invalid could clear herself +from the suspicion of malingering, as it is called in the army, was +to go on lacing and unlacing, _'till she felt down dead at the royal +feet_." + +Finally Miss Burney's father pays her a visit in this palace prison +when "she told him that she was miserable, that she was worn with +attendance and want of sleep, that she had no comfort in life, nothing +to love, nothing to hope, that her family and friends were to her +as though they were not, and were remembered by her as men remember +the dead. From daybreak to midnight the same killing labor, the same +recreation, more hateful than labor itself, followed each other without +variety, without any interval of liberty or repose." + +Her father's veneration for royalty amounting to idolatry, he could not +bear to remove her from the court--"and, between the dear father and +the sweet Queen, there seemed to be little doubt that some day or other +Frances _would drop down a corpse_. Six months had elapsed since the +interview between the parent and the daughter. The resignation was not +sent in. The sufferer grew worse and worse. She took bark, but it soon +failed to produce a beneficial effect. She was stimulated with wine; +she was soothed with opium, but in vain. Her breath began to fail. The +whisper that she was in a decline spread through the court. The pains +in her side became so severe that she was forced to crawl from the card +table of the old fury, Madame Schwellenberg, to whom she was tethered, +three or four times in an evening, for the purpose of taking hartshorn. +Had she been a negro slave, a humane planter would have excused her +from work. But her Majesty showed no mercy. Thrice a day the accursed +bell still rang; the Queen was still to be dressed for the morning at +seven, and to be dressed for the day at noon, and to be undressed at +midnight." + +At last Miss Burney's father was moved to compassion and allowed her +to write a letter of resignation. "Still I could not," writes Miss +Burney in her diary, "summon courage to present my memorial from seeing +the Queen's entire freedom from such an expectation. For though I was +frequently so ill in her presence that I could hardly stand, I saw she +concluded me, while life remained, inevitably hers." + +"At last, with a trembling hand, the paper was delivered. Then came the +storm. Madame Schwellenberg raved like a maniac. The resignation was +not accepted. The father's fears were aroused, and he declared, in a +letter meant to be shown to the Queen, that his daughter must retire. +The Schwellenberg raged like a wild cat. A scene almost horrible ensued. + +"The Queen then promised that, after the next birthday, Miss Burney +should be set at liberty. But the promise was ill kept; and her Majesty +showed displeasure at being reminded of it." + +At length, however, the prison door was opened, and Frances was free +once more. Her health was restored by traveling, and she returned to +London in health and spirits. Macaulay tells us that she went to visit +the palace, "her _old dungeon, and found her successor already far +on the way to the grave, and kept to strict duty, from morning till +midnight, with a sprained ankle and a nervous fever_." + +An ignorant and unlettered woman would doubtless not have found this +life in the palace tedious, and our sympathy would not have been +aroused for her; for as long as the earth lasts there must be human +beings fitted for every station, and it is supposed, till the end of +all things, there must be cooks, housemaids and dining-room servants, +which will make it never possible for the whole human family to stand +entirely upon the same platform socially and intellectually. And Miss +Burney's wretchedness, which calls forth our sympathy, was not because +she had to perform the duties of waiting-maid, but because to a gifted +and educated woman these duties were uncongenial; and congeniality +means _happiness_; uncongeniality _unhappiness_. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +From the sorrows of Miss Burney in the palace--a striking contrast +with the menials described in our own country homes--I will return to +another charming place on James river--Powhatan Seat--a mile below +Richmond, which had descended in the Mayo family two hundred years. + +Here, it was said, the Indian chief Powhatan had lived, and here was +shown the veritable stone supposed to have been the one upon which +Captain Smith's head was laid, when the Indian princess Pocahontas +rescued him. + +This historic stone, near the parlor window, was only an ugly, dark, +broad, flat stone, but imagination pictured ever around it the Indian +group; Smith's head upon it; the infuriated chief with uplifted club in +the act of dealing the death blow; the grief and shriek of Pocahontas, +as she threw herself upon Smith imploring her father to spare him--a +piercing cry to have penetrated the heart of the savage king! + +Looking out from the parlor window and imagining this savage scene, how +strange a contrast with the picture which met the eye within! Around +the fireside assembled the loveliest family group, where kindness and +affection beamed in every eye, and father, mother, brothers and sisters +were linked together by tenderest devotion and sympathy. + +If natural scenery reflects itself upon the heart no wonder a "holy +calm" rested upon this family, for far down the river the prospect was +peace and tranquility; and many an evening in the summer house on the +river bank, we drank in the beauty of soft blue skies, green isles and +white sails floating in the distance. + +Many in Richmond remember the delightful weddings and parties at +Powhatan Seat, where assembled the elite from Richmond, with an +innumerable throng of cousins, aunts and uncles from Orange and +Culpeper counties. + +On these occasions the house was illuminated by wax-lights issuing from +bouquets of magnolia leaves placed around the walls near the ceiling, +and looking prettier than any glass chandelier. + +We, from a distance, generally stayed a week after the wedding, +becoming, as it were, a part of the family circle; and the bride did +not rush off on a tour as is the fashion now-a-days, but remained +quietly enjoying family, home and friends. + +Another feature I have omitted in describing our weddings and +parties--invariably a part of the picture--was the sea of black faces +surrounding the doors and windows to look on the dancing, hear the +music and afterwards get a good share of the supper. + +Tourists often went to walk around the beautiful grounds at Powhatan--so +neatly kept with sea shells around the flowers, and pleasant seats +under the lindens and magnolias--and to see the historic stone; but +I often thought they knew not what was missed in not knowing--as we +did--the lovely family within. + +But, for us, those rare, beautiful days at Powhatan are gone forever; +for since the war the property has passed into stranger hands, and the +family who once owned it will own it no more. + +During the late war heavy guns were placed in the family burying +ground on this plantation,--a point commanding the river--and here +was interred the child of a distinguished General[6] in the Northern +army--a Virginian, formerly in the United States army--who had married +a member of the Powhatan family. He was expected to make an attack upon +Richmond, and over his child's grave was placed a gun to fire upon +him. Such are the unnatural incidents of civil war. + +About two miles from Powhatan Seat was another beautiful old +place--Mount Erin--the plantation formerly of a family all of whom, +except two sisters had died. The estate becoming involved had to be +sold, which so grieved and distressed these sisters that they passed +hours weeping, if accidentally the name of their old home was mentioned +in their presence. + +Once when we were at Powhatan--and these ladies were among the +guests--a member of the Powhatan family ordered the carriage, and took +my sister and myself to Mount Erin, telling us to keep it a secret when +we returned, for "the sisters," said she, "would neither eat nor sleep +if reminded of their old home." + +A pleasant drive brought us to Mount Erin, and when we saw the box +hedges, gravel-walks and linden trees we were no longer surprised at +the grief of the sisters whose hearts entwined around their old home. +The house was in charge of an old negro woman--the purchaser not +having moved in--who showed us over the grounds; and every shrub and +flower seemed to speak of days gone by. Even the ivy on the old bricks +looked gloomy as if mourning the light, mirth and song departed from +the house forever; and the walks gave back a deadened echo, as if they +wished not to be disturbed by stranger tread. All seemed in a reverie, +dreaming a long sweet dream of the past--and entering into the grief of +the sisters, who lived afterwards many years in a pleasant home, on a +pleasant street in Richmond, with warm friends to serve them, yet their +tears never ceased to flow at mention of Mount Erin. + + * * * * * + +One more plantation picture, and enough will have been described to +show the character of the homes and people on our plantations. + +The last place visited by my sister and myself before the war of 1861, +was "Elkwood," a fine estate in Culpeper county, four miles from the +railroad station. + +It was the last of June. The country was a scene of enchantment, as the +carriage rolled us through dark, cool forests, green meadows, fields of +waving grain; out of the forest into acres of broad leaved corn; across +pebbly-bottomed streams, and along the margin of the Rapidan which +flowed at the base of the hill leading up to the house. + +The house was square and white, and the blinds green as the grass lawn +and trees in the yard. Inside the house, the polished "dry rubbed" +floors clean and cool, refreshed one on entering like a glass of +ice-lemonade on a midsummer's day. The old fashioned furniture against +the walls looked as if it thought too much of itself to be set about +promiscuously over the floor, like modern fauteuils and divans. + +About everything was an air of dignity and repose corresponding with +the manners and appearance of the proprietors, who were called "Uncle +Dick" and "Aunt Jenny"--the _a_ in aunt pronounced very broad. + +"Aunt Jenny" and "Uncle Dick" had no children, but took care of +numerous nieces and nephews; kept their house filled to overflowing +with friends, relatives and strangers, and were revered and beloved by +all. They had no pleasure so great as taking care of other people. They +lived for other people, and made everybody comfortable and happy around +them. From the time "Uncle Dick" had prayers in the morning until +family prayers at bed time they were busy bestowing some kindness. + +"Uncle Dick's" character and manners were of a type so high that one +felt elevated in his presence; and a desire to reach his standard +animated those who knew him. His precept and example were such that all +who followed them might arrive at the highest perfection of Christian +character. + +"Uncle Dick" had requested "Aunt Jenny" when they were married--forty +years before--to have on his table every day, dinner enough for six +more persons than were already in the house, "in case," he said, "he +should meet friends or acquaintances while riding over his plantation +or in the neighborhood, whom he wished to ask home with him to dinner." +This having been always a rule, "Aunt Jenny" never sat at her table +without dinner enough for six more, and her's were no commonplace +dinners; no hasty puddings; no salaratus bread; no soda cakes; no +frozen-starch-ice-cream; no modern shorthand recipes--but genuine old +Virginia cooking. And all who want to know what that was, can find +out all about it in "Aunt Jenny's" book of copied recipes--if it is +extant--or in Mrs. Harrison's, of Brandon. But as neither of these +books may ever be known to the public, their "sum and substance" may be +given in a few words: + +"Have no shams. Procure an abundance of the freshest, richest, _real_ +cream, milk, eggs, butter, lard, best old Madeira wine, all the way +from Madeira, and never use a particle of soda or salaratus about +anything or under any pressure." + +These were the ingredients "Aunt Jenny" used--for "Uncle Dick" had +rare old wine in his cellar which he had brought from Europe, thirty +years before--and every day was a feast day at Elkwood. And the wedding +breakfasts "Aunt Jenny" used to "get up" when one of her nieces married +at her house--as they sometimes did--were beyond description. + +While at Elkwood, observing every day, that the carriage went to the +depot empty, and returned empty, we enquired the reason, and were +informed that "Uncle Dick," ever since the cars had been passing near +his plantation, ordered his coachman to have the carriage every day at +the station, "in case some of his friends might be on the train, and +might like to stop and see him!" + +Another hospitable rule in "Uncle Dick's" house was, that company +must never be kept "waiting" in his parlor, and so anxious was his +young niece to meet his approbation in this as in every particular, +that she had a habit of dressing herself carefully, arranging her +hair beautifully--it was in the days too when smooth hair was +fashionable--before laying down for the afternoon siesta, "in case," +she said, "some one might call, and 'Uncle Dick' had a horror of +visitors waiting." This process of reposing in a fresh muslin dress +and fashionably arranged hair, required a particular and uncomfortable +position, which she seemed not to mind, but dozed in the most precise +manner without rumpling her hair or her dress. + +Elkwood was a favorite place of resort for Episcopal ministers, whom +"Aunt Jenny" and "Uncle Dick" loved to entertain. And here we met the +Rev. Mr. S----, the learned divine, eloquent preacher and charming +companion. He had just returned from a visit to England, where he had +been entertained in palaces. Telling us the incidents of his visit, "I +was much embarrassed at first," said he, "at the thought of attending +a dinner party given in a palace to me,--a simple Virginian,--but on +being announced at the drawing-room door, and entering the company I +felt at once at ease, for they were all ladies and gentlemen--such as I +had known at home, polite, pleasant and without pretence." + +This gentleman's conversational powers were not only bright and +delightful, but also the means of turning many to righteousness; for +religion was one of his chief themes. + +A proof of his genius and eloquence was given in the beautiful +poem recited--without ever having been written--at the centennial +anniversary of old Christ church in Alexandria. This was the church in +which General Washington and his family had worshiped, and around it +clustered many memories. Mr. S., with several others, had been invited +to make an address on the occasion, and one night while thinking about +it an exquisite poem passed through his mind, picturing scene after +scene in the old church. General Washington with his head bowed in +silent prayer; infants at the baptismal font; young men and maidens in +bridal array at the altar, and funeral trains passing through the open +gate. + +On the night of the celebration when his turn came, finding the hour +too late, and the audience too sleepy for his prose address, he +suddenly determined to "dash off" the poem, every word of which came +back to him, although he had never written it. The audience roused up +electrified, and as the recitation proceeded, their enthusiasm reached +the highest pitch. Never had there been such a sensation in the old +church before. And next morning the house at which he was stopping was +besieged by reporters begging "copies" and offering good prices, but +the poem remains unwritten to this day. + +Elkwood--like many other old homes--was burned by the Northern army in +1862, and not a tree or flower remains to mark the spot, for so many +years the abode of hospitality and good cheer. + +In connection with Culpeper it is due here to state that this +county excelled all others in ancient and dilapidated buggies and +carriages--seeming a regular infirmary for all the disabled vehicles +of the Old Dominion. Here their age and infirmities received every +care and consideration, being propped up, tied up and bandaged up in +every conceivable manner; and strangest of all, rarely depositing their +occupants in the road, which was prevented by cautious old gentlemen +riding alongside, who watching out, and discovering the weakest points, +stopped and securely tied up fractured parts with bits of twine, rope +or chain, always carried in buggy or carriage boxes for that purpose. +These surgical operations, although not ornamental, strengthened and +sustained these venerable vehicles, and produced a longevity miraculous. + +Many more sketches might be given of pleasant country homes--worthy +a better pen than mine--for Brandon, Westover, Shirley, Carter Hall, +Lauderdale, Vaucluse, and others, linger in the memory of hundreds +who once knew and loved them. Especially Vaucluse, which although +far removed from railroads, stage coaches and public conveyances was +overflowing with company throughout the year. For the Vaucluse girls +were so bright, so fascinating, so bewitchingly pretty, they attracted +a concourse of visitors, and were sure to be belles wherever they went. + +And many remember the owner of Vaucluse--that pure hearted Christian +and cultivated gentleman, who, late in life, devoted himself to the +Episcopal ministry, and labored faithfully in the Master's cause +preaching in country churches, "without money, and without price." +Surely his reward is in heaven. + + * * * * * + +Besides these well ordered establishments, there were some others +owned by inactive men, who smoked their pipes, read their books, left +everything very much to the management of their negroes and seemed +content to let things tumble down around them. + +One of these places we used to call "Topsy-Turvy Castle," and another +"Haphazard." + +At such places the negro quarters--instead of neat rows of white +cabins in rear of the house, as on other plantations--occupied a +conspicuous place near the front, and consisted of a solid, long, ugly +brick structure, with swarms of negroes around the windows and doors, +appearing to have nothing in the world to do, and never to have done +anything. + +Everything had a "shackling," lazy appearance. The master was +always--it appeared to us--reading a newspaper in the front porch, and +never observing anything that was going on. The house was so full of +idle negroes standing about the halls and stairways, one could scarcely +make one's way up or down stairs. Everything needed repair, from the +bed you slept upon, to the family coach which took you to church. + +Few of the chairs had all their rounds and legs; and when completely +disabled were sent to the garret, where they accumulated in great +numbers, and remained until pressing necessity induced the master to +raise his eyes from his paper long enough to order "Dick" to, "take the +four-horse-wagon and carry the chairs to be mended." + +A multitude of "kinsfolk and acquaintance" usually congregated +here. And at one place, in order to accommodate so many, there were +four beds in a chamber. These high bedsteads presented a remarkable +appearance--the head of one going into the side of another, the foot of +one into the head of another, and so on, looking as if they had never +been "placed," but their curious juxtaposition had been the result of +some earthquake. + +[One of these houses is said to have been greatly improved in +appearance during the war by the passage of a cannon ball through the +upper story, where a window had been needed for many years.] + +But the owners of these places were so genuinely good, one could not +complain of them even for such carelessness. For everybody was welcome +to everything. You might stop the plows if you wanted a horse, or take +the carriage and drive for a week's journey, and, in short, impose upon +these good people in every conceivable way. + +Yet in spite of this topsy-turvy management--a strange fact connected +with such places--they invariably had good light bread, good mutton, +and the usual abundance on their tables. + +We suppose it must have been a recollection of such plantations which +induced the negro to exclaim, on hearing another sing, "Ole Virginny +nubber tire." "Umph! ole _Virginny_ nubber tire, kase she nubber done +nuthin' fur to furtigue herself!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +Confining these reminiscences strictly to plantation life, no mention +has been made of the families we knew and visited in some of our +cities, whose kindness to their slaves was unmistakable, and who owning +only a small number could better afford to indulge them. + +At one of these houses, this indulgence was such that the white family +were very much under the control of their servants. + +The owner of this house--an eminent lawyer--was a man of taste and +learning, whose legal ability attracted many admirers, and whose +refinement, culture and generous nature won enthusiastic friends. + +Although considered the owner of his house, it was a mistake--if +ownership means the right to govern one's own property--for beyond +his law papers, library and the privilege of paying all the bills, +this gentleman had no "rights" there whatever; his house, kitchen and +premises being under the entire command of "Aunt Fanny," the cook--a +huge mulatto woman whose word was law, and whose voice thundered abuse +if any dared to disobey her. + +The master, mistress, family and visitors all stood in awe of +"Aunt Fanny," and yet could not do without her, for she made such +unapproachable light bread, and conducted the affairs of the place with +such distinguished ability. + +Her own house was in the yard, and had been built especially for her +convenience. Her furniture was polished mahogany, and she kept most +delicious preserves, pickles and sweet meats of her own manufacture +with which to regale her friends and favorites. As we came under that +head, we were often treated to these when we went in to see her after +her day's work was over, or on Sundays. + +Although she "raved and stormed" considerably--which she told us she +"was obliged to do, _honey_, to keep things straight"--she had the +tenderest regard for her master and mistress, and often said: "If it +warnt for _me_, they'd have nuthin' in the world, and things here would +go to destruction." + +So Aunt Fanny "kept up this family," as she said, for many years, and +many amusing incidents might be related of her. + +On one occasion, her master after a long and excited political +contest was elected to the Legislature. Before all the precincts had +been heard from--believing himself defeated--he retired to rest, and +being naturally feeble, was quite worn out. But at midnight a great +cry arose at his gate, where a multitude assembled, screaming and +hurrahing. At first he was uncertain whether they were friends to +congratulate him on his victory, or the opposite party to hang him--as +they had threatened--for voting an appropriation to the Danville +railroad. It soon appeared they had come to congratulate him, when +great excitement prevailed, loud cheers and cries for a speech. The +doors were opened and the crowed rushed in. The hero soon appeared and +delivered one of his graceful and satisfactory speeches. + +Still the crowd remained cheering and "storming" about the house, until +Aunt Fanny, who had made her appearance in full dress, considering +the excitement had been kept up long enough, and that the master's +health was too delicate for any further demonstration, determined to +disperse them. Rising to her full height, waving her hand and speaking +majestically she said: "Gentlemen! Mars Charles is a feeble pusson, and +it is time for him to take his res'. He's been kep' 'wake long enough +now, and it's time for me to close up dese doors!" + +With this the crowd dispersed and "Aunt Fanny" remained mistress of the +situation, declaring that, "ef she hadn't come forward and 'spersed dat +crowd, Mars Charles would have been a dead man befo' mornin'!" + +"Aunt Fanny" kept herself liberally supplied with pocket money--one +of her chief sources of revenue being soap, which she made in large +quantities and sold at high prices; especially what she called her +"butter soap," which was in great demand, and which was made from all +the butter which she did not consider fresh enough for the delicate +appetites of her mistress and master. She appropriated one of the +largest basement rooms, had it shelved and filled it with soap. In +order to carry on business so extensively huge logs were kept blazing +on the kitchen hearth under the soap pot day and night. During the war, +wood becoming scarce and expensive, "Mars Charles" found it drained his +purse to keep the kitchen fire supplied. + +Thinking the matter over one day in his library, and concluding it +would greatly lessen his expenses if Aunt Fanny could be prevailed +upon to discontinue her soap trade, he sent for her, and said, _very +mildly_: "Fanny, I have a proposition to make you." + +"What is it, Mars Charles?" + +"Well Fanny, as my expenses are very heavy now, if you will give up +your soap boiling for this year, I will agree to pay you fifty dollars." + +With arms akimbo, and looking at him with astonishment, but firmness in +her eye, she replied: "Couldn't possibly do it, Mars Charles. Because +_soap_, sir, _soap's_ my _main_-tain-ance!" + +With this she strided majestically out of the room. "Mars Charles" said +no more but continued paying fabulous sums for wood, while "Aunt Fanny" +continued boiling her soap. + +This woman not only ordered, but kept all the family supplies, her +mistress having no disposition to keep the keys or in any way interfere +with her. + +But at last her giant strength gave way, and she sickened and died. +Having no children she left her property to one of her fellow servants. + +Several days before her death, we were sitting with her mistress and +master in a room overlooking her house. Her room was crowded with +negroes who had come to perform their religious rites around the +death bed. Joining hands they performed a savage dance, shouting +wildly around her bed. This was horrible to hear and see, especially +as in this family every effort had been made to instruct their negro +dependents in the truths of religion; and one member of the family, who +spent the greater part of her life in prayer, had for years prayed for +"Aunt Fanny," and tried to instruct her in the true faith. But although +an intelligent woman, she seemed to cling to the superstitions of her +race. + +After the savage dance and rites were over, and while we sat talking +about it, a gentleman--the friend and minister of the family--came in. +We described to him what we had just witnessed, and he deplored it +bitterly with us, saying he had read and prayed with "Aunt Fanny" and +tried to make her see the truth in Jesus. He then marked some passages +in the Bible, and asked me to go and read them to her. I went, and +said to her: "Aunt Fanny, here are some verses Mr. Mitchell has marked +for me to read to you, and he hopes you will pray to the Savior as he +taught you." Then said I, "we are afraid the noise and dancing have +made you worse." + +Speaking feebly, she replied: "Honey, that kind of religion suits us +black folks better than your kind. What suits Mars Charles' mind, don't +suit mine." + +And thus died the most intelligent of her race--one who had been +surrounded by pious persons who had been praying for her, and +endeavoring to instruct her. She had also enjoyed through life not only +the comforts, but many of the luxuries of earth--and when she died, her +mistress and master lost a sincere friend. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +This chapter will show how "Virginia beat-biscuit" procured for a man a +home and friends in Paris. + +One morning in the spring of 18-- a singular looking man presented +himself at our house. He was short of stature, and enveloped in furs +although the weather was not cold. Everything about him was gold which +could be gold, and so we called him "the gold-tipped-man." He called +for my mother, and when she went in the parlor said to her: + +"Madam I have been stopping several weeks at the hotel in the town of +L----, where I met a boy--Robert--who tells me he belongs to you. As +I want such a servant, and he is anxious to travel, I come, at his +request, to ask if you will let me buy him and take him to Europe. I +will pay any price." + +"I could not think of it," she replied. "I have determined never to +sell one of my servants." + +"But," continued the man, "he is anxious to go, and has sent me to beg +you." + +"It is impossible," said she, "for he is a great favorite with us, and +the only child his mother has." + +Finding her determined, the man took his leave, and went back to the +town, twenty-five miles off; but returned next day accompanied by +Robert, who entreated his mother and mistress to let him go. + +Said my mother to him: "Would you leave your mother and go with a +stranger to a foreign land?" + +"Yes, madam. I love my mother, and you and all your family--you have +always been so good to me--but I want to travel, and this gentleman +says he will give me plenty of money and be very kind to me." + +Still she refused. But the boy's mother, finally yielding to his +entreaty, consented, and persuaded her mistress, saying, "if he is +willing to leave me, and so anxious to go I will give him up." + +Knowing how distressed we all would be at parting with him, he went off +without coming to say "good bye," and wrote his mother from New York +what day he would sail with his new master for Europe. + +At first his mother received from him presents and letters, telling her +he was very much delighted, and "had as much money as he knew what to +do with." But after a few months he ceased to write, and we could hear +nothing from him. + +At length, when eighteen months had elapsed, one day we were astonished +to see him return home, dressed in the best Parisian style. We were +rejoiced to see him again, and his own joy at getting back cannot be +described. He ran over the yard and house examining everything, and +said: "Mistress, I have seen many fine places in Europe, but none to me +as pretty as this, and I have seen no lady equal to you. And I have had +no water to drink as good as this--and I have dreamed about every chair +and table in this house, and wondered if I would ever get back here +again." + +He then gave us a sketch of his life since the "gold-tipped" man had +become his master. Arrived in Paris, his master and himself took +lodgings at the Hotel de Ville. A teacher was employed to come every +day and instruct Robert in French. His master kept him well supplied +with money, never giving him less than fifty dollars at a time. His +duties were light, and he had ample time to study and amuse himself. + +After enjoying such elegant ease for eight or nine months, he waked +one morning and found himself deserted and penniless! His master had +absconded in the night, leaving no vestige of himself except a gold +dressing case and a few toilette articles of gold, which were seized by +the proprietor of the hotel in payment of his bill. + +Poor Robert, without money and without a friend in this great city, +knew not where to turn. In vain he wished himself back in his old home. + +"If I could only find some Virginian to whom I could appeal," said he +to himself. And suddenly it occurred to him that the American Minister, +Mr. Mason, was a Virginian. When he remembered this his heart was +cheered, and he lost no time in finding Mr. Mason's house. + +Presenting himself before the American Minister, he related his story, +which was not at first believed. "For," said Mr. Mason, "there are so +many impostors in Paris, it is impossible to believe you." + +Robert protested he had been a slave in Virginia--had been deserted by +his owner in Paris, and begged Mr. Mason to keep him at his house, and +take care of him. + +Then Mr. M. asked many questions about people and places in Virginia, +all which were accurately answered. Finally, he said: "I knew well the +Virginia gentleman who was, you say, your master. What was the color of +his hair?" This was also satisfactorily answered, and Robert began to +hope he was believed, when Mr. Mason continued: + +"Now there is one thing, which if you can do, will convince me you +came from Virginia. Go in my kitchen and make me some old Virginia +beat-biscuit, and I will believe everything you have said!" + +"I think I can do that, sir," said Robert, and going in the kitchen, +rolled up his sleeves and set to work. + +This was a desperate moment, for he had never made a biscuit in his +life, although he had often watched the proceeding as "Black Mammy," +the cook at home, used to beat, roll and manipulate the dough on her +biscuit box. + +"If I only could make them look like her's!" thought he, as he beat, +and rolled, and worked and finally stuck the dough all over with a +fork. Then cutting them out, and putting them to bake, he watched them +with nervous anxiety until they resembled those he had often placed on +the table at home. + +Astonished and delighted with his success, he carried them to the +American Minister, who exclaimed: "Now I _know_ you came from old +Virginia!" + +Robert was immediately installed in Mr. M.'s house, where he remained a +faithful attendant until Mr. Mason's death, when he returned with the +family to America. + +Arriving at New York he thought it impossible to get along by himself, +and determined to find his master. For this purpose he employed +a policeman, and together they succeeded in recovering "the lost +master"--this being a singular instance of a "slave in pursuit of his +fugitive master." + +The "gold-tipped" man expressed much pleasure at his servant's +fidelity, and handing him a large sum of money desired him to return +to Paris, pay his bill, bring back his gold dressing box and toilette +articles, and, as a reward for his fidelity, take as much money as he +wished and travel over the continent. + +Robert obeyed these commands, returned to Paris, paid the bills, +traveled over the chief places in Europe and then came again to New +York. Here he was appalled to learn that his master had been arrested +for forgery, and imprisoned in Philadelphia. It was ascertained that +the forger was an Englishman and connected with an underground forging +establishment in Paris. Finding himself about to be detected in Paris +he fled to New York, and other forgeries having been discovered in +Philadelphia, he had been arrested. + +Robert lost no time in reporting himself at the prison, and was grieved +to find his master in such a place. + +Determining to do what he could to relieve the man who had been a good +friend to him, he went to a Philadelphia lawyer, and said to him: "Sir, +the man who is in prison, bought me in Virginia, and has been a kind +master to me; I have no money, but if you will do your best to have him +acquitted, I will return to the South, sell myself and send you the +money." + +"It is a bargain," replied the lawyer. "Send me the money, and I will +save your master from the penitentiary." + +Robert returned to Baltimore, sold himself to a Jew in that city, +and sent the money to the lawyer in Philadelphia. After this he was +bought by a distinguished Southern Senator--afterwards a General in the +Southern army--with whom he remained, and to whom he rendered valuable +services during the war. + + * * * * * + +Other instances were known of negroes who preferred being sold into +slavery rather than take care of themselves. There were some in our +immediate neighborhood, who finding themselves emancipated by their +master's will, begged the owners of neighboring plantations to buy +them, saying they preferred having "white people to take care of them." +On the "Wheatly" plantation--not far from us--there is still living an +old negro who sold himself in this way, and cannot be persuaded _now_ +to accept his freedom. After the war, when all the negroes were freed +by the Federal Government, and our people too much impoverished longer +to clothe and feed them, this old man refused to leave the plantation, +but clung to his cabin, although his wife and family moved off and +begged him to accompany them. + +"No," said he, "I nuver will leave this plantation, and go off to +starve with free niggers." + +Not even when his wife was very sick and dying could he be persuaded to +go off and stay one night with her. He had long been too old to work, +but his former owners indulged him by giving him his cabin, and taking +care of him through all the poverty which has fallen upon our land +since the war. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +O, bright winged peace! Long did'st thou rest o'er the homes of old +Virginia; while cheerful wood fires blazed on hearthstones in parlor +and cabin, reflecting contented faces with hearts full of "peace and +good will towards men!" No thought entered there of harm to others; no +fear of evil to ourselves. Whatsoever things were honest; whatsoever +things were pure; whatsoever things were gentle; whatsoever things +were of good report, we were accustomed to hear 'round these parlor +firesides; and often would our grandmothers say: + +"Children our's is a blessed country! There never will be another war! +The Indians have long ago been driven out, and it has been nearly a +hundred years since the English yoke was broken!" + +The history of our country was contained in two pictures: "The last +battle with the Indians" and "The surrender of Lord Cornwallis at +Yorktown." + +No enemies within or without our borders, and peace established among +us forever! Such was our belief. And we wondered that men should get +together and talk their dry politics, seeing that General Washington +and Thomas Jefferson--two of our Virginia plantation men--had +established a government to last as long as the earth, and which could +not be improved. Yet they _would_ talk--these politicians--around +our parlor fire, where often our patience was exhausted hearing +discussions, in which we could not take interest, about the "Protective +Tariff;" the "Bankrupt Law;" the "Distribution of Public Lands;" the +"Resolutions of '98;" the "Missouri Compromise," and the "Monroe +Doctrine." These topics seemed to afford them intense pleasure and +satisfaction, for as the "sparks fly upward" the thoughts of men turn +to politics. + +Feeling no ill will towards any tribe, people or nation on the globe, +and believing that all felt a friendly regard for us, how could we +believe, when we heard it, that a nation not far off--to whom we had +yearly "carried up" a tithe of all we possessed, and whose coffers +we helped to fill--were subscribing large sums of money to destroy +us? We could not, would not believe it. Yet we were told that this +nation--towards whom we felt no animosity--brought up their children to +believe that they would do God service by reviling and persecuting us. +Nay more--that their ministers of the gospel preached unto them thus: + +"Thou shalt carry fire and sword into the land that lieth South of you. +Thou shalt make it a desolate waste. Thou shalt utterly root out and +annihilate the people that they be no more a people. Thou shalt write +books. Thou shalt form societies for the purpose of planning the best +means of attacking secretly and destroying this people. Thou shalt send +emissaries. Thou shalt stir up the nations abroad against them. Thou +shalt prepare weapons of war, and in every way incite their negroes to +rise at night and slay them." + +Around our firesides we asked: "Can this be true?" + +Alas! alas! it was true; and the first expedition sent against us was +led by a man from the Adirondack Mountains in the North, who in 1859, +with a small band armed with pikes, clubs and guns, attacked one of our +villages at night.[7] + +The news of this blanched the cheeks of our maidens, and the children +nestled closer round their mother's knee at evening twilight, for who +could tell what might befall our plantation homes before morning! The +hearts of women and children grew sick and faint. But the hearts of +our men and boys grew brave and strong--and would they have been the +countrymen of Washington had they not thought of war? + +About this time we had a visit from two old friends of our family--a +distinguished Southern Senator and the Secretary of War--both +accustomed to swaying multitudes by the power of their eloquence--which +lost none of its force and charm in our little home circle. We listened +with admiration as they discussed the political issues of the day--no +longer a subject uninteresting or unintelligible to us, for every +word was of vital importance. Their theme was, "the best means of +protecting our plantation homes and firesides." Even the smallest +children now comprehended the greatest politicians. + +Now came the full flow and tide of Southern eloquence--real, +soul-inspiring eloquence! + +Many possessing this gift were in the habit of visiting us at that +time; and all dwelt upon one theme--the secession of Virginia--with +glowing words from hearts full of enthusiasm; all agreeing it was +better for States, as well as individuals, to separate rather than +quarrel or fight. + +But there was one--our oldest and best friend--who differed with these +gentlemen; and his eloquence was gentle and effective. Unlike his +friends whose words, earnest and electric, overwhelmed all around, this +gentleman's power was in his composure of manner without vehemence. His +words were well selected without seeming to have been studied; each +sentence was short, but contained a gem, like a solitaire diamond. + +For several months this gentleman remained untouched by the fiery +eloquence of his friends--like the Hebrew children in the burning +furnace. Nothing affected him until one day, the President of the +United States demanded by telegraph 50,000 Virginians to join an army +against South Carolina. And then this gentleman felt convinced it was +not the duty of Virginians to join an army against their friends. + +About this time we had some very interesting letters from the Hon. +Edward Everett--who had been for several years a friend and agreeable +correspondent--giving us his views on the subject, and very soon after +this all communication between the North and South ceased, except +through the blockade, for four long years. + +And then came the long dark days; the days when the sun seemed to shine +no more; when the eyes of wives, mothers and sisters were heavy with +weeping; when men sat up late in the night studying military tactics; +when grief-burdened hearts turned to God in prayer. + +The intellectual gladiators who had discoursed eloquently of war around +our fireside, buckled their armor on and went forth to battle. + +Band after band of brave-hearted, bright-faced youths from Southern +plantation homes came to bleed and die on Virginia soil; and for four +long years old Virginia was one great camping ground, hospital and +battle field. The roar of cannon and the clash of arms resounded over +the land. The groans of the wounded and dying went up from hillside and +valley. The hearts of women and children were sad and careworn. But +God, to whom they prayed, protected them in our plantation homes--where +no white men or even boys remained--all having gone into the army. +Only the negro slaves stayed with us, and these were encouraged by our +enemies to rise and slay us; but God in His mercy willed otherwise. +Although advised to burn our property and incited by the enemy to +destroy their former owners, these negro slaves remained faithful, +manifesting kindness, and in many instances protecting the white +families and plantations during their masters' absence. + +Oh! the long terrible nights helpless women and children passed, in our +plantation homes; the enemy encamped around them; the clash of swords +heard against the doors and windows; the report of guns on the air +which might be sending death to their loved ones. + +But why try to describe the horrors of such nights? Who that has not +experienced them can know how we felt? Who can imagine the heart +sickness, when stealing to an upper window at midnight we watched the +fierce flames rising from some neighboring home, expecting our own to +be destroyed by the enemy before daylight in the same way? + +Such pictures, dark and fearful, were the only ones familiar to us in +old Virginia those four dreadful years. + +At last the end came--the end which seemed to us saddest of all. But +God knoweth best. Though "through fiery trials" He had caused us to +pass, He had not forsaken us. For was not His mercy signally shown in +the failure of the enemy to incite our negro slaves to insurrection +during the war? Through His mercy those who were expected to become +our enemies, remained our friends. And in our own home, surrounded by +the enemy those terrible nights, our only guard was a faithful negro +servant who slept in the house, and went out every hour to see if we +were in immediate danger; while his mother--the kind old nurse--sat all +night in a rocking chair in our room, ready to help us. Had we not then +amidst all our sorrows much to be thankful for? + +Among such scenes one of the last pictures photographed on my memory, +was that of a negro boy very ill with typhoid fever in a cabin not +far off, and who became greatly alarmed when a brisk firing commenced +between the contending armies across our house. His first impulse--as +it always had been in trouble--was to fly to his mistress for +protection; and jumping from his bed--his head bandaged with a white +cloth, and looking like one just from the grave--he passed through the +firing as fast as he could, screaming: "O, mistress, take care of me! +Put me in your closet, and hide me from the Yankees!" He fell at the +door exhausted. My mother had him brought in and a bed made for him in +the library. She nursed him carefully, but he died in a day or two from +fright and exhaustion. + +Soon after this was the surrender at Appomattox, and negro slavery +ended forever. + +All was ruin around us; tobacco factories burned down, sugar and +cotton plantations destroyed. The negroes fled from these desolated +places, crowded together in wretched shanties on the outskirts of +towns and villages, and found themselves, for the first time in their +lives, without enough to eat, and with no class of people particularly +interested about their food, health or comfort. Rations were furnished +them a short time by the United States Government, with promises of +money and land, which were never fulfilled. Impoverished by the war, it +was a relief to us no longer to have the responsibility of supporting +them. This would indeed have been impossible in our starving condition. + +Twelve years have passed since they became free, but they have not, +during this time, advanced in intelligence or comfort. Wanting the care +of their owners, they die more frequently; and, it is thought,--by +those who have studied the subject--that abandoned to themselves, they +are returning to the superstitions of their forefathers. A missionary +recently returned from Africa, and witnessing here their religious +rites, says they are the same he saw practiced before the idols in +Africa. + +They still have a strange belief in what they call "tricking," and +often the most intelligent, when sick, will say they have been +"tricked," for which they have a regular treatment and "trick doctors" +among themselves. This "tricking" we cannot explain, and only know that +when one negro became angry with another, he would bury in front of his +enemy's cabin door a bottle filled with pieces of snakes, spiders, bits +of tadpole, and other curious substances; and the party expecting to be +"tricked," would hang up an old horse shoe outside of his door to ward +off the "evil spirits." + +Since alienated from their former owners they are, as a general thing, +more idle and improvident; and, unfortunately, the tendency of their +political teaching has been to make them antagonistic to the better +class of white people, which renders it difficult for them to be +properly instructed. That such animosity should exist towards those who +could best understand and help them, is to be deplored. For the true +negro character cannot be fully comprehended or described, but by those +who--like ourselves--have always lived with them. + +At present their lives are devoted to a religious excitement which +demoralizes them, there seeming to be no connection between their +religion and morals. In one of their Sabbath schools is a teacher, who +although often arrested for stealing, continues to hold a high position +in the church. + +Their improvidence has passed into a proverb--many being truly objects +of charity; and whoever would now write a true tale of poverty and +wretchedness, may take for the hero "Old Uncle Tom without a cabin." +For "Uncle Tom" of the olden time in his cabin with a blazing log fire +and plenty of corn bread, and the Uncle Tom of to-day, are pictures of +very different individuals. + +And this chapter ends my reminiscences of an era soon to be forgotten, +and which will perish under the heel of modern progress. It is a +faithful memorial. Would that it might rescue from oblivion some of the +characters worthy to be remembered! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The scenes connected with the late war will recall to the mind of +every Southern man and woman the name of Robert E. Lee--a name which +will be loved and revered as long as home or fireside remains in old +Virginia--and which sets the crowning glory on the list of illustrious +men from plantation homes. Admiration and enthusiasm naturally belong +to victory; but the man must be rare indeed, who in defeat, like +General Lee, received the applause of his countrymen. + +It was not alone his valor, his handsome appearance, his commanding +presence, his perfect manner, which won the admiration of his +fellow-men. There was something above and beyond all these--his true +Christian character. Trust in God ennobled his every word and action. +Among the grandest of human conquerors was he, for early enlisting as +a soldier of the cross--to fight against the world, the flesh and the +devil--he fought the "good fight" and the victor's crown awaited him in +the "kingdom not made with hands." + +Trust in God kept him calm in victory as in defeat. When I remember +General Lee during the war, in his family circle at Richmond--then at +the height of his renown--his manner, voice and conversation were the +same as when, a year after the surrender, he came to make my mother a +visit from his Lexington home. + +His circumstances and surroundings were now changed--no longer the +stars and epaulets adorned his manly form; but dressed in a simple suit +of pure white linen, he looked a king, and adversity had wrought no +change in his character, manner, or conversation. + +To reach our house he made a journey--on his old war horse, +"Traveler"--forty miles across the mountains, describing which, on the +night of his arrival, he said: + +"To-day an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything that +has happened for a long time. As I was riding over the most desolate +mountain region, where not even a cabin could be seen, I was surprised +to find, on a sudden turn in the road, two little girls playing on a +large rock. They were very poorly clad, and after looking a moment at +me, began to run away. 'Children,' said I, 'don't run away. If you +could know _who_ I am, you would know that I am the last man in the +world for anybody to run from now.' + +"'But we do know you,' they replied. + +"'You never saw me before,' I said, 'for I never passed along here.' + +"'But we do know you,' they said, 'And we've got your picture up yonder +in the house, and you are General Lee! And we ain't dressed clean +enough to see you.' + +"With this they scampered off to a poor log hut on the mountain side." + +It was gratifying to him to find that even in this lonely mountain hut +the children had been taught to know and revere him. + +He told us, too, of a man he met the same day in a dense forest who +recognized him, and throwing up his hat in the air, said: "General, +_please_ let me cheer you," and fell to cheering with all his lungs! + + * * * * * + +My last recollections of General Lee, when making a visit of several +weeks at his house, the year before his death--although not coming +properly under the head of "plantation reminiscences"--may not be +inappropriate here. + +It has been said that a man is never a "hero to his valet;" but this +could not have been said of General Lee, for those most intimately +connected with him could not fail to see continually in his bearing and +character something above the ordinary level, something of the hero. + +At the time of my visit the commencement exercises of the College, of +which he was President, were going on. His duties were necessarily +onerous. Sitting up late at night with the board of visitors, and +attending to every detail with his conscientious particularity, there +was little time for him to rest. Yet every morning of that busy week +he was ready, with his prayer-book under his arm, when the church bell +called its members to sun-rise service. + +It is pleasant to recall all he said at the breakfast, dinner and tea +table, where in his hospitality he always insisted upon bringing all +who chanced to be at his house at those hours--on business or on social +call.[8] + +This habit kept his table filled with guests, who received from him +elegant courtesy. + +Only once did I hear him speak regretfully of the past. It was one +night when sitting by him on the porch in the moonlight, he said to me, +his thoughts turning to his early childhood: + +"It was not my mother's wish that I should receive a military +education, and I ought to have taken her advice, for," he said very +sadly, "my education did not fit me for this civil life." + +In this no one could agree with him, for it seemed to all that he +adorned and satisfactorily filled every position in life, civil or +military. + +There was something in his manner which naturally pleased every one +without his making an effort; at the same time a dignity and reserve +which commanded respect and precluded anything like undue familiarity. +All desirable qualities seemed united in him to render him popular. + +It was wonderful to observe--in the evenings when his parlors were +overflowing with people young and old, from every conceivable +place--how by a word, a smile, a shake of the hand he managed to give +_all_ pleasure and satisfaction, each going away charmed with him. + +The applause of men excited in him no vanity; for those around soon +learned that the slightest allusion or compliment, in his presence, to +his valor or renown, instead of pleasing, rather offended him. Without +vanity, he was equally without selfishness. + +One day, observing several quaint articles of furniture about his +house, and asking Mrs. Lee where they came from, she told me that an +old lady in New York city--of whom neither herself nor the General had +ever before heard--concluded to break up housekeeping. Having no family +and not wishing to sell or remove her furniture to a boarding house, +she determined to give it to "the _greatest living man_," and that man +was General Lee. + +She wrote a letter asking his acceptance of the present, requesting +that, if his house was already furnished and he had no room, he would +use the articles about his College. + +The boxes arrived. But--such was his reluctance at receiving +gifts--weeks passed and he neither had them opened or brought to his +house from the express office. + +Finally, as their house was quite bare of furniture, Mrs. Lee begged +him to allow her to have them opened, and he consented. + +First there was among the contents a beautiful carpet large enough +for two rooms, at which she was delighted, as they had none. But the +General, seeing it, quickly said: "That is the very thing for the floor +of the new chapel! It must be put there." + +Next were two sofas and a set of chairs. "The very things we want," +again exclaimed the General, "for the platform of the new chapel!" + +Then they unpacked a side-board. "This will do _very well_," said +the General, "to be placed in the basement of the chapel to hold the +College papers!" + +And so with everything the old lady sent, only keeping for his own +house the articles which could not be possibly used for the College or +chapel--a quaint work-table, an ornamental clock and some old fashioned +preserve dishes--although his own house was then bare enough, and the +old lady had particularly requested that only those articles which they +did not need should go to the College. + +The recollection of this visit, although reviving many pleasant hours, +is very sad, for it was the last time I saw the dear, kind face of Mrs. +Lee; of whom the General once said when one of us, alluding to him, +used the word "hero:" "My dear, _Mrs._ Lee is the hero. For although +deprived of the use of her limbs, by suffering, and unable for ten +years to walk I have never heard her murmur or utter one complaint." + +And the General spoke truly, Mrs. Lee was a heroine. With gentleness, +kindness and true feminine delicacy, she had strength of mind and +character a man might have envied. Her mind well stored and cultivated +made her interesting in conversation; and a simple cordiality of manner +made her beloved by all who met her. + +During this last visit she loved to tell about her early days at +Arlington--her own and her ancestors' plantation home--and in one of +these conversations gave me such a beautiful sketch of her mother--Mrs. +Custis--that I wish her every word could be remembered that I might +write it here. + +Mrs. Custis was a woman of saintly piety, her devotion to good works +having long been a theme with all in that part of Virginia. She had +only one child--Mrs. Lee--and possessed a very large fortune. In early +life she felt that God had given her a special mission, which was to +take care of and teach the three hundred negroes she had inherited. + +"Believing this," said Mrs. Lee to me, "my mother devoted the best +years of her life to teaching these negroes, for which purpose she had +a school house built in the yard, and gave her life up to this work; +and I think it an evidence of the ingratitude of their race, that +although I have long been afflicted, only one of those negroes has +written to enquire after me, or offered to nurse me." + +These last years of Mrs. Lee's life were passed in much suffering, +being unable to move any part of her body except her hands and head. +Yet her time was devoted to working for her church. Her fingers were +always busy with fancy work, painting or drawing--she was quite an +accomplished artist--which were sold for the purpose of repairing and +beautifying the church in sight of her window, and as much an object +of zeal and affection with her, as the chapel was with the General. + +Indeed the whole family entered into the General's enthusiasm about +this chapel--just then completed--especially his daughter Agnes, with +whom I often went there, little thinking it was so soon to be her place +of burial. + +In a few short years all three--General Lee, his wife and daughter--were +laid here to rest, and this chapel they had loved so well became their +tomb. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +All plantation reminiscences resemble a certain patch-work, made when +we were children, of bright pieces joined with black squares. The black +squares were not pretty, but if left out, the character of the quilt +was lost. And so with the black faces, if left out of our home pictures +of the past, the character of the picture is destroyed. + +What I have written is a simple record of facts in my experience +without an imaginary scene or character; intended for the descendants +of those who owned slaves in the South, and who may in future wish +to know something of the high-toned character and virtues of their +ancestors. + +The pictures are strictly true, and should it be thought by any that +the brightest have alone been selected, I can only say, I knew no +others. + +It would not be possible for any country to be entirely exempt from +crime and wickedness; and here, too, these existed; for prisons, +penitentiaries and courts of justice were, as elsewhere, important; but +it is a sincere belief that the majority of Southern people were true +and good. And that they have accomplished more than any other nation +towards civilizing and elevating the negro race, may be shown from the +following paragraph in a late magazine: + +"From a very early date the French had their establishment on the +Western coast of Africa. In 1364 their ships visited that portion of +the world. But with all this long intercourse with the white man the +natives have profited little. _Five centuries_ have not civilized them, +so as to be able to build up institutions of their own. Yet the French +have always succeeded better than the English with the negro and Indian +element." + +Civilization and education are slow; for, says a modern writer: + +"After the death of Roman intellectual activity, the seventh and eighth +centuries were justly called dark. If Christianity was to be one of +the factors in producing the present splendid enlightenment, she had +no time to lose, and she lost no time. She was the only power at that +day that could begin the work of enlightenment. And starting at the +very bottom, she wrought for _nine hundred years_ alone. The materials +she had to work upon, were stubborn and unmalleable. _For one must be +somewhat civilized to have a taste for knowledge at all; and one must +know something to be civilized at all._ She had to carry on the double +work of civilizing and educating. Her progress was necessarily slow at +first. _But after some centuries_ it began to increase in arithmetical +progression until the sixteenth century." + +Then our ancestors performed a great work--the work allotted them +by God, civilizing and elevating an inferior race in the scale of +intelligence and comfort. That this race may continue to improve, and +finally be the means of carrying the gospel into their native Africa, +should be the prayer of every earnest Christian. + +Never again will the negro race find a people so kind and true to them +as the Southerners have been. For, said a gentleman the other day, who +lives in New York, "In the Northern cities white labor is preferred, +and the negroes are to be found on the outskirts, poor, wretched and +friendless." + +There is much in our lives not intended for us to comprehend or +explain; but believing that nothing happens by chance, and that our +forefathers have done their duty in the "place it had pleased God to +call them," let us cherish their memory, and remember that the Lord God +Omnipotent reigneth. + + For He who rules each wondrous star, + And marks the feeble sparrow's fall + Controls the destiny of man, + And guides events however small. + + Man's place of birth; his home; his friends, + Are planned and fixed by God alone-- + "Life's lot is cast"--e'en death He sends + For some wise purpose of His own. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] Rev. G. W. Leyburn. + +[2] John Randolph, of Roanoke. + +[3] John Preston, afterwards Governor of Virginia. + +[4] On the route to "Rustic" was a small village called "Liberty," +approaching which, and hearing the name, "English Louis" swore he would +not pass through any such "---- little Republican town," and turning +his horses travelled many miles out of his way to avoid it. + +[5] From this vicinity went nine ministers, who were eminent in their +several churches; two Episcopal Bishops, one Methodist Bishop, three +distinguished Presbyterian and three Baptist divines of talent and fame. + +[6] General Scott. + +[7] Harpers Ferry. + +[8] Here was seen the Mount Vernon silver, which had descended to Mrs. +General Washington's great-grandson, General Custis Lee, and which +was miraculously preserved during the war, having been concealed in +different places--and once was buried near Lexington in a barn, which +was occupied by the enemy several days. + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as + possible, including inconsistent hyphenation. + + The following is a list of changes made to the original. + The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. + + Page 12: + + small servants, who speedily gat them into their clean aprons, + small servants, who speedily got them into their clean aprons, + + Page 16: + + Every inch of mahogony was waxed and rubbed to the highest state + Every inch of mahogany was waxed and rubbed to the highest state + + Page 20: + + and which always looked so pretty on the mahogony. + and which always looked so pretty on the mahogany. + + Page 29: + + "Oh!" replied another, the idea of us poor Virginia girls taking + "Oh!" replied another, "the idea of us poor Virginia girls taking + + Page 30: + + or by the gardener to direct the plauting of certain seeds or roots + or by the gardener to direct the planting of certain seeds or roots + + Page 34: + + not only to furnish their masters table with the choicest meats, + not only to furnish their master's table with the choicest meats, + + Page 39: + + four horses, with footman, postilion and driver in English livery. + four horses, with footman, postillion and driver in English livery. + + Page 42: + + of much smaller means than Virginia and South Corolina belles! + of much smaller means than Virginia and South Carolina belles! + + Page 43: + + who dwell in the desert are always pusilanimous and groveling!" + who dwell in the desert are always pusillanimous and groveling!" + + Page 45: + + At last, when the latter was seized with a contageous fever + At last, when the latter was seized with a contagious fever + + Page 46: + + Mr. Thackaray was once entertained at one of them. + Mr. Thackeray was once entertained at one of them. + + Page 48: + + At Magdalene College, Frances was left for a moment in a parlor, + At Magdalen College, Frances was left for a moment in a parlor, + + Page 49: + + A scene almost horrible ensued." + A scene almost horrible ensued. + + Page 53: + + the house at which he was stopping was beseiged by reporters + the house at which he was stopping was besieged by reporters + + Page 54: + + by the passage of a canon ball through the upper story, + by the passage of a cannon ball through the upper story, + + Page 55: + + paying all the bills, this genteman had no "rights" there whatever; + paying all the bills, this gentleman had no "rights" there whatever; + + Her furniture was polished mahogony, and she kept most delicious + Her furniture was polished mahogany, and she kept most delicious + + Page 62: + + of Southern eloquence--real, soul-inspiring eloquence? + of Southern eloquence--real, soul-inspiring eloquence! + + Page 63 + + Soon after this was the surrender at Appomatox, and negro slavery + Soon after this was the surrender at Appomattox, and negro slavery + + Page 65: + + To-day an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything + "To-day an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything + + Page 67: + + that athough I have long been afflicted, only one of those + that although I have long been afflicted, only one of those + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44626 *** diff --git a/44626-h/44626-h.htm b/44626-h/44626-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..928a0a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/44626-h/44626-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4365 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Plantation Reminiscences, by Letitia M. Burwell</title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: small; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + display: inline-block; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:smaller; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; } + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44626 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Plantation Reminiscences, by Letitia M. +Burwell</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + <a href="https://archive.org/details/plantationremini00burw"> + https://archive.org/details/plantationremini00burw</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<div class="transnote"> +<p>Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p>The author's name on the cover and in the copyright notice seems to +be a pseudonym. According to the catalog of the Library of Congress, +the author was Letitia M. Burwell.</p> +</div> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>Plantation +Reminiscences</h1> + +<div class="center"> +<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" width="344" height="600" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p class="center">Copyrighted in 1878 by <span class="smcap">Page Thacker</span>.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="DEDICATION" id="DEDICATION">DEDICATION.</a></h2> + +<p>Dedicated to my nieces, who will find in English and American publications +such epithets applied to their ancestors as: “Cruel slave-owners;” “inhuman;” +“Southern task masters;” “hard-hearted;” “dealers in human souls,” +&c. From these they will naturally recoil with horror. My own life would +have been embittered had I believed myself descended from such; and that +those who come after us may know the truth I wish to leave a record of plantation +life as it was. The truth may thus be preserved among a few, and the +praise they deserve awarded noble men and virtuous women who have passed +away.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></h2> + +<p>For several years I have felt a desire to write these reminiscences, but did +not conclude to do so until receiving, a few months ago, a letter from Mr. +Martin F. Tupper—the English poet—in which he wrote: “Let me encourage +you in the idea of writing ‘Plantation Reminiscences.’ It will be a good +work; and it is time the world was learning the truth. I myself have learned +it and shall not be slow in telling it to others.”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="PLANTATION_REMINISCENCES" id="PLANTATION_REMINISCENCES">PLANTATION REMINISCENCES.</a></h2> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></h2> + +<p>That my birth place should have been a Virginia plantation; my +lot in life cast on a Virginia plantation; my ancestors, for nine generations, +owners of Virginia plantations, remain facts mysterious +and inexplicable but to Him who determined the bounds of our +habitations, and said: “Be still, and know that I am God.”</p> + +<p>Confined exclusively to a Virginia plantation, during my earliest +childhood, I believed the world one vast plantation bounded by negro +quarters. Rows of white cabins with gardens attached; negro men +in the fields; negro women sewing, knitting, spinning, weaving, +house-keeping in the cabins, with negro children dancing, romping, +singing, jumping, playing around the doors, formed the only pictures +familiar to my childhood.</p> + +<p>The master’s residence—as the negroes called it, the “great +house”—occupied a central position, and was handsome and attractive; +the overseer’s being a plainer house, about a mile from this.</p> + +<p>Each cabin had as much pine furniture as the occupants desired; +pine and oak being abundant, and carpenters always at work for the +comfort of the plantation.</p> + +<p>Bread, meat, milk, vegetables, fruit and fuel were as plentiful as +water in the springs near the cabin doors.</p> + +<p>Among the negroes—one hundred—on our plantation, many had +been taught different trades; and there were blacksmiths, carpenters, +brick masons, millers, shoemakers, weavers, spinners, all working +for themselves. No article of their handicraft ever being sold from the +place, their industry resulted in nothing beyond feeding and clothing +themselves.</p> + +<p>My sister and myself, when very small children, were often carried +to visit these cabins, on which occasions no young princesses could +have received from admiring subjects more adulation. Presents +were laid at our feet—not glittering gems—but eggs, chesnuts, popcorn, +walnuts, melons, apples, sweet potatoes, all their “cupboards” +afforded, with a generosity unbounded. This made us as happy as +queens; and filled our hearts with kindness and gratitude to our +dusky admirers.</p> + +<p>Around the cabin doors the young negroes would quarrel as to who +should be his or her mistress; some claiming me, and others my sister.</p> + +<p>All were merry-hearted, and among them I never saw a discontented +face. Their amusements were dancing to the music of the +banjo, quilting parties, opossum hunting, and, sometimes, weddings +and parties.</p> + +<p>Many could read, and in almost every cabin was a Bible. In one +was a Prayer-book, kept by one of the men—a preacher—from which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +he read the marriage ceremony at the weddings. This man opened +a night school—charging twenty-five cents a week—hoping to inspire +some literary thirst among the rising generation, who, however, +preferred their nightly frolics to the school, so it had few patrons.</p> + +<p>Our house servants were numerous, polite and well trained. My +mother selected those most obliging in disposition and quick at learning, +who were brought to the house at ten or twelve years of age, and +instructed in the branches of household employment.</p> + +<p>These small servants were always dressed in the cleanest, whitest +long-sleeved aprons, with white or red turbans on their heads. No +establishment being considered complete without a multiplicity of +these; they might be seen constantly darting about on errands from +the house to the kitchen and the cabins; up stairs and down stairs, +being indeed omnipresent and indispensable.</p> + +<p>It was the custom for a lady visitor to be accompanied to her room +at night by one of these black, smiling “indispensables,” who insisted +so good naturedly on performing all offices, combing her hair, +pulling off her slippers, &c., that one had not the heart to refuse, although +it would have been sometimes more agreeable to have been +left alone.</p> + +<p>The negroes were generally pleased at the appearance of visitors, +from whom they were accustomed to receive some present on arriving +or departing, the neglect of which was considered a breach of +politeness.</p> + +<p>The old negroes were quite patriarchal; loved to talk about “old +times,” and exacted great respect from the young negroes, and also +from the younger members of the white family. We called the old +men “Uncle,” and the old women “Aunt,” cognomens of respect.</p> + +<p>The atmosphere of our own home was consideration and kindness. +The mere recital of a tale of suffering would make my sister and myself +weep with sorrow. And I believe the maltreatment of one of +our servants—we had never heard the word “slave”—would have +distressed us beyond endurance. We early learned that happiness +consisted in dispensing it, and found no pleasure greater than saving +our old dolls, toys, beads, bits of cake, or candy for the cabin children, +whose delight at receiving them richly repaid us. If any of the +older servants became displeased with us, we were miserable until +we had restored the old smile by presenting some choice bit of sweet +meat, cake or candy.</p> + +<p>I remember once, when my grand-mother scolded nurse Kitty, saying: +“Kitty, the butler tells me you disturb the breakfast cream every +morning, dipping out milk to wash your face,” I burst in tears, and +thought it hard when there were so many cows poor Kitty could not +wash her face in milk. Kitty had been told that her dark skin would +be improved by a milk bath, which she had not hesitated to dip every +morning from the breakfast buckets.</p> + +<p>At such establishments one easily acquired a habit of being waited +upon—there being so many servants with so little to do. It was +natural to ask for a drink of water, when the water was right by +you, and have things brought which you might easily have gotten +yourself. But these domestics were so pleased at such errands one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +felt no hesitation in requiring them. A young lady would ask black +Nancy or Dolly to fan her, whereupon Nancy or Dolly would laugh +good naturedly, produce a large palm leaf and fall to fanning her +young mistress vigorously, after which she would be rewarded with +a bow of ribbon, candy or sweet cakes.</p> + +<p>The negroes made pocket money by selling their own vegetables, +poultry, eggs, &c.—made at the master’s expense, of course. I often +saw my mother take out her purse and pay them liberally for fowls, +eggs, melons, sweet potatoes, brooms, shuck mats and split baskets. +The men made small crops of tobacco or potatoes for themselves on +any piece of ground they chose to select.</p> + +<p>My mother and grand-mother were almost always talking over the +wants of the negroes,—what medicine should be sent—who they +should visit—who needed new shoes, clothes or blankets,—the principle +object of their lives seeming to be providing these comforts. +The carriage was often ordered for them to ride around to the cabins +to distribute light-bread, tea and other necessaries among the sick. +And besides employing the best doctor, my grand-mother always +saw that they received the best nursing and attention.</p> + +<p>In this little plantation world of ours was one being—and only +one—who inspired awe in every heart, being a special terror to +small children. This was the Queen of the Kitchen—Aunt Christian—who +reigned supreme. She wore the whitest cotton cap, with +the broadest of ruffles; was very black and very portly, and her +sceptre was a good sized stick, kept to chastise small dogs and children +who invaded her territory. Her character, however, having +been long established she had not often occasion to use this weapon, +as these enemies kept out of her way.</p> + +<p>Her pride was great, for, said she: “Haven’t I been, long before +this here little master whar is was born, bakin’ the best light-bread +and waffles and biscuit; and in my old master’s time managed my +own affars!”</p> + +<p>She was generally left to manage “her own affars,” and being a +pattern of neatness and industry her fame went abroad from Botetourt, +even unto the remotest ends of Mecklenburg county.</p> + +<p>That this marvellous cooking was all the work of her own hands +I am, in later years, inclined to doubt, as she kept several assistants, +a boy to chop wood, beat biscuit, scour tables, lift off pots and ovens; +one woman to make the pastry and another to compound cakes and +jellies. But her fame was great; her pride lofty, and I would not +now pluck one laurel from her wreath.</p> + +<p>This honest woman was appreciated by my mother, but we had +no affinity for her, in consequence of certain traditions on the plantation +about her severity to children. Having no children of her own, +a favorite orphan house-girl, whenever my mother went from home, +was left to her care. This girl—now an elderly woman, and still our +faithful and loved servant,—says she remembers to this day her +joy at my mother’s return home, and her release from Aunt Christian. +“I will never forget,” to use her own words, “how I watched the road +every day, hoping that mistress would come back, and when I saw +the carriage I would run a mile, shouting and clapping my hands.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>Smiling faces always welcomed us home as the carriage passed +through the plantation, and on reaching the house we were received +by the negroes about the yard with liveliest demonstrations of pleasure.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></h2> + +<p>It was a long time before it dawned upon my mind there were +places and people different from these. The plantations we visited +seemed exactly like ours. The same hospitality everywhere, the +same kindliness existing between the white family and the blacks.</p> + +<p>Confined exclusively to plantation scenes, the most trifling incidents +impressed themselves indelibly upon me.</p> + +<p>One day while my mother was in the yard attending to the planting +of some shrubbery, we saw approaching an old, feeble negro man, +leaning upon his stick. His clothes were nearly worn out, and he, +haggard and thin.</p> + +<p>“Good day, Mistess,” said he.</p> + +<p>“Who are you?” asked my mother.</p> + +<p>“My name is John,” he replied, “and I belonged to your husband’s +uncle. He died a long time ago. Before he died he set me free and +gave me a good piece of land near Petersburg, and some money and +stock. But all—my money and land—all gone, and I was starving. +So I come one hundred miles to beg you and master please let me +live and die on your plantation. I don’t want to be free no longer. +Please don’t let me be free.”</p> + +<p>I wondered what was meant by being “free,” and supposed from +his appearance it must be some very dreadful and unfortunate condition +of humanity. My mother heard him very kindly, and directed +him to the kitchen where “Aunt Christian” would give him a plenty +to eat.</p> + +<p>Although there were already a number of old negroes to be supported, +who no longer considered themselves young enough to work, +this old man was added to the number, and a cabin built for him. +To the day of his death he expressed gratitude to my mother for taking +care of him, and often entertained us with accounts of <i>his</i> “old master’s +times,” which he said were the “grandest of all.”</p> + +<p>By way of apology for certain knotty excrescences on his feet, he +used to say: “You see these here knots. Well, they come from my +being a monstrous proud young nigger, and squeezin’ my feet in de +tightest boots to drive my master’s carriage ’bout Petersburg. I +nuver was so happy as when I was drivin’ my coach-an’-four, and +crackin’ de postillion over de head wid my whip.”</p> + +<p>These pleasant reminiscences were generally concluded with: +“Ah! young Misses, <i>you’ll</i> nuver see sich times. No more postillions! +No more coach-an’-four! And niggers drives <i>now</i> widout they white +gloves. Ah! no, young Misses, <i>you’ll</i> nuver see nothin’! <i>Nuver</i>, in +<i>your</i> time.”</p> + +<p>With these melancholy predictions would he shake his head, and +sigh that the days of glory had departed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<p>Each generation of blacks vied with the other in extolling the virtues +of their particular mistress and master and “<i>their times</i>;” but +notwithstanding this mournful contrast between the past and present, +their reminiscences had a certain charm. Often by their cabin firesides +would we listen to the tales of the olden days about our forefathers, +of whom they could tell much, having belonged to our family +since the landing of the African fathers on the English slave ships, +from which their ancestors had been bought by ours. Among these +traditions none pleased us so much as that an unkind mistress or +master had never been known among our ancestors, which we have +always considered a cause for greater pride than the armorial bearings +left on their tombstones.</p> + +<p>We often listened with pleasure to the recollections of an old blind +man—the former faithful attendant of our grand-father—whose mind +was filled with vivid pictures of the past. He repeated verbatim +conversations and speeches heard sixty years before—from Mr. Madison, +Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Clay, and other statesmen, his master’s special +friends.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” he used to say, “I staid with your grandpa ten years in +Congress, and all the time he was Secretary for President Jefferson. +He nuver give me a cross word, and I nuver saw your grandma the +least out of temper neither, but once, and that was at a dinner party +‘we’ give in Washington, when the French Minister said something +disrespectful about the United States.”</p> + +<p>Often did he tell us: “The greatest pleasure I expect in heaven, is +seeing my old master.” And sometimes, “I dream about my master +and mistress when I am sleep, and talk with them and see them so +plain it makes me so happy that I laugh out right loud.”</p> + +<p>This man was true and honest—a good Christian. Important +trusts had been confided to him. He frequently carried the carriage +and horses to Washington and Baltimore—a journey of two weeks—and +sometimes sent to carry a large sum of money to a distant county.</p> + +<p>His wife, who had accompanied him in her youth to Washington, +also entertained us with gossip about the people of that day, and +could tell exactly the size and color of Mrs. Madison’s slippers, how +she was dressed on certain occasions, “what beautiful manners she +had,” how Mr. Jefferson received master and mistress when “we” +drove up to Monticello, what room they occupied, &c.</p> + +<p>Although my grand-father’s death occurred thirty years before, the +negroes still remembered it with sorrow; and one of them, speaking +of it, said to me, “Ah, little mistess, ’twas a sorrowful day when de +news come from Washington dat our good, kind master was dead. +A mighty wail went up from dis plantation, for we know’d we had +loss our bes friend.”</p> + +<p>The only negro on the place who did not evince an interest in the +white family was a man ninety years old, who, forty years before, +announced his intention of not working any longer—although +still strong and athletic—because, he said, “the estate had done come +down so he hadn’t no heart to work no longer.” He remembered, +he said, “when thar was three and four hundred black folks, but sence +de British debt had to be paid over by his old master, and de Mack<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>lenbug +estate had to be sold, he hadn’t had no heart to do nothin’ +sence.” And “he hadn’t seen no <i>real</i> fine white folks—what <i>he</i> called +real fine white folks—sence he come from Macklenbug.” All his interest +in life having expired with an anterior generation; we were in +his eyes but a poor set, and he refused to have anything to do with +us. Not being compelled to work, he passed his life principally in +the woods, wore a rabbit-skin cap and a leather apron. Having lost +interest in, and connection with the white family, he gradually relapsed +into a state of barbarism, refusing towards the end of his life +to sleep in his bed, preferring a hard bench in his cabin, upon which +he died.</p> + +<p>Another very old man remembered something of his father, who +had come from Africa; and when we asked him to tell us what he +remembered of his father’s narrations, would say:</p> + +<p>“My father told us that his mother lived in a hole in the ground, +and when the English people come to Africa she sold him for a string +of beads. He said ‘’twas mighty hard for him, when he fus come to +dis country, to wear clothes.’ Sometimes he would git so mad wid +us chillun, my mammy would have to run and hide us to keep him +from killin’ us. Den sometimes at night he would say: ‘He gwine sing +he country,’ den he would dance and jump and howl and skeer us to +death.”</p> + +<p>They spoke always of their forefathers as the “outlandish people.”</p> + +<p>On some plantations it was a custom to buy the wife when a negro +preferred to marry on another estate. And in this way we became +possessed of a famous termagant, who had married our grand-father’s +gardener, quarrelled him to death in one year and survived to quarrel +forty years longer with the other negroes. She had no children—not +even a cat or dog could live with her. She had been offered her freedom, +but refused to accept it. Several times had been given away; +once to her son—a free man—and to others with whom she fancied +she might live, but, like the bad penny, was always returned to us. +She always returned in a cart, seated on top of her chest and surrounded +by her goods and chattels, dressed in a high hat, long black +plume—standing straight up—gay cloth spencer and short petticoat, +the costume of a hundred years ago. Although her return was a sore +affliction to the plantation, my sister and myself found much amusement +in witnessing it. The cold welcome she received seemed not +to affect her spirits, but re-establishing herself in her cabin she quickly +resumed the turbulent course of her career.</p> + +<p>Finally one morning the news came that this woman, old Clara, +was dead. Two women went to sweep her cabin and perform the +last sad offices. They waited all day for the body to get cold. While +sitting over the fire in the evening, one of them happening to glance +at a small mirror inserted in the wall near the bed, exclaimed: “Old +Clara’s laughing!” They went nearer and there was a horrible grin +on the face of the corpse! Old Clara sprang out of bed exclaiming, +“Git me some meat and bread. I’m most perish’d!”</p> + +<p>“Old woman, what you mean by foolin’ us so?” asked the nurses.</p> + +<p>“I jes want see what you all gwine do wid my <i>things</i> when I <i>was</i> +dead!” replied the old woman, whose “things” consisted of all sorts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +old and curious spencers, hats, plumes, necklaces, caps and dresses, +collected during her various wanderings and worn by a long past generation.</p> + +<p>Among these old cabin legends we sometimes collected bits of romance, +and were often told how, by the coquetry of a certain Richmond +belle, we had lost a handsome fortune, which impressed me +even then with the fatal consequences of coquetry.</p> + +<p>This belle engaged herself to our great uncle—a handsome and accomplished +gentleman—who, to improve his health, went to Europe; +but before embarking made his will, leaving her his estate and negroes. +He died abroad, and the lady accepted his property, although +she was known to have been engaged to twelve others at the same +time! The story in Richmond ran that these twelve gentlemen—my +grand-father among them—had a wine party, and towards the close +of the evening some of them becoming communicative, began taking +each other out to tell a secret when it was discovered they all had +the same secret—each was engaged to Miss Betsy M——. This lady’s +name is still seen on fly leaves of old books in our library—books +used during her reign by students at William and Mary College—showing +that the young gentlemen, even at that venerable Institution, +allowed their classic thoughts sometimes to wander.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></h2> + +<p>As soon as my sister and myself had learned to read and cipher, +we were inspired with a desire to teach the negroes who were about +the house and kitchen; and my father promised to reward my sister +with a handsome guitar if she would teach two boys—designed for +mechanics—arithmetic.</p> + +<p>Our regular system was every night to place chairs around the +dining table, ring a bell and open school; she presiding at one end +and I at the other of the table, each propped on books to give us the +necessary height and dignity for teachers.</p> + +<p>Our school proved successful. The boys learned arithmetic and +the guitar was awarded. All who tried learned to read, and from +that day we have never ceased to teach all who desired to learn.</p> + +<p>Thus my early life was passed amid scenes cheerful and agreeable, +nor did any one seem to have any care except my mother. Her +cares and responsibilities were great, with one hundred people continually +upon her mind, who were constantly appealing to her in +every strait, real or imaginary. But it had pleased God to place her +here, and nobly did she perform the duties of her station. She often +told us of her distress on realizing for the first time the responsibilities +devolving upon the mistress of a large plantation, and the nights +of sorrow and tears these thoughts had given her.</p> + +<p>On her arrival at the plantation after her marriage, the negroes +received her with lively demonstrations of joy, clapping their hands +and shouting: “Thank God, we got a mistess!” Some of them +throwing themselves on the ground at her feet in their enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>The plantation had been without a master or mistress twelve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +years; my father—the sole heir—having been off at school and College. +During this time the silver had been left in the house, and the +servants had kept and used it, but <i>nothing had been stolen</i>.</p> + +<p>The books, too, had been undisturbed in the library, except a few +volumes of the poets which had been carried to adorn some of the +cabin shelves.</p> + +<p>It was known by the negroes that their old master’s will set them +free and gave them a large body of land in the event of my father’s +death; and some of his College friends suggested he might be killed +while passing his vacations on his estate. But this only amused +him, for he knew too well in what affection he was held by his negroes, +and how each vied with the other in showing him attention—spreading +a dinner often for him at their cabins when he returned +from hunting or fishing.</p> + +<p>I think I have written enough to show the mutual affection existing +between the white and black races—and the abundant provision +generally made for the wants of those whom God had mysteriously +placed under our care.</p> + +<p>The existence of extreme want and poverty had never entered my +mind, until one day my mother showing us some pictures, entitled +“London Labor and London Poor,” we asked her if she believed there +were such poor people in the world, and she replied: “Yes, children, +there are many in this world who have nowhere to sleep and nothing +to eat.”</p> + +<p>Still we could not realize what she said, for we had never seen a +beggar. But from that time it began to dawn upon us that all the +world was not a plantation, with more than enough on it for people +to eat. And when we were old enough to read and compare our +surroundings with what we learned about other countries, we found +that our laboring population was more bountifully supplied than that +of any other land. We read about “myriads of poor, starving creatures, +with pinched faces and tattered garments,” in far off cities and +countries. We read of hundreds who, from destitution and wretchedness, +committed suicide. We read these things, but could not fully +sympathise with such want and suffering; for it is necessary to witness +these in order to feel the fullest sympathy, and we had never +seen anything of the kind on our own or our neighbor’s plantations.</p> + +<p>Their religious instruction, I found, had not been more neglected +than among the lower classes in England, Ireland, France, Russia +and elsewhere. Every church—there was one of some denomination +near every plantation—had special seats reserved for the negroes. +The minister always addressed a portion of his sermon particularly +to them, and held service for them exclusively on Sabbath afternoon. +Besides, they had their own ministers among themselves, and had +night prayer meetings in their cabins whenever they chose.</p> + +<p>Many prayers ascended from earnest hearts for their conversion, +and I knew no home at which some effort was not made for their +religious instruction.</p> + +<p>One of our friends—a Presbyterian minister and earnest Christian—devoted +the greater part of his time to preaching and teaching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +them. And many pious ministers, throughout the State, bestowed +upon them time and labor.</p> + +<p>I once attended a gay party where the young lady of the house—the +center of attraction—hearing that one of the negroes was suddenly +very ill, excused herself from the company, carried her Prayer-book +to the cabin, and passed the night by the bedside of the sick +man, reading and repeating verses to him. I have also had young +lady friends who declined attending a wedding or party when a favorite +servant was ill.</p> + +<p>On one occasion an English gentleman—Surgeon in the Royal +Artillery—visiting at our house, accompanied us to a wedding and +hearing that two young ladies had not attended on account of the +illness of a negro servant, said to me: “This would not have been +in England, and will scarcely be believed when I tell it on my return.”</p> + +<p>The same gentleman expressed astonishment at one of our neighbor’s +sitting up all night to nurse one of his negroes who was ill. +He was amused at the manner of our servants’ identifying themselves +with the master and his possessions, always speaking of “our +horses,” “our cows,” “our crop,” “our mill,” “our blacksmith’s shop,” +“our carriage,” “our black folks,” &c. He told us he observed also +a difference between our menials and those of his own country, in +that, while here they were individualized, there they were known by +the names of “Boots,” “’Ostler,” “Driver,” “Footman,” “Cook,” +“Waiter,” “Scullion,” &c.</p> + +<p>On our plantations the most insignificant stable boy felt himself +of some importance.</p> + +<p>When I heard Mr. Dickens read scenes from Nicholas Nickleby, +the tone of voice in which he personated Smike sent a chill through +me, for I had never before heard the human voice express such hopeless +despair. Can there be in England, thought I, human beings +afraid of the sound of their own voices?</p> + +<p>There was a class of men in our State who made a business of +buying negroes to sell again farther south. These we never met, +and held in horror. But even they, when we reflect, could not have +treated them with inhumanity; for what man would pay a thousand +dollars for a piece of property, and fail to take the best possible care +of it? The “traders” usually bought their negroes when an estate +became involved, for the owners could not be induced to part with +their negroes until the last extremity—when everything else had +been seized by their creditors. Houses, lands, everything went first, +before giving up the negroes; the owner preferring to impoverish +himself in the effort to keep and provide for these—which was unwise, +financially, and would not have been thought of by a mercenary +people.</p> + +<p>But it was hard to part with one’s “own people,” and see them +scattered. Still our debts had to be paid; often security debts after +the death of the owner, when all had to be sold. And who of us but +can remember the tears of anguish caused by this, and scenes of +sorrow to which we can never revert without the keenest grief? +Yet, like all events in this chequered human life, even these sometimes +turned out best for the negroes, when by this means they ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>changed +unpleasant for more agreeable homes. Still it appeared to +me a great evil, and often did I pray that God would make us a way +of escape from it. But His ways are past finding out, and why He +had been pleased to order it thus we shall never know.</p> + +<p>Instances of harsh or cruel treatment were rare. I never heard of +more than two or three individuals who were “hard” or unkind to +their negroes, and these were ostracised from respectable society, +their very names bringing reproach and blight upon their descendants.</p> + +<p>We knew of but one instance of cruelty on our plantation, and +that was when “Uncle Joe,” the blacksmith, burnt his nephew’s face +with a hot iron. The man carries the scar to this day, and in speaking +of it, always says: “Soon as my master found out how Uncle +Joe treated me he wouldn’t let me work no more in his shop.”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2> + +<p>The extent of these estates precluding the possibility of near neighbors, +their isolation would have been intolerable but for the custom +of visiting which prevailed among us. Many houses were filled +with visitors the greater part of the year, usually remaining two or +three weeks. Visiting tours were made in our private carriages—each +family making at least one such tour a year. Nor was it necessary +to announce these visits by message or letter, each house being +considered always ready, and “entertaining company” the occupation +of the people. Sometimes two or three carriages might be descried +in the evening coming up to the door through the Lombardy poplar +avenue—the usual approach to many old houses—whereupon ensued +a lively flutter among small servants, who speedily got them into +their clean aprons, and ran to open gates, and remove parcels from +carriages, and becoming generally excited. Lady visitors were always +accompanied by colored maids, although sure of finding a superfluity +of these at each establishment. The mistress of the house always +received her guests in the front porch, with a sincere and cordial +greeting.</p> + +<p>These visiting friends at my own home made an impression upon +me that no time can efface. I almost see them now—those dear, +gentle faces—my mother’s early friends; and those delightful old +ladies in close bordered tarletan caps, who used to come to see my +grandmother. These last would sit round the fire knitting and talking +over their early memories; how they remembered the red coats +of the British; how they had seen the Richmond theater burn down, +with some of their family burned in it. How they used to wear such +beautiful turbans of <i>crepe lise</i> to the Cartersville balls, and how they +used to dance the minuet. At mention of this, my grandmother +would lay off her spectacles, put aside her knitting, rise with dignity—she +was very tall—and show us the step of the minuet, gliding +slowly and majestically around the room. Then she would say: +“Ah, children, you will never see anything so graceful as the minuet.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +Such jumping around as <i>you</i> see would not have been considered +‘genteel’ in <i>my</i> day!”</p> + +<p>My mother’s friends belonged to a later generation, and were types +of women, whom to have known I shall ever consider a blessing and +privilege. They combined intelligence with exquisite refinement and +agreeability; and their annual visits gave my mother the greatest +happiness, which we soon learned to share and appreciate.</p> + +<p>As I consider these ladies models for our sex through all time, I +enumerate some of their attractions:</p> + +<p>Entire absence of pretense made them always agreeable. Having +no “parlor” or “company” manners to assume, they preserved at all +times a gentle, natural, easy demeanor and conversation. They had +not dipped into the sciences, attempted by some of our sex at the +present day; but the study of Latin and French, with general reading +in their mother tongue rendered them intelligent companions for +cultivated men. They also possessed the rare gift of reading well +aloud, and wrote letters unsurpassed in penmanship, ease and agreeability +of style.</p> + +<p>Italian and German professors being rare in that day, their musical +acquirements did not extend beyond the simplest piano accompaniments +to old English and Scotch airs, which they sang in a sweet, +natural voice, and which so enchanted the beaux of their time that +they—the beaux—never afterwards became reconciled to any higher +order of music.</p> + +<p>These model women also managed their household affairs admirably; +and were uniformly kind, but never familiar with their servants. +They kept ever before them the Bible as their constant guide +and rule in life, and were surely, as nearly as possible, holy in +thought, word and deed. I have looked in vain for <i>exactly such</i> women +in other lands, but have failed to find them.</p> + +<p>Then there were old gentlemen visitors—beaux of my grandmother’s +day—still wearing cues, wide ruffled bosoms, short pants and +knee buckles. These pronounced the <i>a</i> very broad; sat a long time +over their wine at dinner, and carried in their pockets gold or silver +snuff-boxes presented by some distinguished individual at some remote +period.</p> + +<p>Our visiting acquaintance extended from Botetourt county to Richmond, +and among them were jolly old Virginia gentlemen and precise +old Virginia gentlemen; eccentric old Virginia gentlemen and +prosy old Virginia gentlemen; courtly old Virginia gentlemen and +plain-mannered old Virginia gentlemen; charming old Virginia gentlemen +and uninteresting old Virginia gentlemen. Many of them +had graduated years and years ago at William and Mary College.</p> + +<p>Then we had another set, of a later day—those who graduated in +the first graduating class at the University of Virginia, when that institution +was first established. These happened—all that we knew—to +have belonged to the same class, and often amused us—without +intending it—by reverting to that fact in these words:</p> + +<p>“<i>That</i> was a remarkable class! Every man in that class made his +mark in law, letters or politics! Let me see: There was Toombs. +There was Charles Mosby. There was Alexander Stuart. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +was Burwell. There was R. M. T. Hunter;” and so on, calling each +by name except himself, knowing that the others never failed to do +that!</p> + +<p>Edgar Poe and Alexander Stephens, of Georgia, were also at the +University with these gentlemen.</p> + +<p>Although presenting an infinite variety of mind, manner and temperament, +all the gentlemen who visited us, young and old, possessed +in common certain characteristics; one of which was a deference to +ladies, which made us feel that we had been put in the world especially +to be waited upon by them. Their standard for woman was +high. They seemed to regard her as some rare and costly statue set +in a niche to be admired and <i>never taken</i> down.</p> + +<p>Another peculiarity they had in common, was a habit—which +seemed irresistible—of tracing people back to the remotest generation, +and appearing inconsolable if ever they failed to find out the +pedigree of any given individual for at least four generations. This, +however, was an innocent pastime, from which they seemed to derive +much pleasure and satisfaction, and which should not be regarded, +even in this advanced age, a serious fault.</p> + +<p>Among our various visitors, was a kinsman—of whom I often +heard, but do not recollect—a bachelor of eighty years, always accompanied +by his negro servant as old as himself. Both had the +same name, Louis,—pronounced like the French—and this aged pair +had been so long together they could not exist apart. Black Louis +rarely left his master’s side; assisting in the conversation if his master +became perplexed or forgetful. When his master talked in the +parlor, black Louis always planted his chair in the middle of the door-sill, +every now and then correcting or reminding with: “Now, master, +dat warnt Col. Taylor’s horse dat won dat race dat day. You +and me was thar.” Or, “Now, master you done forgot all ’bout dat. +Dat was in de year 1779, and <i>dis</i> is de way it happened,” &c., much +to the amusement of the company assembled. All this was said, I +am told, most respectfully, although the old negro in a manner <i>possessed</i> +his master, having entire charge and command of him.</p> + +<p>The negroes often felt great pride in “<i>their</i> white people,” as they +called their owners, and loved to brag about what “<i>their</i> white people” +did and what “<i>their</i> white people” had.</p> + +<p>On one occasion it became necessary for my sister and myself to +ride a short distance in a public conveyance. A small colored boy, +who helped in our dining-room, had to get in the same stage. Two +old gentlemen—strangers to us—sitting opposite, supposing we had +fallen asleep, when we closed our eyes to keep out the dust, commenced +talking about us. Said one to the other: “Now those children +will spoil their Sunday bonnets.” Whereupon our colored boy +spoke up quickly: “Umph! <i>you</i> think <i>them’s</i> my mistesses’ Sunday +bonnets? Umph! you <i>jes ought</i> to see what they got up thar on top +the stage in thar band box!” At this we both laughed, for the boy +had never seen our “Sunday bonnets,” nor did he know that we possessed +any.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></h2> + +<p>English books never fail to make honorable mention of a “roast +of beef,” “a leg of mutton,” “a dish of potatoes,” “a dish of tea,” &c., +while with us the abundance of such things gave them, we thought, +not enough importance to be particularized. Still my reminiscences +extend to these.</p> + +<p>Every Virginia housewife knew how to compound all the various +dishes in Mrs. Randolph’s Cookery book, and our tables were filled +with every species of meat and vegetable to be found on a plantation; +with every kind of cakes, jellies and blanc-mange to be concocted +out of eggs, butter and cream, besides an endless catalogue +of preserves, sweet meats, pickles and condiments. So that in the +matter of good living, both in abundance and the manner of serving, +a Virginia plantation could not be excelled.</p> + +<p>The first speciality being good loaf bread, there was always a hot +loaf for breakfast, hot corn bread for dinner and a hot loaf for supper. +Every house was famed for its loaf bread, and, said a gentleman +once to me: “Although at each place it is superb, yet each loaf +differs from another loaf, preserving distinct characteristics which +would enable me to distinguish, instantly, should there be a convention +of loaves, the Oaklands loaf from the Greenfield loaf, and the +Avenel loaf from the Rustic Lodge loaf.”</p> + +<p>And apropos of this gentleman, whom, it is needless to add, was a +celebrated connoisseur in this matter of loaf bread, it was a noticeable +fact with our cook, that whenever he came to our house the bread +in trying to do its best always did its worst!</p> + +<p>Speaking of bread, another gentleman expressed his belief that at +the last great day, it will be found that more housewives will be punished +on account of light bread than anything else; for he knew some +who were never out of temper except when the light bread failed!</p> + +<p>Time would fail me to dwell, as I should, upon the incomparable +rice waffles, and beat biscuit, and muffins, and laplands, and Marguerites, +and flannel cakes, and French rolls, and velvet rolls, and +ladies-fingers constantly brought by relays of small servants, during +breakfast, hot and hotter from the kitchen. Then the tea waiters +handed at night, with the beef tongue, the sliced ham, the grated +cheese, the cold turkey, the dried venison, the loaf bread buttered +hot, the batter-cakes, crackers, the quince marmalade, the wafers all +pass in review before me.</p> + +<p>The first time I ever heard of a manner of living different from +this, was when it became important for my mother to make a visit +to a great aunt in Baltimore, and she went for the first time out of +her native State—neither herself nor her mother had ever been out of +Virginia. My mother was accompanied by her maid, Kitty, on this +expedition, and when they returned both had many astounding things +to relate. My grandmother threw up her hands in amazement on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +hearing that some of the first ladies in the city, who visited old aunt, +confined the conversation of a morning call to the subject of the +faults of their hired servants. “Is it possible?” exclaimed the old +lady. “I never considered it well bred to mention servants or their +faults in company.”</p> + +<p>Indeed, in our part of the world, a mistress became offended if the +faults of her servants were alluded to, just as persons become displeased +when the faults of their children are discussed.</p> + +<p>Maid Kitty’s account of this visit, I will give as well as I can remember +in her own words, as she described it to her fellow-servants: +“You never see sich a way for people to live! Folks goes to bed in +Baltimore ’thout a single mouthful in thar house to eat. And they +can’t get nothin’ neither ’thout they gits up soon in the mornin’ and +goes to the market after it themselves. Rain, hail or shine, they got +to go. ’Twouldn’t suit <i>our</i> white folks to live that way! And I +wouldn’t live thar not for nothin’ in this world. In that fine three +story house thar ain’t but bare two servants, an’ they has to do all +the work. ’Twouldn’t suit <i>me</i>, an’ I wouldn’t live thar not for nothin’ +in this whole creation. I would git <i>that</i> lonesome I couldn’t stan’ it. +Bare two servants! and they calls themselves rich, too! And they +cooks in the cellar. I know mistess couldn’t stand that—smellin’ +everything out the kitchen all over the house. Umph! <i>them</i> folks +don’t know nothin’ <i>tall</i> ’bout good livin’, with thar cold bread and thar +rusks!”</p> + +<p>Maid Kitty spoke truly when she said she had never seen two women +do all the housework. For, at home, often three women would +clean up one chamber. One made the bed, while another swept the +floor and a third dusted and put the chairs straight. Labor was divided +and subdivided; and I remember one woman whose sole employment +seemed to be throwing open the blinds in the morning and +rubbing the posts of my grandmother’s high bedstead. This rubbing +business was carried quite to excess. Every inch of mahogany was +waxed and rubbed to the highest state of polish, as were also the +floors, the brass fenders, irons and candlesticks.</p> + +<p>When I reflect upon the degree of comfort arrived at in our homes, +I think we should have felt grateful to our ancestors; for as Quincy +has written: “In whatever mode of existence man finds himself, be +it savage or civilized, he perceives that he is indebted for the greater +part of his possessions to events over which he had no control; to +individuals whose names, perhaps, never reached his ear; to sacrifices +which he never shared. How few of all these blessings do we +owe to our own power or prudence! How few on which we can not +discern the impress of a long past generation!” So we were indebted +for our agreeable surroundings to the heroism and sacrifices of past +generations, and not to venerate and eulogize them betrays the want +of a truly noble soul. For what courage; what patience; what perseverence; +what long suffering; what Christian forbearance, must it +have cost our great grandmothers to civilize, Christianize and elevate +the naked, savage Africans to the condition of good cooks and +respectable maids! They—our great grandmothers—did not enjoy +the blessed privilege even of turning their servants off when ineff<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>ient +or disagreeable, but had to keep them through life. The only +thing was to bear and forbear, and</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">——“be to their virtues very kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To their faults,” a great deal “blind.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>If in Heaven there be one seat higher than another, it must be reserved +for those true Southern matrons, who performed conscientiously +their part assigned them by God—civilizing and instructing +this race.</p> + +<p>To the children of Israel God said: “I will give thee the heathen +for an inheritance.” So He had given <i>us</i> “the heathen for an inheritance,” +and however bitterly some of us deplored it—as we did—we +should have remembered that nothing happens by chance; but that +God disposes all events for some purpose of his own. We were instruments +in His hand, and if we or our forefathers were chosen by +Him to elevate a race in the scale of comfort and intelligence we +should not deplore it, but pray that what we have done for them may +be a lasting benefit and that God’s blessing may follow them in another +condition of life.</p> + +<p>However we may differ in the opinion, there is no greater compliment +to Southern slave owners than the idea prevailing in many +places that the negro is already sufficiently elevated to hold the highest +positions in the gift of our Government.</p> + +<p>I once met in traveling an English gentleman, who asked me: +“How can you bear those miserable black negroes about your houses +and about your persons? To me they are horribly repulsive, and I +would not endure one about me.”</p> + +<p>“Neither would they have been my choice,” I replied. “But God +sent them to us. I was born to this inheritance and could not avert +it. What would <i>you</i> English have done,” I asked, “if God had sent +them to you?”</p> + +<p>“Thrown them into the bottom of the sea!” he replied.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for the poor negro this sentiment had not prevailed +among us. I believe God endowed our people with qualities peculiarly +adapted to taking charge of this race and that no other nation +could have kept them. Our people did not demand as much work as +in other countries is required of servants; and I think had more affection +for them than is elsewhere felt for menials.</p> + +<p>In this connection, I remember an incident during the war which +deserves to be recorded as showing the affection entertained for negro +dependents:</p> + +<p>When our soldiers were nearly starved, and only allowed daily a +small handfull of parched corn, the Colonel of a Virginia regiment, +by accident got some coffee, a small portion of which was daily distributed +to each man. In the regiment was a cousin of mine—a +young man endowed with the noblest attributes God can give—who, +although famishing and needing it, denied himself his portion every +day that he might bring it to his black mammy. He made a small +bag in which he deposited and carefully saved it.</p> + +<p>When he arrived at home on furlough, his mother wept to see his +tattered clothes, his shoeless feet and starved appearance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>Soon producing the little bag of coffee, with a cheerful smile he +said: “See what I’ve saved to bring black mammy!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! my son,” said his mother, “you have needed it yourself. +Why did you not use it?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” he replied, “it has been so long since you all had any coffee, +and I made out very well on water, when I thought how black +mammy missed her coffee, and how glad she would be to get it.”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2> + +<p>The antiquity of the furniture in our homes can scarcely be described—every +article appearing to have been purchased during the +reign of George III., since which period no new fixtures or household +utensils seemed to have been bought.</p> + +<p>The books in our libraries had been brought from England almost +two hundred years before. In our own library there were Hogarth’s +pictures, in old worm-eaten frames; and among the literary curiosities, +one of the earliest editions of Shakespeare—1685—containing +under the author’s picture the lines by Ben Johnson:</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“This Figure which thou here seest put<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It was for gentle Shakespeare cut—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherein the Graver had a strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Nature to outdo the Life.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, could he but have drawn his Wit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As well in Brass, as he has hit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His Face; the Paint would then surpass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All that was ever writ in Brass.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But since he can not, Reader, look<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not on his Picture, but his Book.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>This was a reprint of the first edition of Shakespeare’s works collected +by John Heminge and Henry Condell, two of his friends in +the company of comedians.</p> + +<p>The perusal of the Arabian Nights, when a small child, possessed +me with the idea that their dazzling pictures were to be realized when +we emerged from plantation life into the outside world, and the disappointment +at not finding Richmond paved with gems and gold +like those cities in Eastern story, is remembered to the present time.</p> + +<p>Brought up amid antiquities, the Virginia girl disturbed herself not +about modern fashions, appearing happy in her mother’s old silks +and satins made over; her grandmother’s laces and brooch of untold +dimensions, with a weeping willow and tombstone on it—a constant +reminder of the past—which had descended from some remote ancestor.</p> + +<p>She slept in a high bedstead—the bed of her ancestors; washed +her face on an old fashioned, spindle-legged washstand; mounted a +high chair to arrange her hair before the old fashioned mirror on the +high bureau; climbed to the top of a high mantle-piece to take down +the old fashioned high candlesticks; climbed a pair of steps to get +into the high-swung, old fashioned carriage; perched her feet upon +the top of a high brass fender if she wanted to get them warm; and, +in short, had to perform so many gymnastics that she felt convinced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +her ancestors must have been a race of giants, or they could not have +required such tall and inaccessible furniture.</p> + +<p>An occasional visit to Richmond or Petersburg, sometimes animated +her with a desire for some style of dress less antique than her +own; although she had as much admiration and attention as if she +had just received her wardrobe from Paris.</p> + +<p>Her social outlook might have been considered limited and circumscribed—her +parents being unwilling that her acquaintance should +extend beyond the descendants of their own old friends.</p> + +<p>She had never any occasion to make what the world calls a +“debut;” the constant flow of company at her father’s house having +rendered her assistance necessary in entertaining guests, as soon as +she could converse and be companionable. So that her manners +were early formed, and she remembered not the time when it was +anything but very easy and agreeable, to be in the society of ladies +and gentlemen.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>In due time we were provided—my sister and myself—with the best +instructors—a lady all the way from Bordeaux to teach French, and +a German Professor for German and music. The latter opened to +us a new world of music. He was a fine linguist, thorough musician +and perfect gentleman. He lived with us five years, and remained +our sincere and truly valued friend through life.</p> + +<p>After some years we were thought to have arrived at “sufficient +age of discretion” for a trip to New York city.</p> + +<p>Fancy our feelings on arriving in that world of modern people and +modern things! Fancy two young girls suddenly transported from +the time of George III. to the largest hotel on Broadway in 1855!</p> + +<p>All was as strange to us then as we are now to the Chinese. +Never had we seen white servants before; and on being attended by +them at first felt a sort of embarrassment, but soon found they were +accustomed to less consideration and more hard work than were our +negro servants at home.</p> + +<p>Everything and everybody seemed in a mad whirl—the “march of +material progress,” they told us. It seemed to us more the “perpetual +motion of progress.” Everybody said that if “old fogy” Virginia +did not make haste to join this “march,” she would be left a +“wreck behind.”</p> + +<p>We found ourselves in the “advanced age;” the land of water-pipes +and dumb-waiters; the land of enterprise and money, and at +the same time an economy amounting to parsimony.</p> + +<p>The manners of the people were strange to us, and different from +ours. The ladies seemed to have gone ahead of the men in the +“march of progress”—their manner being more pronounced. They +did not hesitate to “push about” through crowds and public places.</p> + +<p>Still, we were young; and dazzled with the gloss and glitter, we +wondered why old Virginia couldn’t join this “march of progress,” +and have dumb-waiters, and elevators, and water-pipes, and gas fixtures, +and baby jumpers, and washing machines.</p> + +<p>We asked a gentleman who was with us, why old Virginia had not +all these, and he replied: “Because, while the people here have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +busy working for themselves, old fogy Virginia has been working for +negroes. All the money Virginia makes is spent in feeding and +clothing negroes. And,” he continued, “these people in the North +were shrewd enough years ago to sell all their’s to the South.”</p> + +<p>All was strange to us; even the table-cloths on the tea and breakfast +tables instead of napkins under the plates as we had at home, +and which always looked so pretty on the mahogany.</p> + +<p>But the novelty having worn off after awhile, we found out there +was a good deal of “imitation,” after all, mixed up in everything. +Things did not seem to have been “fixed up” to last as long as our old +things at home, and we began to wonder if the “advanced age” really +made the people any better, or more agreeable, or more hospitable, +or more generous, or more brave, or more self-reliant, or more charitable, +or more true, or more pious, than in “old fogy Virginia?”</p> + +<p>There was one thing most curious to us in New York. No one +seemed to do anything by himself or herself. No one had an individuality; +all existed in “clubs” or “societies.” They had also many +“isms” of which we had never heard; some of the people sitting up +all night, and going around all day talking about “manifestations,” +and “spirits,” and “affinities,” which they told us was “spiritualism.”</p> + +<p>All this impressed us slow, old fashioned Virginians, as a strangely +up-side-down, wrong-side-out condition of things.</p> + +<p>Much of the conversation we heard was confined to asking questions +of strangers, and discussing the best means of making money.</p> + +<p>We were surprised too to hear of “plantation customs” said to exist +among us which were entirely new to us; and one of the Magazines +published in the city informed us that “dipping” was one of the +“characteristics” of Southern women. What could the word “dipping” +mean? we wondered, for we had never heard it before. Upon +inquiry we found that it meant “rubbing the teeth with snuff on a +small stick”—a truly disgusting habit which could not have prevailed +in Virginia, or we would have had some tradition of it at least—our +acquaintance extending over the State, and our ancestors having +settled there two hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>A young gentleman from Virginia—bright and overflowing with +fun, also visiting New York—coming into the parlor one day threw +himself on a sofa in a violent fit of laughter.</p> + +<p>“What is the matter?” we asked.</p> + +<p>“I am laughing,” he replied, “at the absurd questions these people +can ask. What do you think? A man asked me just now if we +didn’t keep blood-hounds in Virginia to chase negroes! I told him, +O, yes, every plantation keeps several dozen! And we often have +a tender boiled negro infant for breakfast!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, how could you have told such a story?” we said.</p> + +<p>“Well,” said he, “you know we never saw a blood-hound in Virginia, +and I do not expect there is one in the State; but these people +delight in believing everything horrible about us, and I thought I +might as well gratify them with something marvelous. So the next +book published up here will have, I’ve no doubt, a chapter headed: +‘Blood-hounds in Virginia and boiled negroes for breakfast!’”</p> + +<p>While we were purchasing some trifles to bring home to some of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +our servants, a lady, who had entertained us most kindly at her house +on Fifth Avenue, expressing surprise, said: “<i>We</i> never think of +bringing home presents to our ‘helps.’”</p> + +<p>This was the first time we had ever heard, instead of “servant,” +the word “help,” which seemed then—and still seems—misapplied. +The dictionaries define “help” to mean aid; assistance; remedy, +while “servant” means one who attends another, and acts at his +command. When a man pays another to “help” him, it implies he +is to do part of the work himself, and is dishonest if he leaves the +whole to be performed by his “help.”</p> + +<p>The word servant is an honest Bible word, and distinctly defines +a position. Noah did not say: “Cursed be Cain, a ‘help’ of ‘helps’ +shall he be to his brethren.” Nor did Abraham call his eldest “servant,” +although ruling over all he had, his “help.” Neither does the +Commandment say thy “man-help” or thy “maid-help.”</p> + +<p>The word “servant” seems, after the lapse of centuries, still applied +with the same meaning by St. Paul, who does not say, “Master, +give unto your ‘helps’ that which is equal;” or, “Let as many +‘helps’ as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all +honor.”</p> + +<p>The words “master and servant” thus lose their true significance.</p> + +<p>Among other discoveries during this visit we found how much more +talent it requires to entertain company in the country than the city. +In the latter the guests and family form no “social circle round the +blazing hearth” at night, but disperse far and wide, to be entertained +at the concert, the opera, the theater or club; while in the country +one depends entirely upon native intellect and conversational talent.</p> + +<p>And oh! the memory of our own fireside circles! The exquisite +women; the men of giant intellect, eloquence and wit at sundry +times assembled there! Could our andirons but utter speech what +could they not tell of mirth and song, eloquence and wit, whose flow +made many an evening bright.</p> + +<p>Well, as all delights must have an end, the time came for us to +leave these “scenes enchanting.” Bidding adieu forever to the land +of “modern appliances” and stale bread, we returned to the land flowing +with “old ham and corn cakes,” and were soon surrounded by +friends who came to hear the marvels we had to relate.</p> + +<p>How monotonous, how dull, prosy, inconvenient everything seemed +after our plunge into modern life!</p> + +<p>We told old Virginia about all the enterprise we had seen; and +how she was left far behind everybody and everything, urging her to +join at once the “march of material progress.”</p> + +<p>But the mother of States persisted in sitting contentedly over her +old fashioned wood fire with brass andirons, and while thus musing +these words fell slowly and distinctly from her lips:</p> + +<p>“They call me ‘old fogy,’ and tell me I must get out of my old ruts +and come into the ‘advanced age.’ But I don’t care about their ‘advanced +age;’ their water-pipes and elevators. Give me the right sort +of men and women! God loving; God serving men and women. +Men brave, courteous, true. Women sensible, gentle and retiring.</p> + +<p>“Have not my ‘plantation homes’ furnished warriors, statesmen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +and orators, acknowledged great by the world? I make it a rule to +‘keep on hand’ men equal to emergencies. Had I not Washington, +Patrick Henry, Light-horse Harry Lee, and others, ready for the first +Revolution; and if there comes another—which God forbid!—have I +not plenty more just like them?”</p> + +<p>Here she laughed with delight, as she called over their names: +“Robert Lee, Jackson, Joe Johnstone, Stuart, Early, Floyd, Preston, +the Breckinridges, Scott, and others like them, brave and true as +steel. Ha! ha! I know of what stuff to make men! And if my old +‘ruts and grooves’ produce men like these, should they be abandoned? +Can any ‘advanced age’ produce better?</p> + +<p>“Then there are my soldiers of the cross. Do I not yearly send +out a faithful band to be a ‘shining light,’ and spread the gospel +North, South, East, West, even into foreign lands? Is not the only +Christian paper in Athens, Greece, the result of the love and labor +of one of my<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> soldiers?</p> + +<p>“And can I not send out men of science, as well as warriors, statesmen +and orators? There is Maury on the seas showing the world +what a man of science can do. If my ‘old fogy’ system has produced +men like these must it be abandoned?”</p> + +<p>Here the old mother of States settled herself back in her chair, a +smile of satisfaction resting on her face, and she ceased to think of +<i>change</i>.</p> + +<p>Telling our mother of all the wonders and pleasures of New York, +she said:</p> + +<p>“You were so delighted, I expect you would like to sell out everything +here and move there!”</p> + +<p>“It would be delightful!” we exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“But you would miss many pleasures you have in our present +home.”</p> + +<p>“We would have no time to miss anything,” said my sister, “in +that whirl of excitement!”</p> + +<p>“But,” she continued. “I believe one might as well try to move the +Rocky Mountains to Fifth Avenue, as an old Virginian! They have +such a horror of selling out and moving.”</p> + +<p>“It is not so easy to sell out and move,” replied our mother, “when +you remember all the negroes we have to take care of and support.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, the negroes,” we said, “are the weight continually pulling +us down! Will the time <i>ever</i> come for us to be free of them?”</p> + +<p>“They were placed here,” replied our mother, “by God, for us to +take care of, and it does not seem that we can change it. When we +emancipate them, it does not better their condition. Those left free +and with good farms given them by their masters, soon sink into +poverty and wretchedness, and become a nuisance to the community. +We see how miserable are Mr. Randolph’s<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> negroes, who with their +freedom received from their master a large body of the best land in +Prince Edward county. My own grandfather also emancipated a +large number, having first had them taught lucrative trades that they +might support themselves, and giving them money and land. But +they were not prosperous or happy. We have also tried sending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +them to Liberia. You know my old friend, Mrs. L——, emancipated +all her’s and sent them to Liberia, but she told me the other day she +was convinced it had been no kindness to them, for she continually +receives letters begging assistance, and yearly supplies them with +clothes and money.”</p> + +<p>So it seemed our way was “hedged about” and surrounded by +walls of circumstances too thick and solid to be pulled down, and +we said no more.</p> + +<p>But some weeks after this conversation, we had a visit from a +friend—“Mozis Addums”—who having lived in New York and hearing +us express a wish to live there, said:</p> + +<p>“What! exchange a home in old Virginia for one on Fifth Avenue? +You don’t know what you are talking about! They are not even +called ‘homes’ there, but ‘<i>house</i>;’ where they turn into bed at midnight; +eat stale-bread breakfasts; have brilliant parties—where +several thousand people meet who don’t care anything about each +other. They have no soul life; but shut themselves up in themselves, +live for themselves, and never have any social enjoyment like ours.”</p> + +<p>“But,” we said, “could not our friends come to see us there as well +as anywhere else?”</p> + +<p>“No indeed!” he answered. “Your hearts would soon be as cold +and dead as your marble door-fronts. You wouldn’t want to see +anybody, and nobody would want to see you.”</p> + +<p>“You are complimentary, certainly!”</p> + +<p>“I know all about it; and,” he continued, “I know you could not +find on Fifth Avenue such women as your mother and grandmother, +who never think of themselves, but are constantly planning and providing +for others, making their homes comfortable and pleasant, and +attending to the wants and welfare of so many negroes. And that +is what the women all over the South are doing and what the New +York women cannot comprehend. How can anybody know, except +ourselves, the personal sacrifices of our women?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said my sister, “you need not be so severe and eloquent +because we thought we would like to live in New York! If we +should sell all we possess, we could never afford to live there. Besides, +you know our mother would as soon think of selling her children +as her servants—who indeed are beginning to possess <i>her</i>, instead +of her possessing them.”</p> + +<p>“But,” he replied, “I can’t help talking, for I hear our people +abused, and called indolent and self-indulgent, when I know they +have valor and endurance enough. And I believe so much ‘material +progress’ leaves no leisure for the highest development of heart and +mind. Where the whole energy of a people is applied to making +money, the souls of men become dwarfed.”</p> + +<p>“We do not feel,” we said, “like abusing Northern people, in +whose thrift and enterprise we found much to admire; and especially +the self-reliance of their women, enabling them to take care of themselves +and travel from Maine to the Gulf without an escort, while we +find it impossible to travel a day’s journey without a special protector.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>“That is just what I don’t like,” said he, “to see a woman in a +crowd of strangers needing no ‘special protector.’”</p> + +<p>“This dependence upon your sex,” we replied, “keeps you so vain.”</p> + +<p>“We would lose our gallantry altogether,” said he, “if we found +you could get along without us.”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2> + +<p>After some months—ceasing to think and speak of New York—our +lives glided back into the old channel, where the placid stream +of life had many isles of simple pleasures.</p> + +<p>We were, in those days, not “whirled with glowing wheel over the +iron track in a crowded car,” with dirty, shrieking children and repulsive-looking +people—on their way to the small pox hospital, for +all we knew. We were not jammed against rough, dreadful-looking +people, eating dreadful smelling things, out of dreadful-looking +baskets and satchels, and throwing the remains of dreadful pies and +sausages over the cushioned seats.</p> + +<p>Oh, no! our journeys were performed in venerable carriages, and +our lunch was enjoyed by some cool, shady spring where we stopped +in some shady forest at midday.</p> + +<p>Our own venerable carriage, my sister styled, “The old ship of +Zion,” saying, “It had carried many thousands, and was likely to +carry many more.” And our driver we called the “Ancient Mariner.” +He presided on his seat—a high perch—in a very high hat +and with great dignity. Having been driving the same carriage for +nearly forty years—no driver being thought safe who had not been +on the carriage box at least twenty years—considered himself an +oracle, and in consequence of his years and experience kept us in +much awe—my sister and myself never daring to ask him to quicken +or retard his pace or change the direction of the road, however much +we desired it. We will ever remember this thraldom, and how we +often wished one of the younger negroes could be allowed to take his +place, but my grandmother said “it would wound his feelings, and +besides be very unsafe” for us.</p> + +<p>At every steep hill or bad place in the road it was an established +custom to stop the carriage, unfold the high steps and “let us out”—like +pictures of the animals coming down out of the ark! This custom +had always prevailed in my mother’s family, and there was a +tradition that my great grandfather’s horses being habituated to stop +for this purpose, refused to pull up certain hills—even when the carriage +was empty—until the driver had dismounted and slammed the +door, after which they moved off without further hesitation.</p> + +<p>This custom of walking at intervals made an agreeable variety, +and gave us an opportunity to enjoy fully the beautiful and picturesque +scenery through which we were passing.</p> + +<p>These were the days of leisure and pleasure for travelers; and +when we remember the charming summer jaunts annually made in +this way, we almost regret the “steam horse,” which takes us now +to the same places in a few hours.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>We had two dear friends—Mary and Alice—who with their old +carriages and drivers—the fac similes of our own—frequently accompanied +us in these expeditions; and no generals ever exercised more +entire command over their armies than did these three black coachmen +over us. I smile now to think of their ever being called our +“slaves.”</p> + +<p>Yet, although they had this “domineering” spirit, they felt at the +same time, a certain pride in us, too.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, when we were traveling together, our friend +Alice concluded to dismount from her carriage and ride a few miles +with a gentleman of the party in a buggy. She had not gone far +before the alarm was given that the buggy horse was running away, +whereupon our black generalissimos instantly stopped the three carriages +and anxiously watched the result. Old Uncle Edmund—Alice’s +coachman—stood up in his seat highly excited, and when his +young mistress, with admirable presence of mind, seized the reins +and stopped the horse, turning him into a by-road, shouted at the +top of his voice: “Thar, now! I always knowed Miss Alice was a +young ’oman of the most amiable courage!” and over this feat continued +to chuckle the rest of the day.</p> + +<p>The end of these pleasant journeys always brought us to some old +plantation home, where we met a warm welcome not only from the +white family, but the servants who constituted part of the establishment.</p> + +<p>One of the most charming to which we made a yearly visit was +Oaklands, a lovely spot embowered in vines and shade trees.</p> + +<p>The attractions of this home and family brought so many visitors +every summer, it was necessary to erect cottages about the grounds, +although the house itself was quite large. And as the yard was +usually filled with persons strolling about, or reading, or playing +chess under the trees, it had every appearance—on first approach—of +a small watering place. The mistress of this establishment was +a woman of rare attraction—possessing all the gentleness of her sex +with attributes of greatness enough for a hero. Tall and handsome, +she looked a queen as she stood on the portico receiving her +guests, and by the first words of greeting, from her warm, true heart, +charmed even strangers. Nor in any department of life did she betray +qualities other than these.</p> + +<p>Without the least “variableness or shadow of turning,” her excellencies +were a perfect continuity, and her deeds of charity a blessing +to all in need within her reach. No undertaking seemed too great +for her, and no details—affecting the comfort of her home, family, +friends or servants—too small for her supervision.</p> + +<p>The church—a few miles distant, the object of her care and love—received +at her hands constant and valuable aid, and its minister +generally formed one of her family circle.</p> + +<p>No wonder then that the home of such a woman should have been +a favorite resort with all who had the privilege of knowing her. And +no wonder that all who enjoyed her charming hospitality were spell-bound, +nor wished to leave the spot.</p> + +<p>In addition to the qualities I have attempted to describe, this lady<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +inherited from her father—General B.—an executive talent which +enabled her to order and arrange perfectly her domestic affairs, so +that from the delicious viands upon her table to the highly polished +oak of the floors, all gave evidence of her superior management, and +the admirable training of her servants.</p> + +<p>Nor were the hospitalities of this establishment dispensed to the +gay and great alone; but shared alike by the homeless, the friendless, +and many a weary heart found sympathy and shelter there.</p> + +<p>Well! Oaklands was famous for many things: its fine light bread; +its cinnamon cakes; its beat biscuit; its fricasseed chicken; its butter +and cream; its wine sauces; its plum puddings; its fine horses; +its beautiful meadows; its sloping green hills, and last, but not least, +its refined and agreeable society collected from every part of our +own State, and often from others.</p> + +<p>For an epicure no better place could have been desired. And this +reminds me of a retired army officer—an epicure of the first water—we +often met there, whose sole occupation was visiting his friends, +and only subjects of conversation the best viands and the best manner +of cooking them! When asked whether he remembered certain agreeable +people at a certain place, he would reply: “Yes, I dined there ten +years ago, and the turkey was very badly cooked—not quite done +enough!” The turkey evidently having made a more lasting impression +than the people.</p> + +<p>This gentleman lost an eye at the battle of Chapultepec, having +been among the first of our gallant men who scaled the walls. But +a young girl of his acquaintance always said she knew it was not +bravery so much as “curiosity” which led him to “go peeping over +the walls, first man!” This was a heartless speech, but everybody +repeated it and laughed, for the Colonel <i>was</i> a man of considerable +“curiosity!”</p> + +<p>Like all old homes, Oaklands had its bright as well as its sorrowful +days—its weddings and its funerals. Many yet remember the +gay wedding of one there whose charms brought suitors by the score, +and won hearts by the dozen. The brilliant career of this young +lady, her conquests and wonderful fascinations, behold, are they not +all written upon the hearts and memories of divers rejected suitors +who still survive?</p> + +<p>And apropos of weddings. An old fashioned Virginia wedding +was an event to be remembered. The preparations usually commenced +several weeks before, with saving eggs, butter, chickens, &c., +after which ensued the liveliest egg-beating; butter-creaming; raisin-stoning; +sugar-pounding; cake-icing; salad-chopping; cocoanut-grating; +lemon squeezing; egg-frothing; wafer-making; pastry-baking; +jelly-straining; paper-cutting; silver-cleaning; floor-rubbing; +dress making; hair-curling; lace-washing; ruffle-crimping; +tarletan-smoothing; guests-arriving; servants-running; trunk-moving; +girls laughing!</p> + +<p>Imagine all this going on simultaneously several successive days +and nights, and you have an idea of “preparations” for an old fashioned +Virginia wedding.</p> + +<p>The guests generally arrived in private carriages a day or two be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>fore, +and stayed often a week after the affair, being accompanied by +quite an army of negro servants, who enjoyed the festivities as much +as their masters and mistresses.</p> + +<p>A great many years ago, after such a wedding as I describe, a dark +shadow fell upon Oaklands.</p> + +<p>The eldest daughter—young and beautiful, soon to marry a gentleman +of high-toned character, charming manners and large estate—one +night, while the preparations were in progress for her nuptials, +saw in a vision vivid pictures of what would befall her if she married. +The vision showed her: a gay wedding—herself the bride—the marriage +jaunt to her husband’s home in a distant county; the incidents +of the journey; her arrival at her new home; her sickness and death; +the funeral procession back to Oaklands; the open grave; the bearers +of her bier—those who a few weeks before had danced at her wedding;—herself +a corpse in her bridal dress; her newly turfed grave +with a bird singing in the tree above.</p> + +<p>This vision produced such an impression she awakened her sister, +and told it.</p> + +<p>Three successive nights the vision appeared, which so affected her +spirits she determined not to marry. But after some months, persuaded +by her family to think no more of the dream which continually +haunted her, the marriage took place.</p> + +<p>All was a realization of the vision; the wedding; the journey to +her new home; every incident, however small, had been presented +before her in the dream.</p> + +<p>As the bridal party approached the house of an old lady near +Abingdon—who had made preparations for their entertainment,—servants +were hurrying to and fro in great excitement, and one was +galloping off for a doctor, as the old lady had been suddenly seized +with a violent illness. Even this was another picture in the ill-omened +vision of the bride, who found every day something occurring +to remind her of it, until in six months her own death made the last +sad scene of her dream. And the funeral procession back to Oaklands; +the persons officiating; the grave, all proved a realization of +her vision.</p> + +<p>After this her husband—a man of true Christian character—sought +in foreign lands to disperse the gloom overshadowing his life. But +whether on the summit of Mount Blanc or the lava-crusted Vesuvius; +among the classic hills of Rome or the palaces of France; in the art +galleries of Italy or the regions of the Holy Land, he carried ever in +his heart, the image of his fair bride and the quiet grave at Oaklands.</p> + +<p>This gentleman still survives, and not long ago we heard him relate, +in charming voice and style, the incidents of these travels.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2> + +<p>Another charming residence, not far from Oaklands, which attracted +visitors from various quarters, was Buena Vista, where we passed +many happy hours of childhood.</p> + +<p>This residence—large and handsome—was situated on an eminence, +overlooking pastures and sunny slopes, with forests, and +mountain views in the distance.</p> + +<p>The interior of the house accorded with the outside, every article +being elegant and substantial.</p> + +<p>The owner—a gentleman of polished manners, kind and generous +disposition, a sincere Christian and zealous churchman—was honored +and beloved by all who knew him.</p> + +<p>His daughters—a band of lovely young girls—presided over his +house, dispensing its hospitality with grace and dignity. Their +mother’s death occurring when they were very young had given them +household cares, which would have been considerable, but for the +assistance of Uncle Billy, the butler—an all-important character presiding +with imposing dignity over domestic affairs.</p> + +<p>His jet black face was relieved by a head of grey hair with a small +round bald centre piece; and the expression of his face was calm and +serene, as he presided over the pantry, the table and the tea-waiters.</p> + +<p>His mission on earth seemed to be keeping the brightest silver +urns, sugar-dishes, cream-jugs and spoons; flavoring the best ice +creams; buttering the hottest rolls, muffins and waffles; chopping the +best salads; folding the whitest napkins; handing the best tea and +cakes in the parlor in the evenings, and cooling the best wine for the +decanters at dinner. Indeed he was so essentially a part of the +establishment, that in recalling those old days at Buena Vista, the +form of “Uncle Billy” comes silently back from the past and takes its +old place about the parlors, the halls and the dining-room, making +the picture complete.</p> + +<p>And thus upon the canvas of every old home picture come to their +accustomed places, the forms of dusky friends, who once shared our +homes, our firesides, our affections—and who will share them, as in +the past, never more.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Of all the Plantation Homes we loved and visited, the brightest, +sweetest memories cluster around Grove Hill; a grand old place in +the midst of scenery lovely and picturesque, to reach which, we made +a journey across the Blue Ridge—those giant mountains from whose +winding road and lofty heights we had glimpses of exquisite scenery +in the valleys below.</p> + +<p>Thus winding slowly around these mountain heights and peeping +down from our old carriage windows we beheld nature in its wildest +luxuriance. The deep solitude; the glowing sunlight over rock, forest +and glen; the green valleys deep down beneath, diversified by +alternate light and shadow—all together photographed on our hearts +pictures never to fade.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>Not all the towers, minarets, obelisks, palaces, gem-studded domes +of “art and man’s device” can reach the soul like one of these sun-tinted +pictures in their convex frames of rock and vines!</p> + +<p>Arrived at Grove Hill, how enthusiastic the welcome from each +member of the family assembled in the front porch to meet us! How +joyous the laugh! How deliciously cool the wide halls, the spacious +parlor, the dark polished walnut floors! How bright the flowers! +How gay the spirits of all assembled there!</p> + +<p>One was sure of meeting here agreeable society from Virginia, +Baltimore, Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky, with whom the +house was filled from May ’till November.</p> + +<p>How delightfully passed the days, the weeks! What merry excursions; +fishing parties; riding parties, to the Indian Spring, the +Cave, the Natural Bridge! What pleasant music, and tableaux, and +dancing in the evenings!</p> + +<p>For the tableaux, we had only to open an old chest in the garret +and help ourselves to rich embroidered, white and scarlet dresses, +with other costumery worn by the grandmother of the family nearly +a hundred years before, when her husband was in public life and she +one of the queens of society.</p> + +<p>What sprightly “conversazioni” in our rooms at night—young girls +<i>will</i> become confidential and eloquent with each other at night, however +reserved and quiet during the day!</p> + +<p>Late in the night these “conversazioni” continued, with puns and +laughter, until checked by a certain young gentleman—now a minister—who +was wont to bring out his flute in the flower garden under +our windows, and give himself up for an hour or more to the most +sentimental and touching strains, thus breaking in upon sprightly remarks +and repartees, some of which are remembered to this day, +especially one which ran thus:</p> + +<p>“Girls!” said one. “Would it not be charming if we could all +take a trip together to Niagara?”</p> + +<p>“Well, why could we not?” was the response.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” replied another, “the idea of us poor Virginia girls taking a +trip!”</p> + +<p>“Indeed,” said one of the Grove Hill girls, “it would be impossible. +For here are we on this immense estate, 4,000 acres, two large, handsome +residences—and three hundred negroes—<i>considered</i> wealthy, +and yet to save our lives could not raise money enough for a trip to +New York!”</p> + +<p>“Nor get a silk velvet cloak!” said her sister, laughing.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied the other. “Girls! I have been longing and longing +for a silk velvet cloak, but never could get the money to buy one. +But last Sunday, at the village church, what should I see but one of +the Joneses sweeping in with a long velvet cloak almost touching +the floor! And you could set her father’s house in our back hall! +But then she is so fortunate as to own no negroes.”</p> + +<p>“What a happy girl she must be!” cried a chorus of voices. “No +negroes to support! <i>We</i> could go to New York and Niagara, and +have velvet cloaks too, if we only had no negroes to support! But +all <i>our</i> money goes to provide for them as soon as the crops are sold!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Yes,” said one of the Grove Hill girls; “here is our large house +without an article of modern furniture. The parlor curtains are one +hundred years old. The old fashioned mirrors and recess tables one +hundred years old, and we long in vain for money to buy something +new.”</p> + +<p>“Well!” said one of the sprightliest girls, “we can get up some of +our old diamond rings or breastpins which some of us have inherited, +and travel on appearances! We have no modern clothes, but the +old rings will make us ‘<i>look</i> rich!’ And a party of <i>poor, rich Virginians</i> +will attract the commiseration and consideration of the world when +it is known that for generations we have not been able to leave our +plantations!”</p> + +<p>After these conversations we would fall asleep and sleep profoundly, +until aroused next morning by an army of servants polishing the +hall floors, waxing and rubbing them with a long-handle brush, +weighted by an oven lid. This made the floor like a “sea of glass,” +and dangerous to walk upon immediately after the polishing process, +being especially disastrous to small children, who were continually +slipping and falling before breakfast.</p> + +<p>The lady presiding over this establishment possessed a cultivated +mind, bright conversational powers and gentle temper, with a force +of character which enabled her to direct judiciously the affairs of her +household, as well as the training and education of her children.</p> + +<p>She employed always an accomplished gentleman teacher, who +added to the agreeability of her home circle.</p> + +<p>She helped the boys with their Latin and the girls with their compositions. +In her quiet way she governed, controlled, suggested +everything; so that her presence was required everywhere at once.</p> + +<p>While in the parlor entertaining her guests with bright, agreeable +conversation, she was sure to be wanted by the cooks—there were +six!—to “taste or flavor” something in the kitchen; or by the gardener +to direct the planting of certain seeds or roots, and so with every +department. Even the minister—there was always one living in her +house—would call her out to consult over his text and sermon for +the next Sunday, saying he could rely upon her judgment and discrimination.</p> + +<p>Never thinking of herself, her heart overflowing with sympathy +and interest for others, she entered into the pleasures of the young +as well as the sorrows of the old.</p> + +<p>If the boys came in from a fox or deer chase, their pleasure was +incomplete until it had been described to her and enjoyed with her +again.</p> + +<p>The flower vases were never entirely beautiful until her hand had +helped to arrange the flowers.</p> + +<p>The girls’ laces were never perfect until she had gathered and +crimped them.</p> + +<p>Her sons were never so happy as when holding her hand and +caressing her. And the summer twilight found her always in the +vine-covered porch seated by her husband—a dear, kind old gentleman—her +hand resting in his, while he quietly and happily smoked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +his pipe, after the day’s riding over his plantation, interviewing overseers, +millers, blacksmiths and settling up accounts.</p> + +<p>One more reminiscence and the Grove Hill picture will be done. +No Virginia home being complete without some prominent negro +character, the picture lacking this would be untrue to nature, and +without the “finishing touch.” And not to have “stepped in” to pay +our respects to old “Aunt Betsy” during a visit to Grove Hill, would +have been considered—as it should be to omit it here—a great breach +of civility; for the old woman always received us at her door with a +cordial welcome and a hearty shake of the hand.</p> + +<p>“Lor’ bless de childen!” she would say. “How they does grow! +Done grown up young ladies! Set down, honey. I mighty glad to +see you. And why didn’t your ma (Miss Fanny) come? I would +love to see Miss Fanny. She always was so good and so pretty. +Seems to me it ain’t been no time sence she and Miss Emma”—her +own mistress—“used to play dolls together, an’ I used to bake sweet +cakes for ’em, and cut ’em out wid de pepper-box top, for thar doll +parties; an’ they loved each other like sisters.”</p> + +<p>“Well, Aunt Betsy,” we would ask, “how is your rheumatism now?”</p> + +<p>“Lor’, honey, I nuver specs to git over that. But some days I can +hobble out and feed de chickens; and I can set at my window and +make de black childen feed ’em, an’ I love to think I’m some account +to Miss Emma. And Miss Emma’s childen can’t do without old +‘Mammy Betsy,’ for I takes care of all thar pet chickens. Me and +my old man (Phil) gittin mighty ole now; but Miss Emma and all +her childen so good to us we has pleasure in livin’ yet.”</p> + +<p>At last the shadows began to fall dark and chill upon this once +bright and happy home.</p> + +<p>Old Aunt Betsy lived to see the four boys—her mistress’ brave and +noble sons—buckle their armor on and go forth to battle for the home +they loved so well; the youngest, still so young that he loved his pet +chickens, which were left to “Mammy Betsy’s” special care; and +when the sad news, at length, came that this favorite young master +was killed, amid all the agony of grief, no heart felt more sincerely, +than her’s, the great sorrow.</p> + +<p>Another, and still another of these noble youths fell, after deeds of +valor unparalleled in the world’s history—their graves the battlefield, +a place of burial fit for men so brave. Only one—the youngest—was +brought home to find a resting place beside the graves of his +ancestors.</p> + +<p>The old man—their father, his mind shattered by grief—continued +day after day, for several years, to sit in the vine-covered porch, +gazing wistfully out, imagining sometimes he saw in the distance +the manly forms of his noble sons, returning home, mounted on their +favorite horses, in the gray uniforms and bright armor worn the day +they went off.</p> + +<p>Then, he too followed, where the “din of war, the clash of arms” +is heard no more.</p> + +<p>To recall these scenes so blinds my eyes with tears that I can not +write of them. Some griefs leave the heart dumb. They have no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +language; and are given no language, because no other heart could +understand, nor could they if shared, be alleviated.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2> + +<p>It will have been observed from these reminiscences that the mistress +of a Virginia plantation was more conspicuous—although not +more important—than the master. In the house she was the mainspring, +and to her came all the hundred, or three hundred negroes +with their various wants, and constant applications for medicine and +every conceivable requirement.</p> + +<p>Attending to these, with directing her household affairs and entertaining +company, occupied busily every moment of her life. While +all these devolved upon her, it sometimes seemed to me that the +master had nothing to do, but ride around his estate—on the most +delightful horse—receive reports from overseers, see that his pack of +hounds were fed and order “repairs about the mill”—the mill seemed +always needing repairs!</p> + +<p>This view of the subject, however, being entirely from a feminine +standpoint, may have been wholly erroneous; for doubtless his mind +was burdened with financial matters too weighty to be grasped and +comprehended by our sex.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the mistress held complete sway in her own domain; +and that this fact was recognized will be shown by the following incident:</p> + +<p>A gentleman—an intelligent and successful lawyer—one day discovering +a negro boy in some mischief about his house, and determining +forthwith to chastise him, took him in the yard for that purpose. +Breaking a small switch, and in the act of “coming down +with it” upon the boy, he asked: “Do you know, sir, who is master +on my place?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir!” quickly replied the boy. “Miss Charlotte, sir!”</p> + +<p>Throwing aside the switch, the gentleman ran in the house, laughed +a half hour, and thus ended his only experiment at interfering in +his wife’s domain.</p> + +<p>His wife, “Miss Charlotte,” as the negroes called her, was gentle +and indulgent to a fault, which made the incident more amusing.</p> + +<p>It may appear singular, yet it is true, that our women, although +having sufficient self-possession at home, and accustomed there +to command on a large scale, became painfully timid if ever they +found themselves in a promiscuous or public assemblage—shrinking +from everything like publicity.</p> + +<p>Still, these women, to whom a whole plantation looked up for +guidance and instruction, could not fail to feel a certain consciousness +of superiority, which, although never displayed or asserted in +manner, became a part of themselves. They were distinguishable +everywhere—for what reason, exactly, I have never been able to find +out—for their manners were too quiet to attract attention. Yet a +Captain on a Mississippi steamboat said to me: “I always know a +Virginia lady as soon as she steps on my boat.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>“How do you know?” I asked, supposing he would say: “By their +plain style of dress and antiquated breastpins.”</p> + +<p>Said he: “I’ve been running a boat from Cincinnati to New Orleans +for twenty-five years, and often have three hundred passengers from +various parts of the world. But if there is a Virginia lady among +them, I find it out in half an hour. They take things quietly, and +don’t complain. Do you see that English lady over there? Well, +she has been complaining all the way up the Mississippi river. Nobody +can please her. The cabin-maid and steward are worn out +with trying to please her. She says it is because the mosquitoes bit +her so badly coming through Louisiana. But we are almost at Cincinnati +now; haven’t seen a mosquito for a week, and she is still +complaining!”</p> + +<p>“Then,” he continued, “the Virginia ladies look as if they could +not push about for themselves, and for this reason I always feel like +giving them more attention than the other passengers.”</p> + +<p>“We are inexperienced travelers,” I replied.</p> + +<p>And these remarks of the Captain convinced me—I had thought it +before—that Virginia women should never undertake to travel, but +content themselves with staying at home. However, such restriction +would have been unfair, unless they had felt like the Parisian +who, when asked why the Parisians never traveled, replied: “Because +all the world comes to Paris!”</p> + +<p>Indeed, a Virginian had an opportunity of seeing much choice society +at home; for our watering places attracted the best people from +other States, who often visited us at our houses.</p> + +<p>On the Mississippi boat to which I have alluded, it was remarked +that the negro servants paid the Southerners more constant and +deferential attention than the passengers from the non-slaveholding +States—although some of the latter were very agreeable and intelligent, +and conversed with the negroes on terms of easy familiarity—showing, +what I had often observed, that the negro respects and admires +those who make a “social distinction” more than those who +make none.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></h2> + +<p>We were surprised to find in an “Ode to the South,” by Mr. M. F. +Tupper, published recently, the following stanza:</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Yes it is slander to say you oppress’d them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Does a man squander the prize of his pelf.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was it not often that he who possessed them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rather was owned by his servants himself?”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>This was true, but that it was known in the outside world we +thought impossible, when all the newspaper and book accounts represented +us as “miserable sinners” for whom there was no hope here +or hereafter, and called upon all nations, Christian and civilized, to +“revile, persecute and exterminate us.” Such representations, however, +differed so widely from the facts around us, that when we heard +them they failed to produce a very serious impression, occasioning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +often only a smile, with the exclamation: “How little those people +know about us!”</p> + +<p>We had not the vanity to think that the European nations cared +or thought about us, and if the Americans believed these accounts, +they defamed the memory of one held up by them as a model of +Christian virtue,—George Washington—a Virginia slave-owner, +whose kindness to his “people,” as he called his slaves, entitled him +to as much honor as did his deeds of prowess.</p> + +<p>But to return to the two last lines of the stanza:</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Was it not often that he who possessed them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rather was owned by his servants himself?”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>I am reminded of some who were actually held in such bondage; +especially an old gentleman who, together with his whole plantation, +was literally “possessed by his slaves.”</p> + +<p>This gentleman was a widower, and no lady presided over his +house.</p> + +<p>His figure was of medium height, and very corpulent. His features +were regular and handsome. His eyes were soft brown, almost +black. His hair was slightly gray. The expression of his countenance +was so full of goodness and sympathy, that a stranger meeting +him in the road might have been convinced at a glance of his kindness +and generosity.</p> + +<p>He was never very particular about his dress, yet never appeared +shabby.</p> + +<p>Although a graduate in law at the University, an ample fortune +made it unnecessary for him to practice this profession. Still his +taste for literature made him a constant reader, and his conversation +was instructive and agreeable.</p> + +<p>His house was old and rambling, and—I was going to say his +servants kept the keys, when I remembered there were <i>no keys</i> about +the establishment. Even the front door had no lock upon it. Everybody +retired at night in perfect confidence, however, that everything +was secure enough, and it seemed not important to lock the doors.</p> + +<p>The negro servants who managed the house were very efficient; +excelling especially in the culinary department, and serving up +dinners which were simply “marvels.”</p> + +<p>The superabundance on the place enabled them not only to furnish +their master’s table with the choicest meats, vegetables, cakes, pastries, +&c., but also to supply themselves bountifully, and to spread in their +own cabins sumptuous feasts, wedding and party suppers rich enough +for a queen.</p> + +<p>To this their master did not object, for he told them “if they would +supply his table always with an abundance of the best bread, meats, +cream and butter, he cared not what became of the rest.”</p> + +<p>Upon this principle the plantation was conducted. The well-filled +barns; the stores of bacon, lard, flour, &c., literally belonged to the +negroes, they allowing their master a certain share!</p> + +<p>Doubtless they entertained the sentiment of a negro boy, who on +being reproved by his master for having stolen and eaten a turkey, +replied: “Well, massa, you see you got less turkey, but you got dat +much more nigger!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + +<p>While we were once visiting at this plantation, the master of the +house described to us a dairy just completed on a new plan, which +for some weeks had been such a hobby with him, he had actually purchased +a lock for it, saying he would keep the key himself—which +he never did—and have the fresh mutton always put there.</p> + +<p>“Come,” said he, as he finished describing it, “let us go down and +look at it.”</p> + +<p>“Bring me the key,” he said to a small African, who soon brought +it, and we proceeded to the dairy.</p> + +<p>Turning the key in the door, the old gentleman said: “Now see +what an elegant piece of mutton I have here!”</p> + +<p>But on entering and looking around no mutton was to be seen, and +instead thereof buckets of custard, cream and blanc-mange. The +old gentleman greatly disconcerted, called to one of the servants, +“Florinda! Where is my mutton I had put here this morning?”</p> + +<p>Florinda replied: “Nancy took it out, sir, and put it in de ole spring +house. She say dat was cool enough place for mutton. And she +gwine have a big party to-night, and want her jelly and custards to +keep cool!”</p> + +<p>At this the old gentleman was rapidly becoming provoked, when +we laughed so much at Nancy’s “cool” proceeding, that his usual +good nature was restored.</p> + +<p>On another occasion we were one evening sitting with this gentleman +in his front porch, when a poor woman from the neighboring village +came in the yard, and stopping before the door, said to him:</p> + +<p>“Mr. R. I came to tell you that my cow you gave me has died.”</p> + +<p>“What did you say, my good woman?” asked Mr. R., who was +quite deaf.</p> + +<p>The woman repeated in a louder voice, “The cow you gave me has +died. And she died because I didn’t have anything to feed her with.”</p> + +<p>Turning to us, his countenance full of compassion, he said: “I +ought to have thought about that, and should have sent the food for +her cow.” Then speaking to the woman: “Well, my good woman, +I will give you another cow to-morrow, and send you plenty of provision +for her.” And the following day he fulfilled his promise.</p> + +<p>Another incident occurs to me, showing the generous heart of this +truly good man. One day on the Virginia and Tennessee train observing +a gentleman and lady in much trouble, he ventured to enquire +of them the cause, and was informed they—the gentleman and his +wife—had lost all their money and their railroad tickets at the last +station.</p> + +<p>He asked the gentleman where he was from, and on “what side +he was during the war.”</p> + +<p>“I am from Georgia,” replied the gentleman, “and was, of course, +with the South.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Mr. R., pulling from his capacious pocket a capacious +purse, which he handed the gentleman, “help yourself, sir, and take +as much as will be necessary to carry you home.”</p> + +<p>The astonished stranger thanked him sincerely, and handed his +card, saying: “I will return the money as soon as I reach home.”</p> + +<p>Returned to his own home, and relating the incidents of his trip,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +Mr. R. mentioned this, when one of his nephews laughed and said: +“Well, Uncle R., we Virginia people are so easily imposed upon! +You don’t think that man will ever return your money <i>do</i> you?”</p> + +<p>“My dear,” replied his Uncle, looking at him reproachfully and +sinking his voice, “I was fully repaid by the change which came over +the man’s countenance.”</p> + +<p>It is due to the Georgian to add that on reaching home, he returned +the money with a letter of thanks.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>In sight of the hospitable home of Mr. R. was another equally attractive +owned by his brother-in-law, Mr. B. These had the same +name—Greenfield—the property having descended to two sisters, the +wives of these gentlemen. They might have been called twin establishments, +as one was almost a fac simile of the other. At both was +found the same hospitality; the same polished floors; the same style +of loaf-bread and velvet rolls. The only difference between the two +being that Mr. B. kept his doors locked at night; observed more system, +and kept his buggies and carriages in better repair.</p> + +<p>These gentlemen were also perfectly congenial. Both had graduated +in law; read the same books; were members of the same +church; knew the same people; liked and disliked the same people; +held the same political opinions; enjoyed the same old Scotch songs; +repeated the same old English poetry; smoked the same kind of tobacco, +in the same kind of pipes; abhorred alike intoxicating drinks, +and deplored the increase of bar-rooms and drunkenness in our land.</p> + +<p>For forty years they passed together a part of every day or evening, +smoking and talking over the same events and people. It was +a picture to see them at night over a blazing wood fire, their faces +bright with good nature; and a treat to hear all their reminiscences +of people and events long passed. With what circumstantiality +could they recall old law cases; describe old duels, old political animosities +and excitements! What merry laughs they sometimes had!</p> + +<p>Everything on one of these plantations seemed to belong equally +to the other. If the ice gave out at one place, the servants went to +the other for it as a “matter of course;” or if the buggies or carriages +were out of order at Mr. R.’s—which was often the case—the driver +would go over for Mr. B.’s without even mentioning the circumstance, +and so with everything. The families lived thus harmoniously with +never the least interruption for forty years.</p> + +<p>Now and then the old gentlemen enjoyed a practical joke on each +other, and on one occasion Mr R. succeeded so effectually in quizzing +Mr B. that whenever he thought of it afterwards he fell into a dangerous +fit of laughter.</p> + +<p>It happened that a man who had married a distant connection of +the Greenfield family concluded to take his wife, children and servants +to pass the summer there, dividing the time between the two +houses. The manners, character and political proclivities of this visitor +became so disagreeable to the old gentleman, they determined he +should not repeat his visit, although they liked his wife. One day +Mr. B. received a letter signed by this objectionable individual—it +had really been written by Mr. R.—informing Mr. B. that, “as one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +the children was sick, and the physician advised country air he +would be there the following Thursday with his whole family to stay +some months.”</p> + +<p>“The impudent fellow!” exclaimed Mr. B. as soon as he read the +letter. “He knows how R. and myself detest him! Still I am sorry +for his wife. But I will not be dragooned and outgeneraled by that +contemptible fellow. No! I will leave home to-day!”</p> + +<p>Going to the back door he called in a loud voice for his coachman, +and ordered his carriage. “I am going” said he, “to Grove Hill for +a week and from there to Lexington with my whole family, and don’t +know when I shall be at home again.”</p> + +<p>“It is very inconvenient,” said he to his wife, “but I must leave +home.”</p> + +<p>Hurrying up the carriage, and the family they were soon off on +their unexpected trip.</p> + +<p>They stayed at Grove Hill, seven miles off, a week, during which +time Mr. B. every morning mounted his horse and rode timidly +around the outskirts of his own plantation, peeping over the hills at +his house, but afraid to venture nearer, feeling assured it was occupied +by the objectionable party. He would not even make enquiries +of his negroes whom he met, as to the state and condition of things +in his house.</p> + +<p>Concluding to pursue his journey to Lexington and half way there, +he met a young nephew of Mr. R.’s, who happened to know all about +the quiz, and immediately suspecting the reason of Mr. B.’s exile from +home enquired where he was going, how long he had been from home, +&c. Soon guessing the truth and thinking the “joke had been carried +far enough,” he told the old gentleman he need not travel any +further for it was all a quiz of his uncle’s, and there was no one at +his house. Thereupon, Mr. B. greatly relieved, turned back and +went his way home rejoicing, but “determined to pay R.” he said, +“for such a practical joke, which had exiled him from home and given +him such trouble.” This caused many a good laugh whenever it was +told, throughout the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>The two estates of which I am writing, were well named—Greenfield, +for the fields and meadows were of the freshest green, and with +majestic hills around and the fine cattle and horses grazing upon +them, formed a noble landscape.</p> + +<p>This land had descended in the same family since the Indian camp +fires ceased to burn there, and the same forests were still untouched, +where once stood the Indian’s wigwams.</p> + +<p>In this connection, I am reminded of a tradition in the Greenfield +family, which showed the heroism of a Virginia boy:</p> + +<p>The first white proprietor of this place, the great grandfather of the +present owners, had also a large estate in Montgomery county, called +Smithfield, where his family lived, and where was a fort for the +protection of the whites, when attacked by the Indians.</p> + +<p>Once, while the owner was at his Greenfield place, the Indians +surrounded Smithfield, when the white women and children took +refuge in the fort, and the men prepared for battle. They wanted +the proprietor of Smithfield to help fight and take command, for he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +was a brave man, but could not spare a man to carry him the news. +So they concluded to send one of his young sons, a lad thirteen years +old, who did not hesitate but mounting a fleet horse set off after dark +and rode all night through dense forests filled with hostile Indians, +reaching Greenfield, a distance of forty miles next morning. He +soon returned with his father, and the Indians were repulsed. And +I always thought that boy was courageous enough for his name to +live in history.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>The Indians afterwards told that the whole day before the fight +several of their chiefs had been concealed near the Smithfield house, +under a large hay stack, upon which the white children had been +sliding and playing all day, little suspecting the gleaming tomahawks +and savage men beneath.</p> + +<p>From the Greenfield estate in Botetourt and the one adjacent went +the ancestors of the Prestons and Breckinridges, who made these +names distinguished in South Carolina and Kentucky. And on this +place are the graves of the first Breckinridges who emigrated to this +country.</p> + +<p>All who visited at the homesteads just described retained ever after +a recollection of the superbly cooked meats, bread, &c., seen upon +the tables at both houses—there being at each place five or six negro +cooks, who had been taught by their mistresses the highest style of +the art.</p> + +<p>During the summer season several of these cooks were hired at the +different watering places, where they acquired great fame and made +for themselves a considerable sum of money by selling recipes.</p> + +<p>A lady of the Greenfield family, who married and went to Georgia, +told me she had often tried to make velvet rolls like those she had +been accustomed to see at her own home, but never succeeded. Her +mother and aunt who had taught these cooks, having died many +years before, she had to apply to the negroes for information on such +subjects, and they, she said, would never show her the right way to +make them. Finally, while visiting at a house in Georgia, this lady +was surprised to see the very velvet rolls, like those at her home.</p> + +<p>“Where did you get the recipe?” she soon asked the lady of the +house, who replied, “I bought it from old Aunt Rose, a colored cook, +at the Virginia Springs, and paid her five dollars.”</p> + +<p>“One of our own cooks and my mother’s recipe,” exclaimed the +other, “and I had to come all the way to Georgia to get it, for Aunt +Rose never would show me exactly how to make them!”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2> + +<p>Not far from Greenfield was a place called “Rustic Lodge.”</p> + +<p>This house surrounded by a forest of grand old oaks, was not large +or handsome. But its inmates were ladies and gentlemen of the old +English style.</p> + +<p>The grandmother, about ninety years of age, had been in her youth +one of the belles at the Williamsburg Court in old colonial days. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +daughter of Sir Dudley Digges, and descended from English nobility, +she had been accustomed to the best society. Her manners and conversation +were dignified and attractive.</p> + +<p>Among reminiscences of colonial times, she remembered Lord +Botetourt, of whom she related interesting incidents.</p> + +<p>The son of this old lady, about sixty years of age, and the proprietor +of the estate, was a true picture of the “old English gentleman.” +His manners, conversation, thread-cambric shirt frills, cuffs and +long queue tied with a black ribbon, made the picture complete. +His two daughters, young ladies of exquisite refinement, had been +brought up by their aunt and grandmother to observe strictly all the +proprieties of life.</p> + +<p>This establishment was proverbial for its order and method, the +most systematic rules being in force everywhere. The meals were +served punctually at the same instant every day. Old “Aunt Nelly” +dressed and undressed her old mistress always at the same hour. A +gentle “tapping at the chamber door”—not by the “raven,” but the +cook—called the mistress to an interview at the same moment every +morning with that functionary, which resulted in the choicest +dinners, breakfasts and suppers; this interview lasting half an hour +and never repeated during the day.</p> + +<p>Exactly at the same hour every morning the old gentleman’s horse +was saddled, and he entered the neighboring village so promptly as +to enable some of the inhabitants to set their clocks by him.</p> + +<p>This family had possessed great wealth in Eastern Virginia during +the colonial government under which many of its members held high +offices.</p> + +<p>But impoverished by high living, entertaining company and a +heavy British debt, they had been reduced in their possessions to +about fifty negroes, with only money enough to purchase this plantation +upon which they had retired from the gay and charming society +of Williamsburg. They carried with them, however, some remains +of their former grandeur: old silver, old jewelry, old books, old and +well-trained servants, and an old English coach, which was the curiosity +of all other vehicular curiosities. How the family ever climbed +into it, or got out of it, and how the driver ever reached the dizzy +height upon which he sat, was the mystery of my childhood.</p> + +<p>But although egg-shaped and suspended in mid-air, this coach had +doubtless, in its day, been one of considerable renown, drawn by +four horses, with footman, postillion and driver in English livery.</p> + +<p>How sad must have been its reflections on finding itself shorn of +these respectable surroundings, and after the revolution drawn by +two Republican horses, with footman and driver dressed in Republican +jeans!</p> + +<p>Strange that it could have lived on and on thus Republicanized!</p> + +<p>A great uncle of this family, unlike the coach never would become +Republicanized, and his obstinate loyalty to the English crown, with +his devotion to everything English gained for him the title “English +Louis,” by which name he is spoken of in the family to this day. An +old lady told me not long ago that she remembered when a child the +arrival of “English Louis” at “Rustic” one night, and his conversa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>tion +as they sat around the fire, how he deplored a Republican form +of government, and the misfortunes which would result from it saying:</p> + +<p>“All may go smoothly for about seventy years, when civil war will +set in. First, it will be about these negro slaves we have around us, +and after that it will be something else.” And how true “English +Louis’” prediction has proven.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>Doubtless this gentleman was avoided and proscribed on account +of his English proclivities. For at that day the spirit of Republicanism +and hatred to England ran high; so that an old gentleman—one +of our relatives whom I well remember—actually took from his parlor +walls his coat of arms which had been brought by his grandfather +from England, and carrying it out in his yard built a fire and collecting +his children around it, to see it burn, said: “Thus let everything +English perish!”</p> + +<p>Should I say what I think of this proceeding, I would not be considered +perhaps a true Republican patriot.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>I cannot forget to mention in the catalogue of pleasant homes, +Smithfield in Montgomery county, the county which flows with healing +waters.</p> + +<p>Smithfield, like Greenfield, is owned by the descendants of the first +white family who settled there after the Indians, and its verdant pastures, +noble forests, mountain streams and springs, with the superb +cattle on its hills form a prospect, wondrously beautiful.</p> + +<p>This splendid estate descended to three brothers, who equally divided +it; the eldest keeping the homestead, and the others building +attractive homes on their separate plantations.</p> + +<p>The old homestead was quite antique in appearance. Inside the +high mantlepieces reaching nearly to the ceiling, which was also +high, and the high wainscotting together with the old furniture made +a picture of the olden time.</p> + +<p>When I first visited this place, the old grandmother, then eighty +years of age, was living. She, like the old lady at “Rustic,” had +been a belle in Eastern Virginia in her youth. When she married +the owner of Smithfield sixty years before, she made the “bridal +jaunt” from Norfolk to this place on horseback, two hundred miles. +Still exceedingly intelligent and interesting, she entertained us with +various incidents of her early life, and wished to hear all the old +songs which she had then heard and sung herself.</p> + +<p>“When I was married” said she, “and came first to Smithfield my +husband’s sisters met me in the porch, and were shocked at my pale and +delicate appearance. One of them whispering to her brother, asked, +‘Why did you bring that ghost up here?’ And now,” continued +the old lady, “I have outlived all who were in the house that day, +and all my own and my husband’s family.”</p> + +<p>This was an evidence certainly of the health restoring properties of +the water and climate in this region.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>The houses of these three brothers were filled with company winter +and summer, making within themselves a delightful society. The +visitors at one house were equally visitors at the others, and the +succession of dinner and evening parties from one to the other, made +it difficult for a visitor to decide at whose particular house he was +staying.</p> + +<p>One of these brothers had married a lovely lady from South Carolina, +whose perfection of character and disposition endeared her to +every one who knew her. Everybody felt like loving her the moment +they saw her, and the more they knew her the more they loved her. +Her warm heart was ever full of other people’s troubles or joys, never +thinking of herself. In her house many an invalid was cheered by +her tender care; and many a drooping heart revived by her bright +Christian spirit. She never omitted an opportunity of pointing the +way to heaven; and although surrounded by all the allurements +which gay society and wealth could bring, she did not depart an instant +from the quiet path which leads to heaven. In the midst of +bright and happy surroundings, her thoughts and hopes were constantly +centered upon the life above; and her conversation—which +was the reflex of her heart—reverted ever to this theme, which she +made attractive to old and young.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2> + +<p>In the region of country just described and in the counties beyond +abound the finest mineral springs, one or more being found on every +plantation. At one place were seven different springs, and the servants +had a habit of asking the guests and family whether they would +have—before breakfast—a glass of White Sulphur, Yellow Sulphur, +Black Sulphur, Alleghany, Alum, or Limestone water!</p> + +<p>The old Greenbriar White Sulphur was a favorite place of resort +for Eastern Virginians and South Carolinians at a very early date, +when it was accessible only by private conveyances, and all who +passed the summer there went in private carriages. In this way, +certain old Virginia and South Carolina families met every season, +and these old people told us that society there was never as good, +after the railroads and stages brought “all sorts of people, from all +sorts of places.” This, of course, we knew nothing about from experience, +and it sounded rather egotistical in the old people to say so, +but that is what they said.</p> + +<p>Indeed these “old folks” talked so much about what “used to be in +their day” at the old White Sulphur, I found it hard to convince myself +I had not been bodily present, seeing with my own eyes certain +knee-buckled old gentlemen, with long queues, and certain Virginia +and South Carolina belles attired in short-waisted, simple white cambrics, +who passed the summers there. These white cambrics, we +were told, had been carried in minute trunks behind the carriages; +and were considered, with a few jewels and a long black or white +lace veil thrown over the head and shoulders, a complete outfit for +the reigning belles! Another curiosity was, that these white cam<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>bric +dresses—our grandmothers told us—required very little “doing +up;” one such having been worn by Mrs. General Washington—so +her granddaughter told me—a whole week without requiring washing! +It must have been an age of remarkable women, and remarkable +cambrics! How little they dreamed then of an era when Saratoga +trunks would be indispensable to ladies of much smaller means +than Virginia and South Carolina belles!</p> + +<p>To reach these counties flowing with mineral waters the families +from Eastern Virginia and from South Carolina passed through a +beautiful region known as Piedmont, Va., and those who had “kinsfolk +or acquaintance” here usually stopped to make them a visit. +Consequently the Piedmont Virginians were generally too busy entertaining +summer guests to visit the springs themselves. But indeed +why should they? For no more salubrious climate could be found +than their own; and no scenery more grand and beautiful. But it +was necessary for the tide-water Virginians to leave their homes +every summer on account of chills and fevers.</p> + +<p>In the lovely Piedmont region over which the “Peaks of Otter” +rear their giant heads, and chains of blue mountains extend as far +as eye can reach, were scattered many pleasant and picturesque homes. +And in this section my grandfather bought a plantation, when the +ancestral estates had been sold, in the Eastern part of the State, to +repay the British debt, which estates, homesteads and tombstones +with their quaint inscriptions are described in Bishop Meade’s “Old +Churches and Families of Virginia.”</p> + +<p>While the tide water Virginians were already practicing all the +arts and wiles known to the highest English civilization; were sending +their sons to be educated in England; receiving brocaded silks +and powdered wigs from England; and dancing the minuet at the +Williamsburg balls with the families of the noblemen sent over to +govern the Colony, Piedmont, Virginia, was still a dense forest, the +abode of Indians and wild animals.</p> + +<p>It was not strange, then, that the Piedmont Virginians never arrived +at the opulent manner of living adopted by those on James and +York rivers, who, tradition tells us, went to such excess in high living, +as to have “hams boiled in champagne,” and of whom other traditions +have been handed down amusing and interesting. Although +the latter were in advance of the Piedmont Virginians in wealth and +social advantages, they were not superior to them in honor, virtue, +or kindness and hospitality.</p> + +<p>It has been remarked that, “when natural scenery is picturesque +there is in the human character something to correspond; impressions +made on the retina are really made on the soul, and the mind becomes +what it contemplates.”</p> + +<p>The same author continues: “A man is not only <i>like</i> what he sees, +but he <i>is</i> what he sees. The noble old Highlander has mountains in +his soul, whose towering peaks point heavenward; and lakes in his +bosom, whose glassy surface reflects the skies; and foaming cataracts +in his heart to beautify the mountain side and irrigate the vale; +and evergreen firs and mountain pines that show life and verdure +even under winter skies!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>“On the other hand,” he writes, “the wandering nomad has a +desert in his heart; its dead level reflects heat and hate; a sullen, +barren plain—no goodness, no beauty, no dancing wave of joy, no +gushing rivulet of love, no verdant hope. And it is an interesting +fact that those who live in countries where natural scenery inspires +the soul, and where the necessities of life bind to a permanent home, +are always patriotic and high minded; and those who dwell in the +desert are always pusillanimous and groveling!”</p> + +<p>If what this author writes be true, and the character of the Piedmont +Virginians accords with the scenery around them, how their +hearts must be filled with gentleness and charity inspired by the landscape +which stretches far and fades in softness against the sky! +How must their minds be filled with noble aspirations suggested by +the “everlasting mountains!” How their souls must be filled with +thoughts of heaven, as they look upon the glorious sunsets bathing the +mountains in “rose-colored light;” with the towering peaks ever +pointing heavenward and seeming to say: “Behold the glory of a +world beyond!”<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>Beneath the shadow of the “Peaks” were many happy homes and +true hearts, and among these memory recalls none more vividly than +“Otterburn” and its inmates.</p> + +<p>“Otterburn” was the residence of a gentleman and his wife, who, +having no children, devoted themselves to making their home attractive +to visitors, in which they succeeded so well that they were rarely +without company; for all who went once to see them went again +and again.</p> + +<p>This gentleman’s mind, character, accomplishments, manner and +appearance marked him “rare”—“one in a century.” Above his +fellow men in greatness of soul, he could comprehend nothing “mean.” +His stature was tall and erect; his features bold; his countenance +open and impressive; his mind vigorous and cultivated; his bearing +dignified, but not haughty; his manners simple and attractive; his +conversation so agreeable and enlivening that the dullest company +became animated as soon as he came into the room. Truth and +high-toned character were so unmistakably stamped upon him, that +knowing him a day convinced one he could be trusted forever. +Brought up in Scotland—the home of his ancestors—in him were +blended the best points of Scotch and Virginia character; strict integrity +and accuracy, with whole-souled generosity and hospitality.</p> + +<p>How many days and nights we passed at his house, and in childhood +and youth, how many hours were entertained by his bright +and instructive conversation! Especially delightful was it to hear +his stories about Scotland, which brought before us vividly pictures +of its lakes and mountains and castles. How often did we listen to +his account of the wedding tour to Scotland, when he carried his +Virginia bride to the old home at Greenock! And how often we +laughed about the Scotch children, his nieces and nephews, who on +first seeing his wife, clapped their hands and shouted, “Oh! mother,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +are you not glad uncle did not marry a black woman?” Hearing he +was to marry a Virginian, they expected to see a savage Indian or +negro! And some of the family who went to Liverpool to meet +them, and were looking through spy glasses when the vessel landed, +said they “were sure the Virginia lady had not come, because they +saw no one among the passengers dressed in a red shawl and gaudy +bonnet like an Indian!”</p> + +<p>From this we thought the Europeans must be very ignorant of our +country and its inhabitants—and have learned since that their children +are kept purposely ignorant of facts in regard to America and +its people.</p> + +<p>Among many other recollections of this dear old friend of “Otterburn,” +I shall never forget a dream he told us one night, which so impressed +us that before his death we asked him to write it out, which +he did, and as the copy is before me in his own handwriting, will +insert it here:</p> + +<p>“About the time I became of age, I returned to Virginia for the +purpose of looking after and settling my father’s estate. Three years +thereafter I received a letter from my only sister, informing me that +she was going to be married, and pressing me in the most urgent +manner to return to Scotland to be present at her marriage, and to +attend to the drawing of the marriage contract. The letter gave me +a good deal of trouble, as it did not suit me to leave Virginia at that +time. I went to bed one night thinking much on this subject, but +soon fell asleep and dreamed that I landed in Greenoch in the night +time, and pushed for home, thinking I would take my aunt and sister +by surprise.</p> + +<p>“When I arrived at the door, I found all still and quiet, and the out +door locked—I thought, however, that I had in my pocket my check +key, with which I quietly opened the door and groped my way into +the sitting-room, but finding no one there I concluded they had gone +to bed. I then went up stairs to their bed-room, and found that unoccupied. +I then concluded they had taken possession of my bed-room +in my absence, but not finding them there became very uneasy +about them. Then it struck me they might be in the guest’s chamber, +a room down stairs kept exclusively for company. Upon going there +I found the door partially open; I saw my aunt removing the burning +coals from the top of the grate preparatory to going to bed. My +sister was sitting up in bed, and as I entered the room, she fixed her +eyes upon me, but did not seem to recognize me. I approached towards +her, and in the effort to make myself known, awoke, and +found it all a dream. At breakfast next morning, I felt wearied and +sick, and could not eat; and told the family of my (dream) journey +the overnight.</p> + +<p>“I immediately commenced preparing, and in a very short time +returned to Scotland. I saw my sister married, and she and her husband +set off on their ‘marriage jaunt.’ About a month thereafter +they returned, and at dinner I commenced telling them of my dream, +but observing they had quit eating and were staring at me, I laughed, +and asked what was the matter; whereupon my brother-in-law very +seriously asked me to go on. When I finished they asked me if I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +remembered the exact time of my dream. I told them it distressed +and impressed me so strongly, that I noted it down at the time. I +pulled out my pocket-book and shewed them the date, ‘14th day of +May,’ written in pencil. They all rose from the table and took me +into the bed-room and shewed me written with pencil on the white +mantle piece ‘14th of May.’</p> + +<p>“I asked them what that meant, and was informed that on that +very night—and <i>the only night</i> they ever occupied that room during +my absence—my aunt was taking the coals off of the fire, when my +sister screamed out, ‘brother has come!’</p> + +<p>“My aunt scolded her, and said she was dreaming; but she said +she had not been to sleep, was sitting up in bed, and <i>saw me</i> enter +the room, and run out when she screamed. So confident was she +that she had seen me, and that I had gone off and hidden, that the +whole house was thoroughly searched for me, and as soon as day +dawned a messenger was sent to enquire if any vessel had arrived +from America, or if I had been seen by any of my friends.”</p> + +<p>No one can forget, who visited Otterburn, the smiling faces of the +negro servants about the house, who received the guests with as true +cordiality as did their mistress, expressing their pleasure by widespread +mouths showing white teeth—very white by contrast with +their jet black skin—and when the guests went away always insisted +on their remaining longer.</p> + +<p>One of these negro women was not only an efficient servant, but +a valued friend to her mistress.</p> + +<p>In the absence of her master and mistress she kept the keys, often +entertaining their friends, who in passing from distant plantations +were accustomed to stop, and who received from her a cordial welcome, +finding on the table as many delicacies as if the mistress had +been at home.</p> + +<p>No more sincere attachment could have existed than between this +mistress and servant. At last, when the latter was seized with a +contagious fever which ended her life, she could not have had a more +faithful friend and nurse than was her mistress.</p> + +<p>The same fever attacked all the negroes on this plantation, and +none can describe the anxiety, care and distress of their owners, who +watched by their beds day and night, administering medicine and relieving +the sick and dying.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h2> + +<p>Among other early recollections is a visit with my mother to the +plantation of a favorite cousin, not far from Richmond, and one of +the handsomest seats on James river. This residence—Howard’s +Neck—was a favorite resort for people from Richmond and the adjacent +counties; and, like many others on the river, always full of +guests—a round of visiting and dinner parties being kept up from +one house to another,—so that the ladies presiding over these establishments +had no time to attend to domestic duties, which were left +to their housekeepers, while they were employed entertaining visitors.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>The negroes on the these estates appeared lively and happy; that +is, if singing and laughing indicates happiness; for they went to +their work in the fields singing, and returned in the evening singing, +after which they often spent the whole night visiting from one plantation +to another, or dancing until day to the music of the banjo or +“fiddle.” These dances were wild and boisterous, their evolutions +being like those of the savage dances, described by travelers in +Africa. Although the most perfect timists, their music with its wild, +melancholy cadence, half savage, half civilized, can not be imitated +or described. Many a midnight were we wakened by their wild +choruses, sung as they returned from a frolic or “corn shucking,” +sounding at first like some hideous, savage yell, but dying away on +the air, echoing a cadence melancholy and indescribable, with a +peculiar pathos, and yet without melody or sweetness.</p> + +<p>“Corn shuckings” were occasions of great hilarity and good eating. +The negroes from various plantations assembled at night around a +huge pile of corn. Selecting one among them, the most original, +amusing and having the loudest voice, they called him “Captain.” +The “Captain” seated himself on top of the pile—a large lightwood +torch burning in front of him—and while he shucked improvised +words and music to a wild “recitative,” the chorus of which was +“caught up” by the army of “shuckers” around. The glare of the +torches on the black faces, with the wild music and impromptu words, +made a scene curious even to us who were so accustomed to it.</p> + +<p>After the corn was shucked they assembled around a table laden +with roast pigs, mutton, beef, hams, cakes, pies, coffee, and other +substantials—many participating in the supper who had not in the +work. The laughing and merriment continued until one or two +o’clock in the morning.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>On these James river plantations were entertained often distinguished +foreigners, who visiting Richmond desired to see something +of Virginia country life. Mr. Thackeray was once entertained at +one of them. But Dickens never visited them. Could he have passed +a month, at any one of the homes I have described, he would +have written something more flattering, I am sure, of Americans and +American life than is found in “Martin Chuzzlewit” and “Notes on +America.” However, with these we should not quarrel, as some of +the sketches—especially the one on “tobacco chewers,” we can recognize.</p> + +<p>Every nation has a right to its prejudices—certainly the English +towards the American—America appearing to the English eye a huge +mushroom affair, the growth of a night and unsubstantial. But it is +surely wrong to censure a whole nation—as some have done the +Southern people—for the faults of a few. For although every nation +has a right to its prejudices, none has a right, without thorough examination +and acquaintance with the subject, to seize a few exaggerated +accounts, of another nation by its enemies, and publish them as +facts. The world in this way receives very erroneous impressions.</p> + +<p>For instance, we have no right to suppose the Germans a cruel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +race because of the following paragraph clipped from a recent newspaper:</p> + +<p>“The cruelty of German officers is a matter of notoriety, but an +officer in an artillery regiment has lately gone beyond precedent in +ingenuity of cruelty. Some of his men being insubordinate, he punished +them by means of a ‘spurring process,’ which consisted in jabbing +spurs persistently and brutally into their legs. By this process +his men were so severely injured they had to go to the hospital.”</p> + +<p>Neither have we a right to pronounce all Pennsylvanians cruel to +their “helps,” as they call them, because a Pennsylvania lady told +me “the only way she could manage her ‘help’”—a white girl fourteen +years old—“was by holding her head under the pump and pumping +water upon it until she lost her breath;” a process I could not +have conceived, and which filled me with horror.</p> + +<p>But sorrow and oppression, we suppose, may be found in some +form in every clime; and in every phase of existence some hearts are +“weary and heavy laden.” Even Dickens, whose mind naturally +sought, and fed upon, the comic, saw wrong and oppression in the +“humane institutions” of his own land!</p> + +<p>And Macaulay gives a painful picture of Madam D’Arblay’s life as +waiting maid to Queen Charlotte—from which we are not to infer, +however, that all Queens are cruel to their waiting maids.</p> + +<p>Madam D’Arblay—whose maiden name was Frances Burney—was +the first female novelist in England, who deserved and received +the applause of her countrymen. The most eminent men of London +paid homage to her genius. Johnson, Burke, Windham, Gibbon, +Reynolds, Sheridan, were her friends and ardent eulogists. In the +midst of her literary fame, surrounded by congenial friends, herself +a star in this select and brilliant coterie, she was offered the place of +waiting maid in the palace. She accepted the position, and bade +farewell to all congenial friends and pursuits. “And now began,” +says Macaulay, “a slavery of five years—of five years taken from +the best part of her life, and wasted in menial drudgery. The history +of an ordinary day was this: Miss Burney had to rise and dress +herself early, that she might be ready to answer the royal bell, +which rang at half after seven. Till about eight she attended in the +Queen’s dressing-room, and had the honor of lacing her august +mistress’ stays, and of putting on the hoop, gown and neckhandkerchief. +The morning was chiefly spent in rummaging drawers and +laying fine clothes in their proper places. Then the Queen was to +be powdered and dressed for the day. Twice a week her Majesty’s +hair had to be curled and craped; and this operation added a full +hour to the business of the toilet. It was generally three before Miss +Burney was at liberty. At five she had to attend her colleague, +Madame Schwellenberg, a hateful old toadeater, as illiterate as a +chamber-maid, proud, rude, peevish, unable to bear solitude, unable +to conduct herself with common decency in society. With this delightful +associate Frances Burney had to dine and pass the evening. +The pair generally remained together from five to eleven, and often +had no other company the whole time. Between eleven and twelve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +the bell rang again. Miss Burney had to pass a half hour undressing +the Queen, and was then at liberty to retire.</p> + +<p>“Now and then, indeed, events occurred which disturbed the +wretched monotony of Frances Burney’s life. The court moved from +Kew to Windsor, and from Windsor back to Kew.</p> + +<p>“A more important occurrence was the King’s visit to Oxford. +Then Miss Burney had the honor of entering Oxford in the last of a +long string of carriages, which formed the royal procession, of walking +after the Queen all day through refectories and chapels, and of +standing half dead with fatigue and hunger, while her august mistress +was seated at an excellent cold collation. At Magdalen College, +Frances was left for a moment in a parlor, where she sank +down on a chair. A good natured equerry saw that she was exhausted, +and shared with her some apricots and bread, which he had +wisely put in his pockets. At that moment the door opened, the +Queen entered, the wearied attendants sprang up, the bread and +fruit were hastily concealed.</p> + +<p>“After this the King became very ill, and during more than two +years after his recovery Frances dragged on a miserable existence +at the palace. Madame Schwellenberg became more and more insolent +and intolerable, and now the health of poor Frances began to +give way; and all who saw her pale face, her emaciated figure and +her feeble walk, predicted that her sufferings would soon be over.</p> + +<p>“The Queen seems to have been utterly regardless of the <i>comfort</i>, +the <i>health</i>, the <i>life</i> of her attendants. Weak, feverish, hardly able to +stand, Frances had still to rise before seven, in order to dress the +sweet Queen, and sit up ’till midnight, in order to undress the sweet +Queen. The indisposition of the handmaid could not, and <i>did not +escape the notice of</i> her royal mistress. But the <i>established doctrine of +the court was, that all sickness</i> was to be <i>considered as a pretence until it +proved fatal</i>. The only way in which the invalid could clear herself +from the suspicion of malingering, as it is called in the army, was to +go on lacing and unlacing, <i>’till she felt down dead at the royal feet</i>.”</p> + +<p>Finally Miss Burney’s father pays her a visit in this palace prison +when “she told him that she was miserable, that she was worn with +attendance and want of sleep, that she had no comfort in life, nothing +to love, nothing to hope, that her family and friends were to her +as though they were not, and were remembered by her as men remember +the dead. From daybreak to midnight the same killing +labor, the same recreation, more hateful than labor itself, followed +each other without variety, without any interval of liberty or repose.”</p> + +<p>Her father’s veneration for royalty amounting to idolatry, he could +not bear to remove her from the court—“and, between the dear father +and the sweet Queen, there seemed to be little doubt that some day +or other Frances <i>would drop down a corpse</i>. Six months had elapsed +since the interview between the parent and the daughter. The +resignation was not sent in. The sufferer grew worse and worse. +She took bark, but it soon failed to produce a beneficial effect. She +was stimulated with wine; she was soothed with opium, but in vain. +Her breath began to fail. The whisper that she was in a decline<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +spread through the court. The pains in her side became so severe +that she was forced to crawl from the card table of the old fury, +Madame Schwellenberg, to whom she was tethered, three or four +times in an evening, for the purpose of taking hartshorn. Had she +been a negro slave, a humane planter would have excused her from +work. But her Majesty showed no mercy. Thrice a day the accursed +bell still rang; the Queen was still to be dressed for the morning at +seven, and to be dressed for the day at noon, and to be undressed at +midnight.”</p> + +<p>At last Miss Burney’s father was moved to compassion and allowed +her to write a letter of resignation. “Still I could not,” writes Miss +Burney in her diary, “summon courage to present my memorial +from seeing the Queen’s entire freedom from such an expectation. +For though I was frequently so ill in her presence that I could hardly +stand, I saw she concluded me, while life remained, inevitably hers.”</p> + +<p>“At last, with a trembling hand, the paper was delivered. Then +came the storm. Madame Schwellenberg raved like a maniac. The +resignation was not accepted. The father’s fears were aroused, and +he declared, in a letter meant to be shown to the Queen, that his +daughter must retire. The Schwellenberg raged like a wild cat. A +scene almost horrible ensued.</p> + +<p>“The Queen then promised that, after the next birthday, Miss +Burney should be set at liberty. But the promise was ill kept; and +her Majesty showed displeasure at being reminded of it.”</p> + +<p>At length, however, the prison door was opened, and Frances +was free once more. Her health was restored by traveling, and she +returned to London in health and spirits. Macaulay tells us that +she went to visit the palace, “her <i>old dungeon, and found her successor +already far on the way to the grave, and kept to strict duty, from morning +till midnight, with a sprained ankle and a nervous fever</i>.”</p> + +<p>An ignorant and unlettered woman would doubtless not have +found this life in the palace tedious, and our sympathy would not +have been aroused for her; for as long as the earth lasts there must +be human beings fitted for every station, and it is supposed, till the +end of all things, there must be cooks, housemaids and dining-room +servants, which will make it never possible for the whole human +family to stand entirely upon the same platform socially and intellectually. +And Miss Burney’s wretchedness, which calls forth our +sympathy, was not because she had to perform the duties of waiting-maid, +but because to a gifted and educated woman these duties were +uncongenial; and congeniality means <i>happiness</i>; uncongeniality +<i>unhappiness</i>.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h2> + +<p>From the sorrows of Miss Burney in the palace—a striking contrast +with the menials described in our own country homes—I will +return to another charming place on James river—Powhatan Seat—a +mile below Richmond, which had descended in the Mayo family +two hundred years.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>Here, it was said, the Indian chief Powhatan had lived, and here +was shown the veritable stone supposed to have been the one upon +which Captain Smith’s head was laid, when the Indian princess +Pocahontas rescued him.</p> + +<p>This historic stone, near the parlor window, was only an ugly, +dark, broad, flat stone, but imagination pictured ever around it the +Indian group; Smith’s head upon it; the infuriated chief with uplifted +club in the act of dealing the death blow; the grief and shriek of +Pocahontas, as she threw herself upon Smith imploring her father to +spare him—a piercing cry to have penetrated the heart of the savage +king!</p> + +<p>Looking out from the parlor window and imagining this savage +scene, how strange a contrast with the picture which met the eye within! +Around the fireside assembled the loveliest family group, where kindness +and affection beamed in every eye, and father, mother, brothers +and sisters were linked together by tenderest devotion and sympathy.</p> + +<p>If natural scenery reflects itself upon the heart no wonder a “holy +calm” rested upon this family, for far down the river the prospect +was peace and tranquility; and many an evening in the summer +house on the river bank, we drank in the beauty of soft blue skies, +green isles and white sails floating in the distance.</p> + +<p>Many in Richmond remember the delightful weddings and parties +at Powhatan Seat, where assembled the elite from Richmond, with +an innumerable throng of cousins, aunts and uncles from Orange +and Culpeper counties.</p> + +<p>On these occasions the house was illuminated by wax-lights issuing +from bouquets of magnolia leaves placed around the walls near +the ceiling, and looking prettier than any glass chandelier.</p> + +<p>We, from a distance, generally stayed a week after the wedding, +becoming, as it were, a part of the family circle; and the bride did +not rush off on a tour as is the fashion now-a-days, but remained +quietly enjoying family, home and friends.</p> + +<p>Another feature I have omitted in describing our weddings and +parties—invariably a part of the picture—was the sea of black faces +surrounding the doors and windows to look on the dancing, hear the +music and afterwards get a good share of the supper.</p> + +<p>Tourists often went to walk around the beautiful grounds at +Powhatan—so neatly kept with sea shells around the flowers, and +pleasant seats under the lindens and magnolias—and to see the historic +stone; but I often thought they knew not what was missed in +not knowing—as we did—the lovely family within.</p> + +<p>But, for us, those rare, beautiful days at Powhatan are gone forever; +for since the war the property has passed into stranger hands, +and the family who once owned it will own it no more.</p> + +<p>During the late war heavy guns were placed in the family burying +ground on this plantation,—a point commanding the river—and +here was interred the child of a distinguished General<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> in the Northern +army—a Virginian, formerly in the United States army—who +had married a member of the Powhatan family. He was expected +to make an attack upon Richmond, and over his child’s grave was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +placed a gun to fire upon him. Such are the unnatural incidents of +civil war.</p> + +<p>About two miles from Powhatan Seat was another beautiful old +place—Mount Erin—the plantation formerly of a family all of whom, +except two sisters had died. The estate becoming involved had to +be sold, which so grieved and distressed these sisters that they passed +hours weeping, if accidentally the name of their old home was +mentioned in their presence.</p> + +<p>Once when we were at Powhatan—and these ladies were among +the guests—a member of the Powhatan family ordered the carriage, +and took my sister and myself to Mount Erin, telling us to keep it a +secret when we returned, for “the sisters,” said she, “would neither +eat nor sleep if reminded of their old home.”</p> + +<p>A pleasant drive brought us to Mount Erin, and when we saw the +box hedges, gravel-walks and linden trees we were no longer surprised +at the grief of the sisters whose hearts entwined around their +old home. The house was in charge of an old negro woman—the +purchaser not having moved in—who showed us over the grounds; +and every shrub and flower seemed to speak of days gone by. Even +the ivy on the old bricks looked gloomy as if mourning the light, +mirth and song departed from the house forever; and the walks gave +back a deadened echo, as if they wished not to be disturbed by stranger +tread. All seemed in a reverie, dreaming a long sweet dream of +the past—and entering into the grief of the sisters, who lived afterwards +many years in a pleasant home, on a pleasant street in Richmond, +with warm friends to serve them, yet their tears never ceased +to flow at mention of Mount Erin.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>One more plantation picture, and enough will have been described +to show the character of the homes and people on our plantations.</p> + +<p>The last place visited by my sister and myself before the war of +1861, was “Elkwood,” a fine estate in Culpeper county, four miles +from the railroad station.</p> + +<p>It was the last of June. The country was a scene of enchantment, +as the carriage rolled us through dark, cool forests, green meadows, +fields of waving grain; out of the forest into acres of broad leaved +corn; across pebbly-bottomed streams, and along the margin of the +Rapidan which flowed at the base of the hill leading up to the house.</p> + +<p>The house was square and white, and the blinds green as the grass +lawn and trees in the yard. Inside the house, the polished “dry +rubbed” floors clean and cool, refreshed one on entering like a glass +of ice-lemonade on a midsummer’s day. The old fashioned furniture +against the walls looked as if it thought too much of itself to be set +about promiscuously over the floor, like modern fauteuils and divans.</p> + +<p>About everything was an air of dignity and repose corresponding +with the manners and appearance of the proprietors, who were called +“Uncle Dick” and “Aunt Jenny”—the <i>a</i> in aunt pronounced very +broad.</p> + +<p>“Aunt Jenny” and “Uncle Dick” had no children, but took care of +numerous nieces and nephews; kept their house filled to overflowing +with friends, relatives and strangers, and were revered and beloved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +by all. They had no pleasure so great as taking care of other people. +They lived for other people, and made everybody comfortable +and happy around them. From the time “Uncle Dick” had prayers +in the morning until family prayers at bed time they were busy bestowing +some kindness.</p> + +<p>“Uncle Dick’s” character and manners were of a type so high that +one felt elevated in his presence; and a desire to reach his standard +animated those who knew him. His precept and example were such +that all who followed them might arrive at the highest perfection of +Christian character.</p> + +<p>“Uncle Dick” had requested “Aunt Jenny” when they were married—forty +years before—to have on his table every day, dinner +enough for six more persons than were already in the house, “in case,” +he said, “he should meet friends or acquaintances while riding over +his plantation or in the neighborhood, whom he wished to ask home +with him to dinner.” This having been always a rule, “Aunt Jenny” +never sat at her table without dinner enough for six more, and her’s +were no commonplace dinners; no hasty puddings; no salaratus +bread; no soda cakes; no frozen-starch-ice-cream; no modern shorthand +recipes—but genuine old Virginia cooking. And all who want +to know what that was, can find out all about it in “Aunt Jenny’s” +book of copied recipes—if it is extant—or in Mrs. Harrison’s, of +Brandon. But as neither of these books may ever be known to the +public, their “sum and substance” may be given in a few words:</p> + +<p>“Have no shams. Procure an abundance of the freshest, richest, +<i>real</i> cream, milk, eggs, butter, lard, best old Madeira wine, all the +way from Madeira, and never use a particle of soda or salaratus +about anything or under any pressure.”</p> + +<p>These were the ingredients “Aunt Jenny” used—for “Uncle Dick” +had rare old wine in his cellar which he had brought from Europe, +thirty years before—and every day was a feast day at Elkwood. +And the wedding breakfasts “Aunt Jenny” used to “get up” when +one of her nieces married at her house—as they sometimes did—were +beyond description.</p> + +<p>While at Elkwood, observing every day, that the carriage went to +the depot empty, and returned empty, we enquired the reason, and +were informed that “Uncle Dick,” ever since the cars had been passing +near his plantation, ordered his coachman to have the carriage +every day at the station, “in case some of his friends might be on +the train, and might like to stop and see him!”</p> + +<p>Another hospitable rule in “Uncle Dick’s” house was, that company +must never be kept “waiting” in his parlor, and so anxious was +his young niece to meet his approbation in this as in every particular, +that she had a habit of dressing herself carefully, arranging her +hair beautifully—it was in the days too when smooth hair was fashionable—before +laying down for the afternoon siesta, “in case,” she +said, “some one might call, and ‘Uncle Dick’ had a horror of visitors +waiting.” This process of reposing in a fresh muslin dress and +fashionably arranged hair, required a particular and uncomfortable +position, which she seemed not to mind, but dozed in the most precise +manner without rumpling her hair or her dress.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>Elkwood was a favorite place of resort for Episcopal ministers, +whom “Aunt Jenny” and “Uncle Dick” loved to entertain. And +here we met the Rev. Mr. S——, the learned divine, eloquent +preacher and charming companion. He had just returned from a +visit to England, where he had been entertained in palaces. Telling +us the incidents of his visit, “I was much embarrassed at first,” said +he, “at the thought of attending a dinner party given in a palace to +me,—a simple Virginian,—but on being announced at the drawing-room +door, and entering the company I felt at once at ease, for they +were all ladies and gentlemen—such as I had known at home, polite, +pleasant and without pretence.”</p> + +<p>This gentleman’s conversational powers were not only bright and +delightful, but also the means of turning many to righteousness; for +religion was one of his chief themes.</p> + +<p>A proof of his genius and eloquence was given in the beautiful +poem recited—without ever having been written—at the centennial +anniversary of old Christ church in Alexandria. This was the church +in which General Washington and his family had worshiped, and +around it clustered many memories. Mr. S., with several others, +had been invited to make an address on the occasion, and one night +while thinking about it an exquisite poem passed through his mind, +picturing scene after scene in the old church. General Washington +with his head bowed in silent prayer; infants at the baptismal font; +young men and maidens in bridal array at the altar, and funeral +trains passing through the open gate.</p> + +<p>On the night of the celebration when his turn came, finding the +hour too late, and the audience too sleepy for his prose address, he +suddenly determined to “dash off” the poem, every word of which +came back to him, although he had never written it. The audience +roused up electrified, and as the recitation proceeded, their enthusiasm +reached the highest pitch. Never had there been such a sensation +in the old church before. And next morning the house at which +he was stopping was besieged by reporters begging “copies” and +offering good prices, but the poem remains unwritten to this day.</p> + +<p>Elkwood—like many other old homes—was burned by the Northern +army in 1862, and not a tree or flower remains to mark the spot, +for so many years the abode of hospitality and good cheer.</p> + +<p>In connection with Culpeper it is due here to state that this county +excelled all others in ancient and dilapidated buggies and carriages—seeming +a regular infirmary for all the disabled vehicles of the Old +Dominion. Here their age and infirmities received every care and +consideration, being propped up, tied up and bandaged up in every +conceivable manner; and strangest of all, rarely depositing their occupants +in the road, which was prevented by cautious old gentlemen +riding alongside, who watching out, and discovering the weakest +points, stopped and securely tied up fractured parts with bits of twine, +rope or chain, always carried in buggy or carriage boxes for that +purpose. These surgical operations, although not ornamental, +strengthened and sustained these venerable vehicles, and produced a +longevity miraculous.</p> + +<p>Many more sketches might be given of pleasant country homes—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>worthy +a better pen than mine—for Brandon, Westover, Shirley, +Carter Hall, Lauderdale, Vaucluse, and others, linger in the memory +of hundreds who once knew and loved them. Especially Vaucluse, +which although far removed from railroads, stage coaches and public +conveyances was overflowing with company throughout the year. +For the Vaucluse girls were so bright, so fascinating, so bewitchingly +pretty, they attracted a concourse of visitors, and were sure to be +belles wherever they went.</p> + +<p>And many remember the owner of Vaucluse—that pure hearted +Christian and cultivated gentleman, who, late in life, devoted himself +to the Episcopal ministry, and labored faithfully in the Master’s cause +preaching in country churches, “without money, and without price.” +Surely his reward is in heaven.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Besides these well ordered establishments, there were some others +owned by inactive men, who smoked their pipes, read their books, +left everything very much to the management of their negroes and +seemed content to let things tumble down around them.</p> + +<p>One of these places we used to call “Topsy-Turvy Castle,” and +another “Haphazard.”</p> + +<p>At such places the negro quarters—instead of neat rows of white +cabins in rear of the house, as on other plantations—occupied a conspicuous +place near the front, and consisted of a solid, long, ugly +brick structure, with swarms of negroes around the windows and +doors, appearing to have nothing in the world to do, and never to +have done anything.</p> + +<p>Everything had a “shackling,” lazy appearance. The master was +always—it appeared to us—reading a newspaper in the front porch, +and never observing anything that was going on. The house was +so full of idle negroes standing about the halls and stairways, one +could scarcely make one’s way up or down stairs. Everything needed +repair, from the bed you slept upon, to the family coach which +took you to church.</p> + +<p>Few of the chairs had all their rounds and legs; and when completely +disabled were sent to the garret, where they accumulated in +great numbers, and remained until pressing necessity induced the +master to raise his eyes from his paper long enough to order “Dick” +to, “take the four-horse-wagon and carry the chairs to be mended.”</p> + +<p>A multitude of “kinsfolk and acquaintance” usually congregated +here. And at one place, in order to accommodate so many, there +were four beds in a chamber. These high bedsteads presented a remarkable +appearance—the head of one going into the side of another, +the foot of one into the head of another, and so on, looking as if they +had never been “placed,” but their curious juxtaposition had been +the result of some earthquake.</p> + +<p>[One of these houses is said to have been greatly improved in appearance +during the war by the passage of a cannon ball through the +upper story, where a window had been needed for many years.]</p> + +<p>But the owners of these places were so genuinely good, one could +not complain of them even for such carelessness. For everybody +was welcome to everything. You might stop the plows if you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +wanted a horse, or take the carriage and drive for a week’s journey, +and, in short, impose upon these good people in every conceivable +way.</p> + +<p>Yet in spite of this topsy-turvy management—a strange fact connected +with such places—they invariably had good light bread, good +mutton, and the usual abundance on their tables.</p> + +<p>We suppose it must have been a recollection of such plantations +which induced the negro to exclaim, on hearing another sing, “Ole +Virginny nubber tire.” “Umph! ole <i>Virginny</i> nubber tire, kase she +nubber done nuthin’ fur to furtigue herself!”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></h2> + +<p>Confining these reminiscences strictly to plantation life, no mention +has been made of the families we knew and visited in some of +our cities, whose kindness to their slaves was unmistakable, and who +owning only a small number could better afford to indulge them.</p> + +<p>At one of these houses, this indulgence was such that the white +family were very much under the control of their servants.</p> + +<p>The owner of this house—an eminent lawyer—was a man of taste +and learning, whose legal ability attracted many admirers, and whose +refinement, culture and generous nature won enthusiastic friends.</p> + +<p>Although considered the owner of his house, it was a mistake—if +ownership means the right to govern one’s own property—for beyond +his law papers, library and the privilege of paying all the bills, +this gentleman had no “rights” there whatever; his house, kitchen +and premises being under the entire command of “Aunt Fanny,” the +cook—a huge mulatto woman whose word was law, and whose voice +thundered abuse if any dared to disobey her.</p> + +<p>The master, mistress, family and visitors all stood in awe of +“Aunt Fanny,” and yet could not do without her, for she made such +unapproachable light bread, and conducted the affairs of the place +with such distinguished ability.</p> + +<p>Her own house was in the yard, and had been built especially for +her convenience. Her furniture was polished mahogany, and she +kept most delicious preserves, pickles and sweet meats of her own +manufacture with which to regale her friends and favorites. As we +came under that head, we were often treated to these when we went +in to see her after her day’s work was over, or on Sundays.</p> + +<p>Although she “raved and stormed” considerably—which she told +us she “was obliged to do, <i>honey</i>, to keep things straight”—she had +the tenderest regard for her master and mistress, and often said: “If +it warnt for <i>me</i>, they’d have nuthin’ in the world, and things here +would go to destruction.”</p> + +<p>So Aunt Fanny “kept up this family,” as she said, for many years, +and many amusing incidents might be related of her.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, her master after a long and excited political contest +was elected to the Legislature. Before all the precincts had +been heard from—believing himself defeated—he retired to rest, and +being naturally feeble, was quite worn out. But at midnight a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +cry arose at his gate, where a multitude assembled, screaming +and hurrahing. At first he was uncertain whether they were friends +to congratulate him on his victory, or the opposite party to hang him—as +they had threatened—for voting an appropriation to the Danville +railroad. It soon appeared they had come to congratulate him, +when great excitement prevailed, loud cheers and cries for a speech. +The doors were opened and the crowed rushed in. The hero soon appeared +and delivered one of his graceful and satisfactory speeches.</p> + +<p>Still the crowd remained cheering and “storming” about the house, +until Aunt Fanny, who had made her appearance in full dress, considering +the excitement had been kept up long enough, and that the +master’s health was too delicate for any further demonstration, determined +to disperse them. Rising to her full height, waving her +hand and speaking majestically she said: “Gentlemen! Mars Charles +is a feeble pusson, and it is time for him to take his res’. He’s been +kep’ ’wake long enough now, and it’s time for me to close up dese +doors!”</p> + +<p>With this the crowd dispersed and “Aunt Fanny” remained mistress +of the situation, declaring that, “ef she hadn’t come forward +and ’spersed dat crowd, Mars Charles would have been a dead man +befo’ mornin’!”</p> + +<p>“Aunt Fanny” kept herself liberally supplied with pocket money—one +of her chief sources of revenue being soap, which she made in +large quantities and sold at high prices; especially what she called +her “butter soap,” which was in great demand, and which was made +from all the butter which she did not consider fresh enough for the +delicate appetites of her mistress and master. She appropriated one +of the largest basement rooms, had it shelved and filled it with soap. +In order to carry on business so extensively huge logs were kept +blazing on the kitchen hearth under the soap pot day and night. +During the war, wood becoming scarce and expensive, “Mars +Charles” found it drained his purse to keep the kitchen fire supplied.</p> + +<p>Thinking the matter over one day in his library, and concluding it +would greatly lessen his expenses if Aunt Fanny could be prevailed +upon to discontinue her soap trade, he sent for her, and said, <i>very +mildly</i>: “Fanny, I have a proposition to make you.”</p> + +<p>“What is it, Mars Charles?”</p> + +<p>“Well Fanny, as my expenses are very heavy now, if you will +give up your soap boiling for this year, I will agree to pay you fifty +dollars.”</p> + +<p>With arms akimbo, and looking at him with astonishment, but +firmness in her eye, she replied: “Couldn’t possibly do it, Mars +Charles. Because <i>soap</i>, sir, <i>soap’s</i> my <i>main</i>-tain-ance!”</p> + +<p>With this she strided majestically out of the room. “Mars +Charles” said no more but continued paying fabulous sums for wood, +while “Aunt Fanny” continued boiling her soap.</p> + +<p>This woman not only ordered, but kept all the family supplies, her +mistress having no disposition to keep the keys or in any way interfere +with her.</p> + +<p>But at last her giant strength gave way, and she sickened and died. +Having no children she left her property to one of her fellow servants.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>Several days before her death, we were sitting with her mistress +and master in a room overlooking her house. Her room was crowded +with negroes who had come to perform their religious rites around +the death bed. Joining hands they performed a savage dance, shouting +wildly around her bed. This was horrible to hear and see, +especially as in this family every effort had been made to instruct +their negro dependents in the truths of religion; and one member of +the family, who spent the greater part of her life in prayer, had for +years prayed for “Aunt Fanny,” and tried to instruct her in the true +faith. But although an intelligent woman, she seemed to cling to +the superstitions of her race.</p> + +<p>After the savage dance and rites were over, and while we sat talking +about it, a gentleman—the friend and minister of the family—came +in. We described to him what we had just witnessed, and he +deplored it bitterly with us, saying he had read and prayed with +“Aunt Fanny” and tried to make her see the truth in Jesus. He then +marked some passages in the Bible, and asked me to go and read +them to her. I went, and said to her: “Aunt Fanny, here are some +verses Mr. Mitchell has marked for me to read to you, and he hopes +you will pray to the Savior as he taught you.” Then said I, “we are +afraid the noise and dancing have made you worse.”</p> + +<p>Speaking feebly, she replied: “Honey, that kind of religion suits +us black folks better than your kind. What suits Mars Charles’ +mind, don’t suit mine.”</p> + +<p>And thus died the most intelligent of her race—one who had been +surrounded by pious persons who had been praying for her, and endeavoring +to instruct her. She had also enjoyed through life not only +the comforts, but many of the luxuries of earth—and when she died, +her mistress and master lost a sincere friend.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h2> + +<p>This chapter will show how “Virginia beat-biscuit” procured for a +man a home and friends in Paris.</p> + +<p>One morning in the spring of 18— a singular looking man presented +himself at our house. He was short of stature, and enveloped in furs +although the weather was not cold. Everything about him was gold +which could be gold, and so we called him “the gold-tipped-man.” +He called for my mother, and when she went in the parlor said to her:</p> + +<p>“Madam I have been stopping several weeks at the hotel in the +town of L——, where I met a boy—Robert—who tells me he belongs +to you. As I want such a servant, and he is anxious to travel, I +come, at his request, to ask if you will let me buy him and take him +to Europe. I will pay any price.”</p> + +<p>“I could not think of it,” she replied. “I have determined never to +sell one of my servants.”</p> + +<p>“But,” continued the man, “he is anxious to go, and has sent me +to beg you.”</p> + +<p>“It is impossible,” said she, “for he is a great favorite with us, and +the only child his mother has.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>Finding her determined, the man took his leave, and went back to +the town, twenty-five miles off; but returned next day accompanied +by Robert, who entreated his mother and mistress to let him go.</p> + +<p>Said my mother to him: “Would you leave your mother and go +with a stranger to a foreign land?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, madam. I love my mother, and you and all your family—you +have always been so good to me—but I want to travel, and this +gentleman says he will give me plenty of money and be very kind to +me.”</p> + +<p>Still she refused. But the boy’s mother, finally yielding to his entreaty, +consented, and persuaded her mistress, saying, “if he is willing +to leave me, and so anxious to go I will give him up.”</p> + +<p>Knowing how distressed we all would be at parting with him, he +went off without coming to say “good bye,” and wrote his mother +from New York what day he would sail with his new master for +Europe.</p> + +<p>At first his mother received from him presents and letters, telling +her he was very much delighted, and “had as much money as he +knew what to do with.” But after a few months he ceased to write, +and we could hear nothing from him.</p> + +<p>At length, when eighteen months had elapsed, one day we were +astonished to see him return home, dressed in the best Parisian style. +We were rejoiced to see him again, and his own joy at getting back +cannot be described. He ran over the yard and house examining +everything, and said: “Mistress, I have seen many fine places in +Europe, but none to me as pretty as this, and I have seen no lady +equal to you. And I have had no water to drink as good as this—and +I have dreamed about every chair and table in this house, and +wondered if I would ever get back here again.”</p> + +<p>He then gave us a sketch of his life since the “gold-tipped” man +had become his master. Arrived in Paris, his master and himself +took lodgings at the Hotel de Ville. A teacher was employed to +come every day and instruct Robert in French. His master kept him +well supplied with money, never giving him less than fifty dollars at +a time. His duties were light, and he had ample time to study and +amuse himself.</p> + +<p>After enjoying such elegant ease for eight or nine months, he waked +one morning and found himself deserted and penniless! His master +had absconded in the night, leaving no vestige of himself except a +gold dressing case and a few toilette articles of gold, which were +seized by the proprietor of the hotel in payment of his bill.</p> + +<p>Poor Robert, without money and without a friend in this great city, +knew not where to turn. In vain he wished himself back in his old +home.</p> + +<p>“If I could only find some Virginian to whom I could appeal,” said +he to himself. And suddenly it occurred to him that the American +Minister, Mr. Mason, was a Virginian. When he remembered this +his heart was cheered, and he lost no time in finding Mr. Mason’s +house.</p> + +<p>Presenting himself before the American Minister, he related his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +story, which was not at first believed. “For,” said Mr. Mason, “there +are so many impostors in Paris, it is impossible to believe you.”</p> + +<p>Robert protested he had been a slave in Virginia—had been deserted +by his owner in Paris, and begged Mr. Mason to keep him at his +house, and take care of him.</p> + +<p>Then Mr. M. asked many questions about people and places in +Virginia, all which were accurately answered. Finally, he said: +“I knew well the Virginia gentleman who was, you say, your master. +What was the color of his hair?” This was also satisfactorily +answered, and Robert began to hope he was believed, when Mr. +Mason continued:</p> + +<p>“Now there is one thing, which if you can do, will convince me +you came from Virginia. Go in my kitchen and make me some old +Virginia beat-biscuit, and I will believe everything you have said!”</p> + +<p>“I think I can do that, sir,” said Robert, and going in the kitchen, +rolled up his sleeves and set to work.</p> + +<p>This was a desperate moment, for he had never made a biscuit in +his life, although he had often watched the proceeding as “Black +Mammy,” the cook at home, used to beat, roll and manipulate the +dough on her biscuit box.</p> + +<p>“If I only could make them look like her’s!” thought he, as he beat, +and rolled, and worked and finally stuck the dough all over with a +fork. Then cutting them out, and putting them to bake, he watched +them with nervous anxiety until they resembled those he had often +placed on the table at home.</p> + +<p>Astonished and delighted with his success, he carried them to the +American Minister, who exclaimed: “Now I <i>know</i> you came from old +Virginia!”</p> + +<p>Robert was immediately installed in Mr. M.’s house, where he remained +a faithful attendant until Mr. Mason’s death, when he returned +with the family to America.</p> + +<p>Arriving at New York he thought it impossible to get along by +himself, and determined to find his master. For this purpose he +employed a policeman, and together they succeeded in recovering “the +lost master”—this being a singular instance of a “slave in pursuit of +his fugitive master.”</p> + +<p>The “gold-tipped” man expressed much pleasure at his servant’s +fidelity, and handing him a large sum of money desired him to return +to Paris, pay his bill, bring back his gold dressing box and toilette +articles, and, as a reward for his fidelity, take as much money as he +wished and travel over the continent.</p> + +<p>Robert obeyed these commands, returned to Paris, paid the bills, +traveled over the chief places in Europe and then came again to New +York. Here he was appalled to learn that his master had been +arrested for forgery, and imprisoned in Philadelphia. It was ascertained +that the forger was an Englishman and connected with an +underground forging establishment in Paris. Finding himself about +to be detected in Paris he fled to New York, and other forgeries having +been discovered in Philadelphia, he had been arrested.</p> + +<p>Robert lost no time in reporting himself at the prison, and was +grieved to find his master in such a place.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>Determining to do what he could to relieve the man who had been +a good friend to him, he went to a Philadelphia lawyer, and said to +him: “Sir, the man who is in prison, bought me in Virginia, and has +been a kind master to me; I have no money, but if you will do your +best to have him acquitted, I will return to the South, sell myself +and send you the money.”</p> + +<p>“It is a bargain,” replied the lawyer. “Send me the money, and +I will save your master from the penitentiary.”</p> + +<p>Robert returned to Baltimore, sold himself to a Jew in that city, +and sent the money to the lawyer in Philadelphia. After this he +was bought by a distinguished Southern Senator—afterwards a General +in the Southern army—with whom he remained, and to whom +he rendered valuable services during the war.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Other instances were known of negroes who preferred being sold +into slavery rather than take care of themselves. There were some +in our immediate neighborhood, who finding themselves emancipated +by their master’s will, begged the owners of neighboring plantations +to buy them, saying they preferred having “white people to take care +of them.” On the “Wheatly” plantation—not far from us—there is +still living an old negro who sold himself in this way, and cannot be +persuaded <i>now</i> to accept his freedom. After the war, when all the +negroes were freed by the Federal Government, and our people too +much impoverished longer to clothe and feed them, this old man refused +to leave the plantation, but clung to his cabin, although his +wife and family moved off and begged him to accompany them.</p> + +<p>“No,” said he, “I nuver will leave this plantation, and go off to +starve with free niggers.”</p> + +<p>Not even when his wife was very sick and dying could he be persuaded +to go off and stay one night with her. He had long been too +old to work, but his former owners indulged him by giving him his +cabin, and taking care of him through all the poverty which has fallen +upon our land since the war.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h2> + +<p>O, bright winged peace! Long did’st thou rest o’er the homes of +old Virginia; while cheerful wood fires blazed on hearthstones in +parlor and cabin, reflecting contented faces with hearts full of “peace +and good will towards men!” No thought entered there of harm to +others; no fear of evil to ourselves. Whatsoever things were honest; +whatsoever things were pure; whatsoever things were gentle; whatsoever +things were of good report, we were accustomed to hear ’round +these parlor firesides; and often would our grandmothers say:</p> + +<p>“Children our’s is a blessed country! There never will be another +war! The Indians have long ago been driven out, and it has been +nearly a hundred years since the English yoke was broken!”</p> + +<p>The history of our country was contained in two pictures: “The +last battle with the Indians” and “The surrender of Lord Cornwallis +at Yorktown.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>No enemies within or without our borders, and peace established +among us forever! Such was our belief. And we wondered that +men should get together and talk their dry politics, seeing that General +Washington and Thomas Jefferson—two of our Virginia plantation +men—had established a government to last as long as the earth, +and which could not be improved. Yet they <i>would</i> talk—these politicians—around +our parlor fire, where often our patience was exhausted +hearing discussions, in which we could not take interest, +about the “Protective Tariff;” the “Bankrupt Law;” the “Distribution +of Public Lands;” the “Resolutions of ’98;” the “Missouri +Compromise,” and the “Monroe Doctrine.” These topics seemed +to afford them intense pleasure and satisfaction, for as the “sparks +fly upward” the thoughts of men turn to politics.</p> + +<p>Feeling no ill will towards any tribe, people or nation on the globe, +and believing that all felt a friendly regard for us, how could we +believe, when we heard it, that a nation not far off—to whom we +had yearly “carried up” a tithe of all we possessed, and whose +coffers we helped to fill—were subscribing large sums of money to +destroy us? We could not, would not believe it. Yet we were told +that this nation—towards whom we felt no animosity—brought up +their children to believe that they would do God service by reviling +and persecuting us. Nay more—that their ministers of the gospel +preached unto them thus:</p> + +<p>“Thou shalt carry fire and sword into the land that lieth South of +you. Thou shalt make it a desolate waste. Thou shalt utterly root +out and annihilate the people that they be no more a people. Thou +shalt write books. Thou shalt form societies for the purpose of +planning the best means of attacking secretly and destroying this +people. Thou shalt send emissaries. Thou shalt stir up the nations +abroad against them. Thou shalt prepare weapons of war, and in +every way incite their negroes to rise at night and slay them.”</p> + +<p>Around our firesides we asked: “Can this be true?”</p> + +<p>Alas! alas! it was true; and the first expedition sent against us +was led by a man from the Adirondack Mountains in the North, who +in 1859, with a small band armed with pikes, clubs and guns, attacked +one of our villages at night.<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The news of this blanched the cheeks of our maidens, and the +children nestled closer round their mother’s knee at evening twilight, +for who could tell what might befall our plantation homes before +morning! The hearts of women and children grew sick and faint. +But the hearts of our men and boys grew brave and strong—and +would they have been the countrymen of Washington had they not +thought of war?</p> + +<p>About this time we had a visit from two old friends of our family—a +distinguished Southern Senator and the Secretary of War—both +accustomed to swaying multitudes by the power of their eloquence—which +lost none of its force and charm in our little home circle. We +listened with admiration as they discussed the political issues of the +day—no longer a subject uninteresting or unintelligible to us, for +every word was of vital importance. Their theme was, “the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +means of protecting our plantation homes and firesides.” Even the +smallest children now comprehended the greatest politicians.</p> + +<p>Now came the full flow and tide of Southern eloquence—real, +soul-inspiring eloquence!</p> + +<p>Many possessing this gift were in the habit of visiting us at that +time; and all dwelt upon one theme—the secession of Virginia—with +glowing words from hearts full of enthusiasm; all agreeing it +was better for States, as well as individuals, to separate rather than +quarrel or fight.</p> + +<p>But there was one—our oldest and best friend—who differed with +these gentlemen; and his eloquence was gentle and effective. Unlike +his friends whose words, earnest and electric, overwhelmed +all around, this gentleman’s power was in his composure of manner +without vehemence. His words were well selected without seeming +to have been studied; each sentence was short, but contained a gem, +like a solitaire diamond.</p> + +<p>For several months this gentleman remained untouched by the +fiery eloquence of his friends—like the Hebrew children in the burning +furnace. Nothing affected him until one day, the President of +the United States demanded by telegraph 50,000 Virginians to join +an army against South Carolina. And then this gentleman felt convinced +it was not the duty of Virginians to join an army against +their friends.</p> + +<p>About this time we had some very interesting letters from the Hon. +Edward Everett—who had been for several years a friend and agreeable +correspondent—giving us his views on the subject, and very +soon after this all communication between the North and South +ceased, except through the blockade, for four long years.</p> + +<p>And then came the long dark days; the days when the sun seemed +to shine no more; when the eyes of wives, mothers and sisters were +heavy with weeping; when men sat up late in the night studying +military tactics; when grief-burdened hearts turned to God in prayer.</p> + +<p>The intellectual gladiators who had discoursed eloquently of war +around our fireside, buckled their armor on and went forth to battle.</p> + +<p>Band after band of brave-hearted, bright-faced youths from Southern +plantation homes came to bleed and die on Virginia soil; and +for four long years old Virginia was one great camping ground, +hospital and battle field. The roar of cannon and the clash of arms +resounded over the land. The groans of the wounded and dying +went up from hillside and valley. The hearts of women and children +were sad and careworn. But God, to whom they prayed, protected +them in our plantation homes—where no white men or even boys +remained—all having gone into the army. Only the negro slaves +stayed with us, and these were encouraged by our enemies to rise +and slay us; but God in His mercy willed otherwise. Although advised +to burn our property and incited by the enemy to destroy their +former owners, these negro slaves remained faithful, manifesting +kindness, and in many instances protecting the white families and +plantations during their masters’ absence.</p> + +<p>Oh! the long terrible nights helpless women and children passed, +in our plantation homes; the enemy encamped around them; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +clash of swords heard against the doors and windows; the report of +guns on the air which might be sending death to their loved ones.</p> + +<p>But why try to describe the horrors of such nights? Who that +has not experienced them can know how we felt? Who can imagine +the heart sickness, when stealing to an upper window at midnight +we watched the fierce flames rising from some neighboring home, +expecting our own to be destroyed by the enemy before daylight in +the same way?</p> + +<p>Such pictures, dark and fearful, were the only ones familiar to us +in old Virginia those four dreadful years.</p> + +<p>At last the end came—the end which seemed to us saddest of all. +But God knoweth best. Though “through fiery trials” He had caused +us to pass, He had not forsaken us. For was not His mercy signally +shown in the failure of the enemy to incite our negro slaves to insurrection +during the war? Through His mercy those who were expected +to become our enemies, remained our friends. And in our +own home, surrounded by the enemy those terrible nights, our only +guard was a faithful negro servant who slept in the house, and went +out every hour to see if we were in immediate danger; while his +mother—the kind old nurse—sat all night in a rocking chair in our +room, ready to help us. Had we not then amidst all our sorrows +much to be thankful for?</p> + +<p>Among such scenes one of the last pictures photographed on my +memory, was that of a negro boy very ill with typhoid fever in a +cabin not far off, and who became greatly alarmed when a brisk +firing commenced between the contending armies across our house. +His first impulse—as it always had been in trouble—was to fly to +his mistress for protection; and jumping from his bed—his head +bandaged with a white cloth, and looking like one just from the +grave—he passed through the firing as fast as he could, screaming: +“O, mistress, take care of me! Put me in your closet, and hide me +from the Yankees!” He fell at the door exhausted. My mother had +him brought in and a bed made for him in the library. She nursed +him carefully, but he died in a day or two from fright and exhaustion.</p> + +<p>Soon after this was the surrender at Appomattox, and negro slavery +ended forever.</p> + +<p>All was ruin around us; tobacco factories burned down, sugar and +cotton plantations destroyed. The negroes fled from these desolated +places, crowded together in wretched shanties on the outskirts of +towns and villages, and found themselves, for the first time in their +lives, without enough to eat, and with no class of people particularly +interested about their food, health or comfort. Rations were furnished +them a short time by the United States Government, with promises +of money and land, which were never fulfilled. Impoverished by the +war, it was a relief to us no longer to have the responsibility of supporting +them. This would indeed have been impossible in our starving +condition.</p> + +<p>Twelve years have passed since they became free, but they have +not, during this time, advanced in intelligence or comfort. Wanting +the care of their owners, they die more frequently; and, it is thought,—by +those who have studied the subject—that abandoned to them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>selves, +they are returning to the superstitions of their forefathers. +A missionary recently returned from Africa, and witnessing here +their religious rites, says they are the same he saw practiced before +the idols in Africa.</p> + +<p>They still have a strange belief in what they call “tricking,” and +often the most intelligent, when sick, will say they have been “tricked,” +for which they have a regular treatment and “trick doctors” +among themselves. This “tricking” we cannot explain, and only +know that when one negro became angry with another, he would +bury in front of his enemy’s cabin door a bottle filled with pieces of +snakes, spiders, bits of tadpole, and other curious substances; and +the party expecting to be “tricked,” would hang up an old horse shoe +outside of his door to ward off the “evil spirits.”</p> + +<p>Since alienated from their former owners they are, as a general +thing, more idle and improvident; and, unfortunately, the tendency of +their political teaching has been to make them antagonistic to the +better class of white people, which renders it difficult for them to be +properly instructed. That such animosity should exist towards those +who could best understand and help them, is to be deplored. For +the true negro character cannot be fully comprehended or described, +but by those who—like ourselves—have always lived with them.</p> + +<p>At present their lives are devoted to a religious excitement which +demoralizes them, there seeming to be no connection between their +religion and morals. In one of their Sabbath schools is a teacher, +who although often arrested for stealing, continues to hold a high +position in the church.</p> + +<p>Their improvidence has passed into a proverb—many being truly +objects of charity; and whoever would now write a true tale of poverty +and wretchedness, may take for the hero “Old Uncle Tom +without a cabin.” For “Uncle Tom” of the olden time in his cabin +with a blazing log fire and plenty of corn bread, and the Uncle Tom +of to-day, are pictures of very different individuals.</p> + +<p>And this chapter ends my reminiscences of an era soon to be forgotten, +and which will perish under the heel of modern progress. It +is a faithful memorial. Would that it might rescue from oblivion +some of the characters worthy to be remembered!</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h2> + +<p>The scenes connected with the late war will recall to the mind of +every Southern man and woman the name of Robert E. Lee—a name +which will be loved and revered as long as home or fireside remains +in old Virginia—and which sets the crowning glory on the list of +illustrious men from plantation homes. Admiration and enthusiasm +naturally belong to victory; but the man must be rare indeed, who +in defeat, like General Lee, received the applause of his countrymen.</p> + +<p>It was not alone his valor, his handsome appearance, his commanding +presence, his perfect manner, which won the admiration of +his fellow-men. There was something above and beyond all these—his +true Christian character. Trust in God ennobled his every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +word and action. Among the grandest of human conquerors was +he, for early enlisting as a soldier of the cross—to fight against the +world, the flesh and the devil—he fought the “good fight” and the +victor’s crown awaited him in the “kingdom not made with hands.”</p> + +<p>Trust in God kept him calm in victory as in defeat. When I remember +General Lee during the war, in his family circle at Richmond—then +at the height of his renown—his manner, voice and conversation +were the same as when, a year after the surrender, he came +to make my mother a visit from his Lexington home.</p> + +<p>His circumstances and surroundings were now changed—no longer +the stars and epaulets adorned his manly form; but dressed in a +simple suit of pure white linen, he looked a king, and adversity had +wrought no change in his character, manner, or conversation.</p> + +<p>To reach our house he made a journey—on his old war horse, +“Traveler”—forty miles across the mountains, describing which, on +the night of his arrival, he said:</p> + +<p>“To-day an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything +that has happened for a long time. As I was riding over the +most desolate mountain region, where not even a cabin could be +seen, I was surprised to find, on a sudden turn in the road, two little +girls playing on a large rock. They were very poorly clad, and +after looking a moment at me, began to run away. ‘Children,’ said +I, ‘don’t run away. If you could know <i>who</i> I am, you would know +that I am the last man in the world for anybody to run from now.’</p> + +<p>“‘But we do know you,’ they replied.</p> + +<p>“‘You never saw me before,’ I said, ‘for I never passed along +here.’</p> + +<p>“‘But we do know you,’ they said, ‘And we’ve got your picture +up yonder in the house, and you are General Lee! And we ain’t +dressed clean enough to see you.’</p> + +<p>“With this they scampered off to a poor log hut on the mountain +side.”</p> + +<p>It was gratifying to him to find that even in this lonely mountain +hut the children had been taught to know and revere him.</p> + +<p>He told us, too, of a man he met the same day in a dense forest +who recognized him, and throwing up his hat in the air, said: +“General, <i>please</i> let me cheer you,” and fell to cheering with all his +lungs!</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>My last recollections of General Lee, when making a visit of several +weeks at his house, the year before his death—although not +coming properly under the head of “plantation reminiscences”—may +not be inappropriate here.</p> + +<p>It has been said that a man is never a “hero to his valet;” but +this could not have been said of General Lee, for those most intimately +connected with him could not fail to see continually in his bearing +and character something above the ordinary level, something of the +hero.</p> + +<p>At the time of my visit the commencement exercises of the College, +of which he was President, were going on. His duties were necessarily +onerous. Sitting up late at night with the board of visitors,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +and attending to every detail with his conscientious particularity, +there was little time for him to rest. Yet every morning of that +busy week he was ready, with his prayer-book under his arm, when +the church bell called its members to sun-rise service.</p> + +<p>It is pleasant to recall all he said at the breakfast, dinner and tea +table, where in his hospitality he always insisted upon bringing all +who chanced to be at his house at those hours—on business or on +social call.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>This habit kept his table filled with guests, who received from him +elegant courtesy.</p> + +<p>Only once did I hear him speak regretfully of the past. It was +one night when sitting by him on the porch in the moonlight, he +said to me, his thoughts turning to his early childhood:</p> + +<p>“It was not my mother’s wish that I should receive a military education, +and I ought to have taken her advice, for,” he said very sadly, +“my education did not fit me for this civil life.”</p> + +<p>In this no one could agree with him, for it seemed to all that he +adorned and satisfactorily filled every position in life, civil or military.</p> + +<p>There was something in his manner which naturally pleased every +one without his making an effort; at the same time a dignity and +reserve which commanded respect and precluded anything like undue +familiarity. All desirable qualities seemed united in him to render +him popular.</p> + +<p>It was wonderful to observe—in the evenings when his parlors +were overflowing with people young and old, from every conceivable +place—how by a word, a smile, a shake of the hand he managed to +give <i>all</i> pleasure and satisfaction, each going away charmed with +him.</p> + +<p>The applause of men excited in him no vanity; for those around +soon learned that the slightest allusion or compliment, in his presence, +to his valor or renown, instead of pleasing, rather offended +him. Without vanity, he was equally without selfishness.</p> + +<p>One day, observing several quaint articles of furniture about his +house, and asking Mrs. Lee where they came from, she told me that +an old lady in New York city—of whom neither herself nor the General +had ever before heard—concluded to break up housekeeping. +Having no family and not wishing to sell or remove her furniture to +a boarding house, she determined to give it to “the <i>greatest living +man</i>,” and that man was General Lee.</p> + +<p>She wrote a letter asking his acceptance of the present, requesting +that, if his house was already furnished and he had no room, he +would use the articles about his College.</p> + +<p>The boxes arrived. But—such was his reluctance at receiving +gifts—weeks passed and he neither had them opened or brought +to his house from the express office.</p> + +<p>Finally, as their house was quite bare of furniture, Mrs. Lee begged +him to allow her to have them opened, and he consented.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>First there was among the contents a beautiful carpet large enough +for two rooms, at which she was delighted, as they had none. But +the General, seeing it, quickly said: “That is the very thing for the +floor of the new chapel! It must be put there.”</p> + +<p>Next were two sofas and a set of chairs. “The very things we +want,” again exclaimed the General, “for the platform of the new +chapel!”</p> + +<p>Then they unpacked a side-board. “This will do <i>very well</i>,” said +the General, “to be placed in the basement of the chapel to hold the +College papers!”</p> + +<p>And so with everything the old lady sent, only keeping for his +own house the articles which could not be possibly used for the College +or chapel—a quaint work-table, an ornamental clock and some +old fashioned preserve dishes—although his own house was then +bare enough, and the old lady had particularly requested that only +those articles which they did not need should go to the College.</p> + +<p>The recollection of this visit, although reviving many pleasant +hours, is very sad, for it was the last time I saw the dear, kind face +of Mrs. Lee; of whom the General once said when one of us, alluding +to him, used the word “hero:” “My dear, <i>Mrs.</i> Lee is the hero. +For although deprived of the use of her limbs, by suffering, and unable +for ten years to walk I have never heard her murmur or utter +one complaint.”</p> + +<p>And the General spoke truly, Mrs. Lee was a heroine. With gentleness, +kindness and true feminine delicacy, she had strength of mind +and character a man might have envied. Her mind well stored and +cultivated made her interesting in conversation; and a simple cordiality +of manner made her beloved by all who met her.</p> + +<p>During this last visit she loved to tell about her early days at +Arlington—her own and her ancestors’ plantation home—and in one +of these conversations gave me such a beautiful sketch of her mother—Mrs. +Custis—that I wish her every word could be remembered +that I might write it here.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Custis was a woman of saintly piety, her devotion to good +works having long been a theme with all in that part of Virginia. +She had only one child—Mrs. Lee—and possessed a very large fortune. +In early life she felt that God had given her a special mission, +which was to take care of and teach the three hundred negroes she +had inherited.</p> + +<p>“Believing this,” said Mrs. Lee to me, “my mother devoted the +best years of her life to teaching these negroes, for which purpose +she had a school house built in the yard, and gave her life up to this +work; and I think it an evidence of the ingratitude of their race, that +although I have long been afflicted, only one of those negroes has +written to enquire after me, or offered to nurse me.”</p> + +<p>These last years of Mrs. Lee’s life were passed in much suffering, +being unable to move any part of her body except her hands and +head. Yet her time was devoted to working for her church. Her +fingers were always busy with fancy work, painting or drawing—she +was quite an accomplished artist—which were sold for the purpose +of repairing and beautifying the church in sight of her window,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +and as much an object of zeal and affection with her, as the chapel +was with the General.</p> + +<p>Indeed the whole family entered into the General’s enthusiasm +about this chapel—just then completed—especially his daughter +Agnes, with whom I often went there, little thinking it was so soon +to be her place of burial.</p> + +<p>In a few short years all three—General Lee, his wife and daughter—were +laid here to rest, and this chapel they had loved so well +became their tomb.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></h2> + +<p>All plantation reminiscences resemble a certain patch-work, made +when we were children, of bright pieces joined with black squares. +The black squares were not pretty, but if left out, the character of +the quilt was lost. And so with the black faces, if left out of our +home pictures of the past, the character of the picture is destroyed.</p> + +<p>What I have written is a simple record of facts in my experience +without an imaginary scene or character; intended for the descendants +of those who owned slaves in the South, and who may in future +wish to know something of the high-toned character and virtues of +their ancestors.</p> + +<p>The pictures are strictly true, and should it be thought by any that +the brightest have alone been selected, I can only say, I knew no +others.</p> + +<p>It would not be possible for any country to be entirely exempt +from crime and wickedness; and here, too, these existed; for prisons, +penitentiaries and courts of justice were, as elsewhere, important; +but it is a sincere belief that the majority of Southern people were +true and good. And that they have accomplished more than any +other nation towards civilizing and elevating the negro race, may be +shown from the following paragraph in a late magazine:</p> + +<p>“From a very early date the French had their establishment on +the Western coast of Africa. In 1364 their ships visited that portion +of the world. But with all this long intercourse with the white man +the natives have profited little. <i>Five centuries</i> have not civilized them, +so as to be able to build up institutions of their own. Yet the +French have always succeeded better than the English with the negro +and Indian element.”</p> + +<p>Civilization and education are slow; for, says a modern writer:</p> + +<p>“After the death of Roman intellectual activity, the seventh and +eighth centuries were justly called dark. If Christianity was to be +one of the factors in producing the present splendid enlightenment, +she had no time to lose, and she lost no time. She was the only +power at that day that could begin the work of enlightenment. And +starting at the very bottom, she wrought for <i>nine hundred years</i> alone. +The materials she had to work upon, were stubborn and unmalleable. +<i>For one must be somewhat civilized to have a taste for knowledge at all; and +one must know something to be civilized at all.</i> She had to carry on the +double work of civilizing and educating. Her progress was neces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>sarily +slow at first. <i>But after some centuries</i> it began to increase in +arithmetical progression until the sixteenth century.”</p> + +<p>Then our ancestors performed a great work—the work allotted +them by God, civilizing and elevating an inferior race in the scale of +intelligence and comfort. That this race may continue to improve, +and finally be the means of carrying the gospel into their native +Africa, should be the prayer of every earnest Christian.</p> + +<p>Never again will the negro race find a people so kind and true to +them as the Southerners have been. For, said a gentleman the other +day, who lives in New York, “In the Northern cities white labor is +preferred, and the negroes are to be found on the outskirts, poor, +wretched and friendless.”</p> + +<p>There is much in our lives not intended for us to comprehend or +explain; but believing that nothing happens by chance, and that our +forefathers have done their duty in the “place it had pleased God to +call them,” let us cherish their memory, and remember that the Lord +God Omnipotent reigneth.</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For He who rules each wondrous star,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And marks the feeble sparrow’s fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Controls the destiny of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And guides events however small.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man’s place of birth; his home; his friends,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are planned and fixed by God alone—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Life’s lot is cast”—e’en death He sends<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For some wise purpose of His own.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Rev. G. W. Leyburn.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> John Randolph, of Roanoke.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> John Preston, afterwards Governor of Virginia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> On the route to “Rustic” was a small village called “Liberty,” approaching which, +and hearing the name, “English Louis” swore he would not pass through any such +“—— little Republican town,” and turning his horses travelled many miles out of his +way to avoid it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> From this vicinity went nine ministers, who were eminent in their several churches; +two Episcopal Bishops, one Methodist Bishop, three distinguished Presbyterian and +three Baptist divines of talent and fame.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> General Scott.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Harpers Ferry.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Here was seen the Mount Vernon silver, which had descended to Mrs. General +Washington’s great-grandson, General Custis Lee, and which was miraculously preserved +during the war, having been concealed in different places—and once was buried +near Lexington in a barn, which was occupied by the enemy several days.</p></div></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="transnote"> +<p>Transcriber's note:</p> + +<p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including inconsistent hyphenation.</p> + +<p>The following is a list of changes made to the original. +The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one.</p> + +<p> +Page 12:</p> + +<p> +small servants, who speedily <span class="u">gat</span> them into their clean aprons,<br /> +small servants, who speedily <span class="u">got</span> them into their clean aprons,</p> + +<p> +Page 16:</p> + +<p> +Every inch of <span class="u">mahogony</span> was waxed and rubbed to the highest state<br /> +Every inch of <span class="u">mahogany</span> was waxed and rubbed to the highest state</p> + +<p> +Page 20:</p> + +<p> +and which always looked so pretty on the <span class="u">mahogony</span>.<br /> +and which always looked so pretty on the <span class="u">mahogany</span>.</p> + +<p> +Page 29:</p> + +<p> +"Oh!" replied another, <span class="u">the</span> idea of us poor Virginia girls taking<br /> +"Oh!" replied another, <span class="u">"the</span> idea of us poor Virginia girls taking</p> + +<p> +Page 30:</p> + +<p> +or by the gardener to direct the <span class="u">plauting</span> of certain seeds or roots<br /> +or by the gardener to direct the <span class="u">planting</span> of certain seeds or roots</p> + +<p> +Page 34:</p> + +<p> +not only to furnish their <span class="u">masters</span> table with the choicest meats,<br /> +not only to furnish their <span class="u">master's</span> table with the choicest meats,</p> + +<p> +Page 39:</p> + +<p> +four horses, with footman, <span class="u">postilion</span> and driver in English livery.<br /> +four horses, with footman, <span class="u">postillion</span> and driver in English livery.</p> + +<p> +Page 42:</p> + +<p> +of much smaller means than Virginia and South <span class="u">Corolina</span> belles!<br /> +of much smaller means than Virginia and South <span class="u">Carolina</span> belles!</p> + +<p> +Page 43:</p> + +<p> +who dwell in the desert are always <span class="u">pusilanimous</span> and groveling!"<br /> +who dwell in the desert are always <span class="u">pusillanimous</span> and groveling!"</p> + +<p> +Page 45:</p> + +<p> +At last, when the latter was seized with a <span class="u">contageous</span> fever<br /> +At last, when the latter was seized with a <span class="u">contagious</span> fever</p> + +<p> +Page 46:</p> + +<p> +Mr. <span class="u">Thackaray</span> was once entertained at one of them.<br /> +Mr. <span class="u">Thackeray</span> was once entertained at one of them.</p> + +<p> +Page 48:</p> + +<p> +At <span class="u">Magdalene</span> College, Frances was left for a moment in a parlor,<br /> +At <span class="u">Magdalen</span> College, Frances was left for a moment in a parlor,</p> + +<p> +Page 49:</p> + +<p> +A scene almost horrible <span class="u">ensued."</span><br /> +A scene almost horrible <span class="u">ensued.</span></p> + +<p> +Page 53:</p> + +<p> +the house at which he was stopping was <span class="u">beseiged</span> by reporters<br /> +the house at which he was stopping was <span class="u">besieged</span> by reporters</p> + +<p> +Page 54:</p> + +<p> +by the passage of a <span class="u">canon</span> ball through the upper story,<br /> +by the passage of a <span class="u">cannon</span> ball through the upper story,</p> + +<p> +Page 55:</p> + +<p> +paying all the bills, this <span class="u">genteman</span> had no "rights" there whatever;<br /> +paying all the bills, this <span class="u">gentleman</span> had no "rights" there whatever;</p> + +<p> +Her furniture was polished <span class="u">mahogony</span>, and she kept most delicious<br /> +Her furniture was polished <span class="u">mahogany</span>, and she kept most delicious</p> + +<p> +Page 62:</p> + +<p> +of Southern eloquence--real, soul-inspiring <span class="u">eloquence?</span><br /> +of Southern eloquence--real, soul-inspiring <span class="u">eloquence!</span></p> + +<p> +Page 63</p> + +<p> +Soon after this was the surrender at <span class="u">Appomatox</span>, and negro slavery<br /> +Soon after this was the surrender at <span class="u">Appomattox</span>, and negro slavery</p> + +<p> +Page 65:</p> + +<p> +<span class="u">To-day</span> an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything<br /> +<span class="u">"To-day</span> an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything</p> + +<p> +Page 67:</p> + +<p> +that <span class="u">athough</span> I have long been afflicted, only one of those<br /> +that <span class="u">although</span> I have long been afflicted, only one of those</p> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44626 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/44626-h/images/cover.jpg b/44626-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bde339 --- /dev/null +++ b/44626-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a +href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p> +<p>Title: Plantation Reminiscences</p> +<p>Author: Letitia M. Burwell</p> +<p>Release Date: January 8, 2014 [eBook #44626]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANTATION REMINISCENCES***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Paul Clark<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive<br /> + (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + <a href="https://archive.org/details/plantationremini00burw"> + https://archive.org/details/plantationremini00burw</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<div class="transnote"> +<p>Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p>The author's name on the cover and in the copyright notice seems to +be a pseudonym. According to the catalog of the Library of Congress, +the author was Letitia M. Burwell.</p> +</div> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>Plantation +Reminiscences</h1> + +<div class="center"> +<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" width="344" height="600" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p class="center">Copyrighted in 1878 by <span class="smcap">Page Thacker</span>.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="DEDICATION" id="DEDICATION">DEDICATION.</a></h2> + +<p>Dedicated to my nieces, who will find in English and American publications +such epithets applied to their ancestors as: “Cruel slave-owners;” “inhuman;” +“Southern task masters;” “hard-hearted;” “dealers in human souls,” +&c. From these they will naturally recoil with horror. My own life would +have been embittered had I believed myself descended from such; and that +those who come after us may know the truth I wish to leave a record of plantation +life as it was. The truth may thus be preserved among a few, and the +praise they deserve awarded noble men and virtuous women who have passed +away.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></h2> + +<p>For several years I have felt a desire to write these reminiscences, but did +not conclude to do so until receiving, a few months ago, a letter from Mr. +Martin F. Tupper—the English poet—in which he wrote: “Let me encourage +you in the idea of writing ‘Plantation Reminiscences.’ It will be a good +work; and it is time the world was learning the truth. I myself have learned +it and shall not be slow in telling it to others.”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="PLANTATION_REMINISCENCES" id="PLANTATION_REMINISCENCES">PLANTATION REMINISCENCES.</a></h2> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></h2> + +<p>That my birth place should have been a Virginia plantation; my +lot in life cast on a Virginia plantation; my ancestors, for nine generations, +owners of Virginia plantations, remain facts mysterious +and inexplicable but to Him who determined the bounds of our +habitations, and said: “Be still, and know that I am God.”</p> + +<p>Confined exclusively to a Virginia plantation, during my earliest +childhood, I believed the world one vast plantation bounded by negro +quarters. Rows of white cabins with gardens attached; negro men +in the fields; negro women sewing, knitting, spinning, weaving, +house-keeping in the cabins, with negro children dancing, romping, +singing, jumping, playing around the doors, formed the only pictures +familiar to my childhood.</p> + +<p>The master’s residence—as the negroes called it, the “great +house”—occupied a central position, and was handsome and attractive; +the overseer’s being a plainer house, about a mile from this.</p> + +<p>Each cabin had as much pine furniture as the occupants desired; +pine and oak being abundant, and carpenters always at work for the +comfort of the plantation.</p> + +<p>Bread, meat, milk, vegetables, fruit and fuel were as plentiful as +water in the springs near the cabin doors.</p> + +<p>Among the negroes—one hundred—on our plantation, many had +been taught different trades; and there were blacksmiths, carpenters, +brick masons, millers, shoemakers, weavers, spinners, all working +for themselves. No article of their handicraft ever being sold from the +place, their industry resulted in nothing beyond feeding and clothing +themselves.</p> + +<p>My sister and myself, when very small children, were often carried +to visit these cabins, on which occasions no young princesses could +have received from admiring subjects more adulation. Presents +were laid at our feet—not glittering gems—but eggs, chesnuts, popcorn, +walnuts, melons, apples, sweet potatoes, all their “cupboards” +afforded, with a generosity unbounded. This made us as happy as +queens; and filled our hearts with kindness and gratitude to our +dusky admirers.</p> + +<p>Around the cabin doors the young negroes would quarrel as to who +should be his or her mistress; some claiming me, and others my sister.</p> + +<p>All were merry-hearted, and among them I never saw a discontented +face. Their amusements were dancing to the music of the +banjo, quilting parties, opossum hunting, and, sometimes, weddings +and parties.</p> + +<p>Many could read, and in almost every cabin was a Bible. In one +was a Prayer-book, kept by one of the men—a preacher—from which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +he read the marriage ceremony at the weddings. This man opened +a night school—charging twenty-five cents a week—hoping to inspire +some literary thirst among the rising generation, who, however, +preferred their nightly frolics to the school, so it had few patrons.</p> + +<p>Our house servants were numerous, polite and well trained. My +mother selected those most obliging in disposition and quick at learning, +who were brought to the house at ten or twelve years of age, and +instructed in the branches of household employment.</p> + +<p>These small servants were always dressed in the cleanest, whitest +long-sleeved aprons, with white or red turbans on their heads. No +establishment being considered complete without a multiplicity of +these; they might be seen constantly darting about on errands from +the house to the kitchen and the cabins; up stairs and down stairs, +being indeed omnipresent and indispensable.</p> + +<p>It was the custom for a lady visitor to be accompanied to her room +at night by one of these black, smiling “indispensables,” who insisted +so good naturedly on performing all offices, combing her hair, +pulling off her slippers, &c., that one had not the heart to refuse, although +it would have been sometimes more agreeable to have been +left alone.</p> + +<p>The negroes were generally pleased at the appearance of visitors, +from whom they were accustomed to receive some present on arriving +or departing, the neglect of which was considered a breach of +politeness.</p> + +<p>The old negroes were quite patriarchal; loved to talk about “old +times,” and exacted great respect from the young negroes, and also +from the younger members of the white family. We called the old +men “Uncle,” and the old women “Aunt,” cognomens of respect.</p> + +<p>The atmosphere of our own home was consideration and kindness. +The mere recital of a tale of suffering would make my sister and myself +weep with sorrow. And I believe the maltreatment of one of +our servants—we had never heard the word “slave”—would have +distressed us beyond endurance. We early learned that happiness +consisted in dispensing it, and found no pleasure greater than saving +our old dolls, toys, beads, bits of cake, or candy for the cabin children, +whose delight at receiving them richly repaid us. If any of the +older servants became displeased with us, we were miserable until +we had restored the old smile by presenting some choice bit of sweet +meat, cake or candy.</p> + +<p>I remember once, when my grand-mother scolded nurse Kitty, saying: +“Kitty, the butler tells me you disturb the breakfast cream every +morning, dipping out milk to wash your face,” I burst in tears, and +thought it hard when there were so many cows poor Kitty could not +wash her face in milk. Kitty had been told that her dark skin would +be improved by a milk bath, which she had not hesitated to dip every +morning from the breakfast buckets.</p> + +<p>At such establishments one easily acquired a habit of being waited +upon—there being so many servants with so little to do. It was +natural to ask for a drink of water, when the water was right by +you, and have things brought which you might easily have gotten +yourself. But these domestics were so pleased at such errands one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +felt no hesitation in requiring them. A young lady would ask black +Nancy or Dolly to fan her, whereupon Nancy or Dolly would laugh +good naturedly, produce a large palm leaf and fall to fanning her +young mistress vigorously, after which she would be rewarded with +a bow of ribbon, candy or sweet cakes.</p> + +<p>The negroes made pocket money by selling their own vegetables, +poultry, eggs, &c.—made at the master’s expense, of course. I often +saw my mother take out her purse and pay them liberally for fowls, +eggs, melons, sweet potatoes, brooms, shuck mats and split baskets. +The men made small crops of tobacco or potatoes for themselves on +any piece of ground they chose to select.</p> + +<p>My mother and grand-mother were almost always talking over the +wants of the negroes,—what medicine should be sent—who they +should visit—who needed new shoes, clothes or blankets,—the principle +object of their lives seeming to be providing these comforts. +The carriage was often ordered for them to ride around to the cabins +to distribute light-bread, tea and other necessaries among the sick. +And besides employing the best doctor, my grand-mother always +saw that they received the best nursing and attention.</p> + +<p>In this little plantation world of ours was one being—and only +one—who inspired awe in every heart, being a special terror to +small children. This was the Queen of the Kitchen—Aunt Christian—who +reigned supreme. She wore the whitest cotton cap, with +the broadest of ruffles; was very black and very portly, and her +sceptre was a good sized stick, kept to chastise small dogs and children +who invaded her territory. Her character, however, having +been long established she had not often occasion to use this weapon, +as these enemies kept out of her way.</p> + +<p>Her pride was great, for, said she: “Haven’t I been, long before +this here little master whar is was born, bakin’ the best light-bread +and waffles and biscuit; and in my old master’s time managed my +own affars!”</p> + +<p>She was generally left to manage “her own affars,” and being a +pattern of neatness and industry her fame went abroad from Botetourt, +even unto the remotest ends of Mecklenburg county.</p> + +<p>That this marvellous cooking was all the work of her own hands +I am, in later years, inclined to doubt, as she kept several assistants, +a boy to chop wood, beat biscuit, scour tables, lift off pots and ovens; +one woman to make the pastry and another to compound cakes and +jellies. But her fame was great; her pride lofty, and I would not +now pluck one laurel from her wreath.</p> + +<p>This honest woman was appreciated by my mother, but we had +no affinity for her, in consequence of certain traditions on the plantation +about her severity to children. Having no children of her own, +a favorite orphan house-girl, whenever my mother went from home, +was left to her care. This girl—now an elderly woman, and still our +faithful and loved servant,—says she remembers to this day her +joy at my mother’s return home, and her release from Aunt Christian. +“I will never forget,” to use her own words, “how I watched the road +every day, hoping that mistress would come back, and when I saw +the carriage I would run a mile, shouting and clapping my hands.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>Smiling faces always welcomed us home as the carriage passed +through the plantation, and on reaching the house we were received +by the negroes about the yard with liveliest demonstrations of pleasure.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></h2> + +<p>It was a long time before it dawned upon my mind there were +places and people different from these. The plantations we visited +seemed exactly like ours. The same hospitality everywhere, the +same kindliness existing between the white family and the blacks.</p> + +<p>Confined exclusively to plantation scenes, the most trifling incidents +impressed themselves indelibly upon me.</p> + +<p>One day while my mother was in the yard attending to the planting +of some shrubbery, we saw approaching an old, feeble negro man, +leaning upon his stick. His clothes were nearly worn out, and he, +haggard and thin.</p> + +<p>“Good day, Mistess,” said he.</p> + +<p>“Who are you?” asked my mother.</p> + +<p>“My name is John,” he replied, “and I belonged to your husband’s +uncle. He died a long time ago. Before he died he set me free and +gave me a good piece of land near Petersburg, and some money and +stock. But all—my money and land—all gone, and I was starving. +So I come one hundred miles to beg you and master please let me +live and die on your plantation. I don’t want to be free no longer. +Please don’t let me be free.”</p> + +<p>I wondered what was meant by being “free,” and supposed from +his appearance it must be some very dreadful and unfortunate condition +of humanity. My mother heard him very kindly, and directed +him to the kitchen where “Aunt Christian” would give him a plenty +to eat.</p> + +<p>Although there were already a number of old negroes to be supported, +who no longer considered themselves young enough to work, +this old man was added to the number, and a cabin built for him. +To the day of his death he expressed gratitude to my mother for taking +care of him, and often entertained us with accounts of <i>his</i> “old master’s +times,” which he said were the “grandest of all.”</p> + +<p>By way of apology for certain knotty excrescences on his feet, he +used to say: “You see these here knots. Well, they come from my +being a monstrous proud young nigger, and squeezin’ my feet in de +tightest boots to drive my master’s carriage ’bout Petersburg. I +nuver was so happy as when I was drivin’ my coach-an’-four, and +crackin’ de postillion over de head wid my whip.”</p> + +<p>These pleasant reminiscences were generally concluded with: +“Ah! young Misses, <i>you’ll</i> nuver see sich times. No more postillions! +No more coach-an’-four! And niggers drives <i>now</i> widout they white +gloves. Ah! no, young Misses, <i>you’ll</i> nuver see nothin’! <i>Nuver</i>, in +<i>your</i> time.”</p> + +<p>With these melancholy predictions would he shake his head, and +sigh that the days of glory had departed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<p>Each generation of blacks vied with the other in extolling the virtues +of their particular mistress and master and “<i>their times</i>;” but +notwithstanding this mournful contrast between the past and present, +their reminiscences had a certain charm. Often by their cabin firesides +would we listen to the tales of the olden days about our forefathers, +of whom they could tell much, having belonged to our family +since the landing of the African fathers on the English slave ships, +from which their ancestors had been bought by ours. Among these +traditions none pleased us so much as that an unkind mistress or +master had never been known among our ancestors, which we have +always considered a cause for greater pride than the armorial bearings +left on their tombstones.</p> + +<p>We often listened with pleasure to the recollections of an old blind +man—the former faithful attendant of our grand-father—whose mind +was filled with vivid pictures of the past. He repeated verbatim +conversations and speeches heard sixty years before—from Mr. Madison, +Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Clay, and other statesmen, his master’s special +friends.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” he used to say, “I staid with your grandpa ten years in +Congress, and all the time he was Secretary for President Jefferson. +He nuver give me a cross word, and I nuver saw your grandma the +least out of temper neither, but once, and that was at a dinner party +‘we’ give in Washington, when the French Minister said something +disrespectful about the United States.”</p> + +<p>Often did he tell us: “The greatest pleasure I expect in heaven, is +seeing my old master.” And sometimes, “I dream about my master +and mistress when I am sleep, and talk with them and see them so +plain it makes me so happy that I laugh out right loud.”</p> + +<p>This man was true and honest—a good Christian. Important +trusts had been confided to him. He frequently carried the carriage +and horses to Washington and Baltimore—a journey of two weeks—and +sometimes sent to carry a large sum of money to a distant county.</p> + +<p>His wife, who had accompanied him in her youth to Washington, +also entertained us with gossip about the people of that day, and +could tell exactly the size and color of Mrs. Madison’s slippers, how +she was dressed on certain occasions, “what beautiful manners she +had,” how Mr. Jefferson received master and mistress when “we” +drove up to Monticello, what room they occupied, &c.</p> + +<p>Although my grand-father’s death occurred thirty years before, the +negroes still remembered it with sorrow; and one of them, speaking +of it, said to me, “Ah, little mistess, ’twas a sorrowful day when de +news come from Washington dat our good, kind master was dead. +A mighty wail went up from dis plantation, for we know’d we had +loss our bes friend.”</p> + +<p>The only negro on the place who did not evince an interest in the +white family was a man ninety years old, who, forty years before, +announced his intention of not working any longer—although +still strong and athletic—because, he said, “the estate had done come +down so he hadn’t no heart to work no longer.” He remembered, +he said, “when thar was three and four hundred black folks, but sence +de British debt had to be paid over by his old master, and de Mack<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>lenbug +estate had to be sold, he hadn’t had no heart to do nothin’ +sence.” And “he hadn’t seen no <i>real</i> fine white folks—what <i>he</i> called +real fine white folks—sence he come from Macklenbug.” All his interest +in life having expired with an anterior generation; we were in +his eyes but a poor set, and he refused to have anything to do with +us. Not being compelled to work, he passed his life principally in +the woods, wore a rabbit-skin cap and a leather apron. Having lost +interest in, and connection with the white family, he gradually relapsed +into a state of barbarism, refusing towards the end of his life +to sleep in his bed, preferring a hard bench in his cabin, upon which +he died.</p> + +<p>Another very old man remembered something of his father, who +had come from Africa; and when we asked him to tell us what he +remembered of his father’s narrations, would say:</p> + +<p>“My father told us that his mother lived in a hole in the ground, +and when the English people come to Africa she sold him for a string +of beads. He said ‘’twas mighty hard for him, when he fus come to +dis country, to wear clothes.’ Sometimes he would git so mad wid +us chillun, my mammy would have to run and hide us to keep him +from killin’ us. Den sometimes at night he would say: ‘He gwine sing +he country,’ den he would dance and jump and howl and skeer us to +death.”</p> + +<p>They spoke always of their forefathers as the “outlandish people.”</p> + +<p>On some plantations it was a custom to buy the wife when a negro +preferred to marry on another estate. And in this way we became +possessed of a famous termagant, who had married our grand-father’s +gardener, quarrelled him to death in one year and survived to quarrel +forty years longer with the other negroes. She had no children—not +even a cat or dog could live with her. She had been offered her freedom, +but refused to accept it. Several times had been given away; +once to her son—a free man—and to others with whom she fancied +she might live, but, like the bad penny, was always returned to us. +She always returned in a cart, seated on top of her chest and surrounded +by her goods and chattels, dressed in a high hat, long black +plume—standing straight up—gay cloth spencer and short petticoat, +the costume of a hundred years ago. Although her return was a sore +affliction to the plantation, my sister and myself found much amusement +in witnessing it. The cold welcome she received seemed not +to affect her spirits, but re-establishing herself in her cabin she quickly +resumed the turbulent course of her career.</p> + +<p>Finally one morning the news came that this woman, old Clara, +was dead. Two women went to sweep her cabin and perform the +last sad offices. They waited all day for the body to get cold. While +sitting over the fire in the evening, one of them happening to glance +at a small mirror inserted in the wall near the bed, exclaimed: “Old +Clara’s laughing!” They went nearer and there was a horrible grin +on the face of the corpse! Old Clara sprang out of bed exclaiming, +“Git me some meat and bread. I’m most perish’d!”</p> + +<p>“Old woman, what you mean by foolin’ us so?” asked the nurses.</p> + +<p>“I jes want see what you all gwine do wid my <i>things</i> when I <i>was</i> +dead!” replied the old woman, whose “things” consisted of all sorts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +old and curious spencers, hats, plumes, necklaces, caps and dresses, +collected during her various wanderings and worn by a long past generation.</p> + +<p>Among these old cabin legends we sometimes collected bits of romance, +and were often told how, by the coquetry of a certain Richmond +belle, we had lost a handsome fortune, which impressed me +even then with the fatal consequences of coquetry.</p> + +<p>This belle engaged herself to our great uncle—a handsome and accomplished +gentleman—who, to improve his health, went to Europe; +but before embarking made his will, leaving her his estate and negroes. +He died abroad, and the lady accepted his property, although +she was known to have been engaged to twelve others at the same +time! The story in Richmond ran that these twelve gentlemen—my +grand-father among them—had a wine party, and towards the close +of the evening some of them becoming communicative, began taking +each other out to tell a secret when it was discovered they all had +the same secret—each was engaged to Miss Betsy M——. This lady’s +name is still seen on fly leaves of old books in our library—books +used during her reign by students at William and Mary College—showing +that the young gentlemen, even at that venerable Institution, +allowed their classic thoughts sometimes to wander.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></h2> + +<p>As soon as my sister and myself had learned to read and cipher, +we were inspired with a desire to teach the negroes who were about +the house and kitchen; and my father promised to reward my sister +with a handsome guitar if she would teach two boys—designed for +mechanics—arithmetic.</p> + +<p>Our regular system was every night to place chairs around the +dining table, ring a bell and open school; she presiding at one end +and I at the other of the table, each propped on books to give us the +necessary height and dignity for teachers.</p> + +<p>Our school proved successful. The boys learned arithmetic and +the guitar was awarded. All who tried learned to read, and from +that day we have never ceased to teach all who desired to learn.</p> + +<p>Thus my early life was passed amid scenes cheerful and agreeable, +nor did any one seem to have any care except my mother. Her +cares and responsibilities were great, with one hundred people continually +upon her mind, who were constantly appealing to her in +every strait, real or imaginary. But it had pleased God to place her +here, and nobly did she perform the duties of her station. She often +told us of her distress on realizing for the first time the responsibilities +devolving upon the mistress of a large plantation, and the nights +of sorrow and tears these thoughts had given her.</p> + +<p>On her arrival at the plantation after her marriage, the negroes +received her with lively demonstrations of joy, clapping their hands +and shouting: “Thank God, we got a mistess!” Some of them +throwing themselves on the ground at her feet in their enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>The plantation had been without a master or mistress twelve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +years; my father—the sole heir—having been off at school and College. +During this time the silver had been left in the house, and the +servants had kept and used it, but <i>nothing had been stolen</i>.</p> + +<p>The books, too, had been undisturbed in the library, except a few +volumes of the poets which had been carried to adorn some of the +cabin shelves.</p> + +<p>It was known by the negroes that their old master’s will set them +free and gave them a large body of land in the event of my father’s +death; and some of his College friends suggested he might be killed +while passing his vacations on his estate. But this only amused +him, for he knew too well in what affection he was held by his negroes, +and how each vied with the other in showing him attention—spreading +a dinner often for him at their cabins when he returned +from hunting or fishing.</p> + +<p>I think I have written enough to show the mutual affection existing +between the white and black races—and the abundant provision +generally made for the wants of those whom God had mysteriously +placed under our care.</p> + +<p>The existence of extreme want and poverty had never entered my +mind, until one day my mother showing us some pictures, entitled +“London Labor and London Poor,” we asked her if she believed there +were such poor people in the world, and she replied: “Yes, children, +there are many in this world who have nowhere to sleep and nothing +to eat.”</p> + +<p>Still we could not realize what she said, for we had never seen a +beggar. But from that time it began to dawn upon us that all the +world was not a plantation, with more than enough on it for people +to eat. And when we were old enough to read and compare our +surroundings with what we learned about other countries, we found +that our laboring population was more bountifully supplied than that +of any other land. We read about “myriads of poor, starving creatures, +with pinched faces and tattered garments,” in far off cities and +countries. We read of hundreds who, from destitution and wretchedness, +committed suicide. We read these things, but could not fully +sympathise with such want and suffering; for it is necessary to witness +these in order to feel the fullest sympathy, and we had never +seen anything of the kind on our own or our neighbor’s plantations.</p> + +<p>Their religious instruction, I found, had not been more neglected +than among the lower classes in England, Ireland, France, Russia +and elsewhere. Every church—there was one of some denomination +near every plantation—had special seats reserved for the negroes. +The minister always addressed a portion of his sermon particularly +to them, and held service for them exclusively on Sabbath afternoon. +Besides, they had their own ministers among themselves, and had +night prayer meetings in their cabins whenever they chose.</p> + +<p>Many prayers ascended from earnest hearts for their conversion, +and I knew no home at which some effort was not made for their +religious instruction.</p> + +<p>One of our friends—a Presbyterian minister and earnest Christian—devoted +the greater part of his time to preaching and teaching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +them. And many pious ministers, throughout the State, bestowed +upon them time and labor.</p> + +<p>I once attended a gay party where the young lady of the house—the +center of attraction—hearing that one of the negroes was suddenly +very ill, excused herself from the company, carried her Prayer-book +to the cabin, and passed the night by the bedside of the sick +man, reading and repeating verses to him. I have also had young +lady friends who declined attending a wedding or party when a favorite +servant was ill.</p> + +<p>On one occasion an English gentleman—Surgeon in the Royal +Artillery—visiting at our house, accompanied us to a wedding and +hearing that two young ladies had not attended on account of the +illness of a negro servant, said to me: “This would not have been +in England, and will scarcely be believed when I tell it on my return.”</p> + +<p>The same gentleman expressed astonishment at one of our neighbor’s +sitting up all night to nurse one of his negroes who was ill. +He was amused at the manner of our servants’ identifying themselves +with the master and his possessions, always speaking of “our +horses,” “our cows,” “our crop,” “our mill,” “our blacksmith’s shop,” +“our carriage,” “our black folks,” &c. He told us he observed also +a difference between our menials and those of his own country, in +that, while here they were individualized, there they were known by +the names of “Boots,” “’Ostler,” “Driver,” “Footman,” “Cook,” +“Waiter,” “Scullion,” &c.</p> + +<p>On our plantations the most insignificant stable boy felt himself +of some importance.</p> + +<p>When I heard Mr. Dickens read scenes from Nicholas Nickleby, +the tone of voice in which he personated Smike sent a chill through +me, for I had never before heard the human voice express such hopeless +despair. Can there be in England, thought I, human beings +afraid of the sound of their own voices?</p> + +<p>There was a class of men in our State who made a business of +buying negroes to sell again farther south. These we never met, +and held in horror. But even they, when we reflect, could not have +treated them with inhumanity; for what man would pay a thousand +dollars for a piece of property, and fail to take the best possible care +of it? The “traders” usually bought their negroes when an estate +became involved, for the owners could not be induced to part with +their negroes until the last extremity—when everything else had +been seized by their creditors. Houses, lands, everything went first, +before giving up the negroes; the owner preferring to impoverish +himself in the effort to keep and provide for these—which was unwise, +financially, and would not have been thought of by a mercenary +people.</p> + +<p>But it was hard to part with one’s “own people,” and see them +scattered. Still our debts had to be paid; often security debts after +the death of the owner, when all had to be sold. And who of us but +can remember the tears of anguish caused by this, and scenes of +sorrow to which we can never revert without the keenest grief? +Yet, like all events in this chequered human life, even these sometimes +turned out best for the negroes, when by this means they ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>changed +unpleasant for more agreeable homes. Still it appeared to +me a great evil, and often did I pray that God would make us a way +of escape from it. But His ways are past finding out, and why He +had been pleased to order it thus we shall never know.</p> + +<p>Instances of harsh or cruel treatment were rare. I never heard of +more than two or three individuals who were “hard” or unkind to +their negroes, and these were ostracised from respectable society, +their very names bringing reproach and blight upon their descendants.</p> + +<p>We knew of but one instance of cruelty on our plantation, and +that was when “Uncle Joe,” the blacksmith, burnt his nephew’s face +with a hot iron. The man carries the scar to this day, and in speaking +of it, always says: “Soon as my master found out how Uncle +Joe treated me he wouldn’t let me work no more in his shop.”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2> + +<p>The extent of these estates precluding the possibility of near neighbors, +their isolation would have been intolerable but for the custom +of visiting which prevailed among us. Many houses were filled +with visitors the greater part of the year, usually remaining two or +three weeks. Visiting tours were made in our private carriages—each +family making at least one such tour a year. Nor was it necessary +to announce these visits by message or letter, each house being +considered always ready, and “entertaining company” the occupation +of the people. Sometimes two or three carriages might be descried +in the evening coming up to the door through the Lombardy poplar +avenue—the usual approach to many old houses—whereupon ensued +a lively flutter among small servants, who speedily got them into +their clean aprons, and ran to open gates, and remove parcels from +carriages, and becoming generally excited. Lady visitors were always +accompanied by colored maids, although sure of finding a superfluity +of these at each establishment. The mistress of the house always +received her guests in the front porch, with a sincere and cordial +greeting.</p> + +<p>These visiting friends at my own home made an impression upon +me that no time can efface. I almost see them now—those dear, +gentle faces—my mother’s early friends; and those delightful old +ladies in close bordered tarletan caps, who used to come to see my +grandmother. These last would sit round the fire knitting and talking +over their early memories; how they remembered the red coats +of the British; how they had seen the Richmond theater burn down, +with some of their family burned in it. How they used to wear such +beautiful turbans of <i>crepe lise</i> to the Cartersville balls, and how they +used to dance the minuet. At mention of this, my grandmother +would lay off her spectacles, put aside her knitting, rise with dignity—she +was very tall—and show us the step of the minuet, gliding +slowly and majestically around the room. Then she would say: +“Ah, children, you will never see anything so graceful as the minuet.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +Such jumping around as <i>you</i> see would not have been considered +‘genteel’ in <i>my</i> day!”</p> + +<p>My mother’s friends belonged to a later generation, and were types +of women, whom to have known I shall ever consider a blessing and +privilege. They combined intelligence with exquisite refinement and +agreeability; and their annual visits gave my mother the greatest +happiness, which we soon learned to share and appreciate.</p> + +<p>As I consider these ladies models for our sex through all time, I +enumerate some of their attractions:</p> + +<p>Entire absence of pretense made them always agreeable. Having +no “parlor” or “company” manners to assume, they preserved at all +times a gentle, natural, easy demeanor and conversation. They had +not dipped into the sciences, attempted by some of our sex at the +present day; but the study of Latin and French, with general reading +in their mother tongue rendered them intelligent companions for +cultivated men. They also possessed the rare gift of reading well +aloud, and wrote letters unsurpassed in penmanship, ease and agreeability +of style.</p> + +<p>Italian and German professors being rare in that day, their musical +acquirements did not extend beyond the simplest piano accompaniments +to old English and Scotch airs, which they sang in a sweet, +natural voice, and which so enchanted the beaux of their time that +they—the beaux—never afterwards became reconciled to any higher +order of music.</p> + +<p>These model women also managed their household affairs admirably; +and were uniformly kind, but never familiar with their servants. +They kept ever before them the Bible as their constant guide +and rule in life, and were surely, as nearly as possible, holy in +thought, word and deed. I have looked in vain for <i>exactly such</i> women +in other lands, but have failed to find them.</p> + +<p>Then there were old gentlemen visitors—beaux of my grandmother’s +day—still wearing cues, wide ruffled bosoms, short pants and +knee buckles. These pronounced the <i>a</i> very broad; sat a long time +over their wine at dinner, and carried in their pockets gold or silver +snuff-boxes presented by some distinguished individual at some remote +period.</p> + +<p>Our visiting acquaintance extended from Botetourt county to Richmond, +and among them were jolly old Virginia gentlemen and precise +old Virginia gentlemen; eccentric old Virginia gentlemen and +prosy old Virginia gentlemen; courtly old Virginia gentlemen and +plain-mannered old Virginia gentlemen; charming old Virginia gentlemen +and uninteresting old Virginia gentlemen. Many of them +had graduated years and years ago at William and Mary College.</p> + +<p>Then we had another set, of a later day—those who graduated in +the first graduating class at the University of Virginia, when that institution +was first established. These happened—all that we knew—to +have belonged to the same class, and often amused us—without +intending it—by reverting to that fact in these words:</p> + +<p>“<i>That</i> was a remarkable class! Every man in that class made his +mark in law, letters or politics! Let me see: There was Toombs. +There was Charles Mosby. There was Alexander Stuart. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +was Burwell. There was R. M. T. Hunter;” and so on, calling each +by name except himself, knowing that the others never failed to do +that!</p> + +<p>Edgar Poe and Alexander Stephens, of Georgia, were also at the +University with these gentlemen.</p> + +<p>Although presenting an infinite variety of mind, manner and temperament, +all the gentlemen who visited us, young and old, possessed +in common certain characteristics; one of which was a deference to +ladies, which made us feel that we had been put in the world especially +to be waited upon by them. Their standard for woman was +high. They seemed to regard her as some rare and costly statue set +in a niche to be admired and <i>never taken</i> down.</p> + +<p>Another peculiarity they had in common, was a habit—which +seemed irresistible—of tracing people back to the remotest generation, +and appearing inconsolable if ever they failed to find out the +pedigree of any given individual for at least four generations. This, +however, was an innocent pastime, from which they seemed to derive +much pleasure and satisfaction, and which should not be regarded, +even in this advanced age, a serious fault.</p> + +<p>Among our various visitors, was a kinsman—of whom I often +heard, but do not recollect—a bachelor of eighty years, always accompanied +by his negro servant as old as himself. Both had the +same name, Louis,—pronounced like the French—and this aged pair +had been so long together they could not exist apart. Black Louis +rarely left his master’s side; assisting in the conversation if his master +became perplexed or forgetful. When his master talked in the +parlor, black Louis always planted his chair in the middle of the door-sill, +every now and then correcting or reminding with: “Now, master, +dat warnt Col. Taylor’s horse dat won dat race dat day. You +and me was thar.” Or, “Now, master you done forgot all ’bout dat. +Dat was in de year 1779, and <i>dis</i> is de way it happened,” &c., much +to the amusement of the company assembled. All this was said, I +am told, most respectfully, although the old negro in a manner <i>possessed</i> +his master, having entire charge and command of him.</p> + +<p>The negroes often felt great pride in “<i>their</i> white people,” as they +called their owners, and loved to brag about what “<i>their</i> white people” +did and what “<i>their</i> white people” had.</p> + +<p>On one occasion it became necessary for my sister and myself to +ride a short distance in a public conveyance. A small colored boy, +who helped in our dining-room, had to get in the same stage. Two +old gentlemen—strangers to us—sitting opposite, supposing we had +fallen asleep, when we closed our eyes to keep out the dust, commenced +talking about us. Said one to the other: “Now those children +will spoil their Sunday bonnets.” Whereupon our colored boy +spoke up quickly: “Umph! <i>you</i> think <i>them’s</i> my mistesses’ Sunday +bonnets? Umph! you <i>jes ought</i> to see what they got up thar on top +the stage in thar band box!” At this we both laughed, for the boy +had never seen our “Sunday bonnets,” nor did he know that we possessed +any.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></h2> + +<p>English books never fail to make honorable mention of a “roast +of beef,” “a leg of mutton,” “a dish of potatoes,” “a dish of tea,” &c., +while with us the abundance of such things gave them, we thought, +not enough importance to be particularized. Still my reminiscences +extend to these.</p> + +<p>Every Virginia housewife knew how to compound all the various +dishes in Mrs. Randolph’s Cookery book, and our tables were filled +with every species of meat and vegetable to be found on a plantation; +with every kind of cakes, jellies and blanc-mange to be concocted +out of eggs, butter and cream, besides an endless catalogue +of preserves, sweet meats, pickles and condiments. So that in the +matter of good living, both in abundance and the manner of serving, +a Virginia plantation could not be excelled.</p> + +<p>The first speciality being good loaf bread, there was always a hot +loaf for breakfast, hot corn bread for dinner and a hot loaf for supper. +Every house was famed for its loaf bread, and, said a gentleman +once to me: “Although at each place it is superb, yet each loaf +differs from another loaf, preserving distinct characteristics which +would enable me to distinguish, instantly, should there be a convention +of loaves, the Oaklands loaf from the Greenfield loaf, and the +Avenel loaf from the Rustic Lodge loaf.”</p> + +<p>And apropos of this gentleman, whom, it is needless to add, was a +celebrated connoisseur in this matter of loaf bread, it was a noticeable +fact with our cook, that whenever he came to our house the bread +in trying to do its best always did its worst!</p> + +<p>Speaking of bread, another gentleman expressed his belief that at +the last great day, it will be found that more housewives will be punished +on account of light bread than anything else; for he knew some +who were never out of temper except when the light bread failed!</p> + +<p>Time would fail me to dwell, as I should, upon the incomparable +rice waffles, and beat biscuit, and muffins, and laplands, and Marguerites, +and flannel cakes, and French rolls, and velvet rolls, and +ladies-fingers constantly brought by relays of small servants, during +breakfast, hot and hotter from the kitchen. Then the tea waiters +handed at night, with the beef tongue, the sliced ham, the grated +cheese, the cold turkey, the dried venison, the loaf bread buttered +hot, the batter-cakes, crackers, the quince marmalade, the wafers all +pass in review before me.</p> + +<p>The first time I ever heard of a manner of living different from +this, was when it became important for my mother to make a visit +to a great aunt in Baltimore, and she went for the first time out of +her native State—neither herself nor her mother had ever been out of +Virginia. My mother was accompanied by her maid, Kitty, on this +expedition, and when they returned both had many astounding things +to relate. My grandmother threw up her hands in amazement on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +hearing that some of the first ladies in the city, who visited old aunt, +confined the conversation of a morning call to the subject of the +faults of their hired servants. “Is it possible?” exclaimed the old +lady. “I never considered it well bred to mention servants or their +faults in company.”</p> + +<p>Indeed, in our part of the world, a mistress became offended if the +faults of her servants were alluded to, just as persons become displeased +when the faults of their children are discussed.</p> + +<p>Maid Kitty’s account of this visit, I will give as well as I can remember +in her own words, as she described it to her fellow-servants: +“You never see sich a way for people to live! Folks goes to bed in +Baltimore ’thout a single mouthful in thar house to eat. And they +can’t get nothin’ neither ’thout they gits up soon in the mornin’ and +goes to the market after it themselves. Rain, hail or shine, they got +to go. ’Twouldn’t suit <i>our</i> white folks to live that way! And I +wouldn’t live thar not for nothin’ in this world. In that fine three +story house thar ain’t but bare two servants, an’ they has to do all +the work. ’Twouldn’t suit <i>me</i>, an’ I wouldn’t live thar not for nothin’ +in this whole creation. I would git <i>that</i> lonesome I couldn’t stan’ it. +Bare two servants! and they calls themselves rich, too! And they +cooks in the cellar. I know mistess couldn’t stand that—smellin’ +everything out the kitchen all over the house. Umph! <i>them</i> folks +don’t know nothin’ <i>tall</i> ’bout good livin’, with thar cold bread and thar +rusks!”</p> + +<p>Maid Kitty spoke truly when she said she had never seen two women +do all the housework. For, at home, often three women would +clean up one chamber. One made the bed, while another swept the +floor and a third dusted and put the chairs straight. Labor was divided +and subdivided; and I remember one woman whose sole employment +seemed to be throwing open the blinds in the morning and +rubbing the posts of my grandmother’s high bedstead. This rubbing +business was carried quite to excess. Every inch of mahogany was +waxed and rubbed to the highest state of polish, as were also the +floors, the brass fenders, irons and candlesticks.</p> + +<p>When I reflect upon the degree of comfort arrived at in our homes, +I think we should have felt grateful to our ancestors; for as Quincy +has written: “In whatever mode of existence man finds himself, be +it savage or civilized, he perceives that he is indebted for the greater +part of his possessions to events over which he had no control; to +individuals whose names, perhaps, never reached his ear; to sacrifices +which he never shared. How few of all these blessings do we +owe to our own power or prudence! How few on which we can not +discern the impress of a long past generation!” So we were indebted +for our agreeable surroundings to the heroism and sacrifices of past +generations, and not to venerate and eulogize them betrays the want +of a truly noble soul. For what courage; what patience; what perseverence; +what long suffering; what Christian forbearance, must it +have cost our great grandmothers to civilize, Christianize and elevate +the naked, savage Africans to the condition of good cooks and +respectable maids! They—our great grandmothers—did not enjoy +the blessed privilege even of turning their servants off when ineff<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>ient +or disagreeable, but had to keep them through life. The only +thing was to bear and forbear, and</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">——“be to their virtues very kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To their faults,” a great deal “blind.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>If in Heaven there be one seat higher than another, it must be reserved +for those true Southern matrons, who performed conscientiously +their part assigned them by God—civilizing and instructing +this race.</p> + +<p>To the children of Israel God said: “I will give thee the heathen +for an inheritance.” So He had given <i>us</i> “the heathen for an inheritance,” +and however bitterly some of us deplored it—as we did—we +should have remembered that nothing happens by chance; but that +God disposes all events for some purpose of his own. We were instruments +in His hand, and if we or our forefathers were chosen by +Him to elevate a race in the scale of comfort and intelligence we +should not deplore it, but pray that what we have done for them may +be a lasting benefit and that God’s blessing may follow them in another +condition of life.</p> + +<p>However we may differ in the opinion, there is no greater compliment +to Southern slave owners than the idea prevailing in many +places that the negro is already sufficiently elevated to hold the highest +positions in the gift of our Government.</p> + +<p>I once met in traveling an English gentleman, who asked me: +“How can you bear those miserable black negroes about your houses +and about your persons? To me they are horribly repulsive, and I +would not endure one about me.”</p> + +<p>“Neither would they have been my choice,” I replied. “But God +sent them to us. I was born to this inheritance and could not avert +it. What would <i>you</i> English have done,” I asked, “if God had sent +them to you?”</p> + +<p>“Thrown them into the bottom of the sea!” he replied.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for the poor negro this sentiment had not prevailed +among us. I believe God endowed our people with qualities peculiarly +adapted to taking charge of this race and that no other nation +could have kept them. Our people did not demand as much work as +in other countries is required of servants; and I think had more affection +for them than is elsewhere felt for menials.</p> + +<p>In this connection, I remember an incident during the war which +deserves to be recorded as showing the affection entertained for negro +dependents:</p> + +<p>When our soldiers were nearly starved, and only allowed daily a +small handfull of parched corn, the Colonel of a Virginia regiment, +by accident got some coffee, a small portion of which was daily distributed +to each man. In the regiment was a cousin of mine—a +young man endowed with the noblest attributes God can give—who, +although famishing and needing it, denied himself his portion every +day that he might bring it to his black mammy. He made a small +bag in which he deposited and carefully saved it.</p> + +<p>When he arrived at home on furlough, his mother wept to see his +tattered clothes, his shoeless feet and starved appearance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>Soon producing the little bag of coffee, with a cheerful smile he +said: “See what I’ve saved to bring black mammy!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! my son,” said his mother, “you have needed it yourself. +Why did you not use it?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” he replied, “it has been so long since you all had any coffee, +and I made out very well on water, when I thought how black +mammy missed her coffee, and how glad she would be to get it.”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2> + +<p>The antiquity of the furniture in our homes can scarcely be described—every +article appearing to have been purchased during the +reign of George III., since which period no new fixtures or household +utensils seemed to have been bought.</p> + +<p>The books in our libraries had been brought from England almost +two hundred years before. In our own library there were Hogarth’s +pictures, in old worm-eaten frames; and among the literary curiosities, +one of the earliest editions of Shakespeare—1685—containing +under the author’s picture the lines by Ben Johnson:</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“This Figure which thou here seest put<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It was for gentle Shakespeare cut—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherein the Graver had a strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Nature to outdo the Life.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, could he but have drawn his Wit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As well in Brass, as he has hit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His Face; the Paint would then surpass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All that was ever writ in Brass.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But since he can not, Reader, look<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not on his Picture, but his Book.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>This was a reprint of the first edition of Shakespeare’s works collected +by John Heminge and Henry Condell, two of his friends in +the company of comedians.</p> + +<p>The perusal of the Arabian Nights, when a small child, possessed +me with the idea that their dazzling pictures were to be realized when +we emerged from plantation life into the outside world, and the disappointment +at not finding Richmond paved with gems and gold +like those cities in Eastern story, is remembered to the present time.</p> + +<p>Brought up amid antiquities, the Virginia girl disturbed herself not +about modern fashions, appearing happy in her mother’s old silks +and satins made over; her grandmother’s laces and brooch of untold +dimensions, with a weeping willow and tombstone on it—a constant +reminder of the past—which had descended from some remote ancestor.</p> + +<p>She slept in a high bedstead—the bed of her ancestors; washed +her face on an old fashioned, spindle-legged washstand; mounted a +high chair to arrange her hair before the old fashioned mirror on the +high bureau; climbed to the top of a high mantle-piece to take down +the old fashioned high candlesticks; climbed a pair of steps to get +into the high-swung, old fashioned carriage; perched her feet upon +the top of a high brass fender if she wanted to get them warm; and, +in short, had to perform so many gymnastics that she felt convinced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +her ancestors must have been a race of giants, or they could not have +required such tall and inaccessible furniture.</p> + +<p>An occasional visit to Richmond or Petersburg, sometimes animated +her with a desire for some style of dress less antique than her +own; although she had as much admiration and attention as if she +had just received her wardrobe from Paris.</p> + +<p>Her social outlook might have been considered limited and circumscribed—her +parents being unwilling that her acquaintance should +extend beyond the descendants of their own old friends.</p> + +<p>She had never any occasion to make what the world calls a +“debut;” the constant flow of company at her father’s house having +rendered her assistance necessary in entertaining guests, as soon as +she could converse and be companionable. So that her manners +were early formed, and she remembered not the time when it was +anything but very easy and agreeable, to be in the society of ladies +and gentlemen.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>In due time we were provided—my sister and myself—with the best +instructors—a lady all the way from Bordeaux to teach French, and +a German Professor for German and music. The latter opened to +us a new world of music. He was a fine linguist, thorough musician +and perfect gentleman. He lived with us five years, and remained +our sincere and truly valued friend through life.</p> + +<p>After some years we were thought to have arrived at “sufficient +age of discretion” for a trip to New York city.</p> + +<p>Fancy our feelings on arriving in that world of modern people and +modern things! Fancy two young girls suddenly transported from +the time of George III. to the largest hotel on Broadway in 1855!</p> + +<p>All was as strange to us then as we are now to the Chinese. +Never had we seen white servants before; and on being attended by +them at first felt a sort of embarrassment, but soon found they were +accustomed to less consideration and more hard work than were our +negro servants at home.</p> + +<p>Everything and everybody seemed in a mad whirl—the “march of +material progress,” they told us. It seemed to us more the “perpetual +motion of progress.” Everybody said that if “old fogy” Virginia +did not make haste to join this “march,” she would be left a +“wreck behind.”</p> + +<p>We found ourselves in the “advanced age;” the land of water-pipes +and dumb-waiters; the land of enterprise and money, and at +the same time an economy amounting to parsimony.</p> + +<p>The manners of the people were strange to us, and different from +ours. The ladies seemed to have gone ahead of the men in the +“march of progress”—their manner being more pronounced. They +did not hesitate to “push about” through crowds and public places.</p> + +<p>Still, we were young; and dazzled with the gloss and glitter, we +wondered why old Virginia couldn’t join this “march of progress,” +and have dumb-waiters, and elevators, and water-pipes, and gas fixtures, +and baby jumpers, and washing machines.</p> + +<p>We asked a gentleman who was with us, why old Virginia had not +all these, and he replied: “Because, while the people here have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +busy working for themselves, old fogy Virginia has been working for +negroes. All the money Virginia makes is spent in feeding and +clothing negroes. And,” he continued, “these people in the North +were shrewd enough years ago to sell all their’s to the South.”</p> + +<p>All was strange to us; even the table-cloths on the tea and breakfast +tables instead of napkins under the plates as we had at home, +and which always looked so pretty on the mahogany.</p> + +<p>But the novelty having worn off after awhile, we found out there +was a good deal of “imitation,” after all, mixed up in everything. +Things did not seem to have been “fixed up” to last as long as our old +things at home, and we began to wonder if the “advanced age” really +made the people any better, or more agreeable, or more hospitable, +or more generous, or more brave, or more self-reliant, or more charitable, +or more true, or more pious, than in “old fogy Virginia?”</p> + +<p>There was one thing most curious to us in New York. No one +seemed to do anything by himself or herself. No one had an individuality; +all existed in “clubs” or “societies.” They had also many +“isms” of which we had never heard; some of the people sitting up +all night, and going around all day talking about “manifestations,” +and “spirits,” and “affinities,” which they told us was “spiritualism.”</p> + +<p>All this impressed us slow, old fashioned Virginians, as a strangely +up-side-down, wrong-side-out condition of things.</p> + +<p>Much of the conversation we heard was confined to asking questions +of strangers, and discussing the best means of making money.</p> + +<p>We were surprised too to hear of “plantation customs” said to exist +among us which were entirely new to us; and one of the Magazines +published in the city informed us that “dipping” was one of the +“characteristics” of Southern women. What could the word “dipping” +mean? we wondered, for we had never heard it before. Upon +inquiry we found that it meant “rubbing the teeth with snuff on a +small stick”—a truly disgusting habit which could not have prevailed +in Virginia, or we would have had some tradition of it at least—our +acquaintance extending over the State, and our ancestors having +settled there two hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>A young gentleman from Virginia—bright and overflowing with +fun, also visiting New York—coming into the parlor one day threw +himself on a sofa in a violent fit of laughter.</p> + +<p>“What is the matter?” we asked.</p> + +<p>“I am laughing,” he replied, “at the absurd questions these people +can ask. What do you think? A man asked me just now if we +didn’t keep blood-hounds in Virginia to chase negroes! I told him, +O, yes, every plantation keeps several dozen! And we often have +a tender boiled negro infant for breakfast!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, how could you have told such a story?” we said.</p> + +<p>“Well,” said he, “you know we never saw a blood-hound in Virginia, +and I do not expect there is one in the State; but these people +delight in believing everything horrible about us, and I thought I +might as well gratify them with something marvelous. So the next +book published up here will have, I’ve no doubt, a chapter headed: +‘Blood-hounds in Virginia and boiled negroes for breakfast!’”</p> + +<p>While we were purchasing some trifles to bring home to some of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +our servants, a lady, who had entertained us most kindly at her house +on Fifth Avenue, expressing surprise, said: “<i>We</i> never think of +bringing home presents to our ‘helps.’”</p> + +<p>This was the first time we had ever heard, instead of “servant,” +the word “help,” which seemed then—and still seems—misapplied. +The dictionaries define “help” to mean aid; assistance; remedy, +while “servant” means one who attends another, and acts at his +command. When a man pays another to “help” him, it implies he +is to do part of the work himself, and is dishonest if he leaves the +whole to be performed by his “help.”</p> + +<p>The word servant is an honest Bible word, and distinctly defines +a position. Noah did not say: “Cursed be Cain, a ‘help’ of ‘helps’ +shall he be to his brethren.” Nor did Abraham call his eldest “servant,” +although ruling over all he had, his “help.” Neither does the +Commandment say thy “man-help” or thy “maid-help.”</p> + +<p>The word “servant” seems, after the lapse of centuries, still applied +with the same meaning by St. Paul, who does not say, “Master, +give unto your ‘helps’ that which is equal;” or, “Let as many +‘helps’ as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all +honor.”</p> + +<p>The words “master and servant” thus lose their true significance.</p> + +<p>Among other discoveries during this visit we found how much more +talent it requires to entertain company in the country than the city. +In the latter the guests and family form no “social circle round the +blazing hearth” at night, but disperse far and wide, to be entertained +at the concert, the opera, the theater or club; while in the country +one depends entirely upon native intellect and conversational talent.</p> + +<p>And oh! the memory of our own fireside circles! The exquisite +women; the men of giant intellect, eloquence and wit at sundry +times assembled there! Could our andirons but utter speech what +could they not tell of mirth and song, eloquence and wit, whose flow +made many an evening bright.</p> + +<p>Well, as all delights must have an end, the time came for us to +leave these “scenes enchanting.” Bidding adieu forever to the land +of “modern appliances” and stale bread, we returned to the land flowing +with “old ham and corn cakes,” and were soon surrounded by +friends who came to hear the marvels we had to relate.</p> + +<p>How monotonous, how dull, prosy, inconvenient everything seemed +after our plunge into modern life!</p> + +<p>We told old Virginia about all the enterprise we had seen; and +how she was left far behind everybody and everything, urging her to +join at once the “march of material progress.”</p> + +<p>But the mother of States persisted in sitting contentedly over her +old fashioned wood fire with brass andirons, and while thus musing +these words fell slowly and distinctly from her lips:</p> + +<p>“They call me ‘old fogy,’ and tell me I must get out of my old ruts +and come into the ‘advanced age.’ But I don’t care about their ‘advanced +age;’ their water-pipes and elevators. Give me the right sort +of men and women! God loving; God serving men and women. +Men brave, courteous, true. Women sensible, gentle and retiring.</p> + +<p>“Have not my ‘plantation homes’ furnished warriors, statesmen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +and orators, acknowledged great by the world? I make it a rule to +‘keep on hand’ men equal to emergencies. Had I not Washington, +Patrick Henry, Light-horse Harry Lee, and others, ready for the first +Revolution; and if there comes another—which God forbid!—have I +not plenty more just like them?”</p> + +<p>Here she laughed with delight, as she called over their names: +“Robert Lee, Jackson, Joe Johnstone, Stuart, Early, Floyd, Preston, +the Breckinridges, Scott, and others like them, brave and true as +steel. Ha! ha! I know of what stuff to make men! And if my old +‘ruts and grooves’ produce men like these, should they be abandoned? +Can any ‘advanced age’ produce better?</p> + +<p>“Then there are my soldiers of the cross. Do I not yearly send +out a faithful band to be a ‘shining light,’ and spread the gospel +North, South, East, West, even into foreign lands? Is not the only +Christian paper in Athens, Greece, the result of the love and labor +of one of my<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> soldiers?</p> + +<p>“And can I not send out men of science, as well as warriors, statesmen +and orators? There is Maury on the seas showing the world +what a man of science can do. If my ‘old fogy’ system has produced +men like these must it be abandoned?”</p> + +<p>Here the old mother of States settled herself back in her chair, a +smile of satisfaction resting on her face, and she ceased to think of +<i>change</i>.</p> + +<p>Telling our mother of all the wonders and pleasures of New York, +she said:</p> + +<p>“You were so delighted, I expect you would like to sell out everything +here and move there!”</p> + +<p>“It would be delightful!” we exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“But you would miss many pleasures you have in our present +home.”</p> + +<p>“We would have no time to miss anything,” said my sister, “in +that whirl of excitement!”</p> + +<p>“But,” she continued. “I believe one might as well try to move the +Rocky Mountains to Fifth Avenue, as an old Virginian! They have +such a horror of selling out and moving.”</p> + +<p>“It is not so easy to sell out and move,” replied our mother, “when +you remember all the negroes we have to take care of and support.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, the negroes,” we said, “are the weight continually pulling +us down! Will the time <i>ever</i> come for us to be free of them?”</p> + +<p>“They were placed here,” replied our mother, “by God, for us to +take care of, and it does not seem that we can change it. When we +emancipate them, it does not better their condition. Those left free +and with good farms given them by their masters, soon sink into +poverty and wretchedness, and become a nuisance to the community. +We see how miserable are Mr. Randolph’s<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> negroes, who with their +freedom received from their master a large body of the best land in +Prince Edward county. My own grandfather also emancipated a +large number, having first had them taught lucrative trades that they +might support themselves, and giving them money and land. But +they were not prosperous or happy. We have also tried sending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +them to Liberia. You know my old friend, Mrs. L——, emancipated +all her’s and sent them to Liberia, but she told me the other day she +was convinced it had been no kindness to them, for she continually +receives letters begging assistance, and yearly supplies them with +clothes and money.”</p> + +<p>So it seemed our way was “hedged about” and surrounded by +walls of circumstances too thick and solid to be pulled down, and +we said no more.</p> + +<p>But some weeks after this conversation, we had a visit from a +friend—“Mozis Addums”—who having lived in New York and hearing +us express a wish to live there, said:</p> + +<p>“What! exchange a home in old Virginia for one on Fifth Avenue? +You don’t know what you are talking about! They are not even +called ‘homes’ there, but ‘<i>house</i>;’ where they turn into bed at midnight; +eat stale-bread breakfasts; have brilliant parties—where +several thousand people meet who don’t care anything about each +other. They have no soul life; but shut themselves up in themselves, +live for themselves, and never have any social enjoyment like ours.”</p> + +<p>“But,” we said, “could not our friends come to see us there as well +as anywhere else?”</p> + +<p>“No indeed!” he answered. “Your hearts would soon be as cold +and dead as your marble door-fronts. You wouldn’t want to see +anybody, and nobody would want to see you.”</p> + +<p>“You are complimentary, certainly!”</p> + +<p>“I know all about it; and,” he continued, “I know you could not +find on Fifth Avenue such women as your mother and grandmother, +who never think of themselves, but are constantly planning and providing +for others, making their homes comfortable and pleasant, and +attending to the wants and welfare of so many negroes. And that +is what the women all over the South are doing and what the New +York women cannot comprehend. How can anybody know, except +ourselves, the personal sacrifices of our women?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said my sister, “you need not be so severe and eloquent +because we thought we would like to live in New York! If we +should sell all we possess, we could never afford to live there. Besides, +you know our mother would as soon think of selling her children +as her servants—who indeed are beginning to possess <i>her</i>, instead +of her possessing them.”</p> + +<p>“But,” he replied, “I can’t help talking, for I hear our people +abused, and called indolent and self-indulgent, when I know they +have valor and endurance enough. And I believe so much ‘material +progress’ leaves no leisure for the highest development of heart and +mind. Where the whole energy of a people is applied to making +money, the souls of men become dwarfed.”</p> + +<p>“We do not feel,” we said, “like abusing Northern people, in +whose thrift and enterprise we found much to admire; and especially +the self-reliance of their women, enabling them to take care of themselves +and travel from Maine to the Gulf without an escort, while we +find it impossible to travel a day’s journey without a special protector.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>“That is just what I don’t like,” said he, “to see a woman in a +crowd of strangers needing no ‘special protector.’”</p> + +<p>“This dependence upon your sex,” we replied, “keeps you so vain.”</p> + +<p>“We would lose our gallantry altogether,” said he, “if we found +you could get along without us.”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2> + +<p>After some months—ceasing to think and speak of New York—our +lives glided back into the old channel, where the placid stream +of life had many isles of simple pleasures.</p> + +<p>We were, in those days, not “whirled with glowing wheel over the +iron track in a crowded car,” with dirty, shrieking children and repulsive-looking +people—on their way to the small pox hospital, for +all we knew. We were not jammed against rough, dreadful-looking +people, eating dreadful smelling things, out of dreadful-looking +baskets and satchels, and throwing the remains of dreadful pies and +sausages over the cushioned seats.</p> + +<p>Oh, no! our journeys were performed in venerable carriages, and +our lunch was enjoyed by some cool, shady spring where we stopped +in some shady forest at midday.</p> + +<p>Our own venerable carriage, my sister styled, “The old ship of +Zion,” saying, “It had carried many thousands, and was likely to +carry many more.” And our driver we called the “Ancient Mariner.” +He presided on his seat—a high perch—in a very high hat +and with great dignity. Having been driving the same carriage for +nearly forty years—no driver being thought safe who had not been +on the carriage box at least twenty years—considered himself an +oracle, and in consequence of his years and experience kept us in +much awe—my sister and myself never daring to ask him to quicken +or retard his pace or change the direction of the road, however much +we desired it. We will ever remember this thraldom, and how we +often wished one of the younger negroes could be allowed to take his +place, but my grandmother said “it would wound his feelings, and +besides be very unsafe” for us.</p> + +<p>At every steep hill or bad place in the road it was an established +custom to stop the carriage, unfold the high steps and “let us out”—like +pictures of the animals coming down out of the ark! This custom +had always prevailed in my mother’s family, and there was a +tradition that my great grandfather’s horses being habituated to stop +for this purpose, refused to pull up certain hills—even when the carriage +was empty—until the driver had dismounted and slammed the +door, after which they moved off without further hesitation.</p> + +<p>This custom of walking at intervals made an agreeable variety, +and gave us an opportunity to enjoy fully the beautiful and picturesque +scenery through which we were passing.</p> + +<p>These were the days of leisure and pleasure for travelers; and +when we remember the charming summer jaunts annually made in +this way, we almost regret the “steam horse,” which takes us now +to the same places in a few hours.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>We had two dear friends—Mary and Alice—who with their old +carriages and drivers—the fac similes of our own—frequently accompanied +us in these expeditions; and no generals ever exercised more +entire command over their armies than did these three black coachmen +over us. I smile now to think of their ever being called our +“slaves.”</p> + +<p>Yet, although they had this “domineering” spirit, they felt at the +same time, a certain pride in us, too.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, when we were traveling together, our friend +Alice concluded to dismount from her carriage and ride a few miles +with a gentleman of the party in a buggy. She had not gone far +before the alarm was given that the buggy horse was running away, +whereupon our black generalissimos instantly stopped the three carriages +and anxiously watched the result. Old Uncle Edmund—Alice’s +coachman—stood up in his seat highly excited, and when his +young mistress, with admirable presence of mind, seized the reins +and stopped the horse, turning him into a by-road, shouted at the +top of his voice: “Thar, now! I always knowed Miss Alice was a +young ’oman of the most amiable courage!” and over this feat continued +to chuckle the rest of the day.</p> + +<p>The end of these pleasant journeys always brought us to some old +plantation home, where we met a warm welcome not only from the +white family, but the servants who constituted part of the establishment.</p> + +<p>One of the most charming to which we made a yearly visit was +Oaklands, a lovely spot embowered in vines and shade trees.</p> + +<p>The attractions of this home and family brought so many visitors +every summer, it was necessary to erect cottages about the grounds, +although the house itself was quite large. And as the yard was +usually filled with persons strolling about, or reading, or playing +chess under the trees, it had every appearance—on first approach—of +a small watering place. The mistress of this establishment was +a woman of rare attraction—possessing all the gentleness of her sex +with attributes of greatness enough for a hero. Tall and handsome, +she looked a queen as she stood on the portico receiving her +guests, and by the first words of greeting, from her warm, true heart, +charmed even strangers. Nor in any department of life did she betray +qualities other than these.</p> + +<p>Without the least “variableness or shadow of turning,” her excellencies +were a perfect continuity, and her deeds of charity a blessing +to all in need within her reach. No undertaking seemed too great +for her, and no details—affecting the comfort of her home, family, +friends or servants—too small for her supervision.</p> + +<p>The church—a few miles distant, the object of her care and love—received +at her hands constant and valuable aid, and its minister +generally formed one of her family circle.</p> + +<p>No wonder then that the home of such a woman should have been +a favorite resort with all who had the privilege of knowing her. And +no wonder that all who enjoyed her charming hospitality were spell-bound, +nor wished to leave the spot.</p> + +<p>In addition to the qualities I have attempted to describe, this lady<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +inherited from her father—General B.—an executive talent which +enabled her to order and arrange perfectly her domestic affairs, so +that from the delicious viands upon her table to the highly polished +oak of the floors, all gave evidence of her superior management, and +the admirable training of her servants.</p> + +<p>Nor were the hospitalities of this establishment dispensed to the +gay and great alone; but shared alike by the homeless, the friendless, +and many a weary heart found sympathy and shelter there.</p> + +<p>Well! Oaklands was famous for many things: its fine light bread; +its cinnamon cakes; its beat biscuit; its fricasseed chicken; its butter +and cream; its wine sauces; its plum puddings; its fine horses; +its beautiful meadows; its sloping green hills, and last, but not least, +its refined and agreeable society collected from every part of our +own State, and often from others.</p> + +<p>For an epicure no better place could have been desired. And this +reminds me of a retired army officer—an epicure of the first water—we +often met there, whose sole occupation was visiting his friends, +and only subjects of conversation the best viands and the best manner +of cooking them! When asked whether he remembered certain agreeable +people at a certain place, he would reply: “Yes, I dined there ten +years ago, and the turkey was very badly cooked—not quite done +enough!” The turkey evidently having made a more lasting impression +than the people.</p> + +<p>This gentleman lost an eye at the battle of Chapultepec, having +been among the first of our gallant men who scaled the walls. But +a young girl of his acquaintance always said she knew it was not +bravery so much as “curiosity” which led him to “go peeping over +the walls, first man!” This was a heartless speech, but everybody +repeated it and laughed, for the Colonel <i>was</i> a man of considerable +“curiosity!”</p> + +<p>Like all old homes, Oaklands had its bright as well as its sorrowful +days—its weddings and its funerals. Many yet remember the +gay wedding of one there whose charms brought suitors by the score, +and won hearts by the dozen. The brilliant career of this young +lady, her conquests and wonderful fascinations, behold, are they not +all written upon the hearts and memories of divers rejected suitors +who still survive?</p> + +<p>And apropos of weddings. An old fashioned Virginia wedding +was an event to be remembered. The preparations usually commenced +several weeks before, with saving eggs, butter, chickens, &c., +after which ensued the liveliest egg-beating; butter-creaming; raisin-stoning; +sugar-pounding; cake-icing; salad-chopping; cocoanut-grating; +lemon squeezing; egg-frothing; wafer-making; pastry-baking; +jelly-straining; paper-cutting; silver-cleaning; floor-rubbing; +dress making; hair-curling; lace-washing; ruffle-crimping; +tarletan-smoothing; guests-arriving; servants-running; trunk-moving; +girls laughing!</p> + +<p>Imagine all this going on simultaneously several successive days +and nights, and you have an idea of “preparations” for an old fashioned +Virginia wedding.</p> + +<p>The guests generally arrived in private carriages a day or two be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>fore, +and stayed often a week after the affair, being accompanied by +quite an army of negro servants, who enjoyed the festivities as much +as their masters and mistresses.</p> + +<p>A great many years ago, after such a wedding as I describe, a dark +shadow fell upon Oaklands.</p> + +<p>The eldest daughter—young and beautiful, soon to marry a gentleman +of high-toned character, charming manners and large estate—one +night, while the preparations were in progress for her nuptials, +saw in a vision vivid pictures of what would befall her if she married. +The vision showed her: a gay wedding—herself the bride—the marriage +jaunt to her husband’s home in a distant county; the incidents +of the journey; her arrival at her new home; her sickness and death; +the funeral procession back to Oaklands; the open grave; the bearers +of her bier—those who a few weeks before had danced at her wedding;—herself +a corpse in her bridal dress; her newly turfed grave +with a bird singing in the tree above.</p> + +<p>This vision produced such an impression she awakened her sister, +and told it.</p> + +<p>Three successive nights the vision appeared, which so affected her +spirits she determined not to marry. But after some months, persuaded +by her family to think no more of the dream which continually +haunted her, the marriage took place.</p> + +<p>All was a realization of the vision; the wedding; the journey to +her new home; every incident, however small, had been presented +before her in the dream.</p> + +<p>As the bridal party approached the house of an old lady near +Abingdon—who had made preparations for their entertainment,—servants +were hurrying to and fro in great excitement, and one was +galloping off for a doctor, as the old lady had been suddenly seized +with a violent illness. Even this was another picture in the ill-omened +vision of the bride, who found every day something occurring +to remind her of it, until in six months her own death made the last +sad scene of her dream. And the funeral procession back to Oaklands; +the persons officiating; the grave, all proved a realization of +her vision.</p> + +<p>After this her husband—a man of true Christian character—sought +in foreign lands to disperse the gloom overshadowing his life. But +whether on the summit of Mount Blanc or the lava-crusted Vesuvius; +among the classic hills of Rome or the palaces of France; in the art +galleries of Italy or the regions of the Holy Land, he carried ever in +his heart, the image of his fair bride and the quiet grave at Oaklands.</p> + +<p>This gentleman still survives, and not long ago we heard him relate, +in charming voice and style, the incidents of these travels.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2> + +<p>Another charming residence, not far from Oaklands, which attracted +visitors from various quarters, was Buena Vista, where we passed +many happy hours of childhood.</p> + +<p>This residence—large and handsome—was situated on an eminence, +overlooking pastures and sunny slopes, with forests, and +mountain views in the distance.</p> + +<p>The interior of the house accorded with the outside, every article +being elegant and substantial.</p> + +<p>The owner—a gentleman of polished manners, kind and generous +disposition, a sincere Christian and zealous churchman—was honored +and beloved by all who knew him.</p> + +<p>His daughters—a band of lovely young girls—presided over his +house, dispensing its hospitality with grace and dignity. Their +mother’s death occurring when they were very young had given them +household cares, which would have been considerable, but for the +assistance of Uncle Billy, the butler—an all-important character presiding +with imposing dignity over domestic affairs.</p> + +<p>His jet black face was relieved by a head of grey hair with a small +round bald centre piece; and the expression of his face was calm and +serene, as he presided over the pantry, the table and the tea-waiters.</p> + +<p>His mission on earth seemed to be keeping the brightest silver +urns, sugar-dishes, cream-jugs and spoons; flavoring the best ice +creams; buttering the hottest rolls, muffins and waffles; chopping the +best salads; folding the whitest napkins; handing the best tea and +cakes in the parlor in the evenings, and cooling the best wine for the +decanters at dinner. Indeed he was so essentially a part of the +establishment, that in recalling those old days at Buena Vista, the +form of “Uncle Billy” comes silently back from the past and takes its +old place about the parlors, the halls and the dining-room, making +the picture complete.</p> + +<p>And thus upon the canvas of every old home picture come to their +accustomed places, the forms of dusky friends, who once shared our +homes, our firesides, our affections—and who will share them, as in +the past, never more.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Of all the Plantation Homes we loved and visited, the brightest, +sweetest memories cluster around Grove Hill; a grand old place in +the midst of scenery lovely and picturesque, to reach which, we made +a journey across the Blue Ridge—those giant mountains from whose +winding road and lofty heights we had glimpses of exquisite scenery +in the valleys below.</p> + +<p>Thus winding slowly around these mountain heights and peeping +down from our old carriage windows we beheld nature in its wildest +luxuriance. The deep solitude; the glowing sunlight over rock, forest +and glen; the green valleys deep down beneath, diversified by +alternate light and shadow—all together photographed on our hearts +pictures never to fade.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>Not all the towers, minarets, obelisks, palaces, gem-studded domes +of “art and man’s device” can reach the soul like one of these sun-tinted +pictures in their convex frames of rock and vines!</p> + +<p>Arrived at Grove Hill, how enthusiastic the welcome from each +member of the family assembled in the front porch to meet us! How +joyous the laugh! How deliciously cool the wide halls, the spacious +parlor, the dark polished walnut floors! How bright the flowers! +How gay the spirits of all assembled there!</p> + +<p>One was sure of meeting here agreeable society from Virginia, +Baltimore, Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky, with whom the +house was filled from May ’till November.</p> + +<p>How delightfully passed the days, the weeks! What merry excursions; +fishing parties; riding parties, to the Indian Spring, the +Cave, the Natural Bridge! What pleasant music, and tableaux, and +dancing in the evenings!</p> + +<p>For the tableaux, we had only to open an old chest in the garret +and help ourselves to rich embroidered, white and scarlet dresses, +with other costumery worn by the grandmother of the family nearly +a hundred years before, when her husband was in public life and she +one of the queens of society.</p> + +<p>What sprightly “conversazioni” in our rooms at night—young girls +<i>will</i> become confidential and eloquent with each other at night, however +reserved and quiet during the day!</p> + +<p>Late in the night these “conversazioni” continued, with puns and +laughter, until checked by a certain young gentleman—now a minister—who +was wont to bring out his flute in the flower garden under +our windows, and give himself up for an hour or more to the most +sentimental and touching strains, thus breaking in upon sprightly remarks +and repartees, some of which are remembered to this day, +especially one which ran thus:</p> + +<p>“Girls!” said one. “Would it not be charming if we could all +take a trip together to Niagara?”</p> + +<p>“Well, why could we not?” was the response.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” replied another, “the idea of us poor Virginia girls taking a +trip!”</p> + +<p>“Indeed,” said one of the Grove Hill girls, “it would be impossible. +For here are we on this immense estate, 4,000 acres, two large, handsome +residences—and three hundred negroes—<i>considered</i> wealthy, +and yet to save our lives could not raise money enough for a trip to +New York!”</p> + +<p>“Nor get a silk velvet cloak!” said her sister, laughing.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied the other. “Girls! I have been longing and longing +for a silk velvet cloak, but never could get the money to buy one. +But last Sunday, at the village church, what should I see but one of +the Joneses sweeping in with a long velvet cloak almost touching +the floor! And you could set her father’s house in our back hall! +But then she is so fortunate as to own no negroes.”</p> + +<p>“What a happy girl she must be!” cried a chorus of voices. “No +negroes to support! <i>We</i> could go to New York and Niagara, and +have velvet cloaks too, if we only had no negroes to support! But +all <i>our</i> money goes to provide for them as soon as the crops are sold!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Yes,” said one of the Grove Hill girls; “here is our large house +without an article of modern furniture. The parlor curtains are one +hundred years old. The old fashioned mirrors and recess tables one +hundred years old, and we long in vain for money to buy something +new.”</p> + +<p>“Well!” said one of the sprightliest girls, “we can get up some of +our old diamond rings or breastpins which some of us have inherited, +and travel on appearances! We have no modern clothes, but the +old rings will make us ‘<i>look</i> rich!’ And a party of <i>poor, rich Virginians</i> +will attract the commiseration and consideration of the world when +it is known that for generations we have not been able to leave our +plantations!”</p> + +<p>After these conversations we would fall asleep and sleep profoundly, +until aroused next morning by an army of servants polishing the +hall floors, waxing and rubbing them with a long-handle brush, +weighted by an oven lid. This made the floor like a “sea of glass,” +and dangerous to walk upon immediately after the polishing process, +being especially disastrous to small children, who were continually +slipping and falling before breakfast.</p> + +<p>The lady presiding over this establishment possessed a cultivated +mind, bright conversational powers and gentle temper, with a force +of character which enabled her to direct judiciously the affairs of her +household, as well as the training and education of her children.</p> + +<p>She employed always an accomplished gentleman teacher, who +added to the agreeability of her home circle.</p> + +<p>She helped the boys with their Latin and the girls with their compositions. +In her quiet way she governed, controlled, suggested +everything; so that her presence was required everywhere at once.</p> + +<p>While in the parlor entertaining her guests with bright, agreeable +conversation, she was sure to be wanted by the cooks—there were +six!—to “taste or flavor” something in the kitchen; or by the gardener +to direct the planting of certain seeds or roots, and so with every +department. Even the minister—there was always one living in her +house—would call her out to consult over his text and sermon for +the next Sunday, saying he could rely upon her judgment and discrimination.</p> + +<p>Never thinking of herself, her heart overflowing with sympathy +and interest for others, she entered into the pleasures of the young +as well as the sorrows of the old.</p> + +<p>If the boys came in from a fox or deer chase, their pleasure was +incomplete until it had been described to her and enjoyed with her +again.</p> + +<p>The flower vases were never entirely beautiful until her hand had +helped to arrange the flowers.</p> + +<p>The girls’ laces were never perfect until she had gathered and +crimped them.</p> + +<p>Her sons were never so happy as when holding her hand and +caressing her. And the summer twilight found her always in the +vine-covered porch seated by her husband—a dear, kind old gentleman—her +hand resting in his, while he quietly and happily smoked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +his pipe, after the day’s riding over his plantation, interviewing overseers, +millers, blacksmiths and settling up accounts.</p> + +<p>One more reminiscence and the Grove Hill picture will be done. +No Virginia home being complete without some prominent negro +character, the picture lacking this would be untrue to nature, and +without the “finishing touch.” And not to have “stepped in” to pay +our respects to old “Aunt Betsy” during a visit to Grove Hill, would +have been considered—as it should be to omit it here—a great breach +of civility; for the old woman always received us at her door with a +cordial welcome and a hearty shake of the hand.</p> + +<p>“Lor’ bless de childen!” she would say. “How they does grow! +Done grown up young ladies! Set down, honey. I mighty glad to +see you. And why didn’t your ma (Miss Fanny) come? I would +love to see Miss Fanny. She always was so good and so pretty. +Seems to me it ain’t been no time sence she and Miss Emma”—her +own mistress—“used to play dolls together, an’ I used to bake sweet +cakes for ’em, and cut ’em out wid de pepper-box top, for thar doll +parties; an’ they loved each other like sisters.”</p> + +<p>“Well, Aunt Betsy,” we would ask, “how is your rheumatism now?”</p> + +<p>“Lor’, honey, I nuver specs to git over that. But some days I can +hobble out and feed de chickens; and I can set at my window and +make de black childen feed ’em, an’ I love to think I’m some account +to Miss Emma. And Miss Emma’s childen can’t do without old +‘Mammy Betsy,’ for I takes care of all thar pet chickens. Me and +my old man (Phil) gittin mighty ole now; but Miss Emma and all +her childen so good to us we has pleasure in livin’ yet.”</p> + +<p>At last the shadows began to fall dark and chill upon this once +bright and happy home.</p> + +<p>Old Aunt Betsy lived to see the four boys—her mistress’ brave and +noble sons—buckle their armor on and go forth to battle for the home +they loved so well; the youngest, still so young that he loved his pet +chickens, which were left to “Mammy Betsy’s” special care; and +when the sad news, at length, came that this favorite young master +was killed, amid all the agony of grief, no heart felt more sincerely, +than her’s, the great sorrow.</p> + +<p>Another, and still another of these noble youths fell, after deeds of +valor unparalleled in the world’s history—their graves the battlefield, +a place of burial fit for men so brave. Only one—the youngest—was +brought home to find a resting place beside the graves of his +ancestors.</p> + +<p>The old man—their father, his mind shattered by grief—continued +day after day, for several years, to sit in the vine-covered porch, +gazing wistfully out, imagining sometimes he saw in the distance +the manly forms of his noble sons, returning home, mounted on their +favorite horses, in the gray uniforms and bright armor worn the day +they went off.</p> + +<p>Then, he too followed, where the “din of war, the clash of arms” +is heard no more.</p> + +<p>To recall these scenes so blinds my eyes with tears that I can not +write of them. Some griefs leave the heart dumb. They have no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +language; and are given no language, because no other heart could +understand, nor could they if shared, be alleviated.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2> + +<p>It will have been observed from these reminiscences that the mistress +of a Virginia plantation was more conspicuous—although not +more important—than the master. In the house she was the mainspring, +and to her came all the hundred, or three hundred negroes +with their various wants, and constant applications for medicine and +every conceivable requirement.</p> + +<p>Attending to these, with directing her household affairs and entertaining +company, occupied busily every moment of her life. While +all these devolved upon her, it sometimes seemed to me that the +master had nothing to do, but ride around his estate—on the most +delightful horse—receive reports from overseers, see that his pack of +hounds were fed and order “repairs about the mill”—the mill seemed +always needing repairs!</p> + +<p>This view of the subject, however, being entirely from a feminine +standpoint, may have been wholly erroneous; for doubtless his mind +was burdened with financial matters too weighty to be grasped and +comprehended by our sex.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the mistress held complete sway in her own domain; +and that this fact was recognized will be shown by the following incident:</p> + +<p>A gentleman—an intelligent and successful lawyer—one day discovering +a negro boy in some mischief about his house, and determining +forthwith to chastise him, took him in the yard for that purpose. +Breaking a small switch, and in the act of “coming down +with it” upon the boy, he asked: “Do you know, sir, who is master +on my place?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir!” quickly replied the boy. “Miss Charlotte, sir!”</p> + +<p>Throwing aside the switch, the gentleman ran in the house, laughed +a half hour, and thus ended his only experiment at interfering in +his wife’s domain.</p> + +<p>His wife, “Miss Charlotte,” as the negroes called her, was gentle +and indulgent to a fault, which made the incident more amusing.</p> + +<p>It may appear singular, yet it is true, that our women, although +having sufficient self-possession at home, and accustomed there +to command on a large scale, became painfully timid if ever they +found themselves in a promiscuous or public assemblage—shrinking +from everything like publicity.</p> + +<p>Still, these women, to whom a whole plantation looked up for +guidance and instruction, could not fail to feel a certain consciousness +of superiority, which, although never displayed or asserted in +manner, became a part of themselves. They were distinguishable +everywhere—for what reason, exactly, I have never been able to find +out—for their manners were too quiet to attract attention. Yet a +Captain on a Mississippi steamboat said to me: “I always know a +Virginia lady as soon as she steps on my boat.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>“How do you know?” I asked, supposing he would say: “By their +plain style of dress and antiquated breastpins.”</p> + +<p>Said he: “I’ve been running a boat from Cincinnati to New Orleans +for twenty-five years, and often have three hundred passengers from +various parts of the world. But if there is a Virginia lady among +them, I find it out in half an hour. They take things quietly, and +don’t complain. Do you see that English lady over there? Well, +she has been complaining all the way up the Mississippi river. Nobody +can please her. The cabin-maid and steward are worn out +with trying to please her. She says it is because the mosquitoes bit +her so badly coming through Louisiana. But we are almost at Cincinnati +now; haven’t seen a mosquito for a week, and she is still +complaining!”</p> + +<p>“Then,” he continued, “the Virginia ladies look as if they could +not push about for themselves, and for this reason I always feel like +giving them more attention than the other passengers.”</p> + +<p>“We are inexperienced travelers,” I replied.</p> + +<p>And these remarks of the Captain convinced me—I had thought it +before—that Virginia women should never undertake to travel, but +content themselves with staying at home. However, such restriction +would have been unfair, unless they had felt like the Parisian +who, when asked why the Parisians never traveled, replied: “Because +all the world comes to Paris!”</p> + +<p>Indeed, a Virginian had an opportunity of seeing much choice society +at home; for our watering places attracted the best people from +other States, who often visited us at our houses.</p> + +<p>On the Mississippi boat to which I have alluded, it was remarked +that the negro servants paid the Southerners more constant and +deferential attention than the passengers from the non-slaveholding +States—although some of the latter were very agreeable and intelligent, +and conversed with the negroes on terms of easy familiarity—showing, +what I had often observed, that the negro respects and admires +those who make a “social distinction” more than those who +make none.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></h2> + +<p>We were surprised to find in an “Ode to the South,” by Mr. M. F. +Tupper, published recently, the following stanza:</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Yes it is slander to say you oppress’d them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Does a man squander the prize of his pelf.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was it not often that he who possessed them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rather was owned by his servants himself?”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>This was true, but that it was known in the outside world we +thought impossible, when all the newspaper and book accounts represented +us as “miserable sinners” for whom there was no hope here +or hereafter, and called upon all nations, Christian and civilized, to +“revile, persecute and exterminate us.” Such representations, however, +differed so widely from the facts around us, that when we heard +them they failed to produce a very serious impression, occasioning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +often only a smile, with the exclamation: “How little those people +know about us!”</p> + +<p>We had not the vanity to think that the European nations cared +or thought about us, and if the Americans believed these accounts, +they defamed the memory of one held up by them as a model of +Christian virtue,—George Washington—a Virginia slave-owner, +whose kindness to his “people,” as he called his slaves, entitled him +to as much honor as did his deeds of prowess.</p> + +<p>But to return to the two last lines of the stanza:</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Was it not often that he who possessed them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rather was owned by his servants himself?”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>I am reminded of some who were actually held in such bondage; +especially an old gentleman who, together with his whole plantation, +was literally “possessed by his slaves.”</p> + +<p>This gentleman was a widower, and no lady presided over his +house.</p> + +<p>His figure was of medium height, and very corpulent. His features +were regular and handsome. His eyes were soft brown, almost +black. His hair was slightly gray. The expression of his countenance +was so full of goodness and sympathy, that a stranger meeting +him in the road might have been convinced at a glance of his kindness +and generosity.</p> + +<p>He was never very particular about his dress, yet never appeared +shabby.</p> + +<p>Although a graduate in law at the University, an ample fortune +made it unnecessary for him to practice this profession. Still his +taste for literature made him a constant reader, and his conversation +was instructive and agreeable.</p> + +<p>His house was old and rambling, and—I was going to say his +servants kept the keys, when I remembered there were <i>no keys</i> about +the establishment. Even the front door had no lock upon it. Everybody +retired at night in perfect confidence, however, that everything +was secure enough, and it seemed not important to lock the doors.</p> + +<p>The negro servants who managed the house were very efficient; +excelling especially in the culinary department, and serving up +dinners which were simply “marvels.”</p> + +<p>The superabundance on the place enabled them not only to furnish +their master’s table with the choicest meats, vegetables, cakes, pastries, +&c., but also to supply themselves bountifully, and to spread in their +own cabins sumptuous feasts, wedding and party suppers rich enough +for a queen.</p> + +<p>To this their master did not object, for he told them “if they would +supply his table always with an abundance of the best bread, meats, +cream and butter, he cared not what became of the rest.”</p> + +<p>Upon this principle the plantation was conducted. The well-filled +barns; the stores of bacon, lard, flour, &c., literally belonged to the +negroes, they allowing their master a certain share!</p> + +<p>Doubtless they entertained the sentiment of a negro boy, who on +being reproved by his master for having stolen and eaten a turkey, +replied: “Well, massa, you see you got less turkey, but you got dat +much more nigger!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + +<p>While we were once visiting at this plantation, the master of the +house described to us a dairy just completed on a new plan, which +for some weeks had been such a hobby with him, he had actually purchased +a lock for it, saying he would keep the key himself—which +he never did—and have the fresh mutton always put there.</p> + +<p>“Come,” said he, as he finished describing it, “let us go down and +look at it.”</p> + +<p>“Bring me the key,” he said to a small African, who soon brought +it, and we proceeded to the dairy.</p> + +<p>Turning the key in the door, the old gentleman said: “Now see +what an elegant piece of mutton I have here!”</p> + +<p>But on entering and looking around no mutton was to be seen, and +instead thereof buckets of custard, cream and blanc-mange. The +old gentleman greatly disconcerted, called to one of the servants, +“Florinda! Where is my mutton I had put here this morning?”</p> + +<p>Florinda replied: “Nancy took it out, sir, and put it in de ole spring +house. She say dat was cool enough place for mutton. And she +gwine have a big party to-night, and want her jelly and custards to +keep cool!”</p> + +<p>At this the old gentleman was rapidly becoming provoked, when +we laughed so much at Nancy’s “cool” proceeding, that his usual +good nature was restored.</p> + +<p>On another occasion we were one evening sitting with this gentleman +in his front porch, when a poor woman from the neighboring village +came in the yard, and stopping before the door, said to him:</p> + +<p>“Mr. R. I came to tell you that my cow you gave me has died.”</p> + +<p>“What did you say, my good woman?” asked Mr. R., who was +quite deaf.</p> + +<p>The woman repeated in a louder voice, “The cow you gave me has +died. And she died because I didn’t have anything to feed her with.”</p> + +<p>Turning to us, his countenance full of compassion, he said: “I +ought to have thought about that, and should have sent the food for +her cow.” Then speaking to the woman: “Well, my good woman, +I will give you another cow to-morrow, and send you plenty of provision +for her.” And the following day he fulfilled his promise.</p> + +<p>Another incident occurs to me, showing the generous heart of this +truly good man. One day on the Virginia and Tennessee train observing +a gentleman and lady in much trouble, he ventured to enquire +of them the cause, and was informed they—the gentleman and his +wife—had lost all their money and their railroad tickets at the last +station.</p> + +<p>He asked the gentleman where he was from, and on “what side +he was during the war.”</p> + +<p>“I am from Georgia,” replied the gentleman, “and was, of course, +with the South.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Mr. R., pulling from his capacious pocket a capacious +purse, which he handed the gentleman, “help yourself, sir, and take +as much as will be necessary to carry you home.”</p> + +<p>The astonished stranger thanked him sincerely, and handed his +card, saying: “I will return the money as soon as I reach home.”</p> + +<p>Returned to his own home, and relating the incidents of his trip,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +Mr. R. mentioned this, when one of his nephews laughed and said: +“Well, Uncle R., we Virginia people are so easily imposed upon! +You don’t think that man will ever return your money <i>do</i> you?”</p> + +<p>“My dear,” replied his Uncle, looking at him reproachfully and +sinking his voice, “I was fully repaid by the change which came over +the man’s countenance.”</p> + +<p>It is due to the Georgian to add that on reaching home, he returned +the money with a letter of thanks.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>In sight of the hospitable home of Mr. R. was another equally attractive +owned by his brother-in-law, Mr. B. These had the same +name—Greenfield—the property having descended to two sisters, the +wives of these gentlemen. They might have been called twin establishments, +as one was almost a fac simile of the other. At both was +found the same hospitality; the same polished floors; the same style +of loaf-bread and velvet rolls. The only difference between the two +being that Mr. B. kept his doors locked at night; observed more system, +and kept his buggies and carriages in better repair.</p> + +<p>These gentlemen were also perfectly congenial. Both had graduated +in law; read the same books; were members of the same +church; knew the same people; liked and disliked the same people; +held the same political opinions; enjoyed the same old Scotch songs; +repeated the same old English poetry; smoked the same kind of tobacco, +in the same kind of pipes; abhorred alike intoxicating drinks, +and deplored the increase of bar-rooms and drunkenness in our land.</p> + +<p>For forty years they passed together a part of every day or evening, +smoking and talking over the same events and people. It was +a picture to see them at night over a blazing wood fire, their faces +bright with good nature; and a treat to hear all their reminiscences +of people and events long passed. With what circumstantiality +could they recall old law cases; describe old duels, old political animosities +and excitements! What merry laughs they sometimes had!</p> + +<p>Everything on one of these plantations seemed to belong equally +to the other. If the ice gave out at one place, the servants went to +the other for it as a “matter of course;” or if the buggies or carriages +were out of order at Mr. R.’s—which was often the case—the driver +would go over for Mr. B.’s without even mentioning the circumstance, +and so with everything. The families lived thus harmoniously with +never the least interruption for forty years.</p> + +<p>Now and then the old gentlemen enjoyed a practical joke on each +other, and on one occasion Mr R. succeeded so effectually in quizzing +Mr B. that whenever he thought of it afterwards he fell into a dangerous +fit of laughter.</p> + +<p>It happened that a man who had married a distant connection of +the Greenfield family concluded to take his wife, children and servants +to pass the summer there, dividing the time between the two +houses. The manners, character and political proclivities of this visitor +became so disagreeable to the old gentleman, they determined he +should not repeat his visit, although they liked his wife. One day +Mr. B. received a letter signed by this objectionable individual—it +had really been written by Mr. R.—informing Mr. B. that, “as one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +the children was sick, and the physician advised country air he +would be there the following Thursday with his whole family to stay +some months.”</p> + +<p>“The impudent fellow!” exclaimed Mr. B. as soon as he read the +letter. “He knows how R. and myself detest him! Still I am sorry +for his wife. But I will not be dragooned and outgeneraled by that +contemptible fellow. No! I will leave home to-day!”</p> + +<p>Going to the back door he called in a loud voice for his coachman, +and ordered his carriage. “I am going” said he, “to Grove Hill for +a week and from there to Lexington with my whole family, and don’t +know when I shall be at home again.”</p> + +<p>“It is very inconvenient,” said he to his wife, “but I must leave +home.”</p> + +<p>Hurrying up the carriage, and the family they were soon off on +their unexpected trip.</p> + +<p>They stayed at Grove Hill, seven miles off, a week, during which +time Mr. B. every morning mounted his horse and rode timidly +around the outskirts of his own plantation, peeping over the hills at +his house, but afraid to venture nearer, feeling assured it was occupied +by the objectionable party. He would not even make enquiries +of his negroes whom he met, as to the state and condition of things +in his house.</p> + +<p>Concluding to pursue his journey to Lexington and half way there, +he met a young nephew of Mr. R.’s, who happened to know all about +the quiz, and immediately suspecting the reason of Mr. B.’s exile from +home enquired where he was going, how long he had been from home, +&c. Soon guessing the truth and thinking the “joke had been carried +far enough,” he told the old gentleman he need not travel any +further for it was all a quiz of his uncle’s, and there was no one at +his house. Thereupon, Mr. B. greatly relieved, turned back and +went his way home rejoicing, but “determined to pay R.” he said, +“for such a practical joke, which had exiled him from home and given +him such trouble.” This caused many a good laugh whenever it was +told, throughout the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>The two estates of which I am writing, were well named—Greenfield, +for the fields and meadows were of the freshest green, and with +majestic hills around and the fine cattle and horses grazing upon +them, formed a noble landscape.</p> + +<p>This land had descended in the same family since the Indian camp +fires ceased to burn there, and the same forests were still untouched, +where once stood the Indian’s wigwams.</p> + +<p>In this connection, I am reminded of a tradition in the Greenfield +family, which showed the heroism of a Virginia boy:</p> + +<p>The first white proprietor of this place, the great grandfather of the +present owners, had also a large estate in Montgomery county, called +Smithfield, where his family lived, and where was a fort for the +protection of the whites, when attacked by the Indians.</p> + +<p>Once, while the owner was at his Greenfield place, the Indians +surrounded Smithfield, when the white women and children took +refuge in the fort, and the men prepared for battle. They wanted +the proprietor of Smithfield to help fight and take command, for he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +was a brave man, but could not spare a man to carry him the news. +So they concluded to send one of his young sons, a lad thirteen years +old, who did not hesitate but mounting a fleet horse set off after dark +and rode all night through dense forests filled with hostile Indians, +reaching Greenfield, a distance of forty miles next morning. He +soon returned with his father, and the Indians were repulsed. And +I always thought that boy was courageous enough for his name to +live in history.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>The Indians afterwards told that the whole day before the fight +several of their chiefs had been concealed near the Smithfield house, +under a large hay stack, upon which the white children had been +sliding and playing all day, little suspecting the gleaming tomahawks +and savage men beneath.</p> + +<p>From the Greenfield estate in Botetourt and the one adjacent went +the ancestors of the Prestons and Breckinridges, who made these +names distinguished in South Carolina and Kentucky. And on this +place are the graves of the first Breckinridges who emigrated to this +country.</p> + +<p>All who visited at the homesteads just described retained ever after +a recollection of the superbly cooked meats, bread, &c., seen upon +the tables at both houses—there being at each place five or six negro +cooks, who had been taught by their mistresses the highest style of +the art.</p> + +<p>During the summer season several of these cooks were hired at the +different watering places, where they acquired great fame and made +for themselves a considerable sum of money by selling recipes.</p> + +<p>A lady of the Greenfield family, who married and went to Georgia, +told me she had often tried to make velvet rolls like those she had +been accustomed to see at her own home, but never succeeded. Her +mother and aunt who had taught these cooks, having died many +years before, she had to apply to the negroes for information on such +subjects, and they, she said, would never show her the right way to +make them. Finally, while visiting at a house in Georgia, this lady +was surprised to see the very velvet rolls, like those at her home.</p> + +<p>“Where did you get the recipe?” she soon asked the lady of the +house, who replied, “I bought it from old Aunt Rose, a colored cook, +at the Virginia Springs, and paid her five dollars.”</p> + +<p>“One of our own cooks and my mother’s recipe,” exclaimed the +other, “and I had to come all the way to Georgia to get it, for Aunt +Rose never would show me exactly how to make them!”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2> + +<p>Not far from Greenfield was a place called “Rustic Lodge.”</p> + +<p>This house surrounded by a forest of grand old oaks, was not large +or handsome. But its inmates were ladies and gentlemen of the old +English style.</p> + +<p>The grandmother, about ninety years of age, had been in her youth +one of the belles at the Williamsburg Court in old colonial days. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +daughter of Sir Dudley Digges, and descended from English nobility, +she had been accustomed to the best society. Her manners and conversation +were dignified and attractive.</p> + +<p>Among reminiscences of colonial times, she remembered Lord +Botetourt, of whom she related interesting incidents.</p> + +<p>The son of this old lady, about sixty years of age, and the proprietor +of the estate, was a true picture of the “old English gentleman.” +His manners, conversation, thread-cambric shirt frills, cuffs and +long queue tied with a black ribbon, made the picture complete. +His two daughters, young ladies of exquisite refinement, had been +brought up by their aunt and grandmother to observe strictly all the +proprieties of life.</p> + +<p>This establishment was proverbial for its order and method, the +most systematic rules being in force everywhere. The meals were +served punctually at the same instant every day. Old “Aunt Nelly” +dressed and undressed her old mistress always at the same hour. A +gentle “tapping at the chamber door”—not by the “raven,” but the +cook—called the mistress to an interview at the same moment every +morning with that functionary, which resulted in the choicest +dinners, breakfasts and suppers; this interview lasting half an hour +and never repeated during the day.</p> + +<p>Exactly at the same hour every morning the old gentleman’s horse +was saddled, and he entered the neighboring village so promptly as +to enable some of the inhabitants to set their clocks by him.</p> + +<p>This family had possessed great wealth in Eastern Virginia during +the colonial government under which many of its members held high +offices.</p> + +<p>But impoverished by high living, entertaining company and a +heavy British debt, they had been reduced in their possessions to +about fifty negroes, with only money enough to purchase this plantation +upon which they had retired from the gay and charming society +of Williamsburg. They carried with them, however, some remains +of their former grandeur: old silver, old jewelry, old books, old and +well-trained servants, and an old English coach, which was the curiosity +of all other vehicular curiosities. How the family ever climbed +into it, or got out of it, and how the driver ever reached the dizzy +height upon which he sat, was the mystery of my childhood.</p> + +<p>But although egg-shaped and suspended in mid-air, this coach had +doubtless, in its day, been one of considerable renown, drawn by +four horses, with footman, postillion and driver in English livery.</p> + +<p>How sad must have been its reflections on finding itself shorn of +these respectable surroundings, and after the revolution drawn by +two Republican horses, with footman and driver dressed in Republican +jeans!</p> + +<p>Strange that it could have lived on and on thus Republicanized!</p> + +<p>A great uncle of this family, unlike the coach never would become +Republicanized, and his obstinate loyalty to the English crown, with +his devotion to everything English gained for him the title “English +Louis,” by which name he is spoken of in the family to this day. An +old lady told me not long ago that she remembered when a child the +arrival of “English Louis” at “Rustic” one night, and his conversa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>tion +as they sat around the fire, how he deplored a Republican form +of government, and the misfortunes which would result from it saying:</p> + +<p>“All may go smoothly for about seventy years, when civil war will +set in. First, it will be about these negro slaves we have around us, +and after that it will be something else.” And how true “English +Louis’” prediction has proven.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>Doubtless this gentleman was avoided and proscribed on account +of his English proclivities. For at that day the spirit of Republicanism +and hatred to England ran high; so that an old gentleman—one +of our relatives whom I well remember—actually took from his parlor +walls his coat of arms which had been brought by his grandfather +from England, and carrying it out in his yard built a fire and collecting +his children around it, to see it burn, said: “Thus let everything +English perish!”</p> + +<p>Should I say what I think of this proceeding, I would not be considered +perhaps a true Republican patriot.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>I cannot forget to mention in the catalogue of pleasant homes, +Smithfield in Montgomery county, the county which flows with healing +waters.</p> + +<p>Smithfield, like Greenfield, is owned by the descendants of the first +white family who settled there after the Indians, and its verdant pastures, +noble forests, mountain streams and springs, with the superb +cattle on its hills form a prospect, wondrously beautiful.</p> + +<p>This splendid estate descended to three brothers, who equally divided +it; the eldest keeping the homestead, and the others building +attractive homes on their separate plantations.</p> + +<p>The old homestead was quite antique in appearance. Inside the +high mantlepieces reaching nearly to the ceiling, which was also +high, and the high wainscotting together with the old furniture made +a picture of the olden time.</p> + +<p>When I first visited this place, the old grandmother, then eighty +years of age, was living. She, like the old lady at “Rustic,” had +been a belle in Eastern Virginia in her youth. When she married +the owner of Smithfield sixty years before, she made the “bridal +jaunt” from Norfolk to this place on horseback, two hundred miles. +Still exceedingly intelligent and interesting, she entertained us with +various incidents of her early life, and wished to hear all the old +songs which she had then heard and sung herself.</p> + +<p>“When I was married” said she, “and came first to Smithfield my +husband’s sisters met me in the porch, and were shocked at my pale and +delicate appearance. One of them whispering to her brother, asked, +‘Why did you bring that ghost up here?’ And now,” continued +the old lady, “I have outlived all who were in the house that day, +and all my own and my husband’s family.”</p> + +<p>This was an evidence certainly of the health restoring properties of +the water and climate in this region.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>The houses of these three brothers were filled with company winter +and summer, making within themselves a delightful society. The +visitors at one house were equally visitors at the others, and the +succession of dinner and evening parties from one to the other, made +it difficult for a visitor to decide at whose particular house he was +staying.</p> + +<p>One of these brothers had married a lovely lady from South Carolina, +whose perfection of character and disposition endeared her to +every one who knew her. Everybody felt like loving her the moment +they saw her, and the more they knew her the more they loved her. +Her warm heart was ever full of other people’s troubles or joys, never +thinking of herself. In her house many an invalid was cheered by +her tender care; and many a drooping heart revived by her bright +Christian spirit. She never omitted an opportunity of pointing the +way to heaven; and although surrounded by all the allurements +which gay society and wealth could bring, she did not depart an instant +from the quiet path which leads to heaven. In the midst of +bright and happy surroundings, her thoughts and hopes were constantly +centered upon the life above; and her conversation—which +was the reflex of her heart—reverted ever to this theme, which she +made attractive to old and young.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2> + +<p>In the region of country just described and in the counties beyond +abound the finest mineral springs, one or more being found on every +plantation. At one place were seven different springs, and the servants +had a habit of asking the guests and family whether they would +have—before breakfast—a glass of White Sulphur, Yellow Sulphur, +Black Sulphur, Alleghany, Alum, or Limestone water!</p> + +<p>The old Greenbriar White Sulphur was a favorite place of resort +for Eastern Virginians and South Carolinians at a very early date, +when it was accessible only by private conveyances, and all who +passed the summer there went in private carriages. In this way, +certain old Virginia and South Carolina families met every season, +and these old people told us that society there was never as good, +after the railroads and stages brought “all sorts of people, from all +sorts of places.” This, of course, we knew nothing about from experience, +and it sounded rather egotistical in the old people to say so, +but that is what they said.</p> + +<p>Indeed these “old folks” talked so much about what “used to be in +their day” at the old White Sulphur, I found it hard to convince myself +I had not been bodily present, seeing with my own eyes certain +knee-buckled old gentlemen, with long queues, and certain Virginia +and South Carolina belles attired in short-waisted, simple white cambrics, +who passed the summers there. These white cambrics, we +were told, had been carried in minute trunks behind the carriages; +and were considered, with a few jewels and a long black or white +lace veil thrown over the head and shoulders, a complete outfit for +the reigning belles! Another curiosity was, that these white cam<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>bric +dresses—our grandmothers told us—required very little “doing +up;” one such having been worn by Mrs. General Washington—so +her granddaughter told me—a whole week without requiring washing! +It must have been an age of remarkable women, and remarkable +cambrics! How little they dreamed then of an era when Saratoga +trunks would be indispensable to ladies of much smaller means +than Virginia and South Carolina belles!</p> + +<p>To reach these counties flowing with mineral waters the families +from Eastern Virginia and from South Carolina passed through a +beautiful region known as Piedmont, Va., and those who had “kinsfolk +or acquaintance” here usually stopped to make them a visit. +Consequently the Piedmont Virginians were generally too busy entertaining +summer guests to visit the springs themselves. But indeed +why should they? For no more salubrious climate could be found +than their own; and no scenery more grand and beautiful. But it +was necessary for the tide-water Virginians to leave their homes +every summer on account of chills and fevers.</p> + +<p>In the lovely Piedmont region over which the “Peaks of Otter” +rear their giant heads, and chains of blue mountains extend as far +as eye can reach, were scattered many pleasant and picturesque homes. +And in this section my grandfather bought a plantation, when the +ancestral estates had been sold, in the Eastern part of the State, to +repay the British debt, which estates, homesteads and tombstones +with their quaint inscriptions are described in Bishop Meade’s “Old +Churches and Families of Virginia.”</p> + +<p>While the tide water Virginians were already practicing all the +arts and wiles known to the highest English civilization; were sending +their sons to be educated in England; receiving brocaded silks +and powdered wigs from England; and dancing the minuet at the +Williamsburg balls with the families of the noblemen sent over to +govern the Colony, Piedmont, Virginia, was still a dense forest, the +abode of Indians and wild animals.</p> + +<p>It was not strange, then, that the Piedmont Virginians never arrived +at the opulent manner of living adopted by those on James and +York rivers, who, tradition tells us, went to such excess in high living, +as to have “hams boiled in champagne,” and of whom other traditions +have been handed down amusing and interesting. Although +the latter were in advance of the Piedmont Virginians in wealth and +social advantages, they were not superior to them in honor, virtue, +or kindness and hospitality.</p> + +<p>It has been remarked that, “when natural scenery is picturesque +there is in the human character something to correspond; impressions +made on the retina are really made on the soul, and the mind becomes +what it contemplates.”</p> + +<p>The same author continues: “A man is not only <i>like</i> what he sees, +but he <i>is</i> what he sees. The noble old Highlander has mountains in +his soul, whose towering peaks point heavenward; and lakes in his +bosom, whose glassy surface reflects the skies; and foaming cataracts +in his heart to beautify the mountain side and irrigate the vale; +and evergreen firs and mountain pines that show life and verdure +even under winter skies!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>“On the other hand,” he writes, “the wandering nomad has a +desert in his heart; its dead level reflects heat and hate; a sullen, +barren plain—no goodness, no beauty, no dancing wave of joy, no +gushing rivulet of love, no verdant hope. And it is an interesting +fact that those who live in countries where natural scenery inspires +the soul, and where the necessities of life bind to a permanent home, +are always patriotic and high minded; and those who dwell in the +desert are always pusillanimous and groveling!”</p> + +<p>If what this author writes be true, and the character of the Piedmont +Virginians accords with the scenery around them, how their +hearts must be filled with gentleness and charity inspired by the landscape +which stretches far and fades in softness against the sky! +How must their minds be filled with noble aspirations suggested by +the “everlasting mountains!” How their souls must be filled with +thoughts of heaven, as they look upon the glorious sunsets bathing the +mountains in “rose-colored light;” with the towering peaks ever +pointing heavenward and seeming to say: “Behold the glory of a +world beyond!”<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>Beneath the shadow of the “Peaks” were many happy homes and +true hearts, and among these memory recalls none more vividly than +“Otterburn” and its inmates.</p> + +<p>“Otterburn” was the residence of a gentleman and his wife, who, +having no children, devoted themselves to making their home attractive +to visitors, in which they succeeded so well that they were rarely +without company; for all who went once to see them went again +and again.</p> + +<p>This gentleman’s mind, character, accomplishments, manner and +appearance marked him “rare”—“one in a century.” Above his +fellow men in greatness of soul, he could comprehend nothing “mean.” +His stature was tall and erect; his features bold; his countenance +open and impressive; his mind vigorous and cultivated; his bearing +dignified, but not haughty; his manners simple and attractive; his +conversation so agreeable and enlivening that the dullest company +became animated as soon as he came into the room. Truth and +high-toned character were so unmistakably stamped upon him, that +knowing him a day convinced one he could be trusted forever. +Brought up in Scotland—the home of his ancestors—in him were +blended the best points of Scotch and Virginia character; strict integrity +and accuracy, with whole-souled generosity and hospitality.</p> + +<p>How many days and nights we passed at his house, and in childhood +and youth, how many hours were entertained by his bright +and instructive conversation! Especially delightful was it to hear +his stories about Scotland, which brought before us vividly pictures +of its lakes and mountains and castles. How often did we listen to +his account of the wedding tour to Scotland, when he carried his +Virginia bride to the old home at Greenock! And how often we +laughed about the Scotch children, his nieces and nephews, who on +first seeing his wife, clapped their hands and shouted, “Oh! mother,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +are you not glad uncle did not marry a black woman?” Hearing he +was to marry a Virginian, they expected to see a savage Indian or +negro! And some of the family who went to Liverpool to meet +them, and were looking through spy glasses when the vessel landed, +said they “were sure the Virginia lady had not come, because they +saw no one among the passengers dressed in a red shawl and gaudy +bonnet like an Indian!”</p> + +<p>From this we thought the Europeans must be very ignorant of our +country and its inhabitants—and have learned since that their children +are kept purposely ignorant of facts in regard to America and +its people.</p> + +<p>Among many other recollections of this dear old friend of “Otterburn,” +I shall never forget a dream he told us one night, which so impressed +us that before his death we asked him to write it out, which +he did, and as the copy is before me in his own handwriting, will +insert it here:</p> + +<p>“About the time I became of age, I returned to Virginia for the +purpose of looking after and settling my father’s estate. Three years +thereafter I received a letter from my only sister, informing me that +she was going to be married, and pressing me in the most urgent +manner to return to Scotland to be present at her marriage, and to +attend to the drawing of the marriage contract. The letter gave me +a good deal of trouble, as it did not suit me to leave Virginia at that +time. I went to bed one night thinking much on this subject, but +soon fell asleep and dreamed that I landed in Greenoch in the night +time, and pushed for home, thinking I would take my aunt and sister +by surprise.</p> + +<p>“When I arrived at the door, I found all still and quiet, and the out +door locked—I thought, however, that I had in my pocket my check +key, with which I quietly opened the door and groped my way into +the sitting-room, but finding no one there I concluded they had gone +to bed. I then went up stairs to their bed-room, and found that unoccupied. +I then concluded they had taken possession of my bed-room +in my absence, but not finding them there became very uneasy +about them. Then it struck me they might be in the guest’s chamber, +a room down stairs kept exclusively for company. Upon going there +I found the door partially open; I saw my aunt removing the burning +coals from the top of the grate preparatory to going to bed. My +sister was sitting up in bed, and as I entered the room, she fixed her +eyes upon me, but did not seem to recognize me. I approached towards +her, and in the effort to make myself known, awoke, and +found it all a dream. At breakfast next morning, I felt wearied and +sick, and could not eat; and told the family of my (dream) journey +the overnight.</p> + +<p>“I immediately commenced preparing, and in a very short time +returned to Scotland. I saw my sister married, and she and her husband +set off on their ‘marriage jaunt.’ About a month thereafter +they returned, and at dinner I commenced telling them of my dream, +but observing they had quit eating and were staring at me, I laughed, +and asked what was the matter; whereupon my brother-in-law very +seriously asked me to go on. When I finished they asked me if I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +remembered the exact time of my dream. I told them it distressed +and impressed me so strongly, that I noted it down at the time. I +pulled out my pocket-book and shewed them the date, ‘14th day of +May,’ written in pencil. They all rose from the table and took me +into the bed-room and shewed me written with pencil on the white +mantle piece ‘14th of May.’</p> + +<p>“I asked them what that meant, and was informed that on that +very night—and <i>the only night</i> they ever occupied that room during +my absence—my aunt was taking the coals off of the fire, when my +sister screamed out, ‘brother has come!’</p> + +<p>“My aunt scolded her, and said she was dreaming; but she said +she had not been to sleep, was sitting up in bed, and <i>saw me</i> enter +the room, and run out when she screamed. So confident was she +that she had seen me, and that I had gone off and hidden, that the +whole house was thoroughly searched for me, and as soon as day +dawned a messenger was sent to enquire if any vessel had arrived +from America, or if I had been seen by any of my friends.”</p> + +<p>No one can forget, who visited Otterburn, the smiling faces of the +negro servants about the house, who received the guests with as true +cordiality as did their mistress, expressing their pleasure by widespread +mouths showing white teeth—very white by contrast with +their jet black skin—and when the guests went away always insisted +on their remaining longer.</p> + +<p>One of these negro women was not only an efficient servant, but +a valued friend to her mistress.</p> + +<p>In the absence of her master and mistress she kept the keys, often +entertaining their friends, who in passing from distant plantations +were accustomed to stop, and who received from her a cordial welcome, +finding on the table as many delicacies as if the mistress had +been at home.</p> + +<p>No more sincere attachment could have existed than between this +mistress and servant. At last, when the latter was seized with a +contagious fever which ended her life, she could not have had a more +faithful friend and nurse than was her mistress.</p> + +<p>The same fever attacked all the negroes on this plantation, and +none can describe the anxiety, care and distress of their owners, who +watched by their beds day and night, administering medicine and relieving +the sick and dying.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h2> + +<p>Among other early recollections is a visit with my mother to the +plantation of a favorite cousin, not far from Richmond, and one of +the handsomest seats on James river. This residence—Howard’s +Neck—was a favorite resort for people from Richmond and the adjacent +counties; and, like many others on the river, always full of +guests—a round of visiting and dinner parties being kept up from +one house to another,—so that the ladies presiding over these establishments +had no time to attend to domestic duties, which were left +to their housekeepers, while they were employed entertaining visitors.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>The negroes on the these estates appeared lively and happy; that +is, if singing and laughing indicates happiness; for they went to +their work in the fields singing, and returned in the evening singing, +after which they often spent the whole night visiting from one plantation +to another, or dancing until day to the music of the banjo or +“fiddle.” These dances were wild and boisterous, their evolutions +being like those of the savage dances, described by travelers in +Africa. Although the most perfect timists, their music with its wild, +melancholy cadence, half savage, half civilized, can not be imitated +or described. Many a midnight were we wakened by their wild +choruses, sung as they returned from a frolic or “corn shucking,” +sounding at first like some hideous, savage yell, but dying away on +the air, echoing a cadence melancholy and indescribable, with a +peculiar pathos, and yet without melody or sweetness.</p> + +<p>“Corn shuckings” were occasions of great hilarity and good eating. +The negroes from various plantations assembled at night around a +huge pile of corn. Selecting one among them, the most original, +amusing and having the loudest voice, they called him “Captain.” +The “Captain” seated himself on top of the pile—a large lightwood +torch burning in front of him—and while he shucked improvised +words and music to a wild “recitative,” the chorus of which was +“caught up” by the army of “shuckers” around. The glare of the +torches on the black faces, with the wild music and impromptu words, +made a scene curious even to us who were so accustomed to it.</p> + +<p>After the corn was shucked they assembled around a table laden +with roast pigs, mutton, beef, hams, cakes, pies, coffee, and other +substantials—many participating in the supper who had not in the +work. The laughing and merriment continued until one or two +o’clock in the morning.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>On these James river plantations were entertained often distinguished +foreigners, who visiting Richmond desired to see something +of Virginia country life. Mr. Thackeray was once entertained at +one of them. But Dickens never visited them. Could he have passed +a month, at any one of the homes I have described, he would +have written something more flattering, I am sure, of Americans and +American life than is found in “Martin Chuzzlewit” and “Notes on +America.” However, with these we should not quarrel, as some of +the sketches—especially the one on “tobacco chewers,” we can recognize.</p> + +<p>Every nation has a right to its prejudices—certainly the English +towards the American—America appearing to the English eye a huge +mushroom affair, the growth of a night and unsubstantial. But it is +surely wrong to censure a whole nation—as some have done the +Southern people—for the faults of a few. For although every nation +has a right to its prejudices, none has a right, without thorough examination +and acquaintance with the subject, to seize a few exaggerated +accounts, of another nation by its enemies, and publish them as +facts. The world in this way receives very erroneous impressions.</p> + +<p>For instance, we have no right to suppose the Germans a cruel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +race because of the following paragraph clipped from a recent newspaper:</p> + +<p>“The cruelty of German officers is a matter of notoriety, but an +officer in an artillery regiment has lately gone beyond precedent in +ingenuity of cruelty. Some of his men being insubordinate, he punished +them by means of a ‘spurring process,’ which consisted in jabbing +spurs persistently and brutally into their legs. By this process +his men were so severely injured they had to go to the hospital.”</p> + +<p>Neither have we a right to pronounce all Pennsylvanians cruel to +their “helps,” as they call them, because a Pennsylvania lady told +me “the only way she could manage her ‘help’”—a white girl fourteen +years old—“was by holding her head under the pump and pumping +water upon it until she lost her breath;” a process I could not +have conceived, and which filled me with horror.</p> + +<p>But sorrow and oppression, we suppose, may be found in some +form in every clime; and in every phase of existence some hearts are +“weary and heavy laden.” Even Dickens, whose mind naturally +sought, and fed upon, the comic, saw wrong and oppression in the +“humane institutions” of his own land!</p> + +<p>And Macaulay gives a painful picture of Madam D’Arblay’s life as +waiting maid to Queen Charlotte—from which we are not to infer, +however, that all Queens are cruel to their waiting maids.</p> + +<p>Madam D’Arblay—whose maiden name was Frances Burney—was +the first female novelist in England, who deserved and received +the applause of her countrymen. The most eminent men of London +paid homage to her genius. Johnson, Burke, Windham, Gibbon, +Reynolds, Sheridan, were her friends and ardent eulogists. In the +midst of her literary fame, surrounded by congenial friends, herself +a star in this select and brilliant coterie, she was offered the place of +waiting maid in the palace. She accepted the position, and bade +farewell to all congenial friends and pursuits. “And now began,” +says Macaulay, “a slavery of five years—of five years taken from +the best part of her life, and wasted in menial drudgery. The history +of an ordinary day was this: Miss Burney had to rise and dress +herself early, that she might be ready to answer the royal bell, +which rang at half after seven. Till about eight she attended in the +Queen’s dressing-room, and had the honor of lacing her august +mistress’ stays, and of putting on the hoop, gown and neckhandkerchief. +The morning was chiefly spent in rummaging drawers and +laying fine clothes in their proper places. Then the Queen was to +be powdered and dressed for the day. Twice a week her Majesty’s +hair had to be curled and craped; and this operation added a full +hour to the business of the toilet. It was generally three before Miss +Burney was at liberty. At five she had to attend her colleague, +Madame Schwellenberg, a hateful old toadeater, as illiterate as a +chamber-maid, proud, rude, peevish, unable to bear solitude, unable +to conduct herself with common decency in society. With this delightful +associate Frances Burney had to dine and pass the evening. +The pair generally remained together from five to eleven, and often +had no other company the whole time. Between eleven and twelve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +the bell rang again. Miss Burney had to pass a half hour undressing +the Queen, and was then at liberty to retire.</p> + +<p>“Now and then, indeed, events occurred which disturbed the +wretched monotony of Frances Burney’s life. The court moved from +Kew to Windsor, and from Windsor back to Kew.</p> + +<p>“A more important occurrence was the King’s visit to Oxford. +Then Miss Burney had the honor of entering Oxford in the last of a +long string of carriages, which formed the royal procession, of walking +after the Queen all day through refectories and chapels, and of +standing half dead with fatigue and hunger, while her august mistress +was seated at an excellent cold collation. At Magdalen College, +Frances was left for a moment in a parlor, where she sank +down on a chair. A good natured equerry saw that she was exhausted, +and shared with her some apricots and bread, which he had +wisely put in his pockets. At that moment the door opened, the +Queen entered, the wearied attendants sprang up, the bread and +fruit were hastily concealed.</p> + +<p>“After this the King became very ill, and during more than two +years after his recovery Frances dragged on a miserable existence +at the palace. Madame Schwellenberg became more and more insolent +and intolerable, and now the health of poor Frances began to +give way; and all who saw her pale face, her emaciated figure and +her feeble walk, predicted that her sufferings would soon be over.</p> + +<p>“The Queen seems to have been utterly regardless of the <i>comfort</i>, +the <i>health</i>, the <i>life</i> of her attendants. Weak, feverish, hardly able to +stand, Frances had still to rise before seven, in order to dress the +sweet Queen, and sit up ’till midnight, in order to undress the sweet +Queen. The indisposition of the handmaid could not, and <i>did not +escape the notice of</i> her royal mistress. But the <i>established doctrine of +the court was, that all sickness</i> was to be <i>considered as a pretence until it +proved fatal</i>. The only way in which the invalid could clear herself +from the suspicion of malingering, as it is called in the army, was to +go on lacing and unlacing, <i>’till she felt down dead at the royal feet</i>.”</p> + +<p>Finally Miss Burney’s father pays her a visit in this palace prison +when “she told him that she was miserable, that she was worn with +attendance and want of sleep, that she had no comfort in life, nothing +to love, nothing to hope, that her family and friends were to her +as though they were not, and were remembered by her as men remember +the dead. From daybreak to midnight the same killing +labor, the same recreation, more hateful than labor itself, followed +each other without variety, without any interval of liberty or repose.”</p> + +<p>Her father’s veneration for royalty amounting to idolatry, he could +not bear to remove her from the court—“and, between the dear father +and the sweet Queen, there seemed to be little doubt that some day +or other Frances <i>would drop down a corpse</i>. Six months had elapsed +since the interview between the parent and the daughter. The +resignation was not sent in. The sufferer grew worse and worse. +She took bark, but it soon failed to produce a beneficial effect. She +was stimulated with wine; she was soothed with opium, but in vain. +Her breath began to fail. The whisper that she was in a decline<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +spread through the court. The pains in her side became so severe +that she was forced to crawl from the card table of the old fury, +Madame Schwellenberg, to whom she was tethered, three or four +times in an evening, for the purpose of taking hartshorn. Had she +been a negro slave, a humane planter would have excused her from +work. But her Majesty showed no mercy. Thrice a day the accursed +bell still rang; the Queen was still to be dressed for the morning at +seven, and to be dressed for the day at noon, and to be undressed at +midnight.”</p> + +<p>At last Miss Burney’s father was moved to compassion and allowed +her to write a letter of resignation. “Still I could not,” writes Miss +Burney in her diary, “summon courage to present my memorial +from seeing the Queen’s entire freedom from such an expectation. +For though I was frequently so ill in her presence that I could hardly +stand, I saw she concluded me, while life remained, inevitably hers.”</p> + +<p>“At last, with a trembling hand, the paper was delivered. Then +came the storm. Madame Schwellenberg raved like a maniac. The +resignation was not accepted. The father’s fears were aroused, and +he declared, in a letter meant to be shown to the Queen, that his +daughter must retire. The Schwellenberg raged like a wild cat. A +scene almost horrible ensued.</p> + +<p>“The Queen then promised that, after the next birthday, Miss +Burney should be set at liberty. But the promise was ill kept; and +her Majesty showed displeasure at being reminded of it.”</p> + +<p>At length, however, the prison door was opened, and Frances +was free once more. Her health was restored by traveling, and she +returned to London in health and spirits. Macaulay tells us that +she went to visit the palace, “her <i>old dungeon, and found her successor +already far on the way to the grave, and kept to strict duty, from morning +till midnight, with a sprained ankle and a nervous fever</i>.”</p> + +<p>An ignorant and unlettered woman would doubtless not have +found this life in the palace tedious, and our sympathy would not +have been aroused for her; for as long as the earth lasts there must +be human beings fitted for every station, and it is supposed, till the +end of all things, there must be cooks, housemaids and dining-room +servants, which will make it never possible for the whole human +family to stand entirely upon the same platform socially and intellectually. +And Miss Burney’s wretchedness, which calls forth our +sympathy, was not because she had to perform the duties of waiting-maid, +but because to a gifted and educated woman these duties were +uncongenial; and congeniality means <i>happiness</i>; uncongeniality +<i>unhappiness</i>.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h2> + +<p>From the sorrows of Miss Burney in the palace—a striking contrast +with the menials described in our own country homes—I will +return to another charming place on James river—Powhatan Seat—a +mile below Richmond, which had descended in the Mayo family +two hundred years.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>Here, it was said, the Indian chief Powhatan had lived, and here +was shown the veritable stone supposed to have been the one upon +which Captain Smith’s head was laid, when the Indian princess +Pocahontas rescued him.</p> + +<p>This historic stone, near the parlor window, was only an ugly, +dark, broad, flat stone, but imagination pictured ever around it the +Indian group; Smith’s head upon it; the infuriated chief with uplifted +club in the act of dealing the death blow; the grief and shriek of +Pocahontas, as she threw herself upon Smith imploring her father to +spare him—a piercing cry to have penetrated the heart of the savage +king!</p> + +<p>Looking out from the parlor window and imagining this savage +scene, how strange a contrast with the picture which met the eye within! +Around the fireside assembled the loveliest family group, where kindness +and affection beamed in every eye, and father, mother, brothers +and sisters were linked together by tenderest devotion and sympathy.</p> + +<p>If natural scenery reflects itself upon the heart no wonder a “holy +calm” rested upon this family, for far down the river the prospect +was peace and tranquility; and many an evening in the summer +house on the river bank, we drank in the beauty of soft blue skies, +green isles and white sails floating in the distance.</p> + +<p>Many in Richmond remember the delightful weddings and parties +at Powhatan Seat, where assembled the elite from Richmond, with +an innumerable throng of cousins, aunts and uncles from Orange +and Culpeper counties.</p> + +<p>On these occasions the house was illuminated by wax-lights issuing +from bouquets of magnolia leaves placed around the walls near +the ceiling, and looking prettier than any glass chandelier.</p> + +<p>We, from a distance, generally stayed a week after the wedding, +becoming, as it were, a part of the family circle; and the bride did +not rush off on a tour as is the fashion now-a-days, but remained +quietly enjoying family, home and friends.</p> + +<p>Another feature I have omitted in describing our weddings and +parties—invariably a part of the picture—was the sea of black faces +surrounding the doors and windows to look on the dancing, hear the +music and afterwards get a good share of the supper.</p> + +<p>Tourists often went to walk around the beautiful grounds at +Powhatan—so neatly kept with sea shells around the flowers, and +pleasant seats under the lindens and magnolias—and to see the historic +stone; but I often thought they knew not what was missed in +not knowing—as we did—the lovely family within.</p> + +<p>But, for us, those rare, beautiful days at Powhatan are gone forever; +for since the war the property has passed into stranger hands, +and the family who once owned it will own it no more.</p> + +<p>During the late war heavy guns were placed in the family burying +ground on this plantation,—a point commanding the river—and +here was interred the child of a distinguished General<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> in the Northern +army—a Virginian, formerly in the United States army—who +had married a member of the Powhatan family. He was expected +to make an attack upon Richmond, and over his child’s grave was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +placed a gun to fire upon him. Such are the unnatural incidents of +civil war.</p> + +<p>About two miles from Powhatan Seat was another beautiful old +place—Mount Erin—the plantation formerly of a family all of whom, +except two sisters had died. The estate becoming involved had to +be sold, which so grieved and distressed these sisters that they passed +hours weeping, if accidentally the name of their old home was +mentioned in their presence.</p> + +<p>Once when we were at Powhatan—and these ladies were among +the guests—a member of the Powhatan family ordered the carriage, +and took my sister and myself to Mount Erin, telling us to keep it a +secret when we returned, for “the sisters,” said she, “would neither +eat nor sleep if reminded of their old home.”</p> + +<p>A pleasant drive brought us to Mount Erin, and when we saw the +box hedges, gravel-walks and linden trees we were no longer surprised +at the grief of the sisters whose hearts entwined around their +old home. The house was in charge of an old negro woman—the +purchaser not having moved in—who showed us over the grounds; +and every shrub and flower seemed to speak of days gone by. Even +the ivy on the old bricks looked gloomy as if mourning the light, +mirth and song departed from the house forever; and the walks gave +back a deadened echo, as if they wished not to be disturbed by stranger +tread. All seemed in a reverie, dreaming a long sweet dream of +the past—and entering into the grief of the sisters, who lived afterwards +many years in a pleasant home, on a pleasant street in Richmond, +with warm friends to serve them, yet their tears never ceased +to flow at mention of Mount Erin.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>One more plantation picture, and enough will have been described +to show the character of the homes and people on our plantations.</p> + +<p>The last place visited by my sister and myself before the war of +1861, was “Elkwood,” a fine estate in Culpeper county, four miles +from the railroad station.</p> + +<p>It was the last of June. The country was a scene of enchantment, +as the carriage rolled us through dark, cool forests, green meadows, +fields of waving grain; out of the forest into acres of broad leaved +corn; across pebbly-bottomed streams, and along the margin of the +Rapidan which flowed at the base of the hill leading up to the house.</p> + +<p>The house was square and white, and the blinds green as the grass +lawn and trees in the yard. Inside the house, the polished “dry +rubbed” floors clean and cool, refreshed one on entering like a glass +of ice-lemonade on a midsummer’s day. The old fashioned furniture +against the walls looked as if it thought too much of itself to be set +about promiscuously over the floor, like modern fauteuils and divans.</p> + +<p>About everything was an air of dignity and repose corresponding +with the manners and appearance of the proprietors, who were called +“Uncle Dick” and “Aunt Jenny”—the <i>a</i> in aunt pronounced very +broad.</p> + +<p>“Aunt Jenny” and “Uncle Dick” had no children, but took care of +numerous nieces and nephews; kept their house filled to overflowing +with friends, relatives and strangers, and were revered and beloved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +by all. They had no pleasure so great as taking care of other people. +They lived for other people, and made everybody comfortable +and happy around them. From the time “Uncle Dick” had prayers +in the morning until family prayers at bed time they were busy bestowing +some kindness.</p> + +<p>“Uncle Dick’s” character and manners were of a type so high that +one felt elevated in his presence; and a desire to reach his standard +animated those who knew him. His precept and example were such +that all who followed them might arrive at the highest perfection of +Christian character.</p> + +<p>“Uncle Dick” had requested “Aunt Jenny” when they were married—forty +years before—to have on his table every day, dinner +enough for six more persons than were already in the house, “in case,” +he said, “he should meet friends or acquaintances while riding over +his plantation or in the neighborhood, whom he wished to ask home +with him to dinner.” This having been always a rule, “Aunt Jenny” +never sat at her table without dinner enough for six more, and her’s +were no commonplace dinners; no hasty puddings; no salaratus +bread; no soda cakes; no frozen-starch-ice-cream; no modern shorthand +recipes—but genuine old Virginia cooking. And all who want +to know what that was, can find out all about it in “Aunt Jenny’s” +book of copied recipes—if it is extant—or in Mrs. Harrison’s, of +Brandon. But as neither of these books may ever be known to the +public, their “sum and substance” may be given in a few words:</p> + +<p>“Have no shams. Procure an abundance of the freshest, richest, +<i>real</i> cream, milk, eggs, butter, lard, best old Madeira wine, all the +way from Madeira, and never use a particle of soda or salaratus +about anything or under any pressure.”</p> + +<p>These were the ingredients “Aunt Jenny” used—for “Uncle Dick” +had rare old wine in his cellar which he had brought from Europe, +thirty years before—and every day was a feast day at Elkwood. +And the wedding breakfasts “Aunt Jenny” used to “get up” when +one of her nieces married at her house—as they sometimes did—were +beyond description.</p> + +<p>While at Elkwood, observing every day, that the carriage went to +the depot empty, and returned empty, we enquired the reason, and +were informed that “Uncle Dick,” ever since the cars had been passing +near his plantation, ordered his coachman to have the carriage +every day at the station, “in case some of his friends might be on +the train, and might like to stop and see him!”</p> + +<p>Another hospitable rule in “Uncle Dick’s” house was, that company +must never be kept “waiting” in his parlor, and so anxious was +his young niece to meet his approbation in this as in every particular, +that she had a habit of dressing herself carefully, arranging her +hair beautifully—it was in the days too when smooth hair was fashionable—before +laying down for the afternoon siesta, “in case,” she +said, “some one might call, and ‘Uncle Dick’ had a horror of visitors +waiting.” This process of reposing in a fresh muslin dress and +fashionably arranged hair, required a particular and uncomfortable +position, which she seemed not to mind, but dozed in the most precise +manner without rumpling her hair or her dress.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>Elkwood was a favorite place of resort for Episcopal ministers, +whom “Aunt Jenny” and “Uncle Dick” loved to entertain. And +here we met the Rev. Mr. S——, the learned divine, eloquent +preacher and charming companion. He had just returned from a +visit to England, where he had been entertained in palaces. Telling +us the incidents of his visit, “I was much embarrassed at first,” said +he, “at the thought of attending a dinner party given in a palace to +me,—a simple Virginian,—but on being announced at the drawing-room +door, and entering the company I felt at once at ease, for they +were all ladies and gentlemen—such as I had known at home, polite, +pleasant and without pretence.”</p> + +<p>This gentleman’s conversational powers were not only bright and +delightful, but also the means of turning many to righteousness; for +religion was one of his chief themes.</p> + +<p>A proof of his genius and eloquence was given in the beautiful +poem recited—without ever having been written—at the centennial +anniversary of old Christ church in Alexandria. This was the church +in which General Washington and his family had worshiped, and +around it clustered many memories. Mr. S., with several others, +had been invited to make an address on the occasion, and one night +while thinking about it an exquisite poem passed through his mind, +picturing scene after scene in the old church. General Washington +with his head bowed in silent prayer; infants at the baptismal font; +young men and maidens in bridal array at the altar, and funeral +trains passing through the open gate.</p> + +<p>On the night of the celebration when his turn came, finding the +hour too late, and the audience too sleepy for his prose address, he +suddenly determined to “dash off” the poem, every word of which +came back to him, although he had never written it. The audience +roused up electrified, and as the recitation proceeded, their enthusiasm +reached the highest pitch. Never had there been such a sensation +in the old church before. And next morning the house at which +he was stopping was besieged by reporters begging “copies” and +offering good prices, but the poem remains unwritten to this day.</p> + +<p>Elkwood—like many other old homes—was burned by the Northern +army in 1862, and not a tree or flower remains to mark the spot, +for so many years the abode of hospitality and good cheer.</p> + +<p>In connection with Culpeper it is due here to state that this county +excelled all others in ancient and dilapidated buggies and carriages—seeming +a regular infirmary for all the disabled vehicles of the Old +Dominion. Here their age and infirmities received every care and +consideration, being propped up, tied up and bandaged up in every +conceivable manner; and strangest of all, rarely depositing their occupants +in the road, which was prevented by cautious old gentlemen +riding alongside, who watching out, and discovering the weakest +points, stopped and securely tied up fractured parts with bits of twine, +rope or chain, always carried in buggy or carriage boxes for that +purpose. These surgical operations, although not ornamental, +strengthened and sustained these venerable vehicles, and produced a +longevity miraculous.</p> + +<p>Many more sketches might be given of pleasant country homes—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>worthy +a better pen than mine—for Brandon, Westover, Shirley, +Carter Hall, Lauderdale, Vaucluse, and others, linger in the memory +of hundreds who once knew and loved them. Especially Vaucluse, +which although far removed from railroads, stage coaches and public +conveyances was overflowing with company throughout the year. +For the Vaucluse girls were so bright, so fascinating, so bewitchingly +pretty, they attracted a concourse of visitors, and were sure to be +belles wherever they went.</p> + +<p>And many remember the owner of Vaucluse—that pure hearted +Christian and cultivated gentleman, who, late in life, devoted himself +to the Episcopal ministry, and labored faithfully in the Master’s cause +preaching in country churches, “without money, and without price.” +Surely his reward is in heaven.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Besides these well ordered establishments, there were some others +owned by inactive men, who smoked their pipes, read their books, +left everything very much to the management of their negroes and +seemed content to let things tumble down around them.</p> + +<p>One of these places we used to call “Topsy-Turvy Castle,” and +another “Haphazard.”</p> + +<p>At such places the negro quarters—instead of neat rows of white +cabins in rear of the house, as on other plantations—occupied a conspicuous +place near the front, and consisted of a solid, long, ugly +brick structure, with swarms of negroes around the windows and +doors, appearing to have nothing in the world to do, and never to +have done anything.</p> + +<p>Everything had a “shackling,” lazy appearance. The master was +always—it appeared to us—reading a newspaper in the front porch, +and never observing anything that was going on. The house was +so full of idle negroes standing about the halls and stairways, one +could scarcely make one’s way up or down stairs. Everything needed +repair, from the bed you slept upon, to the family coach which +took you to church.</p> + +<p>Few of the chairs had all their rounds and legs; and when completely +disabled were sent to the garret, where they accumulated in +great numbers, and remained until pressing necessity induced the +master to raise his eyes from his paper long enough to order “Dick” +to, “take the four-horse-wagon and carry the chairs to be mended.”</p> + +<p>A multitude of “kinsfolk and acquaintance” usually congregated +here. And at one place, in order to accommodate so many, there +were four beds in a chamber. These high bedsteads presented a remarkable +appearance—the head of one going into the side of another, +the foot of one into the head of another, and so on, looking as if they +had never been “placed,” but their curious juxtaposition had been +the result of some earthquake.</p> + +<p>[One of these houses is said to have been greatly improved in appearance +during the war by the passage of a cannon ball through the +upper story, where a window had been needed for many years.]</p> + +<p>But the owners of these places were so genuinely good, one could +not complain of them even for such carelessness. For everybody +was welcome to everything. You might stop the plows if you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +wanted a horse, or take the carriage and drive for a week’s journey, +and, in short, impose upon these good people in every conceivable +way.</p> + +<p>Yet in spite of this topsy-turvy management—a strange fact connected +with such places—they invariably had good light bread, good +mutton, and the usual abundance on their tables.</p> + +<p>We suppose it must have been a recollection of such plantations +which induced the negro to exclaim, on hearing another sing, “Ole +Virginny nubber tire.” “Umph! ole <i>Virginny</i> nubber tire, kase she +nubber done nuthin’ fur to furtigue herself!”</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></h2> + +<p>Confining these reminiscences strictly to plantation life, no mention +has been made of the families we knew and visited in some of +our cities, whose kindness to their slaves was unmistakable, and who +owning only a small number could better afford to indulge them.</p> + +<p>At one of these houses, this indulgence was such that the white +family were very much under the control of their servants.</p> + +<p>The owner of this house—an eminent lawyer—was a man of taste +and learning, whose legal ability attracted many admirers, and whose +refinement, culture and generous nature won enthusiastic friends.</p> + +<p>Although considered the owner of his house, it was a mistake—if +ownership means the right to govern one’s own property—for beyond +his law papers, library and the privilege of paying all the bills, +this gentleman had no “rights” there whatever; his house, kitchen +and premises being under the entire command of “Aunt Fanny,” the +cook—a huge mulatto woman whose word was law, and whose voice +thundered abuse if any dared to disobey her.</p> + +<p>The master, mistress, family and visitors all stood in awe of +“Aunt Fanny,” and yet could not do without her, for she made such +unapproachable light bread, and conducted the affairs of the place +with such distinguished ability.</p> + +<p>Her own house was in the yard, and had been built especially for +her convenience. Her furniture was polished mahogany, and she +kept most delicious preserves, pickles and sweet meats of her own +manufacture with which to regale her friends and favorites. As we +came under that head, we were often treated to these when we went +in to see her after her day’s work was over, or on Sundays.</p> + +<p>Although she “raved and stormed” considerably—which she told +us she “was obliged to do, <i>honey</i>, to keep things straight”—she had +the tenderest regard for her master and mistress, and often said: “If +it warnt for <i>me</i>, they’d have nuthin’ in the world, and things here +would go to destruction.”</p> + +<p>So Aunt Fanny “kept up this family,” as she said, for many years, +and many amusing incidents might be related of her.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, her master after a long and excited political contest +was elected to the Legislature. Before all the precincts had +been heard from—believing himself defeated—he retired to rest, and +being naturally feeble, was quite worn out. But at midnight a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +cry arose at his gate, where a multitude assembled, screaming +and hurrahing. At first he was uncertain whether they were friends +to congratulate him on his victory, or the opposite party to hang him—as +they had threatened—for voting an appropriation to the Danville +railroad. It soon appeared they had come to congratulate him, +when great excitement prevailed, loud cheers and cries for a speech. +The doors were opened and the crowed rushed in. The hero soon appeared +and delivered one of his graceful and satisfactory speeches.</p> + +<p>Still the crowd remained cheering and “storming” about the house, +until Aunt Fanny, who had made her appearance in full dress, considering +the excitement had been kept up long enough, and that the +master’s health was too delicate for any further demonstration, determined +to disperse them. Rising to her full height, waving her +hand and speaking majestically she said: “Gentlemen! Mars Charles +is a feeble pusson, and it is time for him to take his res’. He’s been +kep’ ’wake long enough now, and it’s time for me to close up dese +doors!”</p> + +<p>With this the crowd dispersed and “Aunt Fanny” remained mistress +of the situation, declaring that, “ef she hadn’t come forward +and ’spersed dat crowd, Mars Charles would have been a dead man +befo’ mornin’!”</p> + +<p>“Aunt Fanny” kept herself liberally supplied with pocket money—one +of her chief sources of revenue being soap, which she made in +large quantities and sold at high prices; especially what she called +her “butter soap,” which was in great demand, and which was made +from all the butter which she did not consider fresh enough for the +delicate appetites of her mistress and master. She appropriated one +of the largest basement rooms, had it shelved and filled it with soap. +In order to carry on business so extensively huge logs were kept +blazing on the kitchen hearth under the soap pot day and night. +During the war, wood becoming scarce and expensive, “Mars +Charles” found it drained his purse to keep the kitchen fire supplied.</p> + +<p>Thinking the matter over one day in his library, and concluding it +would greatly lessen his expenses if Aunt Fanny could be prevailed +upon to discontinue her soap trade, he sent for her, and said, <i>very +mildly</i>: “Fanny, I have a proposition to make you.”</p> + +<p>“What is it, Mars Charles?”</p> + +<p>“Well Fanny, as my expenses are very heavy now, if you will +give up your soap boiling for this year, I will agree to pay you fifty +dollars.”</p> + +<p>With arms akimbo, and looking at him with astonishment, but +firmness in her eye, she replied: “Couldn’t possibly do it, Mars +Charles. Because <i>soap</i>, sir, <i>soap’s</i> my <i>main</i>-tain-ance!”</p> + +<p>With this she strided majestically out of the room. “Mars +Charles” said no more but continued paying fabulous sums for wood, +while “Aunt Fanny” continued boiling her soap.</p> + +<p>This woman not only ordered, but kept all the family supplies, her +mistress having no disposition to keep the keys or in any way interfere +with her.</p> + +<p>But at last her giant strength gave way, and she sickened and died. +Having no children she left her property to one of her fellow servants.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>Several days before her death, we were sitting with her mistress +and master in a room overlooking her house. Her room was crowded +with negroes who had come to perform their religious rites around +the death bed. Joining hands they performed a savage dance, shouting +wildly around her bed. This was horrible to hear and see, +especially as in this family every effort had been made to instruct +their negro dependents in the truths of religion; and one member of +the family, who spent the greater part of her life in prayer, had for +years prayed for “Aunt Fanny,” and tried to instruct her in the true +faith. But although an intelligent woman, she seemed to cling to +the superstitions of her race.</p> + +<p>After the savage dance and rites were over, and while we sat talking +about it, a gentleman—the friend and minister of the family—came +in. We described to him what we had just witnessed, and he +deplored it bitterly with us, saying he had read and prayed with +“Aunt Fanny” and tried to make her see the truth in Jesus. He then +marked some passages in the Bible, and asked me to go and read +them to her. I went, and said to her: “Aunt Fanny, here are some +verses Mr. Mitchell has marked for me to read to you, and he hopes +you will pray to the Savior as he taught you.” Then said I, “we are +afraid the noise and dancing have made you worse.”</p> + +<p>Speaking feebly, she replied: “Honey, that kind of religion suits +us black folks better than your kind. What suits Mars Charles’ +mind, don’t suit mine.”</p> + +<p>And thus died the most intelligent of her race—one who had been +surrounded by pious persons who had been praying for her, and endeavoring +to instruct her. She had also enjoyed through life not only +the comforts, but many of the luxuries of earth—and when she died, +her mistress and master lost a sincere friend.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h2> + +<p>This chapter will show how “Virginia beat-biscuit” procured for a +man a home and friends in Paris.</p> + +<p>One morning in the spring of 18— a singular looking man presented +himself at our house. He was short of stature, and enveloped in furs +although the weather was not cold. Everything about him was gold +which could be gold, and so we called him “the gold-tipped-man.” +He called for my mother, and when she went in the parlor said to her:</p> + +<p>“Madam I have been stopping several weeks at the hotel in the +town of L——, where I met a boy—Robert—who tells me he belongs +to you. As I want such a servant, and he is anxious to travel, I +come, at his request, to ask if you will let me buy him and take him +to Europe. I will pay any price.”</p> + +<p>“I could not think of it,” she replied. “I have determined never to +sell one of my servants.”</p> + +<p>“But,” continued the man, “he is anxious to go, and has sent me +to beg you.”</p> + +<p>“It is impossible,” said she, “for he is a great favorite with us, and +the only child his mother has.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>Finding her determined, the man took his leave, and went back to +the town, twenty-five miles off; but returned next day accompanied +by Robert, who entreated his mother and mistress to let him go.</p> + +<p>Said my mother to him: “Would you leave your mother and go +with a stranger to a foreign land?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, madam. I love my mother, and you and all your family—you +have always been so good to me—but I want to travel, and this +gentleman says he will give me plenty of money and be very kind to +me.”</p> + +<p>Still she refused. But the boy’s mother, finally yielding to his entreaty, +consented, and persuaded her mistress, saying, “if he is willing +to leave me, and so anxious to go I will give him up.”</p> + +<p>Knowing how distressed we all would be at parting with him, he +went off without coming to say “good bye,” and wrote his mother +from New York what day he would sail with his new master for +Europe.</p> + +<p>At first his mother received from him presents and letters, telling +her he was very much delighted, and “had as much money as he +knew what to do with.” But after a few months he ceased to write, +and we could hear nothing from him.</p> + +<p>At length, when eighteen months had elapsed, one day we were +astonished to see him return home, dressed in the best Parisian style. +We were rejoiced to see him again, and his own joy at getting back +cannot be described. He ran over the yard and house examining +everything, and said: “Mistress, I have seen many fine places in +Europe, but none to me as pretty as this, and I have seen no lady +equal to you. And I have had no water to drink as good as this—and +I have dreamed about every chair and table in this house, and +wondered if I would ever get back here again.”</p> + +<p>He then gave us a sketch of his life since the “gold-tipped” man +had become his master. Arrived in Paris, his master and himself +took lodgings at the Hotel de Ville. A teacher was employed to +come every day and instruct Robert in French. His master kept him +well supplied with money, never giving him less than fifty dollars at +a time. His duties were light, and he had ample time to study and +amuse himself.</p> + +<p>After enjoying such elegant ease for eight or nine months, he waked +one morning and found himself deserted and penniless! His master +had absconded in the night, leaving no vestige of himself except a +gold dressing case and a few toilette articles of gold, which were +seized by the proprietor of the hotel in payment of his bill.</p> + +<p>Poor Robert, without money and without a friend in this great city, +knew not where to turn. In vain he wished himself back in his old +home.</p> + +<p>“If I could only find some Virginian to whom I could appeal,” said +he to himself. And suddenly it occurred to him that the American +Minister, Mr. Mason, was a Virginian. When he remembered this +his heart was cheered, and he lost no time in finding Mr. Mason’s +house.</p> + +<p>Presenting himself before the American Minister, he related his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +story, which was not at first believed. “For,” said Mr. Mason, “there +are so many impostors in Paris, it is impossible to believe you.”</p> + +<p>Robert protested he had been a slave in Virginia—had been deserted +by his owner in Paris, and begged Mr. Mason to keep him at his +house, and take care of him.</p> + +<p>Then Mr. M. asked many questions about people and places in +Virginia, all which were accurately answered. Finally, he said: +“I knew well the Virginia gentleman who was, you say, your master. +What was the color of his hair?” This was also satisfactorily +answered, and Robert began to hope he was believed, when Mr. +Mason continued:</p> + +<p>“Now there is one thing, which if you can do, will convince me +you came from Virginia. Go in my kitchen and make me some old +Virginia beat-biscuit, and I will believe everything you have said!”</p> + +<p>“I think I can do that, sir,” said Robert, and going in the kitchen, +rolled up his sleeves and set to work.</p> + +<p>This was a desperate moment, for he had never made a biscuit in +his life, although he had often watched the proceeding as “Black +Mammy,” the cook at home, used to beat, roll and manipulate the +dough on her biscuit box.</p> + +<p>“If I only could make them look like her’s!” thought he, as he beat, +and rolled, and worked and finally stuck the dough all over with a +fork. Then cutting them out, and putting them to bake, he watched +them with nervous anxiety until they resembled those he had often +placed on the table at home.</p> + +<p>Astonished and delighted with his success, he carried them to the +American Minister, who exclaimed: “Now I <i>know</i> you came from old +Virginia!”</p> + +<p>Robert was immediately installed in Mr. M.’s house, where he remained +a faithful attendant until Mr. Mason’s death, when he returned +with the family to America.</p> + +<p>Arriving at New York he thought it impossible to get along by +himself, and determined to find his master. For this purpose he +employed a policeman, and together they succeeded in recovering “the +lost master”—this being a singular instance of a “slave in pursuit of +his fugitive master.”</p> + +<p>The “gold-tipped” man expressed much pleasure at his servant’s +fidelity, and handing him a large sum of money desired him to return +to Paris, pay his bill, bring back his gold dressing box and toilette +articles, and, as a reward for his fidelity, take as much money as he +wished and travel over the continent.</p> + +<p>Robert obeyed these commands, returned to Paris, paid the bills, +traveled over the chief places in Europe and then came again to New +York. Here he was appalled to learn that his master had been +arrested for forgery, and imprisoned in Philadelphia. It was ascertained +that the forger was an Englishman and connected with an +underground forging establishment in Paris. Finding himself about +to be detected in Paris he fled to New York, and other forgeries having +been discovered in Philadelphia, he had been arrested.</p> + +<p>Robert lost no time in reporting himself at the prison, and was +grieved to find his master in such a place.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>Determining to do what he could to relieve the man who had been +a good friend to him, he went to a Philadelphia lawyer, and said to +him: “Sir, the man who is in prison, bought me in Virginia, and has +been a kind master to me; I have no money, but if you will do your +best to have him acquitted, I will return to the South, sell myself +and send you the money.”</p> + +<p>“It is a bargain,” replied the lawyer. “Send me the money, and +I will save your master from the penitentiary.”</p> + +<p>Robert returned to Baltimore, sold himself to a Jew in that city, +and sent the money to the lawyer in Philadelphia. After this he +was bought by a distinguished Southern Senator—afterwards a General +in the Southern army—with whom he remained, and to whom +he rendered valuable services during the war.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Other instances were known of negroes who preferred being sold +into slavery rather than take care of themselves. There were some +in our immediate neighborhood, who finding themselves emancipated +by their master’s will, begged the owners of neighboring plantations +to buy them, saying they preferred having “white people to take care +of them.” On the “Wheatly” plantation—not far from us—there is +still living an old negro who sold himself in this way, and cannot be +persuaded <i>now</i> to accept his freedom. After the war, when all the +negroes were freed by the Federal Government, and our people too +much impoverished longer to clothe and feed them, this old man refused +to leave the plantation, but clung to his cabin, although his +wife and family moved off and begged him to accompany them.</p> + +<p>“No,” said he, “I nuver will leave this plantation, and go off to +starve with free niggers.”</p> + +<p>Not even when his wife was very sick and dying could he be persuaded +to go off and stay one night with her. He had long been too +old to work, but his former owners indulged him by giving him his +cabin, and taking care of him through all the poverty which has fallen +upon our land since the war.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h2> + +<p>O, bright winged peace! Long did’st thou rest o’er the homes of +old Virginia; while cheerful wood fires blazed on hearthstones in +parlor and cabin, reflecting contented faces with hearts full of “peace +and good will towards men!” No thought entered there of harm to +others; no fear of evil to ourselves. Whatsoever things were honest; +whatsoever things were pure; whatsoever things were gentle; whatsoever +things were of good report, we were accustomed to hear ’round +these parlor firesides; and often would our grandmothers say:</p> + +<p>“Children our’s is a blessed country! There never will be another +war! The Indians have long ago been driven out, and it has been +nearly a hundred years since the English yoke was broken!”</p> + +<p>The history of our country was contained in two pictures: “The +last battle with the Indians” and “The surrender of Lord Cornwallis +at Yorktown.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>No enemies within or without our borders, and peace established +among us forever! Such was our belief. And we wondered that +men should get together and talk their dry politics, seeing that General +Washington and Thomas Jefferson—two of our Virginia plantation +men—had established a government to last as long as the earth, +and which could not be improved. Yet they <i>would</i> talk—these politicians—around +our parlor fire, where often our patience was exhausted +hearing discussions, in which we could not take interest, +about the “Protective Tariff;” the “Bankrupt Law;” the “Distribution +of Public Lands;” the “Resolutions of ’98;” the “Missouri +Compromise,” and the “Monroe Doctrine.” These topics seemed +to afford them intense pleasure and satisfaction, for as the “sparks +fly upward” the thoughts of men turn to politics.</p> + +<p>Feeling no ill will towards any tribe, people or nation on the globe, +and believing that all felt a friendly regard for us, how could we +believe, when we heard it, that a nation not far off—to whom we +had yearly “carried up” a tithe of all we possessed, and whose +coffers we helped to fill—were subscribing large sums of money to +destroy us? We could not, would not believe it. Yet we were told +that this nation—towards whom we felt no animosity—brought up +their children to believe that they would do God service by reviling +and persecuting us. Nay more—that their ministers of the gospel +preached unto them thus:</p> + +<p>“Thou shalt carry fire and sword into the land that lieth South of +you. Thou shalt make it a desolate waste. Thou shalt utterly root +out and annihilate the people that they be no more a people. Thou +shalt write books. Thou shalt form societies for the purpose of +planning the best means of attacking secretly and destroying this +people. Thou shalt send emissaries. Thou shalt stir up the nations +abroad against them. Thou shalt prepare weapons of war, and in +every way incite their negroes to rise at night and slay them.”</p> + +<p>Around our firesides we asked: “Can this be true?”</p> + +<p>Alas! alas! it was true; and the first expedition sent against us +was led by a man from the Adirondack Mountains in the North, who +in 1859, with a small band armed with pikes, clubs and guns, attacked +one of our villages at night.<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The news of this blanched the cheeks of our maidens, and the +children nestled closer round their mother’s knee at evening twilight, +for who could tell what might befall our plantation homes before +morning! The hearts of women and children grew sick and faint. +But the hearts of our men and boys grew brave and strong—and +would they have been the countrymen of Washington had they not +thought of war?</p> + +<p>About this time we had a visit from two old friends of our family—a +distinguished Southern Senator and the Secretary of War—both +accustomed to swaying multitudes by the power of their eloquence—which +lost none of its force and charm in our little home circle. We +listened with admiration as they discussed the political issues of the +day—no longer a subject uninteresting or unintelligible to us, for +every word was of vital importance. Their theme was, “the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +means of protecting our plantation homes and firesides.” Even the +smallest children now comprehended the greatest politicians.</p> + +<p>Now came the full flow and tide of Southern eloquence—real, +soul-inspiring eloquence!</p> + +<p>Many possessing this gift were in the habit of visiting us at that +time; and all dwelt upon one theme—the secession of Virginia—with +glowing words from hearts full of enthusiasm; all agreeing it +was better for States, as well as individuals, to separate rather than +quarrel or fight.</p> + +<p>But there was one—our oldest and best friend—who differed with +these gentlemen; and his eloquence was gentle and effective. Unlike +his friends whose words, earnest and electric, overwhelmed +all around, this gentleman’s power was in his composure of manner +without vehemence. His words were well selected without seeming +to have been studied; each sentence was short, but contained a gem, +like a solitaire diamond.</p> + +<p>For several months this gentleman remained untouched by the +fiery eloquence of his friends—like the Hebrew children in the burning +furnace. Nothing affected him until one day, the President of +the United States demanded by telegraph 50,000 Virginians to join +an army against South Carolina. And then this gentleman felt convinced +it was not the duty of Virginians to join an army against +their friends.</p> + +<p>About this time we had some very interesting letters from the Hon. +Edward Everett—who had been for several years a friend and agreeable +correspondent—giving us his views on the subject, and very +soon after this all communication between the North and South +ceased, except through the blockade, for four long years.</p> + +<p>And then came the long dark days; the days when the sun seemed +to shine no more; when the eyes of wives, mothers and sisters were +heavy with weeping; when men sat up late in the night studying +military tactics; when grief-burdened hearts turned to God in prayer.</p> + +<p>The intellectual gladiators who had discoursed eloquently of war +around our fireside, buckled their armor on and went forth to battle.</p> + +<p>Band after band of brave-hearted, bright-faced youths from Southern +plantation homes came to bleed and die on Virginia soil; and +for four long years old Virginia was one great camping ground, +hospital and battle field. The roar of cannon and the clash of arms +resounded over the land. The groans of the wounded and dying +went up from hillside and valley. The hearts of women and children +were sad and careworn. But God, to whom they prayed, protected +them in our plantation homes—where no white men or even boys +remained—all having gone into the army. Only the negro slaves +stayed with us, and these were encouraged by our enemies to rise +and slay us; but God in His mercy willed otherwise. Although advised +to burn our property and incited by the enemy to destroy their +former owners, these negro slaves remained faithful, manifesting +kindness, and in many instances protecting the white families and +plantations during their masters’ absence.</p> + +<p>Oh! the long terrible nights helpless women and children passed, +in our plantation homes; the enemy encamped around them; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +clash of swords heard against the doors and windows; the report of +guns on the air which might be sending death to their loved ones.</p> + +<p>But why try to describe the horrors of such nights? Who that +has not experienced them can know how we felt? Who can imagine +the heart sickness, when stealing to an upper window at midnight +we watched the fierce flames rising from some neighboring home, +expecting our own to be destroyed by the enemy before daylight in +the same way?</p> + +<p>Such pictures, dark and fearful, were the only ones familiar to us +in old Virginia those four dreadful years.</p> + +<p>At last the end came—the end which seemed to us saddest of all. +But God knoweth best. Though “through fiery trials” He had caused +us to pass, He had not forsaken us. For was not His mercy signally +shown in the failure of the enemy to incite our negro slaves to insurrection +during the war? Through His mercy those who were expected +to become our enemies, remained our friends. And in our +own home, surrounded by the enemy those terrible nights, our only +guard was a faithful negro servant who slept in the house, and went +out every hour to see if we were in immediate danger; while his +mother—the kind old nurse—sat all night in a rocking chair in our +room, ready to help us. Had we not then amidst all our sorrows +much to be thankful for?</p> + +<p>Among such scenes one of the last pictures photographed on my +memory, was that of a negro boy very ill with typhoid fever in a +cabin not far off, and who became greatly alarmed when a brisk +firing commenced between the contending armies across our house. +His first impulse—as it always had been in trouble—was to fly to +his mistress for protection; and jumping from his bed—his head +bandaged with a white cloth, and looking like one just from the +grave—he passed through the firing as fast as he could, screaming: +“O, mistress, take care of me! Put me in your closet, and hide me +from the Yankees!” He fell at the door exhausted. My mother had +him brought in and a bed made for him in the library. She nursed +him carefully, but he died in a day or two from fright and exhaustion.</p> + +<p>Soon after this was the surrender at Appomattox, and negro slavery +ended forever.</p> + +<p>All was ruin around us; tobacco factories burned down, sugar and +cotton plantations destroyed. The negroes fled from these desolated +places, crowded together in wretched shanties on the outskirts of +towns and villages, and found themselves, for the first time in their +lives, without enough to eat, and with no class of people particularly +interested about their food, health or comfort. Rations were furnished +them a short time by the United States Government, with promises +of money and land, which were never fulfilled. Impoverished by the +war, it was a relief to us no longer to have the responsibility of supporting +them. This would indeed have been impossible in our starving +condition.</p> + +<p>Twelve years have passed since they became free, but they have +not, during this time, advanced in intelligence or comfort. Wanting +the care of their owners, they die more frequently; and, it is thought,—by +those who have studied the subject—that abandoned to them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>selves, +they are returning to the superstitions of their forefathers. +A missionary recently returned from Africa, and witnessing here +their religious rites, says they are the same he saw practiced before +the idols in Africa.</p> + +<p>They still have a strange belief in what they call “tricking,” and +often the most intelligent, when sick, will say they have been “tricked,” +for which they have a regular treatment and “trick doctors” +among themselves. This “tricking” we cannot explain, and only +know that when one negro became angry with another, he would +bury in front of his enemy’s cabin door a bottle filled with pieces of +snakes, spiders, bits of tadpole, and other curious substances; and +the party expecting to be “tricked,” would hang up an old horse shoe +outside of his door to ward off the “evil spirits.”</p> + +<p>Since alienated from their former owners they are, as a general +thing, more idle and improvident; and, unfortunately, the tendency of +their political teaching has been to make them antagonistic to the +better class of white people, which renders it difficult for them to be +properly instructed. That such animosity should exist towards those +who could best understand and help them, is to be deplored. For +the true negro character cannot be fully comprehended or described, +but by those who—like ourselves—have always lived with them.</p> + +<p>At present their lives are devoted to a religious excitement which +demoralizes them, there seeming to be no connection between their +religion and morals. In one of their Sabbath schools is a teacher, +who although often arrested for stealing, continues to hold a high +position in the church.</p> + +<p>Their improvidence has passed into a proverb—many being truly +objects of charity; and whoever would now write a true tale of poverty +and wretchedness, may take for the hero “Old Uncle Tom +without a cabin.” For “Uncle Tom” of the olden time in his cabin +with a blazing log fire and plenty of corn bread, and the Uncle Tom +of to-day, are pictures of very different individuals.</p> + +<p>And this chapter ends my reminiscences of an era soon to be forgotten, +and which will perish under the heel of modern progress. It +is a faithful memorial. Would that it might rescue from oblivion +some of the characters worthy to be remembered!</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h2> + +<p>The scenes connected with the late war will recall to the mind of +every Southern man and woman the name of Robert E. Lee—a name +which will be loved and revered as long as home or fireside remains +in old Virginia—and which sets the crowning glory on the list of +illustrious men from plantation homes. Admiration and enthusiasm +naturally belong to victory; but the man must be rare indeed, who +in defeat, like General Lee, received the applause of his countrymen.</p> + +<p>It was not alone his valor, his handsome appearance, his commanding +presence, his perfect manner, which won the admiration of +his fellow-men. There was something above and beyond all these—his +true Christian character. Trust in God ennobled his every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +word and action. Among the grandest of human conquerors was +he, for early enlisting as a soldier of the cross—to fight against the +world, the flesh and the devil—he fought the “good fight” and the +victor’s crown awaited him in the “kingdom not made with hands.”</p> + +<p>Trust in God kept him calm in victory as in defeat. When I remember +General Lee during the war, in his family circle at Richmond—then +at the height of his renown—his manner, voice and conversation +were the same as when, a year after the surrender, he came +to make my mother a visit from his Lexington home.</p> + +<p>His circumstances and surroundings were now changed—no longer +the stars and epaulets adorned his manly form; but dressed in a +simple suit of pure white linen, he looked a king, and adversity had +wrought no change in his character, manner, or conversation.</p> + +<p>To reach our house he made a journey—on his old war horse, +“Traveler”—forty miles across the mountains, describing which, on +the night of his arrival, he said:</p> + +<p>“To-day an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything +that has happened for a long time. As I was riding over the +most desolate mountain region, where not even a cabin could be +seen, I was surprised to find, on a sudden turn in the road, two little +girls playing on a large rock. They were very poorly clad, and +after looking a moment at me, began to run away. ‘Children,’ said +I, ‘don’t run away. If you could know <i>who</i> I am, you would know +that I am the last man in the world for anybody to run from now.’</p> + +<p>“‘But we do know you,’ they replied.</p> + +<p>“‘You never saw me before,’ I said, ‘for I never passed along +here.’</p> + +<p>“‘But we do know you,’ they said, ‘And we’ve got your picture +up yonder in the house, and you are General Lee! And we ain’t +dressed clean enough to see you.’</p> + +<p>“With this they scampered off to a poor log hut on the mountain +side.”</p> + +<p>It was gratifying to him to find that even in this lonely mountain +hut the children had been taught to know and revere him.</p> + +<p>He told us, too, of a man he met the same day in a dense forest +who recognized him, and throwing up his hat in the air, said: +“General, <i>please</i> let me cheer you,” and fell to cheering with all his +lungs!</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>My last recollections of General Lee, when making a visit of several +weeks at his house, the year before his death—although not +coming properly under the head of “plantation reminiscences”—may +not be inappropriate here.</p> + +<p>It has been said that a man is never a “hero to his valet;” but +this could not have been said of General Lee, for those most intimately +connected with him could not fail to see continually in his bearing +and character something above the ordinary level, something of the +hero.</p> + +<p>At the time of my visit the commencement exercises of the College, +of which he was President, were going on. His duties were necessarily +onerous. Sitting up late at night with the board of visitors,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +and attending to every detail with his conscientious particularity, +there was little time for him to rest. Yet every morning of that +busy week he was ready, with his prayer-book under his arm, when +the church bell called its members to sun-rise service.</p> + +<p>It is pleasant to recall all he said at the breakfast, dinner and tea +table, where in his hospitality he always insisted upon bringing all +who chanced to be at his house at those hours—on business or on +social call.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>This habit kept his table filled with guests, who received from him +elegant courtesy.</p> + +<p>Only once did I hear him speak regretfully of the past. It was +one night when sitting by him on the porch in the moonlight, he +said to me, his thoughts turning to his early childhood:</p> + +<p>“It was not my mother’s wish that I should receive a military education, +and I ought to have taken her advice, for,” he said very sadly, +“my education did not fit me for this civil life.”</p> + +<p>In this no one could agree with him, for it seemed to all that he +adorned and satisfactorily filled every position in life, civil or military.</p> + +<p>There was something in his manner which naturally pleased every +one without his making an effort; at the same time a dignity and +reserve which commanded respect and precluded anything like undue +familiarity. All desirable qualities seemed united in him to render +him popular.</p> + +<p>It was wonderful to observe—in the evenings when his parlors +were overflowing with people young and old, from every conceivable +place—how by a word, a smile, a shake of the hand he managed to +give <i>all</i> pleasure and satisfaction, each going away charmed with +him.</p> + +<p>The applause of men excited in him no vanity; for those around +soon learned that the slightest allusion or compliment, in his presence, +to his valor or renown, instead of pleasing, rather offended +him. Without vanity, he was equally without selfishness.</p> + +<p>One day, observing several quaint articles of furniture about his +house, and asking Mrs. Lee where they came from, she told me that +an old lady in New York city—of whom neither herself nor the General +had ever before heard—concluded to break up housekeeping. +Having no family and not wishing to sell or remove her furniture to +a boarding house, she determined to give it to “the <i>greatest living +man</i>,” and that man was General Lee.</p> + +<p>She wrote a letter asking his acceptance of the present, requesting +that, if his house was already furnished and he had no room, he +would use the articles about his College.</p> + +<p>The boxes arrived. But—such was his reluctance at receiving +gifts—weeks passed and he neither had them opened or brought +to his house from the express office.</p> + +<p>Finally, as their house was quite bare of furniture, Mrs. Lee begged +him to allow her to have them opened, and he consented.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>First there was among the contents a beautiful carpet large enough +for two rooms, at which she was delighted, as they had none. But +the General, seeing it, quickly said: “That is the very thing for the +floor of the new chapel! It must be put there.”</p> + +<p>Next were two sofas and a set of chairs. “The very things we +want,” again exclaimed the General, “for the platform of the new +chapel!”</p> + +<p>Then they unpacked a side-board. “This will do <i>very well</i>,” said +the General, “to be placed in the basement of the chapel to hold the +College papers!”</p> + +<p>And so with everything the old lady sent, only keeping for his +own house the articles which could not be possibly used for the College +or chapel—a quaint work-table, an ornamental clock and some +old fashioned preserve dishes—although his own house was then +bare enough, and the old lady had particularly requested that only +those articles which they did not need should go to the College.</p> + +<p>The recollection of this visit, although reviving many pleasant +hours, is very sad, for it was the last time I saw the dear, kind face +of Mrs. Lee; of whom the General once said when one of us, alluding +to him, used the word “hero:” “My dear, <i>Mrs.</i> Lee is the hero. +For although deprived of the use of her limbs, by suffering, and unable +for ten years to walk I have never heard her murmur or utter +one complaint.”</p> + +<p>And the General spoke truly, Mrs. Lee was a heroine. With gentleness, +kindness and true feminine delicacy, she had strength of mind +and character a man might have envied. Her mind well stored and +cultivated made her interesting in conversation; and a simple cordiality +of manner made her beloved by all who met her.</p> + +<p>During this last visit she loved to tell about her early days at +Arlington—her own and her ancestors’ plantation home—and in one +of these conversations gave me such a beautiful sketch of her mother—Mrs. +Custis—that I wish her every word could be remembered +that I might write it here.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Custis was a woman of saintly piety, her devotion to good +works having long been a theme with all in that part of Virginia. +She had only one child—Mrs. Lee—and possessed a very large fortune. +In early life she felt that God had given her a special mission, +which was to take care of and teach the three hundred negroes she +had inherited.</p> + +<p>“Believing this,” said Mrs. Lee to me, “my mother devoted the +best years of her life to teaching these negroes, for which purpose +she had a school house built in the yard, and gave her life up to this +work; and I think it an evidence of the ingratitude of their race, that +although I have long been afflicted, only one of those negroes has +written to enquire after me, or offered to nurse me.”</p> + +<p>These last years of Mrs. Lee’s life were passed in much suffering, +being unable to move any part of her body except her hands and +head. Yet her time was devoted to working for her church. Her +fingers were always busy with fancy work, painting or drawing—she +was quite an accomplished artist—which were sold for the purpose +of repairing and beautifying the church in sight of her window,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +and as much an object of zeal and affection with her, as the chapel +was with the General.</p> + +<p>Indeed the whole family entered into the General’s enthusiasm +about this chapel—just then completed—especially his daughter +Agnes, with whom I often went there, little thinking it was so soon +to be her place of burial.</p> + +<p>In a few short years all three—General Lee, his wife and daughter—were +laid here to rest, and this chapel they had loved so well +became their tomb.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></h2> + +<p>All plantation reminiscences resemble a certain patch-work, made +when we were children, of bright pieces joined with black squares. +The black squares were not pretty, but if left out, the character of +the quilt was lost. And so with the black faces, if left out of our +home pictures of the past, the character of the picture is destroyed.</p> + +<p>What I have written is a simple record of facts in my experience +without an imaginary scene or character; intended for the descendants +of those who owned slaves in the South, and who may in future +wish to know something of the high-toned character and virtues of +their ancestors.</p> + +<p>The pictures are strictly true, and should it be thought by any that +the brightest have alone been selected, I can only say, I knew no +others.</p> + +<p>It would not be possible for any country to be entirely exempt +from crime and wickedness; and here, too, these existed; for prisons, +penitentiaries and courts of justice were, as elsewhere, important; +but it is a sincere belief that the majority of Southern people were +true and good. And that they have accomplished more than any +other nation towards civilizing and elevating the negro race, may be +shown from the following paragraph in a late magazine:</p> + +<p>“From a very early date the French had their establishment on +the Western coast of Africa. In 1364 their ships visited that portion +of the world. But with all this long intercourse with the white man +the natives have profited little. <i>Five centuries</i> have not civilized them, +so as to be able to build up institutions of their own. Yet the +French have always succeeded better than the English with the negro +and Indian element.”</p> + +<p>Civilization and education are slow; for, says a modern writer:</p> + +<p>“After the death of Roman intellectual activity, the seventh and +eighth centuries were justly called dark. If Christianity was to be +one of the factors in producing the present splendid enlightenment, +she had no time to lose, and she lost no time. She was the only +power at that day that could begin the work of enlightenment. And +starting at the very bottom, she wrought for <i>nine hundred years</i> alone. +The materials she had to work upon, were stubborn and unmalleable. +<i>For one must be somewhat civilized to have a taste for knowledge at all; and +one must know something to be civilized at all.</i> She had to carry on the +double work of civilizing and educating. Her progress was neces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>sarily +slow at first. <i>But after some centuries</i> it began to increase in +arithmetical progression until the sixteenth century.”</p> + +<p>Then our ancestors performed a great work—the work allotted +them by God, civilizing and elevating an inferior race in the scale of +intelligence and comfort. That this race may continue to improve, +and finally be the means of carrying the gospel into their native +Africa, should be the prayer of every earnest Christian.</p> + +<p>Never again will the negro race find a people so kind and true to +them as the Southerners have been. For, said a gentleman the other +day, who lives in New York, “In the Northern cities white labor is +preferred, and the negroes are to be found on the outskirts, poor, +wretched and friendless.”</p> + +<p>There is much in our lives not intended for us to comprehend or +explain; but believing that nothing happens by chance, and that our +forefathers have done their duty in the “place it had pleased God to +call them,” let us cherish their memory, and remember that the Lord +God Omnipotent reigneth.</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For He who rules each wondrous star,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And marks the feeble sparrow’s fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Controls the destiny of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And guides events however small.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man’s place of birth; his home; his friends,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are planned and fixed by God alone—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Life’s lot is cast”—e’en death He sends<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For some wise purpose of His own.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Rev. G. W. Leyburn.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> John Randolph, of Roanoke.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> John Preston, afterwards Governor of Virginia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> On the route to “Rustic” was a small village called “Liberty,” approaching which, +and hearing the name, “English Louis” swore he would not pass through any such +“—— little Republican town,” and turning his horses travelled many miles out of his +way to avoid it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> From this vicinity went nine ministers, who were eminent in their several churches; +two Episcopal Bishops, one Methodist Bishop, three distinguished Presbyterian and +three Baptist divines of talent and fame.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> General Scott.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Harpers Ferry.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Here was seen the Mount Vernon silver, which had descended to Mrs. General +Washington’s great-grandson, General Custis Lee, and which was miraculously preserved +during the war, having been concealed in different places—and once was buried +near Lexington in a barn, which was occupied by the enemy several days.</p></div></div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="transnote"> +<p>Transcriber's note:</p> + +<p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including inconsistent hyphenation.</p> + +<p>The following is a list of changes made to the original. +The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one.</p> + +<p> +Page 12:</p> + +<p> +small servants, who speedily <span class="u">gat</span> them into their clean aprons,<br /> +small servants, who speedily <span class="u">got</span> them into their clean aprons,</p> + +<p> +Page 16:</p> + +<p> +Every inch of <span class="u">mahogony</span> was waxed and rubbed to the highest state<br /> +Every inch of <span class="u">mahogany</span> was waxed and rubbed to the highest state</p> + +<p> +Page 20:</p> + +<p> +and which always looked so pretty on the <span class="u">mahogony</span>.<br /> +and which always looked so pretty on the <span class="u">mahogany</span>.</p> + +<p> +Page 29:</p> + +<p> +"Oh!" replied another, <span class="u">the</span> idea of us poor Virginia girls taking<br /> +"Oh!" replied another, <span class="u">"the</span> idea of us poor Virginia girls taking</p> + +<p> +Page 30:</p> + +<p> +or by the gardener to direct the <span class="u">plauting</span> of certain seeds or roots<br /> +or by the gardener to direct the <span class="u">planting</span> of certain seeds or roots</p> + +<p> +Page 34:</p> + +<p> +not only to furnish their <span class="u">masters</span> table with the choicest meats,<br /> +not only to furnish their <span class="u">master's</span> table with the choicest meats,</p> + +<p> +Page 39:</p> + +<p> +four horses, with footman, <span class="u">postilion</span> and driver in English livery.<br /> +four horses, with footman, <span class="u">postillion</span> and driver in English livery.</p> + +<p> +Page 42:</p> + +<p> +of much smaller means than Virginia and South <span class="u">Corolina</span> belles!<br /> +of much smaller means than Virginia and South <span class="u">Carolina</span> belles!</p> + +<p> +Page 43:</p> + +<p> +who dwell in the desert are always <span class="u">pusilanimous</span> and groveling!"<br /> +who dwell in the desert are always <span class="u">pusillanimous</span> and groveling!"</p> + +<p> +Page 45:</p> + +<p> +At last, when the latter was seized with a <span class="u">contageous</span> fever<br /> +At last, when the latter was seized with a <span class="u">contagious</span> fever</p> + +<p> +Page 46:</p> + +<p> +Mr. <span class="u">Thackaray</span> was once entertained at one of them.<br /> +Mr. <span class="u">Thackeray</span> was once entertained at one of them.</p> + +<p> +Page 48:</p> + +<p> +At <span class="u">Magdalene</span> College, Frances was left for a moment in a parlor,<br /> +At <span class="u">Magdalen</span> College, Frances was left for a moment in a parlor,</p> + +<p> +Page 49:</p> + +<p> +A scene almost horrible <span class="u">ensued."</span><br /> +A scene almost horrible <span class="u">ensued.</span></p> + +<p> +Page 53:</p> + +<p> +the house at which he was stopping was <span class="u">beseiged</span> by reporters<br /> +the house at which he was stopping was <span class="u">besieged</span> by reporters</p> + +<p> +Page 54:</p> + +<p> +by the passage of a <span class="u">canon</span> ball through the upper story,<br /> +by the passage of a <span class="u">cannon</span> ball through the upper story,</p> + +<p> +Page 55:</p> + +<p> +paying all the bills, this <span class="u">genteman</span> had no "rights" there whatever;<br /> +paying all the bills, this <span class="u">gentleman</span> had no "rights" there whatever;</p> + +<p> +Her furniture was polished <span class="u">mahogony</span>, and she kept most delicious<br /> +Her furniture was polished <span class="u">mahogany</span>, and she kept most delicious</p> + +<p> +Page 62:</p> + +<p> +of Southern eloquence--real, soul-inspiring <span class="u">eloquence?</span><br /> +of Southern eloquence--real, soul-inspiring <span class="u">eloquence!</span></p> + +<p> +Page 63</p> + +<p> +Soon after this was the surrender at <span class="u">Appomatox</span>, and negro slavery<br /> +Soon after this was the surrender at <span class="u">Appomattox</span>, and negro slavery</p> + +<p> +Page 65:</p> + +<p> +<span class="u">To-day</span> an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything<br /> +<span class="u">"To-day</span> an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything</p> + +<p> +Page 67:</p> + +<p> +that <span class="u">athough</span> I have long been afflicted, only one of those<br /> +that <span class="u">although</span> I have long been afflicted, only one of those</p> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANTATION REMINISCENCES***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 44626-h.txt or 44626-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/6/2/44626">http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/6/2/44626</a></p> +<p> +Updated editions will 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.</p> + +<p>Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p> + +<p>This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.</p> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/44626-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/44626-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bde339 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44626-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/old/44626.txt b/old/44626.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e67dd74 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44626.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4483 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Plantation Reminiscences, by Letitia M. +Burwell + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Plantation Reminiscences + + +Author: Letitia M. Burwell + + + +Release Date: January 8, 2014 [eBook #44626] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANTATION REMINISCENCES*** + + +E-text prepared by Paul Clark and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by +Internet Archive (https://archive.org) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + https://archive.org/details/plantationremini00burw + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + The author's name on the cover and in the copyright notice + seems to be a pseudonym. According to the catalog of the + Library of Congress, the author was Letitia M. Burwell. + + + + + +PLANTATION REMINISCENCES + +by + +PAGE THACKER. + +1878. + + + + +Copyrighted in 1878 by Page Thacker. + + + + +DEDICATION. + + +Dedicated to my nieces, who will find in English and American +publications such epithets applied to their ancestors as: "Cruel +slave-owners;" "inhuman;" "Southern task masters;" "hard-hearted;" +"dealers in human souls," &c. From these they will naturally recoil +with horror. My own life would have been embittered had I believed +myself descended from such; and that those who come after us may know +the truth I wish to leave a record of plantation life as it was. The +truth may thus be preserved among a few, and the praise they deserve +awarded noble men and virtuous women who have passed away. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +For several years I have felt a desire to write these reminiscences, +but did not conclude to do so until receiving, a few months ago, +a letter from Mr. Martin F. Tupper--the English poet--in which he +wrote: "Let me encourage you in the idea of writing 'Plantation +Reminiscences.' It will be a good work; and it is time the world was +learning the truth. I myself have learned it and shall not be slow in +telling it to others." + + + + +PLANTATION REMINISCENCES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +That my birth place should have been a Virginia plantation; my lot in +life cast on a Virginia plantation; my ancestors, for nine generations, +owners of Virginia plantations, remain facts mysterious and inexplicable +but to Him who determined the bounds of our habitations, and said: "Be +still, and know that I am God." + +Confined exclusively to a Virginia plantation, during my earliest +childhood, I believed the world one vast plantation bounded by negro +quarters. Rows of white cabins with gardens attached; negro men in the +fields; negro women sewing, knitting, spinning, weaving, house-keeping +in the cabins, with negro children dancing, romping, singing, jumping, +playing around the doors, formed the only pictures familiar to my +childhood. + +The master's residence--as the negroes called it, the "great +house"--occupied a central position, and was handsome and attractive; +the overseer's being a plainer house, about a mile from this. + +Each cabin had as much pine furniture as the occupants desired; pine +and oak being abundant, and carpenters always at work for the comfort +of the plantation. + +Bread, meat, milk, vegetables, fruit and fuel were as plentiful as +water in the springs near the cabin doors. + +Among the negroes--one hundred--on our plantation, many had been taught +different trades; and there were blacksmiths, carpenters, brick masons, +millers, shoemakers, weavers, spinners, all working for themselves. +No article of their handicraft ever being sold from the place, their +industry resulted in nothing beyond feeding and clothing themselves. + +My sister and myself, when very small children, were often carried to +visit these cabins, on which occasions no young princesses could have +received from admiring subjects more adulation. Presents were laid at +our feet--not glittering gems--but eggs, chesnuts, popcorn, walnuts, +melons, apples, sweet potatoes, all their "cupboards" afforded, with a +generosity unbounded. This made us as happy as queens; and filled our +hearts with kindness and gratitude to our dusky admirers. + +Around the cabin doors the young negroes would quarrel as to who should +be his or her mistress; some claiming me, and others my sister. + +All were merry-hearted, and among them I never saw a discontented face. +Their amusements were dancing to the music of the banjo, quilting +parties, opossum hunting, and, sometimes, weddings and parties. + +Many could read, and in almost every cabin was a Bible. In one was +a Prayer-book, kept by one of the men--a preacher--from which he +read the marriage ceremony at the weddings. This man opened a night +school--charging twenty-five cents a week--hoping to inspire some +literary thirst among the rising generation, who, however, preferred +their nightly frolics to the school, so it had few patrons. + +Our house servants were numerous, polite and well trained. My mother +selected those most obliging in disposition and quick at learning, who +were brought to the house at ten or twelve years of age, and instructed +in the branches of household employment. + +These small servants were always dressed in the cleanest, whitest +long-sleeved aprons, with white or red turbans on their heads. No +establishment being considered complete without a multiplicity of +these; they might be seen constantly darting about on errands from the +house to the kitchen and the cabins; up stairs and down stairs, being +indeed omnipresent and indispensable. + +It was the custom for a lady visitor to be accompanied to her room at +night by one of these black, smiling "indispensables," who insisted so +good naturedly on performing all offices, combing her hair, pulling off +her slippers, &c., that one had not the heart to refuse, although it +would have been sometimes more agreeable to have been left alone. + +The negroes were generally pleased at the appearance of visitors, +from whom they were accustomed to receive some present on arriving or +departing, the neglect of which was considered a breach of politeness. + +The old negroes were quite patriarchal; loved to talk about "old +times," and exacted great respect from the young negroes, and also from +the younger members of the white family. We called the old men "Uncle," +and the old women "Aunt," cognomens of respect. + +The atmosphere of our own home was consideration and kindness. The mere +recital of a tale of suffering would make my sister and myself weep +with sorrow. And I believe the maltreatment of one of our servants--we +had never heard the word "slave"--would have distressed us beyond +endurance. We early learned that happiness consisted in dispensing +it, and found no pleasure greater than saving our old dolls, toys, +beads, bits of cake, or candy for the cabin children, whose delight at +receiving them richly repaid us. If any of the older servants became +displeased with us, we were miserable until we had restored the old +smile by presenting some choice bit of sweet meat, cake or candy. + +I remember once, when my grand-mother scolded nurse Kitty, saying: +"Kitty, the butler tells me you disturb the breakfast cream every +morning, dipping out milk to wash your face," I burst in tears, and +thought it hard when there were so many cows poor Kitty could not +wash her face in milk. Kitty had been told that her dark skin would +be improved by a milk bath, which she had not hesitated to dip every +morning from the breakfast buckets. + +At such establishments one easily acquired a habit of being waited +upon--there being so many servants with so little to do. It was natural +to ask for a drink of water, when the water was right by you, and have +things brought which you might easily have gotten yourself. But these +domestics were so pleased at such errands one felt no hesitation in +requiring them. A young lady would ask black Nancy or Dolly to fan her, +whereupon Nancy or Dolly would laugh good naturedly, produce a large +palm leaf and fall to fanning her young mistress vigorously, after +which she would be rewarded with a bow of ribbon, candy or sweet cakes. + +The negroes made pocket money by selling their own vegetables, poultry, +eggs, &c.--made at the master's expense, of course. I often saw my +mother take out her purse and pay them liberally for fowls, eggs, +melons, sweet potatoes, brooms, shuck mats and split baskets. The men +made small crops of tobacco or potatoes for themselves on any piece of +ground they chose to select. + +My mother and grand-mother were almost always talking over the wants +of the negroes,--what medicine should be sent--who they should +visit--who needed new shoes, clothes or blankets,--the principle +object of their lives seeming to be providing these comforts. The +carriage was often ordered for them to ride around to the cabins to +distribute light-bread, tea and other necessaries among the sick. And +besides employing the best doctor, my grand-mother always saw that they +received the best nursing and attention. + +In this little plantation world of ours was one being--and only +one--who inspired awe in every heart, being a special terror to small +children. This was the Queen of the Kitchen--Aunt Christian--who +reigned supreme. She wore the whitest cotton cap, with the broadest of +ruffles; was very black and very portly, and her sceptre was a good +sized stick, kept to chastise small dogs and children who invaded her +territory. Her character, however, having been long established she had +not often occasion to use this weapon, as these enemies kept out of her +way. + +Her pride was great, for, said she: "Haven't I been, long before this +here little master whar is was born, bakin' the best light-bread and +waffles and biscuit; and in my old master's time managed my own affars!" + +She was generally left to manage "her own affars," and being a pattern +of neatness and industry her fame went abroad from Botetourt, even unto +the remotest ends of Mecklenburg county. + +That this marvellous cooking was all the work of her own hands I am, +in later years, inclined to doubt, as she kept several assistants, a +boy to chop wood, beat biscuit, scour tables, lift off pots and ovens; +one woman to make the pastry and another to compound cakes and jellies. +But her fame was great; her pride lofty, and I would not now pluck one +laurel from her wreath. + +This honest woman was appreciated by my mother, but we had no affinity +for her, in consequence of certain traditions on the plantation about +her severity to children. Having no children of her own, a favorite +orphan house-girl, whenever my mother went from home, was left to her +care. This girl--now an elderly woman, and still our faithful and loved +servant,--says she remembers to this day her joy at my mother's return +home, and her release from Aunt Christian. "I will never forget," to +use her own words, "how I watched the road every day, hoping that +mistress would come back, and when I saw the carriage I would run a +mile, shouting and clapping my hands." + +Smiling faces always welcomed us home as the carriage passed through +the plantation, and on reaching the house we were received by the +negroes about the yard with liveliest demonstrations of pleasure. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +It was a long time before it dawned upon my mind there were places +and people different from these. The plantations we visited seemed +exactly like ours. The same hospitality everywhere, the same kindliness +existing between the white family and the blacks. + +Confined exclusively to plantation scenes, the most trifling incidents +impressed themselves indelibly upon me. + +One day while my mother was in the yard attending to the planting of +some shrubbery, we saw approaching an old, feeble negro man, leaning +upon his stick. His clothes were nearly worn out, and he, haggard and +thin. + +"Good day, Mistess," said he. + +"Who are you?" asked my mother. + +"My name is John," he replied, "and I belonged to your husband's uncle. +He died a long time ago. Before he died he set me free and gave me +a good piece of land near Petersburg, and some money and stock. But +all--my money and land--all gone, and I was starving. So I come one +hundred miles to beg you and master please let me live and die on your +plantation. I don't want to be free no longer. Please don't let me be +free." + +I wondered what was meant by being "free," and supposed from his +appearance it must be some very dreadful and unfortunate condition of +humanity. My mother heard him very kindly, and directed him to the +kitchen where "Aunt Christian" would give him a plenty to eat. + +Although there were already a number of old negroes to be supported, +who no longer considered themselves young enough to work, this old man +was added to the number, and a cabin built for him. To the day of his +death he expressed gratitude to my mother for taking care of him, and +often entertained us with accounts of _his_ "old master's times," which +he said were the "grandest of all." + +By way of apology for certain knotty excrescences on his feet, he +used to say: "You see these here knots. Well, they come from my being +a monstrous proud young nigger, and squeezin' my feet in de tightest +boots to drive my master's carriage 'bout Petersburg. I nuver was +so happy as when I was drivin' my coach-an'-four, and crackin' de +postillion over de head wid my whip." + +These pleasant reminiscences were generally concluded with: "Ah! young +Misses, _you'll_ nuver see sich times. No more postillions! No more +coach-an'-four! And niggers drives _now_ widout they white gloves. Ah! +no, young Misses, _you'll_ nuver see nothin'! _Nuver_, in _your_ time." + +With these melancholy predictions would he shake his head, and sigh +that the days of glory had departed. + +Each generation of blacks vied with the other in extolling the virtues +of their particular mistress and master and "_their times_;" but +notwithstanding this mournful contrast between the past and present, +their reminiscences had a certain charm. Often by their cabin firesides +would we listen to the tales of the olden days about our forefathers, +of whom they could tell much, having belonged to our family since the +landing of the African fathers on the English slave ships, from which +their ancestors had been bought by ours. Among these traditions none +pleased us so much as that an unkind mistress or master had never been +known among our ancestors, which we have always considered a cause for +greater pride than the armorial bearings left on their tombstones. + +We often listened with pleasure to the recollections of an old blind +man--the former faithful attendant of our grand-father--whose mind +was filled with vivid pictures of the past. He repeated verbatim +conversations and speeches heard sixty years before--from Mr. Madison, +Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Clay, and other statesmen, his master's special +friends. + +"Yes," he used to say, "I staid with your grandpa ten years in +Congress, and all the time he was Secretary for President Jefferson. He +nuver give me a cross word, and I nuver saw your grandma the least out +of temper neither, but once, and that was at a dinner party 'we' give +in Washington, when the French Minister said something disrespectful +about the United States." + +Often did he tell us: "The greatest pleasure I expect in heaven, is +seeing my old master." And sometimes, "I dream about my master and +mistress when I am sleep, and talk with them and see them so plain it +makes me so happy that I laugh out right loud." + +This man was true and honest--a good Christian. Important trusts had +been confided to him. He frequently carried the carriage and horses to +Washington and Baltimore--a journey of two weeks--and sometimes sent to +carry a large sum of money to a distant county. + +His wife, who had accompanied him in her youth to Washington, also +entertained us with gossip about the people of that day, and could +tell exactly the size and color of Mrs. Madison's slippers, how she +was dressed on certain occasions, "what beautiful manners she had," +how Mr. Jefferson received master and mistress when "we" drove up to +Monticello, what room they occupied, &c. + +Although my grand-father's death occurred thirty years before, the +negroes still remembered it with sorrow; and one of them, speaking of +it, said to me, "Ah, little mistess, 'twas a sorrowful day when de news +come from Washington dat our good, kind master was dead. A mighty wail +went up from dis plantation, for we know'd we had loss our bes friend." + +The only negro on the place who did not evince an interest in the white +family was a man ninety years old, who, forty years before, announced +his intention of not working any longer--although still strong and +athletic--because, he said, "the estate had done come down so he hadn't +no heart to work no longer." He remembered, he said, "when thar was +three and four hundred black folks, but sence de British debt had to be +paid over by his old master, and de Macklenbug estate had to be sold, +he hadn't had no heart to do nothin' sence." And "he hadn't seen no +_real_ fine white folks--what _he_ called real fine white folks--sence +he come from Macklenbug." All his interest in life having expired with +an anterior generation; we were in his eyes but a poor set, and he +refused to have anything to do with us. Not being compelled to work, +he passed his life principally in the woods, wore a rabbit-skin cap +and a leather apron. Having lost interest in, and connection with the +white family, he gradually relapsed into a state of barbarism, refusing +towards the end of his life to sleep in his bed, preferring a hard +bench in his cabin, upon which he died. + +Another very old man remembered something of his father, who had come +from Africa; and when we asked him to tell us what he remembered of his +father's narrations, would say: + +"My father told us that his mother lived in a hole in the ground, +and when the English people come to Africa she sold him for a string +of beads. He said ''twas mighty hard for him, when he fus come to +dis country, to wear clothes.' Sometimes he would git so mad wid us +chillun, my mammy would have to run and hide us to keep him from +killin' us. Den sometimes at night he would say: 'He gwine sing he +country,' den he would dance and jump and howl and skeer us to death." + +They spoke always of their forefathers as the "outlandish people." + +On some plantations it was a custom to buy the wife when a negro +preferred to marry on another estate. And in this way we became +possessed of a famous termagant, who had married our grand-father's +gardener, quarrelled him to death in one year and survived to quarrel +forty years longer with the other negroes. She had no children--not +even a cat or dog could live with her. She had been offered her +freedom, but refused to accept it. Several times had been given away; +once to her son--a free man--and to others with whom she fancied +she might live, but, like the bad penny, was always returned to +us. She always returned in a cart, seated on top of her chest and +surrounded by her goods and chattels, dressed in a high hat, long black +plume--standing straight up--gay cloth spencer and short petticoat, +the costume of a hundred years ago. Although her return was a sore +affliction to the plantation, my sister and myself found much amusement +in witnessing it. The cold welcome she received seemed not to affect +her spirits, but re-establishing herself in her cabin she quickly +resumed the turbulent course of her career. + +Finally one morning the news came that this woman, old Clara, was dead. +Two women went to sweep her cabin and perform the last sad offices. +They waited all day for the body to get cold. While sitting over the +fire in the evening, one of them happening to glance at a small mirror +inserted in the wall near the bed, exclaimed: "Old Clara's laughing!" +They went nearer and there was a horrible grin on the face of the +corpse! Old Clara sprang out of bed exclaiming, "Git me some meat and +bread. I'm most perish'd!" + +"Old woman, what you mean by foolin' us so?" asked the nurses. + +"I jes want see what you all gwine do wid my _things_ when I _was_ +dead!" replied the old woman, whose "things" consisted of all sorts of +old and curious spencers, hats, plumes, necklaces, caps and dresses, +collected during her various wanderings and worn by a long past +generation. + +Among these old cabin legends we sometimes collected bits of romance, +and were often told how, by the coquetry of a certain Richmond belle, +we had lost a handsome fortune, which impressed me even then with the +fatal consequences of coquetry. + +This belle engaged herself to our great uncle--a handsome and +accomplished gentleman--who, to improve his health, went to Europe; but +before embarking made his will, leaving her his estate and negroes. +He died abroad, and the lady accepted his property, although she was +known to have been engaged to twelve others at the same time! The story +in Richmond ran that these twelve gentlemen--my grand-father among +them--had a wine party, and towards the close of the evening some of +them becoming communicative, began taking each other out to tell a +secret when it was discovered they all had the same secret--each was +engaged to Miss Betsy M----. This lady's name is still seen on fly +leaves of old books in our library--books used during her reign by +students at William and Mary College--showing that the young gentlemen, +even at that venerable Institution, allowed their classic thoughts +sometimes to wander. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +As soon as my sister and myself had learned to read and cipher, we were +inspired with a desire to teach the negroes who were about the house +and kitchen; and my father promised to reward my sister with a handsome +guitar if she would teach two boys--designed for mechanics--arithmetic. + +Our regular system was every night to place chairs around the dining +table, ring a bell and open school; she presiding at one end and I at +the other of the table, each propped on books to give us the necessary +height and dignity for teachers. + +Our school proved successful. The boys learned arithmetic and the +guitar was awarded. All who tried learned to read, and from that day we +have never ceased to teach all who desired to learn. + +Thus my early life was passed amid scenes cheerful and agreeable, nor +did any one seem to have any care except my mother. Her cares and +responsibilities were great, with one hundred people continually upon +her mind, who were constantly appealing to her in every strait, real or +imaginary. But it had pleased God to place her here, and nobly did she +perform the duties of her station. She often told us of her distress +on realizing for the first time the responsibilities devolving upon +the mistress of a large plantation, and the nights of sorrow and tears +these thoughts had given her. + +On her arrival at the plantation after her marriage, the negroes +received her with lively demonstrations of joy, clapping their hands +and shouting: "Thank God, we got a mistess!" Some of them throwing +themselves on the ground at her feet in their enthusiasm. + +The plantation had been without a master or mistress twelve years; my +father--the sole heir--having been off at school and College. During +this time the silver had been left in the house, and the servants had +kept and used it, but _nothing had been stolen_. + +The books, too, had been undisturbed in the library, except a few +volumes of the poets which had been carried to adorn some of the cabin +shelves. + +It was known by the negroes that their old master's will set them free +and gave them a large body of land in the event of my father's death; +and some of his College friends suggested he might be killed while +passing his vacations on his estate. But this only amused him, for he +knew too well in what affection he was held by his negroes, and how +each vied with the other in showing him attention--spreading a dinner +often for him at their cabins when he returned from hunting or fishing. + +I think I have written enough to show the mutual affection existing +between the white and black races--and the abundant provision generally +made for the wants of those whom God had mysteriously placed under our +care. + +The existence of extreme want and poverty had never entered my mind, +until one day my mother showing us some pictures, entitled "London +Labor and London Poor," we asked her if she believed there were such +poor people in the world, and she replied: "Yes, children, there are +many in this world who have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat." + +Still we could not realize what she said, for we had never seen a +beggar. But from that time it began to dawn upon us that all the world +was not a plantation, with more than enough on it for people to eat. +And when we were old enough to read and compare our surroundings with +what we learned about other countries, we found that our laboring +population was more bountifully supplied than that of any other land. +We read about "myriads of poor, starving creatures, with pinched faces +and tattered garments," in far off cities and countries. We read of +hundreds who, from destitution and wretchedness, committed suicide. We +read these things, but could not fully sympathise with such want and +suffering; for it is necessary to witness these in order to feel the +fullest sympathy, and we had never seen anything of the kind on our own +or our neighbor's plantations. + +Their religious instruction, I found, had not been more neglected +than among the lower classes in England, Ireland, France, Russia and +elsewhere. Every church--there was one of some denomination near every +plantation--had special seats reserved for the negroes. The minister +always addressed a portion of his sermon particularly to them, and held +service for them exclusively on Sabbath afternoon. Besides, they had +their own ministers among themselves, and had night prayer meetings in +their cabins whenever they chose. + +Many prayers ascended from earnest hearts for their conversion, and +I knew no home at which some effort was not made for their religious +instruction. + +One of our friends--a Presbyterian minister and earnest +Christian--devoted the greater part of his time to preaching and +teaching them. And many pious ministers, throughout the State, +bestowed upon them time and labor. + +I once attended a gay party where the young lady of the house--the +center of attraction--hearing that one of the negroes was suddenly very +ill, excused herself from the company, carried her Prayer-book to the +cabin, and passed the night by the bedside of the sick man, reading +and repeating verses to him. I have also had young lady friends who +declined attending a wedding or party when a favorite servant was ill. + +On one occasion an English gentleman--Surgeon in the Royal +Artillery--visiting at our house, accompanied us to a wedding and +hearing that two young ladies had not attended on account of the +illness of a negro servant, said to me: "This would not have been in +England, and will scarcely be believed when I tell it on my return." + +The same gentleman expressed astonishment at one of our neighbor's +sitting up all night to nurse one of his negroes who was ill. He was +amused at the manner of our servants' identifying themselves with the +master and his possessions, always speaking of "our horses," "our +cows," "our crop," "our mill," "our blacksmith's shop," "our carriage," +"our black folks," &c. He told us he observed also a difference between +our menials and those of his own country, in that, while here they +were individualized, there they were known by the names of "Boots," +"'Ostler," "Driver," "Footman," "Cook," "Waiter," "Scullion," &c. + +On our plantations the most insignificant stable boy felt himself of +some importance. + +When I heard Mr. Dickens read scenes from Nicholas Nickleby, the tone +of voice in which he personated Smike sent a chill through me, for I +had never before heard the human voice express such hopeless despair. +Can there be in England, thought I, human beings afraid of the sound of +their own voices? + +There was a class of men in our State who made a business of buying +negroes to sell again farther south. These we never met, and held in +horror. But even they, when we reflect, could not have treated them +with inhumanity; for what man would pay a thousand dollars for a +piece of property, and fail to take the best possible care of it? The +"traders" usually bought their negroes when an estate became involved, +for the owners could not be induced to part with their negroes until +the last extremity--when everything else had been seized by their +creditors. Houses, lands, everything went first, before giving up the +negroes; the owner preferring to impoverish himself in the effort to +keep and provide for these--which was unwise, financially, and would +not have been thought of by a mercenary people. + +But it was hard to part with one's "own people," and see them +scattered. Still our debts had to be paid; often security debts after +the death of the owner, when all had to be sold. And who of us but can +remember the tears of anguish caused by this, and scenes of sorrow to +which we can never revert without the keenest grief? Yet, like all +events in this chequered human life, even these sometimes turned out +best for the negroes, when by this means they exchanged unpleasant for +more agreeable homes. Still it appeared to me a great evil, and often +did I pray that God would make us a way of escape from it. But His ways +are past finding out, and why He had been pleased to order it thus we +shall never know. + +Instances of harsh or cruel treatment were rare. I never heard of +more than two or three individuals who were "hard" or unkind to their +negroes, and these were ostracised from respectable society, their very +names bringing reproach and blight upon their descendants. + +We knew of but one instance of cruelty on our plantation, and that was +when "Uncle Joe," the blacksmith, burnt his nephew's face with a hot +iron. The man carries the scar to this day, and in speaking of it, +always says: "Soon as my master found out how Uncle Joe treated me he +wouldn't let me work no more in his shop." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The extent of these estates precluding the possibility of near +neighbors, their isolation would have been intolerable but for the +custom of visiting which prevailed among us. Many houses were filled +with visitors the greater part of the year, usually remaining two or +three weeks. Visiting tours were made in our private carriages--each +family making at least one such tour a year. Nor was it necessary to +announce these visits by message or letter, each house being considered +always ready, and "entertaining company" the occupation of the people. +Sometimes two or three carriages might be descried in the evening +coming up to the door through the Lombardy poplar avenue--the usual +approach to many old houses--whereupon ensued a lively flutter among +small servants, who speedily got them into their clean aprons, and +ran to open gates, and remove parcels from carriages, and becoming +generally excited. Lady visitors were always accompanied by colored +maids, although sure of finding a superfluity of these at each +establishment. The mistress of the house always received her guests in +the front porch, with a sincere and cordial greeting. + +These visiting friends at my own home made an impression upon me that +no time can efface. I almost see them now--those dear, gentle faces--my +mother's early friends; and those delightful old ladies in close +bordered tarletan caps, who used to come to see my grandmother. These +last would sit round the fire knitting and talking over their early +memories; how they remembered the red coats of the British; how they +had seen the Richmond theater burn down, with some of their family +burned in it. How they used to wear such beautiful turbans of _crepe +lise_ to the Cartersville balls, and how they used to dance the minuet. +At mention of this, my grandmother would lay off her spectacles, put +aside her knitting, rise with dignity--she was very tall--and show us +the step of the minuet, gliding slowly and majestically around the +room. Then she would say: "Ah, children, you will never see anything +so graceful as the minuet. Such jumping around as _you_ see would not +have been considered 'genteel' in _my_ day!" + +My mother's friends belonged to a later generation, and were types +of women, whom to have known I shall ever consider a blessing and +privilege. They combined intelligence with exquisite refinement and +agreeability; and their annual visits gave my mother the greatest +happiness, which we soon learned to share and appreciate. + +As I consider these ladies models for our sex through all time, I +enumerate some of their attractions: + +Entire absence of pretense made them always agreeable. Having no +"parlor" or "company" manners to assume, they preserved at all times a +gentle, natural, easy demeanor and conversation. They had not dipped +into the sciences, attempted by some of our sex at the present day; but +the study of Latin and French, with general reading in their mother +tongue rendered them intelligent companions for cultivated men. They +also possessed the rare gift of reading well aloud, and wrote letters +unsurpassed in penmanship, ease and agreeability of style. + +Italian and German professors being rare in that day, their musical +acquirements did not extend beyond the simplest piano accompaniments +to old English and Scotch airs, which they sang in a sweet, natural +voice, and which so enchanted the beaux of their time that they--the +beaux--never afterwards became reconciled to any higher order of music. + +These model women also managed their household affairs admirably; and +were uniformly kind, but never familiar with their servants. They kept +ever before them the Bible as their constant guide and rule in life, +and were surely, as nearly as possible, holy in thought, word and deed. +I have looked in vain for _exactly such_ women in other lands, but have +failed to find them. + +Then there were old gentlemen visitors--beaux of my grandmother's +day--still wearing cues, wide ruffled bosoms, short pants and knee +buckles. These pronounced the _a_ very broad; sat a long time over +their wine at dinner, and carried in their pockets gold or silver +snuff-boxes presented by some distinguished individual at some remote +period. + +Our visiting acquaintance extended from Botetourt county to Richmond, +and among them were jolly old Virginia gentlemen and precise +old Virginia gentlemen; eccentric old Virginia gentlemen and +prosy old Virginia gentlemen; courtly old Virginia gentlemen and +plain-mannered old Virginia gentlemen; charming old Virginia gentlemen +and uninteresting old Virginia gentlemen. Many of them had graduated +years and years ago at William and Mary College. + +Then we had another set, of a later day--those who graduated in the +first graduating class at the University of Virginia, when that +institution was first established. These happened--all that we knew--to +have belonged to the same class, and often amused us--without intending +it--by reverting to that fact in these words: + +"_That_ was a remarkable class! Every man in that class made his mark +in law, letters or politics! Let me see: There was Toombs. There was +Charles Mosby. There was Alexander Stuart. There was Burwell. There +was R. M. T. Hunter;" and so on, calling each by name except himself, +knowing that the others never failed to do that! + +Edgar Poe and Alexander Stephens, of Georgia, were also at the +University with these gentlemen. + +Although presenting an infinite variety of mind, manner and temperament, +all the gentlemen who visited us, young and old, possessed in +common certain characteristics; one of which was a deference to +ladies, which made us feel that we had been put in the world especially +to be waited upon by them. Their standard for woman was high. They +seemed to regard her as some rare and costly statue set in a niche to +be admired and _never taken_ down. + +Another peculiarity they had in common, was a habit--which seemed +irresistible--of tracing people back to the remotest generation, and +appearing inconsolable if ever they failed to find out the pedigree of +any given individual for at least four generations. This, however, was +an innocent pastime, from which they seemed to derive much pleasure and +satisfaction, and which should not be regarded, even in this advanced +age, a serious fault. + +Among our various visitors, was a kinsman--of whom I often heard, +but do not recollect--a bachelor of eighty years, always accompanied +by his negro servant as old as himself. Both had the same name, +Louis,--pronounced like the French--and this aged pair had been so +long together they could not exist apart. Black Louis rarely left his +master's side; assisting in the conversation if his master became +perplexed or forgetful. When his master talked in the parlor, black +Louis always planted his chair in the middle of the door-sill, every +now and then correcting or reminding with: "Now, master, dat warnt Col. +Taylor's horse dat won dat race dat day. You and me was thar." Or, +"Now, master you done forgot all 'bout dat. Dat was in de year 1779, +and _dis_ is de way it happened," &c., much to the amusement of the +company assembled. All this was said, I am told, most respectfully, +although the old negro in a manner _possessed_ his master, having +entire charge and command of him. + +The negroes often felt great pride in "_their_ white people," as they +called their owners, and loved to brag about what "_their_ white +people" did and what "_their_ white people" had. + +On one occasion it became necessary for my sister and myself to ride +a short distance in a public conveyance. A small colored boy, who +helped in our dining-room, had to get in the same stage. Two old +gentlemen--strangers to us--sitting opposite, supposing we had fallen +asleep, when we closed our eyes to keep out the dust, commenced talking +about us. Said one to the other: "Now those children will spoil their +Sunday bonnets." Whereupon our colored boy spoke up quickly: "Umph! +_you_ think _them's_ my mistesses' Sunday bonnets? Umph! you _jes +ought_ to see what they got up thar on top the stage in thar band +box!" At this we both laughed, for the boy had never seen our "Sunday +bonnets," nor did he know that we possessed any. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +English books never fail to make honorable mention of a "roast of +beef," "a leg of mutton," "a dish of potatoes," "a dish of tea," &c., +while with us the abundance of such things gave them, we thought, not +enough importance to be particularized. Still my reminiscences extend +to these. + +Every Virginia housewife knew how to compound all the various dishes +in Mrs. Randolph's Cookery book, and our tables were filled with every +species of meat and vegetable to be found on a plantation; with every +kind of cakes, jellies and blanc-mange to be concocted out of eggs, +butter and cream, besides an endless catalogue of preserves, sweet +meats, pickles and condiments. So that in the matter of good living, +both in abundance and the manner of serving, a Virginia plantation +could not be excelled. + +The first speciality being good loaf bread, there was always a hot loaf +for breakfast, hot corn bread for dinner and a hot loaf for supper. +Every house was famed for its loaf bread, and, said a gentleman once to +me: "Although at each place it is superb, yet each loaf differs from +another loaf, preserving distinct characteristics which would enable me +to distinguish, instantly, should there be a convention of loaves, the +Oaklands loaf from the Greenfield loaf, and the Avenel loaf from the +Rustic Lodge loaf." + +And apropos of this gentleman, whom, it is needless to add, was +a celebrated connoisseur in this matter of loaf bread, it was a +noticeable fact with our cook, that whenever he came to our house the +bread in trying to do its best always did its worst! + +Speaking of bread, another gentleman expressed his belief that at the +last great day, it will be found that more housewives will be punished +on account of light bread than anything else; for he knew some who were +never out of temper except when the light bread failed! + +Time would fail me to dwell, as I should, upon the incomparable +rice waffles, and beat biscuit, and muffins, and laplands, and +Marguerites, and flannel cakes, and French rolls, and velvet rolls, and +ladies-fingers constantly brought by relays of small servants, during +breakfast, hot and hotter from the kitchen. Then the tea waiters handed +at night, with the beef tongue, the sliced ham, the grated cheese, +the cold turkey, the dried venison, the loaf bread buttered hot, the +batter-cakes, crackers, the quince marmalade, the wafers all pass in +review before me. + +The first time I ever heard of a manner of living different from this, +was when it became important for my mother to make a visit to a great +aunt in Baltimore, and she went for the first time out of her native +State--neither herself nor her mother had ever been out of Virginia. My +mother was accompanied by her maid, Kitty, on this expedition, and when +they returned both had many astounding things to relate. My grandmother +threw up her hands in amazement on hearing that some of the first +ladies in the city, who visited old aunt, confined the conversation of +a morning call to the subject of the faults of their hired servants. +"Is it possible?" exclaimed the old lady. "I never considered it well +bred to mention servants or their faults in company." + +Indeed, in our part of the world, a mistress became offended if +the faults of her servants were alluded to, just as persons become +displeased when the faults of their children are discussed. + +Maid Kitty's account of this visit, I will give as well as I can +remember in her own words, as she described it to her fellow-servants: +"You never see sich a way for people to live! Folks goes to bed in +Baltimore 'thout a single mouthful in thar house to eat. And they can't +get nothin' neither 'thout they gits up soon in the mornin' and goes +to the market after it themselves. Rain, hail or shine, they got to +go. 'Twouldn't suit _our_ white folks to live that way! And I wouldn't +live thar not for nothin' in this world. In that fine three story house +thar ain't but bare two servants, an' they has to do all the work. +'Twouldn't suit _me_, an' I wouldn't live thar not for nothin' in this +whole creation. I would git _that_ lonesome I couldn't stan' it. Bare +two servants! and they calls themselves rich, too! And they cooks in +the cellar. I know mistess couldn't stand that--smellin' everything out +the kitchen all over the house. Umph! _them_ folks don't know nothin' +_tall_ 'bout good livin', with thar cold bread and thar rusks!" + +Maid Kitty spoke truly when she said she had never seen two women +do all the housework. For, at home, often three women would clean +up one chamber. One made the bed, while another swept the floor and +a third dusted and put the chairs straight. Labor was divided and +subdivided; and I remember one woman whose sole employment seemed to +be throwing open the blinds in the morning and rubbing the posts of my +grandmother's high bedstead. This rubbing business was carried quite +to excess. Every inch of mahogany was waxed and rubbed to the highest +state of polish, as were also the floors, the brass fenders, irons and +candlesticks. + +When I reflect upon the degree of comfort arrived at in our homes, I +think we should have felt grateful to our ancestors; for as Quincy has +written: "In whatever mode of existence man finds himself, be it savage +or civilized, he perceives that he is indebted for the greater part of +his possessions to events over which he had no control; to individuals +whose names, perhaps, never reached his ear; to sacrifices which he +never shared. How few of all these blessings do we owe to our own power +or prudence! How few on which we can not discern the impress of a long +past generation!" So we were indebted for our agreeable surroundings to +the heroism and sacrifices of past generations, and not to venerate and +eulogize them betrays the want of a truly noble soul. For what courage; +what patience; what perseverence; what long suffering; what Christian +forbearance, must it have cost our great grandmothers to civilize, +Christianize and elevate the naked, savage Africans to the condition +of good cooks and respectable maids! They--our great grandmothers--did +not enjoy the blessed privilege even of turning their servants off when +ineffient or disagreeable, but had to keep them through life. The only +thing was to bear and forbear, and + + ----"be to their virtues very kind, + To their faults," a great deal "blind." + +If in Heaven there be one seat higher than another, it must be reserved +for those true Southern matrons, who performed conscientiously their +part assigned them by God--civilizing and instructing this race. + +To the children of Israel God said: "I will give thee the heathen for +an inheritance." So He had given _us_ "the heathen for an inheritance," +and however bitterly some of us deplored it--as we did--we should have +remembered that nothing happens by chance; but that God disposes all +events for some purpose of his own. We were instruments in His hand, +and if we or our forefathers were chosen by Him to elevate a race in +the scale of comfort and intelligence we should not deplore it, but +pray that what we have done for them may be a lasting benefit and that +God's blessing may follow them in another condition of life. + +However we may differ in the opinion, there is no greater compliment to +Southern slave owners than the idea prevailing in many places that the +negro is already sufficiently elevated to hold the highest positions in +the gift of our Government. + +I once met in traveling an English gentleman, who asked me: "How can +you bear those miserable black negroes about your houses and about your +persons? To me they are horribly repulsive, and I would not endure one +about me." + +"Neither would they have been my choice," I replied. "But God sent them +to us. I was born to this inheritance and could not avert it. What +would _you_ English have done," I asked, "if God had sent them to you?" + +"Thrown them into the bottom of the sea!" he replied. + +Fortunately for the poor negro this sentiment had not prevailed among +us. I believe God endowed our people with qualities peculiarly adapted +to taking charge of this race and that no other nation could have kept +them. Our people did not demand as much work as in other countries is +required of servants; and I think had more affection for them than is +elsewhere felt for menials. + +In this connection, I remember an incident during the war which +deserves to be recorded as showing the affection entertained for negro +dependents: + +When our soldiers were nearly starved, and only allowed daily a +small handfull of parched corn, the Colonel of a Virginia regiment, +by accident got some coffee, a small portion of which was daily +distributed to each man. In the regiment was a cousin of mine--a young +man endowed with the noblest attributes God can give--who, although +famishing and needing it, denied himself his portion every day that +he might bring it to his black mammy. He made a small bag in which he +deposited and carefully saved it. + +When he arrived at home on furlough, his mother wept to see his +tattered clothes, his shoeless feet and starved appearance. + +Soon producing the little bag of coffee, with a cheerful smile he said: +"See what I've saved to bring black mammy!" + +"Oh! my son," said his mother, "you have needed it yourself. Why did +you not use it?" + +"Well," he replied, "it has been so long since you all had any coffee, +and I made out very well on water, when I thought how black mammy +missed her coffee, and how glad she would be to get it." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +The antiquity of the furniture in our homes can scarcely be +described--every article appearing to have been purchased during the +reign of George III., since which period no new fixtures or household +utensils seemed to have been bought. + +The books in our libraries had been brought from England almost two +hundred years before. In our own library there were Hogarth's pictures, +in old worm-eaten frames; and among the literary curiosities, one +of the earliest editions of Shakespeare--1685--containing under the +author's picture the lines by Ben Johnson: + + "This Figure which thou here seest put + It was for gentle Shakespeare cut-- + Wherein the Graver had a strife, + With Nature to outdo the Life. + O, could he but have drawn his Wit + As well in Brass, as he has hit + His Face; the Paint would then surpass + All that was ever writ in Brass. + But since he can not, Reader, look + Not on his Picture, but his Book." + +This was a reprint of the first edition of Shakespeare's works +collected by John Heminge and Henry Condell, two of his friends in the +company of comedians. + +The perusal of the Arabian Nights, when a small child, possessed +me with the idea that their dazzling pictures were to be realized +when we emerged from plantation life into the outside world, and the +disappointment at not finding Richmond paved with gems and gold like +those cities in Eastern story, is remembered to the present time. + +Brought up amid antiquities, the Virginia girl disturbed herself not +about modern fashions, appearing happy in her mother's old silks +and satins made over; her grandmother's laces and brooch of untold +dimensions, with a weeping willow and tombstone on it--a constant +reminder of the past--which had descended from some remote ancestor. + +She slept in a high bedstead--the bed of her ancestors; washed her +face on an old fashioned, spindle-legged washstand; mounted a high +chair to arrange her hair before the old fashioned mirror on the high +bureau; climbed to the top of a high mantle-piece to take down the old +fashioned high candlesticks; climbed a pair of steps to get into the +high-swung, old fashioned carriage; perched her feet upon the top of a +high brass fender if she wanted to get them warm; and, in short, had to +perform so many gymnastics that she felt convinced her ancestors must +have been a race of giants, or they could not have required such tall +and inaccessible furniture. + +An occasional visit to Richmond or Petersburg, sometimes animated +her with a desire for some style of dress less antique than her own; +although she had as much admiration and attention as if she had just +received her wardrobe from Paris. + +Her social outlook might have been considered limited and +circumscribed--her parents being unwilling that her acquaintance should +extend beyond the descendants of their own old friends. + +She had never any occasion to make what the world calls a "debut;" +the constant flow of company at her father's house having rendered +her assistance necessary in entertaining guests, as soon as she could +converse and be companionable. So that her manners were early formed, +and she remembered not the time when it was anything but very easy and +agreeable, to be in the society of ladies and gentlemen. + + * * * * * + +In due time we were provided--my sister and myself--with the best +instructors--a lady all the way from Bordeaux to teach French, and a +German Professor for German and music. The latter opened to us a new +world of music. He was a fine linguist, thorough musician and perfect +gentleman. He lived with us five years, and remained our sincere and +truly valued friend through life. + +After some years we were thought to have arrived at "sufficient age of +discretion" for a trip to New York city. + +Fancy our feelings on arriving in that world of modern people and +modern things! Fancy two young girls suddenly transported from the time +of George III. to the largest hotel on Broadway in 1855! + +All was as strange to us then as we are now to the Chinese. Never had +we seen white servants before; and on being attended by them at first +felt a sort of embarrassment, but soon found they were accustomed to +less consideration and more hard work than were our negro servants at +home. + +Everything and everybody seemed in a mad whirl--the "march of material +progress," they told us. It seemed to us more the "perpetual motion +of progress." Everybody said that if "old fogy" Virginia did not make +haste to join this "march," she would be left a "wreck behind." + +We found ourselves in the "advanced age;" the land of water-pipes and +dumb-waiters; the land of enterprise and money, and at the same time an +economy amounting to parsimony. + +The manners of the people were strange to us, and different from ours. +The ladies seemed to have gone ahead of the men in the "march of +progress"--their manner being more pronounced. They did not hesitate to +"push about" through crowds and public places. + +Still, we were young; and dazzled with the gloss and glitter, we +wondered why old Virginia couldn't join this "march of progress," and +have dumb-waiters, and elevators, and water-pipes, and gas fixtures, +and baby jumpers, and washing machines. + +We asked a gentleman who was with us, why old Virginia had not all +these, and he replied: "Because, while the people here have been busy +working for themselves, old fogy Virginia has been working for negroes. +All the money Virginia makes is spent in feeding and clothing negroes. +And," he continued, "these people in the North were shrewd enough years +ago to sell all their's to the South." + +All was strange to us; even the table-cloths on the tea and breakfast +tables instead of napkins under the plates as we had at home, and which +always looked so pretty on the mahogany. + +But the novelty having worn off after awhile, we found out there was +a good deal of "imitation," after all, mixed up in everything. Things +did not seem to have been "fixed up" to last as long as our old things +at home, and we began to wonder if the "advanced age" really made the +people any better, or more agreeable, or more hospitable, or more +generous, or more brave, or more self-reliant, or more charitable, or +more true, or more pious, than in "old fogy Virginia?" + +There was one thing most curious to us in New York. No one seemed to +do anything by himself or herself. No one had an individuality; all +existed in "clubs" or "societies." They had also many "isms" of which +we had never heard; some of the people sitting up all night, and going +around all day talking about "manifestations," and "spirits," and +"affinities," which they told us was "spiritualism." + +All this impressed us slow, old fashioned Virginians, as a strangely +up-side-down, wrong-side-out condition of things. + +Much of the conversation we heard was confined to asking questions of +strangers, and discussing the best means of making money. + +We were surprised too to hear of "plantation customs" said to exist +among us which were entirely new to us; and one of the Magazines +published in the city informed us that "dipping" was one of the +"characteristics" of Southern women. What could the word "dipping" +mean? we wondered, for we had never heard it before. Upon inquiry we +found that it meant "rubbing the teeth with snuff on a small stick"--a +truly disgusting habit which could not have prevailed in Virginia, +or we would have had some tradition of it at least--our acquaintance +extending over the State, and our ancestors having settled there two +hundred years ago. + +A young gentleman from Virginia--bright and overflowing with fun, also +visiting New York--coming into the parlor one day threw himself on a +sofa in a violent fit of laughter. + +"What is the matter?" we asked. + +"I am laughing," he replied, "at the absurd questions these people +can ask. What do you think? A man asked me just now if we didn't keep +blood-hounds in Virginia to chase negroes! I told him, O, yes, every +plantation keeps several dozen! And we often have a tender boiled negro +infant for breakfast!" + +"Oh, how could you have told such a story?" we said. + +"Well," said he, "you know we never saw a blood-hound in Virginia, and +I do not expect there is one in the State; but these people delight +in believing everything horrible about us, and I thought I might as +well gratify them with something marvelous. So the next book published +up here will have, I've no doubt, a chapter headed: 'Blood-hounds in +Virginia and boiled negroes for breakfast!'" + +While we were purchasing some trifles to bring home to some of our +servants, a lady, who had entertained us most kindly at her house on +Fifth Avenue, expressing surprise, said: "_We_ never think of bringing +home presents to our 'helps.'" + +This was the first time we had ever heard, instead of "servant," the +word "help," which seemed then--and still seems--misapplied. The +dictionaries define "help" to mean aid; assistance; remedy, while +"servant" means one who attends another, and acts at his command. When +a man pays another to "help" him, it implies he is to do part of the +work himself, and is dishonest if he leaves the whole to be performed +by his "help." + +The word servant is an honest Bible word, and distinctly defines a +position. Noah did not say: "Cursed be Cain, a 'help' of 'helps' shall +he be to his brethren." Nor did Abraham call his eldest "servant," +although ruling over all he had, his "help." Neither does the +Commandment say thy "man-help" or thy "maid-help." + +The word "servant" seems, after the lapse of centuries, still applied +with the same meaning by St. Paul, who does not say, "Master, give +unto your 'helps' that which is equal;" or, "Let as many 'helps' as are +under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor." + +The words "master and servant" thus lose their true significance. + +Among other discoveries during this visit we found how much more talent +it requires to entertain company in the country than the city. In the +latter the guests and family form no "social circle round the blazing +hearth" at night, but disperse far and wide, to be entertained at the +concert, the opera, the theater or club; while in the country one +depends entirely upon native intellect and conversational talent. + +And oh! the memory of our own fireside circles! The exquisite women; +the men of giant intellect, eloquence and wit at sundry times assembled +there! Could our andirons but utter speech what could they not tell +of mirth and song, eloquence and wit, whose flow made many an evening +bright. + +Well, as all delights must have an end, the time came for us to leave +these "scenes enchanting." Bidding adieu forever to the land of "modern +appliances" and stale bread, we returned to the land flowing with "old +ham and corn cakes," and were soon surrounded by friends who came to +hear the marvels we had to relate. + +How monotonous, how dull, prosy, inconvenient everything seemed after +our plunge into modern life! + +We told old Virginia about all the enterprise we had seen; and how she +was left far behind everybody and everything, urging her to join at +once the "march of material progress." + +But the mother of States persisted in sitting contentedly over her old +fashioned wood fire with brass andirons, and while thus musing these +words fell slowly and distinctly from her lips: + +"They call me 'old fogy,' and tell me I must get out of my old ruts and +come into the 'advanced age.' But I don't care about their 'advanced +age;' their water-pipes and elevators. Give me the right sort of men +and women! God loving; God serving men and women. Men brave, courteous, +true. Women sensible, gentle and retiring. + +"Have not my 'plantation homes' furnished warriors, statesmen and +orators, acknowledged great by the world? I make it a rule to 'keep on +hand' men equal to emergencies. Had I not Washington, Patrick Henry, +Light-horse Harry Lee, and others, ready for the first Revolution; and +if there comes another--which God forbid!--have I not plenty more just +like them?" + +Here she laughed with delight, as she called over their names: "Robert +Lee, Jackson, Joe Johnstone, Stuart, Early, Floyd, Preston, the +Breckinridges, Scott, and others like them, brave and true as steel. +Ha! ha! I know of what stuff to make men! And if my old 'ruts and +grooves' produce men like these, should they be abandoned? Can any +'advanced age' produce better? + +"Then there are my soldiers of the cross. Do I not yearly send out a +faithful band to be a 'shining light,' and spread the gospel North, +South, East, West, even into foreign lands? Is not the only Christian +paper in Athens, Greece, the result of the love and labor of one of +my[1] soldiers? + +"And can I not send out men of science, as well as warriors, statesmen +and orators? There is Maury on the seas showing the world what a man +of science can do. If my 'old fogy' system has produced men like these +must it be abandoned?" + +Here the old mother of States settled herself back in her chair, a +smile of satisfaction resting on her face, and she ceased to think of +_change_. + +Telling our mother of all the wonders and pleasures of New York, she +said: + +"You were so delighted, I expect you would like to sell out everything +here and move there!" + +"It would be delightful!" we exclaimed. + +"But you would miss many pleasures you have in our present home." + +"We would have no time to miss anything," said my sister, "in that +whirl of excitement!" + +"But," she continued. "I believe one might as well try to move the +Rocky Mountains to Fifth Avenue, as an old Virginian! They have such a +horror of selling out and moving." + +"It is not so easy to sell out and move," replied our mother, "when you +remember all the negroes we have to take care of and support." + +"Yes, the negroes," we said, "are the weight continually pulling us +down! Will the time _ever_ come for us to be free of them?" + +"They were placed here," replied our mother, "by God, for us to +take care of, and it does not seem that we can change it. When we +emancipate them, it does not better their condition. Those left free +and with good farms given them by their masters, soon sink into +poverty and wretchedness, and become a nuisance to the community. +We see how miserable are Mr. Randolph's[2] negroes, who with their +freedom received from their master a large body of the best land in +Prince Edward county. My own grandfather also emancipated a large +number, having first had them taught lucrative trades that they might +support themselves, and giving them money and land. But they were not +prosperous or happy. We have also tried sending them to Liberia. You +know my old friend, Mrs. L----, emancipated all her's and sent them +to Liberia, but she told me the other day she was convinced it had +been no kindness to them, for she continually receives letters begging +assistance, and yearly supplies them with clothes and money." + +So it seemed our way was "hedged about" and surrounded by walls of +circumstances too thick and solid to be pulled down, and we said no +more. + +But some weeks after this conversation, we had a visit from a +friend--"Mozis Addums"--who having lived in New York and hearing us +express a wish to live there, said: + +"What! exchange a home in old Virginia for one on Fifth Avenue? You +don't know what you are talking about! They are not even called 'homes' +there, but '_house_;' where they turn into bed at midnight; eat +stale-bread breakfasts; have brilliant parties--where several thousand +people meet who don't care anything about each other. They have no soul +life; but shut themselves up in themselves, live for themselves, and +never have any social enjoyment like ours." + +"But," we said, "could not our friends come to see us there as well as +anywhere else?" + +"No indeed!" he answered. "Your hearts would soon be as cold and dead +as your marble door-fronts. You wouldn't want to see anybody, and +nobody would want to see you." + +"You are complimentary, certainly!" + +"I know all about it; and," he continued, "I know you could not find on +Fifth Avenue such women as your mother and grandmother, who never think +of themselves, but are constantly planning and providing for others, +making their homes comfortable and pleasant, and attending to the wants +and welfare of so many negroes. And that is what the women all over the +South are doing and what the New York women cannot comprehend. How can +anybody know, except ourselves, the personal sacrifices of our women?" + +"Well," said my sister, "you need not be so severe and eloquent because +we thought we would like to live in New York! If we should sell all we +possess, we could never afford to live there. Besides, you know our +mother would as soon think of selling her children as her servants--who +indeed are beginning to possess _her_, instead of her possessing them." + +"But," he replied, "I can't help talking, for I hear our people abused, +and called indolent and self-indulgent, when I know they have valor and +endurance enough. And I believe so much 'material progress' leaves no +leisure for the highest development of heart and mind. Where the whole +energy of a people is applied to making money, the souls of men become +dwarfed." + +"We do not feel," we said, "like abusing Northern people, in whose +thrift and enterprise we found much to admire; and especially the +self-reliance of their women, enabling them to take care of themselves +and travel from Maine to the Gulf without an escort, while we find it +impossible to travel a day's journey without a special protector." + +"That is just what I don't like," said he, "to see a woman in a crowd +of strangers needing no 'special protector.'" + +"This dependence upon your sex," we replied, "keeps you so vain." + +"We would lose our gallantry altogether," said he, "if we found you +could get along without us." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +After some months--ceasing to think and speak of New York--our lives +glided back into the old channel, where the placid stream of life had +many isles of simple pleasures. + +We were, in those days, not "whirled with glowing wheel over the +iron track in a crowded car," with dirty, shrieking children and +repulsive-looking people--on their way to the small pox hospital, for +all we knew. We were not jammed against rough, dreadful-looking people, +eating dreadful smelling things, out of dreadful-looking baskets and +satchels, and throwing the remains of dreadful pies and sausages over +the cushioned seats. + +Oh, no! our journeys were performed in venerable carriages, and our +lunch was enjoyed by some cool, shady spring where we stopped in some +shady forest at midday. + +Our own venerable carriage, my sister styled, "The old ship of Zion," +saying, "It had carried many thousands, and was likely to carry many +more." And our driver we called the "Ancient Mariner." He presided on +his seat--a high perch--in a very high hat and with great dignity. +Having been driving the same carriage for nearly forty years--no driver +being thought safe who had not been on the carriage box at least twenty +years--considered himself an oracle, and in consequence of his years +and experience kept us in much awe--my sister and myself never daring +to ask him to quicken or retard his pace or change the direction of the +road, however much we desired it. We will ever remember this thraldom, +and how we often wished one of the younger negroes could be allowed to +take his place, but my grandmother said "it would wound his feelings, +and besides be very unsafe" for us. + +At every steep hill or bad place in the road it was an established +custom to stop the carriage, unfold the high steps and "let us +out"--like pictures of the animals coming down out of the ark! This +custom had always prevailed in my mother's family, and there was a +tradition that my great grandfather's horses being habituated to stop +for this purpose, refused to pull up certain hills--even when the +carriage was empty--until the driver had dismounted and slammed the +door, after which they moved off without further hesitation. + +This custom of walking at intervals made an agreeable variety, and gave +us an opportunity to enjoy fully the beautiful and picturesque scenery +through which we were passing. + +These were the days of leisure and pleasure for travelers; and when +we remember the charming summer jaunts annually made in this way, we +almost regret the "steam horse," which takes us now to the same places +in a few hours. + +We had two dear friends--Mary and Alice--who with their old carriages +and drivers--the fac similes of our own--frequently accompanied us in +these expeditions; and no generals ever exercised more entire command +over their armies than did these three black coachmen over us. I smile +now to think of their ever being called our "slaves." + +Yet, although they had this "domineering" spirit, they felt at the same +time, a certain pride in us, too. + +On one occasion, when we were traveling together, our friend Alice +concluded to dismount from her carriage and ride a few miles with a +gentleman of the party in a buggy. She had not gone far before the +alarm was given that the buggy horse was running away, whereupon +our black generalissimos instantly stopped the three carriages and +anxiously watched the result. Old Uncle Edmund--Alice's coachman--stood +up in his seat highly excited, and when his young mistress, with +admirable presence of mind, seized the reins and stopped the horse, +turning him into a by-road, shouted at the top of his voice: "Thar, +now! I always knowed Miss Alice was a young 'oman of the most amiable +courage!" and over this feat continued to chuckle the rest of the day. + +The end of these pleasant journeys always brought us to some old +plantation home, where we met a warm welcome not only from the white +family, but the servants who constituted part of the establishment. + +One of the most charming to which we made a yearly visit was Oaklands, +a lovely spot embowered in vines and shade trees. + +The attractions of this home and family brought so many visitors every +summer, it was necessary to erect cottages about the grounds, although +the house itself was quite large. And as the yard was usually filled +with persons strolling about, or reading, or playing chess under +the trees, it had every appearance--on first approach--of a small +watering place. The mistress of this establishment was a woman of rare +attraction--possessing all the gentleness of her sex with attributes of +greatness enough for a hero. Tall and handsome, she looked a queen as +she stood on the portico receiving her guests, and by the first words +of greeting, from her warm, true heart, charmed even strangers. Nor in +any department of life did she betray qualities other than these. + +Without the least "variableness or shadow of turning," her excellencies +were a perfect continuity, and her deeds of charity a blessing to all +in need within her reach. No undertaking seemed too great for her, +and no details--affecting the comfort of her home, family, friends or +servants--too small for her supervision. + +The church--a few miles distant, the object of her care and +love--received at her hands constant and valuable aid, and its minister +generally formed one of her family circle. + +No wonder then that the home of such a woman should have been a +favorite resort with all who had the privilege of knowing her. And no +wonder that all who enjoyed her charming hospitality were spell-bound, +nor wished to leave the spot. + +In addition to the qualities I have attempted to describe, this lady +inherited from her father--General B.--an executive talent which +enabled her to order and arrange perfectly her domestic affairs, so +that from the delicious viands upon her table to the highly polished +oak of the floors, all gave evidence of her superior management, and +the admirable training of her servants. + +Nor were the hospitalities of this establishment dispensed to the gay +and great alone; but shared alike by the homeless, the friendless, and +many a weary heart found sympathy and shelter there. + +Well! Oaklands was famous for many things: its fine light bread; its +cinnamon cakes; its beat biscuit; its fricasseed chicken; its butter +and cream; its wine sauces; its plum puddings; its fine horses; its +beautiful meadows; its sloping green hills, and last, but not least, +its refined and agreeable society collected from every part of our own +State, and often from others. + +For an epicure no better place could have been desired. And this +reminds me of a retired army officer--an epicure of the first water--we +often met there, whose sole occupation was visiting his friends, and +only subjects of conversation the best viands and the best manner of +cooking them! When asked whether he remembered certain agreeable people +at a certain place, he would reply: "Yes, I dined there ten years ago, +and the turkey was very badly cooked--not quite done enough!" The +turkey evidently having made a more lasting impression than the people. + +This gentleman lost an eye at the battle of Chapultepec, having been +among the first of our gallant men who scaled the walls. But a young +girl of his acquaintance always said she knew it was not bravery so +much as "curiosity" which led him to "go peeping over the walls, first +man!" This was a heartless speech, but everybody repeated it and +laughed, for the Colonel _was_ a man of considerable "curiosity!" + +Like all old homes, Oaklands had its bright as well as its sorrowful +days--its weddings and its funerals. Many yet remember the gay wedding +of one there whose charms brought suitors by the score, and won hearts +by the dozen. The brilliant career of this young lady, her conquests +and wonderful fascinations, behold, are they not all written upon the +hearts and memories of divers rejected suitors who still survive? + +And apropos of weddings. An old fashioned Virginia wedding was an +event to be remembered. The preparations usually commenced several +weeks before, with saving eggs, butter, chickens, &c., after which +ensued the liveliest egg-beating; butter-creaming; raisin-stoning; +sugar-pounding; cake-icing; salad-chopping; cocoanut-grating; lemon +squeezing; egg-frothing; wafer-making; pastry-baking; jelly-straining; +paper-cutting; silver-cleaning; floor-rubbing; dress making; +hair-curling; lace-washing; ruffle-crimping; tarletan-smoothing; +guests-arriving; servants-running; trunk-moving; girls laughing! + +Imagine all this going on simultaneously several successive days and +nights, and you have an idea of "preparations" for an old fashioned +Virginia wedding. + +The guests generally arrived in private carriages a day or two before, +and stayed often a week after the affair, being accompanied by quite an +army of negro servants, who enjoyed the festivities as much as their +masters and mistresses. + +A great many years ago, after such a wedding as I describe, a dark +shadow fell upon Oaklands. + +The eldest daughter--young and beautiful, soon to marry a gentleman of +high-toned character, charming manners and large estate--one night, +while the preparations were in progress for her nuptials, saw in a +vision vivid pictures of what would befall her if she married. The +vision showed her: a gay wedding--herself the bride--the marriage +jaunt to her husband's home in a distant county; the incidents of the +journey; her arrival at her new home; her sickness and death; the +funeral procession back to Oaklands; the open grave; the bearers of her +bier--those who a few weeks before had danced at her wedding;--herself +a corpse in her bridal dress; her newly turfed grave with a bird +singing in the tree above. + +This vision produced such an impression she awakened her sister, and +told it. + +Three successive nights the vision appeared, which so affected her +spirits she determined not to marry. But after some months, persuaded +by her family to think no more of the dream which continually haunted +her, the marriage took place. + +All was a realization of the vision; the wedding; the journey to her +new home; every incident, however small, had been presented before her +in the dream. + +As the bridal party approached the house of an old lady near +Abingdon--who had made preparations for their entertainment,--servants +were hurrying to and fro in great excitement, and one was galloping off +for a doctor, as the old lady had been suddenly seized with a violent +illness. Even this was another picture in the ill-omened vision of the +bride, who found every day something occurring to remind her of it, +until in six months her own death made the last sad scene of her dream. +And the funeral procession back to Oaklands; the persons officiating; +the grave, all proved a realization of her vision. + +After this her husband--a man of true Christian character--sought in +foreign lands to disperse the gloom overshadowing his life. But whether +on the summit of Mount Blanc or the lava-crusted Vesuvius; among the +classic hills of Rome or the palaces of France; in the art galleries of +Italy or the regions of the Holy Land, he carried ever in his heart, +the image of his fair bride and the quiet grave at Oaklands. + +This gentleman still survives, and not long ago we heard him relate, in +charming voice and style, the incidents of these travels. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Another charming residence, not far from Oaklands, which attracted +visitors from various quarters, was Buena Vista, where we passed many +happy hours of childhood. + +This residence--large and handsome--was situated on an eminence, +overlooking pastures and sunny slopes, with forests, and mountain views +in the distance. + +The interior of the house accorded with the outside, every article +being elegant and substantial. + +The owner--a gentleman of polished manners, kind and generous +disposition, a sincere Christian and zealous churchman--was honored and +beloved by all who knew him. + +His daughters--a band of lovely young girls--presided over his house, +dispensing its hospitality with grace and dignity. Their mother's death +occurring when they were very young had given them household cares, +which would have been considerable, but for the assistance of Uncle +Billy, the butler--an all-important character presiding with imposing +dignity over domestic affairs. + +His jet black face was relieved by a head of grey hair with a small +round bald centre piece; and the expression of his face was calm and +serene, as he presided over the pantry, the table and the tea-waiters. + +His mission on earth seemed to be keeping the brightest silver urns, +sugar-dishes, cream-jugs and spoons; flavoring the best ice creams; +buttering the hottest rolls, muffins and waffles; chopping the best +salads; folding the whitest napkins; handing the best tea and cakes in +the parlor in the evenings, and cooling the best wine for the decanters +at dinner. Indeed he was so essentially a part of the establishment, +that in recalling those old days at Buena Vista, the form of "Uncle +Billy" comes silently back from the past and takes its old place about +the parlors, the halls and the dining-room, making the picture complete. + +And thus upon the canvas of every old home picture come to their +accustomed places, the forms of dusky friends, who once shared our +homes, our firesides, our affections--and who will share them, as in +the past, never more. + + * * * * * + +Of all the Plantation Homes we loved and visited, the brightest, +sweetest memories cluster around Grove Hill; a grand old place in the +midst of scenery lovely and picturesque, to reach which, we made a +journey across the Blue Ridge--those giant mountains from whose winding +road and lofty heights we had glimpses of exquisite scenery in the +valleys below. + +Thus winding slowly around these mountain heights and peeping down from +our old carriage windows we beheld nature in its wildest luxuriance. +The deep solitude; the glowing sunlight over rock, forest and glen; the +green valleys deep down beneath, diversified by alternate light and +shadow--all together photographed on our hearts pictures never to fade. + +Not all the towers, minarets, obelisks, palaces, gem-studded domes of +"art and man's device" can reach the soul like one of these sun-tinted +pictures in their convex frames of rock and vines! + +Arrived at Grove Hill, how enthusiastic the welcome from each member +of the family assembled in the front porch to meet us! How joyous +the laugh! How deliciously cool the wide halls, the spacious parlor, +the dark polished walnut floors! How bright the flowers! How gay the +spirits of all assembled there! + +One was sure of meeting here agreeable society from Virginia, +Baltimore, Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky, with whom the house +was filled from May 'till November. + +How delightfully passed the days, the weeks! What merry excursions; +fishing parties; riding parties, to the Indian Spring, the Cave, the +Natural Bridge! What pleasant music, and tableaux, and dancing in the +evenings! + +For the tableaux, we had only to open an old chest in the garret and +help ourselves to rich embroidered, white and scarlet dresses, with +other costumery worn by the grandmother of the family nearly a hundred +years before, when her husband was in public life and she one of the +queens of society. + +What sprightly "conversazioni" in our rooms at night--young girls +_will_ become confidential and eloquent with each other at night, +however reserved and quiet during the day! + +Late in the night these "conversazioni" continued, with puns +and laughter, until checked by a certain young gentleman--now a +minister--who was wont to bring out his flute in the flower garden +under our windows, and give himself up for an hour or more to the most +sentimental and touching strains, thus breaking in upon sprightly +remarks and repartees, some of which are remembered to this day, +especially one which ran thus: + +"Girls!" said one. "Would it not be charming if we could all take a +trip together to Niagara?" + +"Well, why could we not?" was the response. + +"Oh!" replied another, "the idea of us poor Virginia girls taking a +trip!" + +"Indeed," said one of the Grove Hill girls, "it would be impossible. +For here are we on this immense estate, 4,000 acres, two large, +handsome residences--and three hundred negroes--_considered_ wealthy, +and yet to save our lives could not raise money enough for a trip to +New York!" + +"Nor get a silk velvet cloak!" said her sister, laughing. + +"Yes," replied the other. "Girls! I have been longing and longing for a +silk velvet cloak, but never could get the money to buy one. But last +Sunday, at the village church, what should I see but one of the Joneses +sweeping in with a long velvet cloak almost touching the floor! And +you could set her father's house in our back hall! But then she is so +fortunate as to own no negroes." + +"What a happy girl she must be!" cried a chorus of voices. "No negroes +to support! _We_ could go to New York and Niagara, and have velvet +cloaks too, if we only had no negroes to support! But all _our_ money +goes to provide for them as soon as the crops are sold!" + +"Yes," said one of the Grove Hill girls; "here is our large house +without an article of modern furniture. The parlor curtains are one +hundred years old. The old fashioned mirrors and recess tables one +hundred years old, and we long in vain for money to buy something new." + +"Well!" said one of the sprightliest girls, "we can get up some of our +old diamond rings or breastpins which some of us have inherited, and +travel on appearances! We have no modern clothes, but the old rings +will make us '_look_ rich!' And a party of _poor, rich Virginians_ +will attract the commiseration and consideration of the world when +it is known that for generations we have not been able to leave our +plantations!" + +After these conversations we would fall asleep and sleep profoundly, +until aroused next morning by an army of servants polishing the hall +floors, waxing and rubbing them with a long-handle brush, weighted by +an oven lid. This made the floor like a "sea of glass," and dangerous +to walk upon immediately after the polishing process, being especially +disastrous to small children, who were continually slipping and falling +before breakfast. + +The lady presiding over this establishment possessed a cultivated +mind, bright conversational powers and gentle temper, with a force of +character which enabled her to direct judiciously the affairs of her +household, as well as the training and education of her children. + +She employed always an accomplished gentleman teacher, who added to the +agreeability of her home circle. + +She helped the boys with their Latin and the girls with their +compositions. In her quiet way she governed, controlled, suggested +everything; so that her presence was required everywhere at once. + +While in the parlor entertaining her guests with bright, agreeable +conversation, she was sure to be wanted by the cooks--there were +six!--to "taste or flavor" something in the kitchen; or by the gardener +to direct the planting of certain seeds or roots, and so with every +department. Even the minister--there was always one living in her +house--would call her out to consult over his text and sermon for the +next Sunday, saying he could rely upon her judgment and discrimination. + +Never thinking of herself, her heart overflowing with sympathy and +interest for others, she entered into the pleasures of the young as +well as the sorrows of the old. + +If the boys came in from a fox or deer chase, their pleasure was +incomplete until it had been described to her and enjoyed with her +again. + +The flower vases were never entirely beautiful until her hand had +helped to arrange the flowers. + +The girls' laces were never perfect until she had gathered and crimped +them. + +Her sons were never so happy as when holding her hand and caressing +her. And the summer twilight found her always in the vine-covered +porch seated by her husband--a dear, kind old gentleman--her hand +resting in his, while he quietly and happily smoked his pipe, after +the day's riding over his plantation, interviewing overseers, millers, +blacksmiths and settling up accounts. + +One more reminiscence and the Grove Hill picture will be done. No +Virginia home being complete without some prominent negro character, +the picture lacking this would be untrue to nature, and without the +"finishing touch." And not to have "stepped in" to pay our respects +to old "Aunt Betsy" during a visit to Grove Hill, would have been +considered--as it should be to omit it here--a great breach of +civility; for the old woman always received us at her door with a +cordial welcome and a hearty shake of the hand. + +"Lor' bless de childen!" she would say. "How they does grow! Done +grown up young ladies! Set down, honey. I mighty glad to see you. And +why didn't your ma (Miss Fanny) come? I would love to see Miss Fanny. +She always was so good and so pretty. Seems to me it ain't been no +time sence she and Miss Emma"--her own mistress--"used to play dolls +together, an' I used to bake sweet cakes for 'em, and cut 'em out wid +de pepper-box top, for thar doll parties; an' they loved each other +like sisters." + +"Well, Aunt Betsy," we would ask, "how is your rheumatism now?" + +"Lor', honey, I nuver specs to git over that. But some days I can +hobble out and feed de chickens; and I can set at my window and make de +black childen feed 'em, an' I love to think I'm some account to Miss +Emma. And Miss Emma's childen can't do without old 'Mammy Betsy,' for +I takes care of all thar pet chickens. Me and my old man (Phil) gittin +mighty ole now; but Miss Emma and all her childen so good to us we has +pleasure in livin' yet." + +At last the shadows began to fall dark and chill upon this once bright +and happy home. + +Old Aunt Betsy lived to see the four boys--her mistress' brave and +noble sons--buckle their armor on and go forth to battle for the home +they loved so well; the youngest, still so young that he loved his pet +chickens, which were left to "Mammy Betsy's" special care; and when the +sad news, at length, came that this favorite young master was killed, +amid all the agony of grief, no heart felt more sincerely, than her's, +the great sorrow. + +Another, and still another of these noble youths fell, after deeds +of valor unparalleled in the world's history--their graves the +battlefield, a place of burial fit for men so brave. Only one--the +youngest--was brought home to find a resting place beside the graves of +his ancestors. + +The old man--their father, his mind shattered by grief--continued day +after day, for several years, to sit in the vine-covered porch, gazing +wistfully out, imagining sometimes he saw in the distance the manly +forms of his noble sons, returning home, mounted on their favorite +horses, in the gray uniforms and bright armor worn the day they went +off. + +Then, he too followed, where the "din of war, the clash of arms" is +heard no more. + +To recall these scenes so blinds my eyes with tears that I can not +write of them. Some griefs leave the heart dumb. They have no +language; and are given no language, because no other heart could +understand, nor could they if shared, be alleviated. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +It will have been observed from these reminiscences that the mistress +of a Virginia plantation was more conspicuous--although not more +important--than the master. In the house she was the mainspring, and to +her came all the hundred, or three hundred negroes with their various +wants, and constant applications for medicine and every conceivable +requirement. + +Attending to these, with directing her household affairs and +entertaining company, occupied busily every moment of her life. While +all these devolved upon her, it sometimes seemed to me that the master +had nothing to do, but ride around his estate--on the most delightful +horse--receive reports from overseers, see that his pack of hounds were +fed and order "repairs about the mill"--the mill seemed always needing +repairs! + +This view of the subject, however, being entirely from a feminine +standpoint, may have been wholly erroneous; for doubtless his mind +was burdened with financial matters too weighty to be grasped and +comprehended by our sex. + +Nevertheless, the mistress held complete sway in her own domain; and +that this fact was recognized will be shown by the following incident: + +A gentleman--an intelligent and successful lawyer--one day discovering +a negro boy in some mischief about his house, and determining forthwith +to chastise him, took him in the yard for that purpose. Breaking a +small switch, and in the act of "coming down with it" upon the boy, he +asked: "Do you know, sir, who is master on my place?" + +"Yes, sir!" quickly replied the boy. "Miss Charlotte, sir!" + +Throwing aside the switch, the gentleman ran in the house, laughed a +half hour, and thus ended his only experiment at interfering in his +wife's domain. + +His wife, "Miss Charlotte," as the negroes called her, was gentle and +indulgent to a fault, which made the incident more amusing. + +It may appear singular, yet it is true, that our women, although having +sufficient self-possession at home, and accustomed there to command on +a large scale, became painfully timid if ever they found themselves +in a promiscuous or public assemblage--shrinking from everything like +publicity. + +Still, these women, to whom a whole plantation looked up for guidance +and instruction, could not fail to feel a certain consciousness of +superiority, which, although never displayed or asserted in manner, +became a part of themselves. They were distinguishable everywhere--for +what reason, exactly, I have never been able to find out--for their +manners were too quiet to attract attention. Yet a Captain on a +Mississippi steamboat said to me: "I always know a Virginia lady as +soon as she steps on my boat." + +"How do you know?" I asked, supposing he would say: "By their plain +style of dress and antiquated breastpins." + +Said he: "I've been running a boat from Cincinnati to New Orleans for +twenty-five years, and often have three hundred passengers from various +parts of the world. But if there is a Virginia lady among them, I find +it out in half an hour. They take things quietly, and don't complain. +Do you see that English lady over there? Well, she has been complaining +all the way up the Mississippi river. Nobody can please her. The +cabin-maid and steward are worn out with trying to please her. She says +it is because the mosquitoes bit her so badly coming through Louisiana. +But we are almost at Cincinnati now; haven't seen a mosquito for a +week, and she is still complaining!" + +"Then," he continued, "the Virginia ladies look as if they could not +push about for themselves, and for this reason I always feel like +giving them more attention than the other passengers." + +"We are inexperienced travelers," I replied. + +And these remarks of the Captain convinced me--I had thought it +before--that Virginia women should never undertake to travel, but +content themselves with staying at home. However, such restriction +would have been unfair, unless they had felt like the Parisian who, +when asked why the Parisians never traveled, replied: "Because all the +world comes to Paris!" + +Indeed, a Virginian had an opportunity of seeing much choice society +at home; for our watering places attracted the best people from other +States, who often visited us at our houses. + +On the Mississippi boat to which I have alluded, it was remarked +that the negro servants paid the Southerners more constant and +deferential attention than the passengers from the non-slaveholding +States--although some of the latter were very agreeable and intelligent, +and conversed with the negroes on terms of easy familiarity--showing, +what I had often observed, that the negro respects and admires those +who make a "social distinction" more than those who make none. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +We were surprised to find in an "Ode to the South," by Mr. M. F. +Tupper, published recently, the following stanza: + + "Yes it is slander to say you oppress'd them + Does a man squander the prize of his pelf. + Was it not often that he who possessed them + Rather was owned by his servants himself?" + +This was true, but that it was known in the outside world we thought +impossible, when all the newspaper and book accounts represented us +as "miserable sinners" for whom there was no hope here or hereafter, +and called upon all nations, Christian and civilized, to "revile, +persecute and exterminate us." Such representations, however, differed +so widely from the facts around us, that when we heard them they failed +to produce a very serious impression, occasioning often only a smile, +with the exclamation: "How little those people know about us!" + +We had not the vanity to think that the European nations cared or +thought about us, and if the Americans believed these accounts, they +defamed the memory of one held up by them as a model of Christian +virtue,--George Washington--a Virginia slave-owner, whose kindness to +his "people," as he called his slaves, entitled him to as much honor as +did his deeds of prowess. + +But to return to the two last lines of the stanza: + + "Was it not often that he who possessed them + Rather was owned by his servants himself?" + +I am reminded of some who were actually held in such bondage; +especially an old gentleman who, together with his whole plantation, +was literally "possessed by his slaves." + +This gentleman was a widower, and no lady presided over his house. + +His figure was of medium height, and very corpulent. His features were +regular and handsome. His eyes were soft brown, almost black. His hair +was slightly gray. The expression of his countenance was so full of +goodness and sympathy, that a stranger meeting him in the road might +have been convinced at a glance of his kindness and generosity. + +He was never very particular about his dress, yet never appeared shabby. + +Although a graduate in law at the University, an ample fortune made +it unnecessary for him to practice this profession. Still his taste +for literature made him a constant reader, and his conversation was +instructive and agreeable. + +His house was old and rambling, and--I was going to say his servants +kept the keys, when I remembered there were _no keys_ about the +establishment. Even the front door had no lock upon it. Everybody +retired at night in perfect confidence, however, that everything was +secure enough, and it seemed not important to lock the doors. + +The negro servants who managed the house were very efficient; excelling +especially in the culinary department, and serving up dinners which +were simply "marvels." + +The superabundance on the place enabled them not only to furnish their +master's table with the choicest meats, vegetables, cakes, pastries, +&c., but also to supply themselves bountifully, and to spread in their +own cabins sumptuous feasts, wedding and party suppers rich enough for +a queen. + +To this their master did not object, for he told them "if they would +supply his table always with an abundance of the best bread, meats, +cream and butter, he cared not what became of the rest." + +Upon this principle the plantation was conducted. The well-filled +barns; the stores of bacon, lard, flour, &c., literally belonged to the +negroes, they allowing their master a certain share! + +Doubtless they entertained the sentiment of a negro boy, who on being +reproved by his master for having stolen and eaten a turkey, replied: +"Well, massa, you see you got less turkey, but you got dat much more +nigger!" + +While we were once visiting at this plantation, the master of the house +described to us a dairy just completed on a new plan, which for some +weeks had been such a hobby with him, he had actually purchased a lock +for it, saying he would keep the key himself--which he never did--and +have the fresh mutton always put there. + +"Come," said he, as he finished describing it, "let us go down and look +at it." + +"Bring me the key," he said to a small African, who soon brought it, +and we proceeded to the dairy. + +Turning the key in the door, the old gentleman said: "Now see what an +elegant piece of mutton I have here!" + +But on entering and looking around no mutton was to be seen, and +instead thereof buckets of custard, cream and blanc-mange. The old +gentleman greatly disconcerted, called to one of the servants, +"Florinda! Where is my mutton I had put here this morning?" + +Florinda replied: "Nancy took it out, sir, and put it in de ole spring +house. She say dat was cool enough place for mutton. And she gwine have +a big party to-night, and want her jelly and custards to keep cool!" + +At this the old gentleman was rapidly becoming provoked, when we +laughed so much at Nancy's "cool" proceeding, that his usual good +nature was restored. + +On another occasion we were one evening sitting with this gentleman in +his front porch, when a poor woman from the neighboring village came in +the yard, and stopping before the door, said to him: + +"Mr. R. I came to tell you that my cow you gave me has died." + +"What did you say, my good woman?" asked Mr. R., who was quite deaf. + +The woman repeated in a louder voice, "The cow you gave me has died. +And she died because I didn't have anything to feed her with." + +Turning to us, his countenance full of compassion, he said: "I ought to +have thought about that, and should have sent the food for her cow." +Then speaking to the woman: "Well, my good woman, I will give you +another cow to-morrow, and send you plenty of provision for her." And +the following day he fulfilled his promise. + +Another incident occurs to me, showing the generous heart of this truly +good man. One day on the Virginia and Tennessee train observing a +gentleman and lady in much trouble, he ventured to enquire of them the +cause, and was informed they--the gentleman and his wife--had lost all +their money and their railroad tickets at the last station. + +He asked the gentleman where he was from, and on "what side he was +during the war." + +"I am from Georgia," replied the gentleman, "and was, of course, with +the South." + +"Well," said Mr. R., pulling from his capacious pocket a capacious +purse, which he handed the gentleman, "help yourself, sir, and take as +much as will be necessary to carry you home." + +The astonished stranger thanked him sincerely, and handed his card, +saying: "I will return the money as soon as I reach home." + +Returned to his own home, and relating the incidents of his trip, Mr. +R. mentioned this, when one of his nephews laughed and said: "Well, +Uncle R., we Virginia people are so easily imposed upon! You don't +think that man will ever return your money _do_ you?" + +"My dear," replied his Uncle, looking at him reproachfully and sinking +his voice, "I was fully repaid by the change which came over the man's +countenance." + +It is due to the Georgian to add that on reaching home, he returned the +money with a letter of thanks. + + * * * * * + +In sight of the hospitable home of Mr. R. was another equally +attractive owned by his brother-in-law, Mr. B. These had the same +name--Greenfield--the property having descended to two sisters, +the wives of these gentlemen. They might have been called twin +establishments, as one was almost a fac simile of the other. At both +was found the same hospitality; the same polished floors; the same +style of loaf-bread and velvet rolls. The only difference between the +two being that Mr. B. kept his doors locked at night; observed more +system, and kept his buggies and carriages in better repair. + +These gentlemen were also perfectly congenial. Both had graduated +in law; read the same books; were members of the same church; knew +the same people; liked and disliked the same people; held the same +political opinions; enjoyed the same old Scotch songs; repeated the +same old English poetry; smoked the same kind of tobacco, in the same +kind of pipes; abhorred alike intoxicating drinks, and deplored the +increase of bar-rooms and drunkenness in our land. + +For forty years they passed together a part of every day or evening, +smoking and talking over the same events and people. It was a picture +to see them at night over a blazing wood fire, their faces bright with +good nature; and a treat to hear all their reminiscences of people +and events long passed. With what circumstantiality could they recall +old law cases; describe old duels, old political animosities and +excitements! What merry laughs they sometimes had! + +Everything on one of these plantations seemed to belong equally to the +other. If the ice gave out at one place, the servants went to the other +for it as a "matter of course;" or if the buggies or carriages were out +of order at Mr. R.'s--which was often the case--the driver would go +over for Mr. B.'s without even mentioning the circumstance, and so with +everything. The families lived thus harmoniously with never the least +interruption for forty years. + +Now and then the old gentlemen enjoyed a practical joke on each other, +and on one occasion Mr R. succeeded so effectually in quizzing Mr B. +that whenever he thought of it afterwards he fell into a dangerous fit +of laughter. + +It happened that a man who had married a distant connection of the +Greenfield family concluded to take his wife, children and servants to +pass the summer there, dividing the time between the two houses. The +manners, character and political proclivities of this visitor became +so disagreeable to the old gentleman, they determined he should not +repeat his visit, although they liked his wife. One day Mr. B. received +a letter signed by this objectionable individual--it had really been +written by Mr. R.--informing Mr. B. that, "as one of the children +was sick, and the physician advised country air he would be there the +following Thursday with his whole family to stay some months." + +"The impudent fellow!" exclaimed Mr. B. as soon as he read the letter. +"He knows how R. and myself detest him! Still I am sorry for his wife. +But I will not be dragooned and outgeneraled by that contemptible +fellow. No! I will leave home to-day!" + +Going to the back door he called in a loud voice for his coachman, and +ordered his carriage. "I am going" said he, "to Grove Hill for a week +and from there to Lexington with my whole family, and don't know when I +shall be at home again." + +"It is very inconvenient," said he to his wife, "but I must leave home." + +Hurrying up the carriage, and the family they were soon off on their +unexpected trip. + +They stayed at Grove Hill, seven miles off, a week, during which time +Mr. B. every morning mounted his horse and rode timidly around the +outskirts of his own plantation, peeping over the hills at his house, +but afraid to venture nearer, feeling assured it was occupied by the +objectionable party. He would not even make enquiries of his negroes +whom he met, as to the state and condition of things in his house. + +Concluding to pursue his journey to Lexington and half way there, he +met a young nephew of Mr. R.'s, who happened to know all about the +quiz, and immediately suspecting the reason of Mr. B.'s exile from home +enquired where he was going, how long he had been from home, &c. Soon +guessing the truth and thinking the "joke had been carried far enough," +he told the old gentleman he need not travel any further for it was all +a quiz of his uncle's, and there was no one at his house. Thereupon, +Mr. B. greatly relieved, turned back and went his way home rejoicing, +but "determined to pay R." he said, "for such a practical joke, which +had exiled him from home and given him such trouble." This caused many +a good laugh whenever it was told, throughout the neighborhood. + +The two estates of which I am writing, were well named--Greenfield, for +the fields and meadows were of the freshest green, and with majestic +hills around and the fine cattle and horses grazing upon them, formed a +noble landscape. + +This land had descended in the same family since the Indian camp fires +ceased to burn there, and the same forests were still untouched, where +once stood the Indian's wigwams. + +In this connection, I am reminded of a tradition in the Greenfield +family, which showed the heroism of a Virginia boy: + +The first white proprietor of this place, the great grandfather of the +present owners, had also a large estate in Montgomery county, called +Smithfield, where his family lived, and where was a fort for the +protection of the whites, when attacked by the Indians. + +Once, while the owner was at his Greenfield place, the Indians +surrounded Smithfield, when the white women and children took refuge in +the fort, and the men prepared for battle. They wanted the proprietor +of Smithfield to help fight and take command, for he was a brave man, +but could not spare a man to carry him the news. So they concluded +to send one of his young sons, a lad thirteen years old, who did not +hesitate but mounting a fleet horse set off after dark and rode all +night through dense forests filled with hostile Indians, reaching +Greenfield, a distance of forty miles next morning. He soon returned +with his father, and the Indians were repulsed. And I always thought +that boy was courageous enough for his name to live in history.[3] + +The Indians afterwards told that the whole day before the fight several +of their chiefs had been concealed near the Smithfield house, under a +large hay stack, upon which the white children had been sliding and +playing all day, little suspecting the gleaming tomahawks and savage +men beneath. + +From the Greenfield estate in Botetourt and the one adjacent went the +ancestors of the Prestons and Breckinridges, who made these names +distinguished in South Carolina and Kentucky. And on this place are the +graves of the first Breckinridges who emigrated to this country. + +All who visited at the homesteads just described retained ever after a +recollection of the superbly cooked meats, bread, &c., seen upon the +tables at both houses--there being at each place five or six negro +cooks, who had been taught by their mistresses the highest style of the +art. + +During the summer season several of these cooks were hired at the +different watering places, where they acquired great fame and made for +themselves a considerable sum of money by selling recipes. + +A lady of the Greenfield family, who married and went to Georgia, told +me she had often tried to make velvet rolls like those she had been +accustomed to see at her own home, but never succeeded. Her mother and +aunt who had taught these cooks, having died many years before, she had +to apply to the negroes for information on such subjects, and they, she +said, would never show her the right way to make them. Finally, while +visiting at a house in Georgia, this lady was surprised to see the very +velvet rolls, like those at her home. + +"Where did you get the recipe?" she soon asked the lady of the house, +who replied, "I bought it from old Aunt Rose, a colored cook, at the +Virginia Springs, and paid her five dollars." + +"One of our own cooks and my mother's recipe," exclaimed the other, +"and I had to come all the way to Georgia to get it, for Aunt Rose +never would show me exactly how to make them!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Not far from Greenfield was a place called "Rustic Lodge." + +This house surrounded by a forest of grand old oaks, was not large or +handsome. But its inmates were ladies and gentlemen of the old English +style. + +The grandmother, about ninety years of age, had been in her youth +one of the belles at the Williamsburg Court in old colonial days. A +daughter of Sir Dudley Digges, and descended from English nobility, she +had been accustomed to the best society. Her manners and conversation +were dignified and attractive. + +Among reminiscences of colonial times, she remembered Lord Botetourt, +of whom she related interesting incidents. + +The son of this old lady, about sixty years of age, and the proprietor +of the estate, was a true picture of the "old English gentleman." His +manners, conversation, thread-cambric shirt frills, cuffs and long +queue tied with a black ribbon, made the picture complete. His two +daughters, young ladies of exquisite refinement, had been brought up by +their aunt and grandmother to observe strictly all the proprieties of +life. + +This establishment was proverbial for its order and method, the most +systematic rules being in force everywhere. The meals were served +punctually at the same instant every day. Old "Aunt Nelly" dressed and +undressed her old mistress always at the same hour. A gentle "tapping +at the chamber door"--not by the "raven," but the cook--called the +mistress to an interview at the same moment every morning with that +functionary, which resulted in the choicest dinners, breakfasts and +suppers; this interview lasting half an hour and never repeated during +the day. + +Exactly at the same hour every morning the old gentleman's horse was +saddled, and he entered the neighboring village so promptly as to +enable some of the inhabitants to set their clocks by him. + +This family had possessed great wealth in Eastern Virginia during the +colonial government under which many of its members held high offices. + +But impoverished by high living, entertaining company and a heavy +British debt, they had been reduced in their possessions to about fifty +negroes, with only money enough to purchase this plantation upon which +they had retired from the gay and charming society of Williamsburg. +They carried with them, however, some remains of their former grandeur: +old silver, old jewelry, old books, old and well-trained servants, and +an old English coach, which was the curiosity of all other vehicular +curiosities. How the family ever climbed into it, or got out of it, and +how the driver ever reached the dizzy height upon which he sat, was the +mystery of my childhood. + +But although egg-shaped and suspended in mid-air, this coach had +doubtless, in its day, been one of considerable renown, drawn by four +horses, with footman, postillion and driver in English livery. + +How sad must have been its reflections on finding itself shorn of +these respectable surroundings, and after the revolution drawn by two +Republican horses, with footman and driver dressed in Republican jeans! + +Strange that it could have lived on and on thus Republicanized! + +A great uncle of this family, unlike the coach never would become +Republicanized, and his obstinate loyalty to the English crown, with +his devotion to everything English gained for him the title "English +Louis," by which name he is spoken of in the family to this day. An old +lady told me not long ago that she remembered when a child the arrival +of "English Louis" at "Rustic" one night, and his conversation as they +sat around the fire, how he deplored a Republican form of government, +and the misfortunes which would result from it saying: + +"All may go smoothly for about seventy years, when civil war will set +in. First, it will be about these negro slaves we have around us, and +after that it will be something else." And how true "English Louis'" +prediction has proven.[4] + +Doubtless this gentleman was avoided and proscribed on account of his +English proclivities. For at that day the spirit of Republicanism +and hatred to England ran high; so that an old gentleman--one of our +relatives whom I well remember--actually took from his parlor walls his +coat of arms which had been brought by his grandfather from England, +and carrying it out in his yard built a fire and collecting his +children around it, to see it burn, said: "Thus let everything English +perish!" + +Should I say what I think of this proceeding, I would not be considered +perhaps a true Republican patriot. + + * * * * * + +I cannot forget to mention in the catalogue of pleasant homes, +Smithfield in Montgomery county, the county which flows with healing +waters. + +Smithfield, like Greenfield, is owned by the descendants of the first +white family who settled there after the Indians, and its verdant +pastures, noble forests, mountain streams and springs, with the superb +cattle on its hills form a prospect, wondrously beautiful. + +This splendid estate descended to three brothers, who equally divided +it; the eldest keeping the homestead, and the others building +attractive homes on their separate plantations. + +The old homestead was quite antique in appearance. Inside the high +mantlepieces reaching nearly to the ceiling, which was also high, and +the high wainscotting together with the old furniture made a picture of +the olden time. + +When I first visited this place, the old grandmother, then eighty years +of age, was living. She, like the old lady at "Rustic," had been a +belle in Eastern Virginia in her youth. When she married the owner of +Smithfield sixty years before, she made the "bridal jaunt" from Norfolk +to this place on horseback, two hundred miles. Still exceedingly +intelligent and interesting, she entertained us with various incidents +of her early life, and wished to hear all the old songs which she had +then heard and sung herself. + +"When I was married" said she, "and came first to Smithfield my +husband's sisters met me in the porch, and were shocked at my pale and +delicate appearance. One of them whispering to her brother, asked, 'Why +did you bring that ghost up here?' And now," continued the old lady, "I +have outlived all who were in the house that day, and all my own and my +husband's family." + +This was an evidence certainly of the health restoring properties of +the water and climate in this region. + +The houses of these three brothers were filled with company winter and +summer, making within themselves a delightful society. The visitors at +one house were equally visitors at the others, and the succession of +dinner and evening parties from one to the other, made it difficult for +a visitor to decide at whose particular house he was staying. + +One of these brothers had married a lovely lady from South Carolina, +whose perfection of character and disposition endeared her to every +one who knew her. Everybody felt like loving her the moment they saw +her, and the more they knew her the more they loved her. Her warm heart +was ever full of other people's troubles or joys, never thinking of +herself. In her house many an invalid was cheered by her tender care; +and many a drooping heart revived by her bright Christian spirit. +She never omitted an opportunity of pointing the way to heaven; and +although surrounded by all the allurements which gay society and wealth +could bring, she did not depart an instant from the quiet path which +leads to heaven. In the midst of bright and happy surroundings, her +thoughts and hopes were constantly centered upon the life above; and +her conversation--which was the reflex of her heart--reverted ever to +this theme, which she made attractive to old and young. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +In the region of country just described and in the counties beyond +abound the finest mineral springs, one or more being found on every +plantation. At one place were seven different springs, and the servants +had a habit of asking the guests and family whether they would +have--before breakfast--a glass of White Sulphur, Yellow Sulphur, Black +Sulphur, Alleghany, Alum, or Limestone water! + +The old Greenbriar White Sulphur was a favorite place of resort for +Eastern Virginians and South Carolinians at a very early date, when +it was accessible only by private conveyances, and all who passed +the summer there went in private carriages. In this way, certain old +Virginia and South Carolina families met every season, and these +old people told us that society there was never as good, after the +railroads and stages brought "all sorts of people, from all sorts of +places." This, of course, we knew nothing about from experience, and +it sounded rather egotistical in the old people to say so, but that is +what they said. + +Indeed these "old folks" talked so much about what "used to be in their +day" at the old White Sulphur, I found it hard to convince myself I had +not been bodily present, seeing with my own eyes certain knee-buckled +old gentlemen, with long queues, and certain Virginia and South +Carolina belles attired in short-waisted, simple white cambrics, who +passed the summers there. These white cambrics, we were told, had been +carried in minute trunks behind the carriages; and were considered, +with a few jewels and a long black or white lace veil thrown over the +head and shoulders, a complete outfit for the reigning belles! Another +curiosity was, that these white cambric dresses--our grandmothers told +us--required very little "doing up;" one such having been worn by Mrs. +General Washington--so her granddaughter told me--a whole week without +requiring washing! It must have been an age of remarkable women, and +remarkable cambrics! How little they dreamed then of an era when +Saratoga trunks would be indispensable to ladies of much smaller means +than Virginia and South Carolina belles! + +To reach these counties flowing with mineral waters the families from +Eastern Virginia and from South Carolina passed through a beautiful +region known as Piedmont, Va., and those who had "kinsfolk or +acquaintance" here usually stopped to make them a visit. Consequently +the Piedmont Virginians were generally too busy entertaining summer +guests to visit the springs themselves. But indeed why should they? +For no more salubrious climate could be found than their own; and +no scenery more grand and beautiful. But it was necessary for the +tide-water Virginians to leave their homes every summer on account of +chills and fevers. + +In the lovely Piedmont region over which the "Peaks of Otter" rear +their giant heads, and chains of blue mountains extend as far as eye +can reach, were scattered many pleasant and picturesque homes. And in +this section my grandfather bought a plantation, when the ancestral +estates had been sold, in the Eastern part of the State, to repay the +British debt, which estates, homesteads and tombstones with their +quaint inscriptions are described in Bishop Meade's "Old Churches and +Families of Virginia." + +While the tide water Virginians were already practicing all the arts +and wiles known to the highest English civilization; were sending their +sons to be educated in England; receiving brocaded silks and powdered +wigs from England; and dancing the minuet at the Williamsburg balls +with the families of the noblemen sent over to govern the Colony, +Piedmont, Virginia, was still a dense forest, the abode of Indians and +wild animals. + +It was not strange, then, that the Piedmont Virginians never arrived +at the opulent manner of living adopted by those on James and York +rivers, who, tradition tells us, went to such excess in high living, as +to have "hams boiled in champagne," and of whom other traditions have +been handed down amusing and interesting. Although the latter were in +advance of the Piedmont Virginians in wealth and social advantages, +they were not superior to them in honor, virtue, or kindness and +hospitality. + +It has been remarked that, "when natural scenery is picturesque there +is in the human character something to correspond; impressions made on +the retina are really made on the soul, and the mind becomes what it +contemplates." + +The same author continues: "A man is not only _like_ what he sees, +but he _is_ what he sees. The noble old Highlander has mountains in +his soul, whose towering peaks point heavenward; and lakes in his +bosom, whose glassy surface reflects the skies; and foaming cataracts +in his heart to beautify the mountain side and irrigate the vale; and +evergreen firs and mountain pines that show life and verdure even under +winter skies!" + +"On the other hand," he writes, "the wandering nomad has a desert in +his heart; its dead level reflects heat and hate; a sullen, barren +plain--no goodness, no beauty, no dancing wave of joy, no gushing +rivulet of love, no verdant hope. And it is an interesting fact that +those who live in countries where natural scenery inspires the soul, +and where the necessities of life bind to a permanent home, are always +patriotic and high minded; and those who dwell in the desert are always +pusillanimous and groveling!" + +If what this author writes be true, and the character of the Piedmont +Virginians accords with the scenery around them, how their hearts must +be filled with gentleness and charity inspired by the landscape which +stretches far and fades in softness against the sky! How must their +minds be filled with noble aspirations suggested by the "everlasting +mountains!" How their souls must be filled with thoughts of heaven, +as they look upon the glorious sunsets bathing the mountains in +"rose-colored light;" with the towering peaks ever pointing heavenward +and seeming to say: "Behold the glory of a world beyond!"[5] + +Beneath the shadow of the "Peaks" were many happy homes and true +hearts, and among these memory recalls none more vividly than +"Otterburn" and its inmates. + +"Otterburn" was the residence of a gentleman and his wife, who, having +no children, devoted themselves to making their home attractive to +visitors, in which they succeeded so well that they were rarely without +company; for all who went once to see them went again and again. + +This gentleman's mind, character, accomplishments, manner and +appearance marked him "rare"--"one in a century." Above his fellow +men in greatness of soul, he could comprehend nothing "mean." His +stature was tall and erect; his features bold; his countenance open and +impressive; his mind vigorous and cultivated; his bearing dignified, +but not haughty; his manners simple and attractive; his conversation +so agreeable and enlivening that the dullest company became animated +as soon as he came into the room. Truth and high-toned character were +so unmistakably stamped upon him, that knowing him a day convinced one +he could be trusted forever. Brought up in Scotland--the home of his +ancestors--in him were blended the best points of Scotch and Virginia +character; strict integrity and accuracy, with whole-souled generosity +and hospitality. + +How many days and nights we passed at his house, and in childhood and +youth, how many hours were entertained by his bright and instructive +conversation! Especially delightful was it to hear his stories about +Scotland, which brought before us vividly pictures of its lakes and +mountains and castles. How often did we listen to his account of the +wedding tour to Scotland, when he carried his Virginia bride to the old +home at Greenock! And how often we laughed about the Scotch children, +his nieces and nephews, who on first seeing his wife, clapped their +hands and shouted, "Oh! mother, are you not glad uncle did not marry a +black woman?" Hearing he was to marry a Virginian, they expected to see +a savage Indian or negro! And some of the family who went to Liverpool +to meet them, and were looking through spy glasses when the vessel +landed, said they "were sure the Virginia lady had not come, because +they saw no one among the passengers dressed in a red shawl and gaudy +bonnet like an Indian!" + +From this we thought the Europeans must be very ignorant of our country +and its inhabitants--and have learned since that their children are +kept purposely ignorant of facts in regard to America and its people. + +Among many other recollections of this dear old friend of "Otterburn," +I shall never forget a dream he told us one night, which so impressed +us that before his death we asked him to write it out, which he did, +and as the copy is before me in his own handwriting, will insert it +here: + +"About the time I became of age, I returned to Virginia for the +purpose of looking after and settling my father's estate. Three years +thereafter I received a letter from my only sister, informing me that +she was going to be married, and pressing me in the most urgent manner +to return to Scotland to be present at her marriage, and to attend to +the drawing of the marriage contract. The letter gave me a good deal of +trouble, as it did not suit me to leave Virginia at that time. I went +to bed one night thinking much on this subject, but soon fell asleep +and dreamed that I landed in Greenoch in the night time, and pushed for +home, thinking I would take my aunt and sister by surprise. + +"When I arrived at the door, I found all still and quiet, and the +out door locked--I thought, however, that I had in my pocket my +check key, with which I quietly opened the door and groped my way +into the sitting-room, but finding no one there I concluded they had +gone to bed. I then went up stairs to their bed-room, and found that +unoccupied. I then concluded they had taken possession of my bed-room +in my absence, but not finding them there became very uneasy about +them. Then it struck me they might be in the guest's chamber, a room +down stairs kept exclusively for company. Upon going there I found the +door partially open; I saw my aunt removing the burning coals from the +top of the grate preparatory to going to bed. My sister was sitting up +in bed, and as I entered the room, she fixed her eyes upon me, but did +not seem to recognize me. I approached towards her, and in the effort +to make myself known, awoke, and found it all a dream. At breakfast +next morning, I felt wearied and sick, and could not eat; and told the +family of my (dream) journey the overnight. + +"I immediately commenced preparing, and in a very short time returned +to Scotland. I saw my sister married, and she and her husband set off +on their 'marriage jaunt.' About a month thereafter they returned, and +at dinner I commenced telling them of my dream, but observing they had +quit eating and were staring at me, I laughed, and asked what was the +matter; whereupon my brother-in-law very seriously asked me to go on. +When I finished they asked me if I remembered the exact time of my +dream. I told them it distressed and impressed me so strongly, that I +noted it down at the time. I pulled out my pocket-book and shewed them +the date, '14th day of May,' written in pencil. They all rose from the +table and took me into the bed-room and shewed me written with pencil +on the white mantle piece '14th of May.' + +"I asked them what that meant, and was informed that on that very +night--and _the only night_ they ever occupied that room during my +absence--my aunt was taking the coals off of the fire, when my sister +screamed out, 'brother has come!' + +"My aunt scolded her, and said she was dreaming; but she said she +had not been to sleep, was sitting up in bed, and _saw me_ enter the +room, and run out when she screamed. So confident was she that she had +seen me, and that I had gone off and hidden, that the whole house was +thoroughly searched for me, and as soon as day dawned a messenger was +sent to enquire if any vessel had arrived from America, or if I had +been seen by any of my friends." + +No one can forget, who visited Otterburn, the smiling faces of the +negro servants about the house, who received the guests with as +true cordiality as did their mistress, expressing their pleasure by +widespread mouths showing white teeth--very white by contrast with +their jet black skin--and when the guests went away always insisted on +their remaining longer. + +One of these negro women was not only an efficient servant, but a +valued friend to her mistress. + +In the absence of her master and mistress she kept the keys, often +entertaining their friends, who in passing from distant plantations +were accustomed to stop, and who received from her a cordial welcome, +finding on the table as many delicacies as if the mistress had been at +home. + +No more sincere attachment could have existed than between this +mistress and servant. At last, when the latter was seized with a +contagious fever which ended her life, she could not have had a more +faithful friend and nurse than was her mistress. + +The same fever attacked all the negroes on this plantation, and +none can describe the anxiety, care and distress of their owners, +who watched by their beds day and night, administering medicine and +relieving the sick and dying. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +Among other early recollections is a visit with my mother to the +plantation of a favorite cousin, not far from Richmond, and one +of the handsomest seats on James river. This residence--Howard's +Neck--was a favorite resort for people from Richmond and the adjacent +counties; and, like many others on the river, always full of guests--a +round of visiting and dinner parties being kept up from one house +to another,--so that the ladies presiding over these establishments +had no time to attend to domestic duties, which were left to their +housekeepers, while they were employed entertaining visitors. + +The negroes on the these estates appeared lively and happy; that is, +if singing and laughing indicates happiness; for they went to their +work in the fields singing, and returned in the evening singing, after +which they often spent the whole night visiting from one plantation to +another, or dancing until day to the music of the banjo or "fiddle." +These dances were wild and boisterous, their evolutions being like +those of the savage dances, described by travelers in Africa. Although +the most perfect timists, their music with its wild, melancholy +cadence, half savage, half civilized, can not be imitated or described. +Many a midnight were we wakened by their wild choruses, sung as they +returned from a frolic or "corn shucking," sounding at first like some +hideous, savage yell, but dying away on the air, echoing a cadence +melancholy and indescribable, with a peculiar pathos, and yet without +melody or sweetness. + +"Corn shuckings" were occasions of great hilarity and good eating. +The negroes from various plantations assembled at night around a huge +pile of corn. Selecting one among them, the most original, amusing and +having the loudest voice, they called him "Captain." The "Captain" +seated himself on top of the pile--a large lightwood torch burning in +front of him--and while he shucked improvised words and music to a +wild "recitative," the chorus of which was "caught up" by the army of +"shuckers" around. The glare of the torches on the black faces, with +the wild music and impromptu words, made a scene curious even to us who +were so accustomed to it. + +After the corn was shucked they assembled around a table laden with +roast pigs, mutton, beef, hams, cakes, pies, coffee, and other +substantials--many participating in the supper who had not in the work. +The laughing and merriment continued until one or two o'clock in the +morning. + + * * * * * + +On these James river plantations were entertained often distinguished +foreigners, who visiting Richmond desired to see something of Virginia +country life. Mr. Thackeray was once entertained at one of them. But +Dickens never visited them. Could he have passed a month, at any one +of the homes I have described, he would have written something more +flattering, I am sure, of Americans and American life than is found +in "Martin Chuzzlewit" and "Notes on America." However, with these we +should not quarrel, as some of the sketches--especially the one on +"tobacco chewers," we can recognize. + +Every nation has a right to its prejudices--certainly the English +towards the American--America appearing to the English eye a huge +mushroom affair, the growth of a night and unsubstantial. But it is +surely wrong to censure a whole nation--as some have done the Southern +people--for the faults of a few. For although every nation has a right +to its prejudices, none has a right, without thorough examination and +acquaintance with the subject, to seize a few exaggerated accounts, of +another nation by its enemies, and publish them as facts. The world in +this way receives very erroneous impressions. + +For instance, we have no right to suppose the Germans a cruel race +because of the following paragraph clipped from a recent newspaper: + +"The cruelty of German officers is a matter of notoriety, but an +officer in an artillery regiment has lately gone beyond precedent in +ingenuity of cruelty. Some of his men being insubordinate, he punished +them by means of a 'spurring process,' which consisted in jabbing spurs +persistently and brutally into their legs. By this process his men were +so severely injured they had to go to the hospital." + +Neither have we a right to pronounce all Pennsylvanians cruel to their +"helps," as they call them, because a Pennsylvania lady told me "the +only way she could manage her 'help'"--a white girl fourteen years +old--"was by holding her head under the pump and pumping water upon it +until she lost her breath;" a process I could not have conceived, and +which filled me with horror. + +But sorrow and oppression, we suppose, may be found in some form in +every clime; and in every phase of existence some hearts are "weary and +heavy laden." Even Dickens, whose mind naturally sought, and fed upon, +the comic, saw wrong and oppression in the "humane institutions" of his +own land! + +And Macaulay gives a painful picture of Madam D'Arblay's life as +waiting maid to Queen Charlotte--from which we are not to infer, +however, that all Queens are cruel to their waiting maids. + +Madam D'Arblay--whose maiden name was Frances Burney--was the first +female novelist in England, who deserved and received the applause +of her countrymen. The most eminent men of London paid homage to her +genius. Johnson, Burke, Windham, Gibbon, Reynolds, Sheridan, were +her friends and ardent eulogists. In the midst of her literary fame, +surrounded by congenial friends, herself a star in this select and +brilliant coterie, she was offered the place of waiting maid in the +palace. She accepted the position, and bade farewell to all congenial +friends and pursuits. "And now began," says Macaulay, "a slavery of +five years--of five years taken from the best part of her life, and +wasted in menial drudgery. The history of an ordinary day was this: +Miss Burney had to rise and dress herself early, that she might be +ready to answer the royal bell, which rang at half after seven. Till +about eight she attended in the Queen's dressing-room, and had the +honor of lacing her august mistress' stays, and of putting on the +hoop, gown and neckhandkerchief. The morning was chiefly spent in +rummaging drawers and laying fine clothes in their proper places. Then +the Queen was to be powdered and dressed for the day. Twice a week her +Majesty's hair had to be curled and craped; and this operation added a +full hour to the business of the toilet. It was generally three before +Miss Burney was at liberty. At five she had to attend her colleague, +Madame Schwellenberg, a hateful old toadeater, as illiterate as a +chamber-maid, proud, rude, peevish, unable to bear solitude, unable to +conduct herself with common decency in society. With this delightful +associate Frances Burney had to dine and pass the evening. The pair +generally remained together from five to eleven, and often had no other +company the whole time. Between eleven and twelve the bell rang again. +Miss Burney had to pass a half hour undressing the Queen, and was then +at liberty to retire. + +"Now and then, indeed, events occurred which disturbed the wretched +monotony of Frances Burney's life. The court moved from Kew to Windsor, +and from Windsor back to Kew. + +"A more important occurrence was the King's visit to Oxford. Then Miss +Burney had the honor of entering Oxford in the last of a long string +of carriages, which formed the royal procession, of walking after the +Queen all day through refectories and chapels, and of standing half +dead with fatigue and hunger, while her august mistress was seated at +an excellent cold collation. At Magdalen College, Frances was left for +a moment in a parlor, where she sank down on a chair. A good natured +equerry saw that she was exhausted, and shared with her some apricots +and bread, which he had wisely put in his pockets. At that moment the +door opened, the Queen entered, the wearied attendants sprang up, the +bread and fruit were hastily concealed. + +"After this the King became very ill, and during more than two years +after his recovery Frances dragged on a miserable existence at the +palace. Madame Schwellenberg became more and more insolent and +intolerable, and now the health of poor Frances began to give way; and +all who saw her pale face, her emaciated figure and her feeble walk, +predicted that her sufferings would soon be over. + +"The Queen seems to have been utterly regardless of the _comfort_, the +_health_, the _life_ of her attendants. Weak, feverish, hardly able to +stand, Frances had still to rise before seven, in order to dress the +sweet Queen, and sit up 'till midnight, in order to undress the sweet +Queen. The indisposition of the handmaid could not, and _did not escape +the notice of_ her royal mistress. But the _established doctrine of the +court was, that all sickness_ was to be _considered as a pretence until +it proved fatal_. The only way in which the invalid could clear herself +from the suspicion of malingering, as it is called in the army, was +to go on lacing and unlacing, _'till she felt down dead at the royal +feet_." + +Finally Miss Burney's father pays her a visit in this palace prison +when "she told him that she was miserable, that she was worn with +attendance and want of sleep, that she had no comfort in life, nothing +to love, nothing to hope, that her family and friends were to her +as though they were not, and were remembered by her as men remember +the dead. From daybreak to midnight the same killing labor, the same +recreation, more hateful than labor itself, followed each other without +variety, without any interval of liberty or repose." + +Her father's veneration for royalty amounting to idolatry, he could not +bear to remove her from the court--"and, between the dear father and +the sweet Queen, there seemed to be little doubt that some day or other +Frances _would drop down a corpse_. Six months had elapsed since the +interview between the parent and the daughter. The resignation was not +sent in. The sufferer grew worse and worse. She took bark, but it soon +failed to produce a beneficial effect. She was stimulated with wine; +she was soothed with opium, but in vain. Her breath began to fail. The +whisper that she was in a decline spread through the court. The pains +in her side became so severe that she was forced to crawl from the card +table of the old fury, Madame Schwellenberg, to whom she was tethered, +three or four times in an evening, for the purpose of taking hartshorn. +Had she been a negro slave, a humane planter would have excused her +from work. But her Majesty showed no mercy. Thrice a day the accursed +bell still rang; the Queen was still to be dressed for the morning at +seven, and to be dressed for the day at noon, and to be undressed at +midnight." + +At last Miss Burney's father was moved to compassion and allowed her +to write a letter of resignation. "Still I could not," writes Miss +Burney in her diary, "summon courage to present my memorial from seeing +the Queen's entire freedom from such an expectation. For though I was +frequently so ill in her presence that I could hardly stand, I saw she +concluded me, while life remained, inevitably hers." + +"At last, with a trembling hand, the paper was delivered. Then came the +storm. Madame Schwellenberg raved like a maniac. The resignation was +not accepted. The father's fears were aroused, and he declared, in a +letter meant to be shown to the Queen, that his daughter must retire. +The Schwellenberg raged like a wild cat. A scene almost horrible ensued. + +"The Queen then promised that, after the next birthday, Miss Burney +should be set at liberty. But the promise was ill kept; and her Majesty +showed displeasure at being reminded of it." + +At length, however, the prison door was opened, and Frances was free +once more. Her health was restored by traveling, and she returned to +London in health and spirits. Macaulay tells us that she went to visit +the palace, "her _old dungeon, and found her successor already far +on the way to the grave, and kept to strict duty, from morning till +midnight, with a sprained ankle and a nervous fever_." + +An ignorant and unlettered woman would doubtless not have found this +life in the palace tedious, and our sympathy would not have been +aroused for her; for as long as the earth lasts there must be human +beings fitted for every station, and it is supposed, till the end of +all things, there must be cooks, housemaids and dining-room servants, +which will make it never possible for the whole human family to stand +entirely upon the same platform socially and intellectually. And Miss +Burney's wretchedness, which calls forth our sympathy, was not because +she had to perform the duties of waiting-maid, but because to a gifted +and educated woman these duties were uncongenial; and congeniality +means _happiness_; uncongeniality _unhappiness_. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +From the sorrows of Miss Burney in the palace--a striking contrast +with the menials described in our own country homes--I will return to +another charming place on James river--Powhatan Seat--a mile below +Richmond, which had descended in the Mayo family two hundred years. + +Here, it was said, the Indian chief Powhatan had lived, and here was +shown the veritable stone supposed to have been the one upon which +Captain Smith's head was laid, when the Indian princess Pocahontas +rescued him. + +This historic stone, near the parlor window, was only an ugly, dark, +broad, flat stone, but imagination pictured ever around it the Indian +group; Smith's head upon it; the infuriated chief with uplifted club in +the act of dealing the death blow; the grief and shriek of Pocahontas, +as she threw herself upon Smith imploring her father to spare him--a +piercing cry to have penetrated the heart of the savage king! + +Looking out from the parlor window and imagining this savage scene, how +strange a contrast with the picture which met the eye within! Around +the fireside assembled the loveliest family group, where kindness and +affection beamed in every eye, and father, mother, brothers and sisters +were linked together by tenderest devotion and sympathy. + +If natural scenery reflects itself upon the heart no wonder a "holy +calm" rested upon this family, for far down the river the prospect was +peace and tranquility; and many an evening in the summer house on the +river bank, we drank in the beauty of soft blue skies, green isles and +white sails floating in the distance. + +Many in Richmond remember the delightful weddings and parties at +Powhatan Seat, where assembled the elite from Richmond, with an +innumerable throng of cousins, aunts and uncles from Orange and +Culpeper counties. + +On these occasions the house was illuminated by wax-lights issuing from +bouquets of magnolia leaves placed around the walls near the ceiling, +and looking prettier than any glass chandelier. + +We, from a distance, generally stayed a week after the wedding, +becoming, as it were, a part of the family circle; and the bride did +not rush off on a tour as is the fashion now-a-days, but remained +quietly enjoying family, home and friends. + +Another feature I have omitted in describing our weddings and +parties--invariably a part of the picture--was the sea of black faces +surrounding the doors and windows to look on the dancing, hear the +music and afterwards get a good share of the supper. + +Tourists often went to walk around the beautiful grounds at Powhatan--so +neatly kept with sea shells around the flowers, and pleasant seats +under the lindens and magnolias--and to see the historic stone; but +I often thought they knew not what was missed in not knowing--as we +did--the lovely family within. + +But, for us, those rare, beautiful days at Powhatan are gone forever; +for since the war the property has passed into stranger hands, and the +family who once owned it will own it no more. + +During the late war heavy guns were placed in the family burying +ground on this plantation,--a point commanding the river--and here +was interred the child of a distinguished General[6] in the Northern +army--a Virginian, formerly in the United States army--who had married +a member of the Powhatan family. He was expected to make an attack upon +Richmond, and over his child's grave was placed a gun to fire upon +him. Such are the unnatural incidents of civil war. + +About two miles from Powhatan Seat was another beautiful old +place--Mount Erin--the plantation formerly of a family all of whom, +except two sisters had died. The estate becoming involved had to be +sold, which so grieved and distressed these sisters that they passed +hours weeping, if accidentally the name of their old home was mentioned +in their presence. + +Once when we were at Powhatan--and these ladies were among the +guests--a member of the Powhatan family ordered the carriage, and took +my sister and myself to Mount Erin, telling us to keep it a secret when +we returned, for "the sisters," said she, "would neither eat nor sleep +if reminded of their old home." + +A pleasant drive brought us to Mount Erin, and when we saw the box +hedges, gravel-walks and linden trees we were no longer surprised at +the grief of the sisters whose hearts entwined around their old home. +The house was in charge of an old negro woman--the purchaser not +having moved in--who showed us over the grounds; and every shrub and +flower seemed to speak of days gone by. Even the ivy on the old bricks +looked gloomy as if mourning the light, mirth and song departed from +the house forever; and the walks gave back a deadened echo, as if they +wished not to be disturbed by stranger tread. All seemed in a reverie, +dreaming a long sweet dream of the past--and entering into the grief of +the sisters, who lived afterwards many years in a pleasant home, on a +pleasant street in Richmond, with warm friends to serve them, yet their +tears never ceased to flow at mention of Mount Erin. + + * * * * * + +One more plantation picture, and enough will have been described to +show the character of the homes and people on our plantations. + +The last place visited by my sister and myself before the war of 1861, +was "Elkwood," a fine estate in Culpeper county, four miles from the +railroad station. + +It was the last of June. The country was a scene of enchantment, as the +carriage rolled us through dark, cool forests, green meadows, fields of +waving grain; out of the forest into acres of broad leaved corn; across +pebbly-bottomed streams, and along the margin of the Rapidan which +flowed at the base of the hill leading up to the house. + +The house was square and white, and the blinds green as the grass lawn +and trees in the yard. Inside the house, the polished "dry rubbed" +floors clean and cool, refreshed one on entering like a glass of +ice-lemonade on a midsummer's day. The old fashioned furniture against +the walls looked as if it thought too much of itself to be set about +promiscuously over the floor, like modern fauteuils and divans. + +About everything was an air of dignity and repose corresponding with +the manners and appearance of the proprietors, who were called "Uncle +Dick" and "Aunt Jenny"--the _a_ in aunt pronounced very broad. + +"Aunt Jenny" and "Uncle Dick" had no children, but took care of +numerous nieces and nephews; kept their house filled to overflowing +with friends, relatives and strangers, and were revered and beloved by +all. They had no pleasure so great as taking care of other people. They +lived for other people, and made everybody comfortable and happy around +them. From the time "Uncle Dick" had prayers in the morning until +family prayers at bed time they were busy bestowing some kindness. + +"Uncle Dick's" character and manners were of a type so high that one +felt elevated in his presence; and a desire to reach his standard +animated those who knew him. His precept and example were such that all +who followed them might arrive at the highest perfection of Christian +character. + +"Uncle Dick" had requested "Aunt Jenny" when they were married--forty +years before--to have on his table every day, dinner enough for six +more persons than were already in the house, "in case," he said, "he +should meet friends or acquaintances while riding over his plantation +or in the neighborhood, whom he wished to ask home with him to dinner." +This having been always a rule, "Aunt Jenny" never sat at her table +without dinner enough for six more, and her's were no commonplace +dinners; no hasty puddings; no salaratus bread; no soda cakes; no +frozen-starch-ice-cream; no modern shorthand recipes--but genuine old +Virginia cooking. And all who want to know what that was, can find +out all about it in "Aunt Jenny's" book of copied recipes--if it is +extant--or in Mrs. Harrison's, of Brandon. But as neither of these +books may ever be known to the public, their "sum and substance" may be +given in a few words: + +"Have no shams. Procure an abundance of the freshest, richest, _real_ +cream, milk, eggs, butter, lard, best old Madeira wine, all the way +from Madeira, and never use a particle of soda or salaratus about +anything or under any pressure." + +These were the ingredients "Aunt Jenny" used--for "Uncle Dick" had +rare old wine in his cellar which he had brought from Europe, thirty +years before--and every day was a feast day at Elkwood. And the wedding +breakfasts "Aunt Jenny" used to "get up" when one of her nieces married +at her house--as they sometimes did--were beyond description. + +While at Elkwood, observing every day, that the carriage went to the +depot empty, and returned empty, we enquired the reason, and were +informed that "Uncle Dick," ever since the cars had been passing near +his plantation, ordered his coachman to have the carriage every day at +the station, "in case some of his friends might be on the train, and +might like to stop and see him!" + +Another hospitable rule in "Uncle Dick's" house was, that company +must never be kept "waiting" in his parlor, and so anxious was his +young niece to meet his approbation in this as in every particular, +that she had a habit of dressing herself carefully, arranging her +hair beautifully--it was in the days too when smooth hair was +fashionable--before laying down for the afternoon siesta, "in case," +she said, "some one might call, and 'Uncle Dick' had a horror of +visitors waiting." This process of reposing in a fresh muslin dress +and fashionably arranged hair, required a particular and uncomfortable +position, which she seemed not to mind, but dozed in the most precise +manner without rumpling her hair or her dress. + +Elkwood was a favorite place of resort for Episcopal ministers, whom +"Aunt Jenny" and "Uncle Dick" loved to entertain. And here we met the +Rev. Mr. S----, the learned divine, eloquent preacher and charming +companion. He had just returned from a visit to England, where he had +been entertained in palaces. Telling us the incidents of his visit, "I +was much embarrassed at first," said he, "at the thought of attending +a dinner party given in a palace to me,--a simple Virginian,--but on +being announced at the drawing-room door, and entering the company I +felt at once at ease, for they were all ladies and gentlemen--such as I +had known at home, polite, pleasant and without pretence." + +This gentleman's conversational powers were not only bright and +delightful, but also the means of turning many to righteousness; for +religion was one of his chief themes. + +A proof of his genius and eloquence was given in the beautiful +poem recited--without ever having been written--at the centennial +anniversary of old Christ church in Alexandria. This was the church in +which General Washington and his family had worshiped, and around it +clustered many memories. Mr. S., with several others, had been invited +to make an address on the occasion, and one night while thinking about +it an exquisite poem passed through his mind, picturing scene after +scene in the old church. General Washington with his head bowed in +silent prayer; infants at the baptismal font; young men and maidens in +bridal array at the altar, and funeral trains passing through the open +gate. + +On the night of the celebration when his turn came, finding the hour +too late, and the audience too sleepy for his prose address, he +suddenly determined to "dash off" the poem, every word of which came +back to him, although he had never written it. The audience roused up +electrified, and as the recitation proceeded, their enthusiasm reached +the highest pitch. Never had there been such a sensation in the old +church before. And next morning the house at which he was stopping was +besieged by reporters begging "copies" and offering good prices, but +the poem remains unwritten to this day. + +Elkwood--like many other old homes--was burned by the Northern army in +1862, and not a tree or flower remains to mark the spot, for so many +years the abode of hospitality and good cheer. + +In connection with Culpeper it is due here to state that this +county excelled all others in ancient and dilapidated buggies and +carriages--seeming a regular infirmary for all the disabled vehicles +of the Old Dominion. Here their age and infirmities received every +care and consideration, being propped up, tied up and bandaged up in +every conceivable manner; and strangest of all, rarely depositing their +occupants in the road, which was prevented by cautious old gentlemen +riding alongside, who watching out, and discovering the weakest points, +stopped and securely tied up fractured parts with bits of twine, rope +or chain, always carried in buggy or carriage boxes for that purpose. +These surgical operations, although not ornamental, strengthened and +sustained these venerable vehicles, and produced a longevity miraculous. + +Many more sketches might be given of pleasant country homes--worthy +a better pen than mine--for Brandon, Westover, Shirley, Carter Hall, +Lauderdale, Vaucluse, and others, linger in the memory of hundreds +who once knew and loved them. Especially Vaucluse, which although +far removed from railroads, stage coaches and public conveyances was +overflowing with company throughout the year. For the Vaucluse girls +were so bright, so fascinating, so bewitchingly pretty, they attracted +a concourse of visitors, and were sure to be belles wherever they went. + +And many remember the owner of Vaucluse--that pure hearted Christian +and cultivated gentleman, who, late in life, devoted himself to the +Episcopal ministry, and labored faithfully in the Master's cause +preaching in country churches, "without money, and without price." +Surely his reward is in heaven. + + * * * * * + +Besides these well ordered establishments, there were some others +owned by inactive men, who smoked their pipes, read their books, left +everything very much to the management of their negroes and seemed +content to let things tumble down around them. + +One of these places we used to call "Topsy-Turvy Castle," and another +"Haphazard." + +At such places the negro quarters--instead of neat rows of white +cabins in rear of the house, as on other plantations--occupied a +conspicuous place near the front, and consisted of a solid, long, ugly +brick structure, with swarms of negroes around the windows and doors, +appearing to have nothing in the world to do, and never to have done +anything. + +Everything had a "shackling," lazy appearance. The master was +always--it appeared to us--reading a newspaper in the front porch, and +never observing anything that was going on. The house was so full of +idle negroes standing about the halls and stairways, one could scarcely +make one's way up or down stairs. Everything needed repair, from the +bed you slept upon, to the family coach which took you to church. + +Few of the chairs had all their rounds and legs; and when completely +disabled were sent to the garret, where they accumulated in great +numbers, and remained until pressing necessity induced the master to +raise his eyes from his paper long enough to order "Dick" to, "take the +four-horse-wagon and carry the chairs to be mended." + +A multitude of "kinsfolk and acquaintance" usually congregated +here. And at one place, in order to accommodate so many, there were +four beds in a chamber. These high bedsteads presented a remarkable +appearance--the head of one going into the side of another, the foot of +one into the head of another, and so on, looking as if they had never +been "placed," but their curious juxtaposition had been the result of +some earthquake. + +[One of these houses is said to have been greatly improved in +appearance during the war by the passage of a cannon ball through the +upper story, where a window had been needed for many years.] + +But the owners of these places were so genuinely good, one could not +complain of them even for such carelessness. For everybody was welcome +to everything. You might stop the plows if you wanted a horse, or take +the carriage and drive for a week's journey, and, in short, impose upon +these good people in every conceivable way. + +Yet in spite of this topsy-turvy management--a strange fact connected +with such places--they invariably had good light bread, good mutton, +and the usual abundance on their tables. + +We suppose it must have been a recollection of such plantations which +induced the negro to exclaim, on hearing another sing, "Ole Virginny +nubber tire." "Umph! ole _Virginny_ nubber tire, kase she nubber done +nuthin' fur to furtigue herself!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +Confining these reminiscences strictly to plantation life, no mention +has been made of the families we knew and visited in some of our +cities, whose kindness to their slaves was unmistakable, and who owning +only a small number could better afford to indulge them. + +At one of these houses, this indulgence was such that the white family +were very much under the control of their servants. + +The owner of this house--an eminent lawyer--was a man of taste and +learning, whose legal ability attracted many admirers, and whose +refinement, culture and generous nature won enthusiastic friends. + +Although considered the owner of his house, it was a mistake--if +ownership means the right to govern one's own property--for beyond +his law papers, library and the privilege of paying all the bills, +this gentleman had no "rights" there whatever; his house, kitchen and +premises being under the entire command of "Aunt Fanny," the cook--a +huge mulatto woman whose word was law, and whose voice thundered abuse +if any dared to disobey her. + +The master, mistress, family and visitors all stood in awe of +"Aunt Fanny," and yet could not do without her, for she made such +unapproachable light bread, and conducted the affairs of the place with +such distinguished ability. + +Her own house was in the yard, and had been built especially for her +convenience. Her furniture was polished mahogany, and she kept most +delicious preserves, pickles and sweet meats of her own manufacture +with which to regale her friends and favorites. As we came under that +head, we were often treated to these when we went in to see her after +her day's work was over, or on Sundays. + +Although she "raved and stormed" considerably--which she told us she +"was obliged to do, _honey_, to keep things straight"--she had the +tenderest regard for her master and mistress, and often said: "If it +warnt for _me_, they'd have nuthin' in the world, and things here would +go to destruction." + +So Aunt Fanny "kept up this family," as she said, for many years, and +many amusing incidents might be related of her. + +On one occasion, her master after a long and excited political +contest was elected to the Legislature. Before all the precincts had +been heard from--believing himself defeated--he retired to rest, and +being naturally feeble, was quite worn out. But at midnight a great +cry arose at his gate, where a multitude assembled, screaming and +hurrahing. At first he was uncertain whether they were friends to +congratulate him on his victory, or the opposite party to hang him--as +they had threatened--for voting an appropriation to the Danville +railroad. It soon appeared they had come to congratulate him, when +great excitement prevailed, loud cheers and cries for a speech. The +doors were opened and the crowed rushed in. The hero soon appeared and +delivered one of his graceful and satisfactory speeches. + +Still the crowd remained cheering and "storming" about the house, until +Aunt Fanny, who had made her appearance in full dress, considering +the excitement had been kept up long enough, and that the master's +health was too delicate for any further demonstration, determined to +disperse them. Rising to her full height, waving her hand and speaking +majestically she said: "Gentlemen! Mars Charles is a feeble pusson, and +it is time for him to take his res'. He's been kep' 'wake long enough +now, and it's time for me to close up dese doors!" + +With this the crowd dispersed and "Aunt Fanny" remained mistress of the +situation, declaring that, "ef she hadn't come forward and 'spersed dat +crowd, Mars Charles would have been a dead man befo' mornin'!" + +"Aunt Fanny" kept herself liberally supplied with pocket money--one +of her chief sources of revenue being soap, which she made in large +quantities and sold at high prices; especially what she called her +"butter soap," which was in great demand, and which was made from all +the butter which she did not consider fresh enough for the delicate +appetites of her mistress and master. She appropriated one of the +largest basement rooms, had it shelved and filled it with soap. In +order to carry on business so extensively huge logs were kept blazing +on the kitchen hearth under the soap pot day and night. During the war, +wood becoming scarce and expensive, "Mars Charles" found it drained his +purse to keep the kitchen fire supplied. + +Thinking the matter over one day in his library, and concluding it +would greatly lessen his expenses if Aunt Fanny could be prevailed +upon to discontinue her soap trade, he sent for her, and said, _very +mildly_: "Fanny, I have a proposition to make you." + +"What is it, Mars Charles?" + +"Well Fanny, as my expenses are very heavy now, if you will give up +your soap boiling for this year, I will agree to pay you fifty dollars." + +With arms akimbo, and looking at him with astonishment, but firmness in +her eye, she replied: "Couldn't possibly do it, Mars Charles. Because +_soap_, sir, _soap's_ my _main_-tain-ance!" + +With this she strided majestically out of the room. "Mars Charles" said +no more but continued paying fabulous sums for wood, while "Aunt Fanny" +continued boiling her soap. + +This woman not only ordered, but kept all the family supplies, her +mistress having no disposition to keep the keys or in any way interfere +with her. + +But at last her giant strength gave way, and she sickened and died. +Having no children she left her property to one of her fellow servants. + +Several days before her death, we were sitting with her mistress and +master in a room overlooking her house. Her room was crowded with +negroes who had come to perform their religious rites around the +death bed. Joining hands they performed a savage dance, shouting +wildly around her bed. This was horrible to hear and see, especially +as in this family every effort had been made to instruct their negro +dependents in the truths of religion; and one member of the family, who +spent the greater part of her life in prayer, had for years prayed for +"Aunt Fanny," and tried to instruct her in the true faith. But although +an intelligent woman, she seemed to cling to the superstitions of her +race. + +After the savage dance and rites were over, and while we sat talking +about it, a gentleman--the friend and minister of the family--came in. +We described to him what we had just witnessed, and he deplored it +bitterly with us, saying he had read and prayed with "Aunt Fanny" and +tried to make her see the truth in Jesus. He then marked some passages +in the Bible, and asked me to go and read them to her. I went, and +said to her: "Aunt Fanny, here are some verses Mr. Mitchell has marked +for me to read to you, and he hopes you will pray to the Savior as he +taught you." Then said I, "we are afraid the noise and dancing have +made you worse." + +Speaking feebly, she replied: "Honey, that kind of religion suits us +black folks better than your kind. What suits Mars Charles' mind, don't +suit mine." + +And thus died the most intelligent of her race--one who had been +surrounded by pious persons who had been praying for her, and +endeavoring to instruct her. She had also enjoyed through life not only +the comforts, but many of the luxuries of earth--and when she died, her +mistress and master lost a sincere friend. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +This chapter will show how "Virginia beat-biscuit" procured for a man a +home and friends in Paris. + +One morning in the spring of 18-- a singular looking man presented +himself at our house. He was short of stature, and enveloped in furs +although the weather was not cold. Everything about him was gold which +could be gold, and so we called him "the gold-tipped-man." He called +for my mother, and when she went in the parlor said to her: + +"Madam I have been stopping several weeks at the hotel in the town of +L----, where I met a boy--Robert--who tells me he belongs to you. As +I want such a servant, and he is anxious to travel, I come, at his +request, to ask if you will let me buy him and take him to Europe. I +will pay any price." + +"I could not think of it," she replied. "I have determined never to +sell one of my servants." + +"But," continued the man, "he is anxious to go, and has sent me to beg +you." + +"It is impossible," said she, "for he is a great favorite with us, and +the only child his mother has." + +Finding her determined, the man took his leave, and went back to the +town, twenty-five miles off; but returned next day accompanied by +Robert, who entreated his mother and mistress to let him go. + +Said my mother to him: "Would you leave your mother and go with a +stranger to a foreign land?" + +"Yes, madam. I love my mother, and you and all your family--you have +always been so good to me--but I want to travel, and this gentleman +says he will give me plenty of money and be very kind to me." + +Still she refused. But the boy's mother, finally yielding to his +entreaty, consented, and persuaded her mistress, saying, "if he is +willing to leave me, and so anxious to go I will give him up." + +Knowing how distressed we all would be at parting with him, he went off +without coming to say "good bye," and wrote his mother from New York +what day he would sail with his new master for Europe. + +At first his mother received from him presents and letters, telling her +he was very much delighted, and "had as much money as he knew what to +do with." But after a few months he ceased to write, and we could hear +nothing from him. + +At length, when eighteen months had elapsed, one day we were astonished +to see him return home, dressed in the best Parisian style. We were +rejoiced to see him again, and his own joy at getting back cannot be +described. He ran over the yard and house examining everything, and +said: "Mistress, I have seen many fine places in Europe, but none to me +as pretty as this, and I have seen no lady equal to you. And I have had +no water to drink as good as this--and I have dreamed about every chair +and table in this house, and wondered if I would ever get back here +again." + +He then gave us a sketch of his life since the "gold-tipped" man had +become his master. Arrived in Paris, his master and himself took +lodgings at the Hotel de Ville. A teacher was employed to come every +day and instruct Robert in French. His master kept him well supplied +with money, never giving him less than fifty dollars at a time. His +duties were light, and he had ample time to study and amuse himself. + +After enjoying such elegant ease for eight or nine months, he waked +one morning and found himself deserted and penniless! His master had +absconded in the night, leaving no vestige of himself except a gold +dressing case and a few toilette articles of gold, which were seized by +the proprietor of the hotel in payment of his bill. + +Poor Robert, without money and without a friend in this great city, +knew not where to turn. In vain he wished himself back in his old home. + +"If I could only find some Virginian to whom I could appeal," said he +to himself. And suddenly it occurred to him that the American Minister, +Mr. Mason, was a Virginian. When he remembered this his heart was +cheered, and he lost no time in finding Mr. Mason's house. + +Presenting himself before the American Minister, he related his story, +which was not at first believed. "For," said Mr. Mason, "there are so +many impostors in Paris, it is impossible to believe you." + +Robert protested he had been a slave in Virginia--had been deserted by +his owner in Paris, and begged Mr. Mason to keep him at his house, and +take care of him. + +Then Mr. M. asked many questions about people and places in Virginia, +all which were accurately answered. Finally, he said: "I knew well the +Virginia gentleman who was, you say, your master. What was the color of +his hair?" This was also satisfactorily answered, and Robert began to +hope he was believed, when Mr. Mason continued: + +"Now there is one thing, which if you can do, will convince me you +came from Virginia. Go in my kitchen and make me some old Virginia +beat-biscuit, and I will believe everything you have said!" + +"I think I can do that, sir," said Robert, and going in the kitchen, +rolled up his sleeves and set to work. + +This was a desperate moment, for he had never made a biscuit in his +life, although he had often watched the proceeding as "Black Mammy," +the cook at home, used to beat, roll and manipulate the dough on her +biscuit box. + +"If I only could make them look like her's!" thought he, as he beat, +and rolled, and worked and finally stuck the dough all over with a +fork. Then cutting them out, and putting them to bake, he watched them +with nervous anxiety until they resembled those he had often placed on +the table at home. + +Astonished and delighted with his success, he carried them to the +American Minister, who exclaimed: "Now I _know_ you came from old +Virginia!" + +Robert was immediately installed in Mr. M.'s house, where he remained a +faithful attendant until Mr. Mason's death, when he returned with the +family to America. + +Arriving at New York he thought it impossible to get along by himself, +and determined to find his master. For this purpose he employed +a policeman, and together they succeeded in recovering "the lost +master"--this being a singular instance of a "slave in pursuit of his +fugitive master." + +The "gold-tipped" man expressed much pleasure at his servant's +fidelity, and handing him a large sum of money desired him to return +to Paris, pay his bill, bring back his gold dressing box and toilette +articles, and, as a reward for his fidelity, take as much money as he +wished and travel over the continent. + +Robert obeyed these commands, returned to Paris, paid the bills, +traveled over the chief places in Europe and then came again to New +York. Here he was appalled to learn that his master had been arrested +for forgery, and imprisoned in Philadelphia. It was ascertained that +the forger was an Englishman and connected with an underground forging +establishment in Paris. Finding himself about to be detected in Paris +he fled to New York, and other forgeries having been discovered in +Philadelphia, he had been arrested. + +Robert lost no time in reporting himself at the prison, and was grieved +to find his master in such a place. + +Determining to do what he could to relieve the man who had been a good +friend to him, he went to a Philadelphia lawyer, and said to him: "Sir, +the man who is in prison, bought me in Virginia, and has been a kind +master to me; I have no money, but if you will do your best to have him +acquitted, I will return to the South, sell myself and send you the +money." + +"It is a bargain," replied the lawyer. "Send me the money, and I will +save your master from the penitentiary." + +Robert returned to Baltimore, sold himself to a Jew in that city, +and sent the money to the lawyer in Philadelphia. After this he was +bought by a distinguished Southern Senator--afterwards a General in the +Southern army--with whom he remained, and to whom he rendered valuable +services during the war. + + * * * * * + +Other instances were known of negroes who preferred being sold into +slavery rather than take care of themselves. There were some in our +immediate neighborhood, who finding themselves emancipated by their +master's will, begged the owners of neighboring plantations to buy +them, saying they preferred having "white people to take care of them." +On the "Wheatly" plantation--not far from us--there is still living an +old negro who sold himself in this way, and cannot be persuaded _now_ +to accept his freedom. After the war, when all the negroes were freed +by the Federal Government, and our people too much impoverished longer +to clothe and feed them, this old man refused to leave the plantation, +but clung to his cabin, although his wife and family moved off and +begged him to accompany them. + +"No," said he, "I nuver will leave this plantation, and go off to +starve with free niggers." + +Not even when his wife was very sick and dying could he be persuaded to +go off and stay one night with her. He had long been too old to work, +but his former owners indulged him by giving him his cabin, and taking +care of him through all the poverty which has fallen upon our land +since the war. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +O, bright winged peace! Long did'st thou rest o'er the homes of old +Virginia; while cheerful wood fires blazed on hearthstones in parlor +and cabin, reflecting contented faces with hearts full of "peace and +good will towards men!" No thought entered there of harm to others; no +fear of evil to ourselves. Whatsoever things were honest; whatsoever +things were pure; whatsoever things were gentle; whatsoever things +were of good report, we were accustomed to hear 'round these parlor +firesides; and often would our grandmothers say: + +"Children our's is a blessed country! There never will be another war! +The Indians have long ago been driven out, and it has been nearly a +hundred years since the English yoke was broken!" + +The history of our country was contained in two pictures: "The last +battle with the Indians" and "The surrender of Lord Cornwallis at +Yorktown." + +No enemies within or without our borders, and peace established among +us forever! Such was our belief. And we wondered that men should get +together and talk their dry politics, seeing that General Washington +and Thomas Jefferson--two of our Virginia plantation men--had +established a government to last as long as the earth, and which could +not be improved. Yet they _would_ talk--these politicians--around +our parlor fire, where often our patience was exhausted hearing +discussions, in which we could not take interest, about the "Protective +Tariff;" the "Bankrupt Law;" the "Distribution of Public Lands;" the +"Resolutions of '98;" the "Missouri Compromise," and the "Monroe +Doctrine." These topics seemed to afford them intense pleasure and +satisfaction, for as the "sparks fly upward" the thoughts of men turn +to politics. + +Feeling no ill will towards any tribe, people or nation on the globe, +and believing that all felt a friendly regard for us, how could we +believe, when we heard it, that a nation not far off--to whom we had +yearly "carried up" a tithe of all we possessed, and whose coffers +we helped to fill--were subscribing large sums of money to destroy +us? We could not, would not believe it. Yet we were told that this +nation--towards whom we felt no animosity--brought up their children to +believe that they would do God service by reviling and persecuting us. +Nay more--that their ministers of the gospel preached unto them thus: + +"Thou shalt carry fire and sword into the land that lieth South of you. +Thou shalt make it a desolate waste. Thou shalt utterly root out and +annihilate the people that they be no more a people. Thou shalt write +books. Thou shalt form societies for the purpose of planning the best +means of attacking secretly and destroying this people. Thou shalt send +emissaries. Thou shalt stir up the nations abroad against them. Thou +shalt prepare weapons of war, and in every way incite their negroes to +rise at night and slay them." + +Around our firesides we asked: "Can this be true?" + +Alas! alas! it was true; and the first expedition sent against us was +led by a man from the Adirondack Mountains in the North, who in 1859, +with a small band armed with pikes, clubs and guns, attacked one of our +villages at night.[7] + +The news of this blanched the cheeks of our maidens, and the children +nestled closer round their mother's knee at evening twilight, for who +could tell what might befall our plantation homes before morning! The +hearts of women and children grew sick and faint. But the hearts of +our men and boys grew brave and strong--and would they have been the +countrymen of Washington had they not thought of war? + +About this time we had a visit from two old friends of our family--a +distinguished Southern Senator and the Secretary of War--both +accustomed to swaying multitudes by the power of their eloquence--which +lost none of its force and charm in our little home circle. We listened +with admiration as they discussed the political issues of the day--no +longer a subject uninteresting or unintelligible to us, for every +word was of vital importance. Their theme was, "the best means of +protecting our plantation homes and firesides." Even the smallest +children now comprehended the greatest politicians. + +Now came the full flow and tide of Southern eloquence--real, +soul-inspiring eloquence! + +Many possessing this gift were in the habit of visiting us at that +time; and all dwelt upon one theme--the secession of Virginia--with +glowing words from hearts full of enthusiasm; all agreeing it was +better for States, as well as individuals, to separate rather than +quarrel or fight. + +But there was one--our oldest and best friend--who differed with these +gentlemen; and his eloquence was gentle and effective. Unlike his +friends whose words, earnest and electric, overwhelmed all around, this +gentleman's power was in his composure of manner without vehemence. His +words were well selected without seeming to have been studied; each +sentence was short, but contained a gem, like a solitaire diamond. + +For several months this gentleman remained untouched by the fiery +eloquence of his friends--like the Hebrew children in the burning +furnace. Nothing affected him until one day, the President of the +United States demanded by telegraph 50,000 Virginians to join an army +against South Carolina. And then this gentleman felt convinced it was +not the duty of Virginians to join an army against their friends. + +About this time we had some very interesting letters from the Hon. +Edward Everett--who had been for several years a friend and agreeable +correspondent--giving us his views on the subject, and very soon after +this all communication between the North and South ceased, except +through the blockade, for four long years. + +And then came the long dark days; the days when the sun seemed to shine +no more; when the eyes of wives, mothers and sisters were heavy with +weeping; when men sat up late in the night studying military tactics; +when grief-burdened hearts turned to God in prayer. + +The intellectual gladiators who had discoursed eloquently of war around +our fireside, buckled their armor on and went forth to battle. + +Band after band of brave-hearted, bright-faced youths from Southern +plantation homes came to bleed and die on Virginia soil; and for four +long years old Virginia was one great camping ground, hospital and +battle field. The roar of cannon and the clash of arms resounded over +the land. The groans of the wounded and dying went up from hillside and +valley. The hearts of women and children were sad and careworn. But +God, to whom they prayed, protected them in our plantation homes--where +no white men or even boys remained--all having gone into the army. +Only the negro slaves stayed with us, and these were encouraged by our +enemies to rise and slay us; but God in His mercy willed otherwise. +Although advised to burn our property and incited by the enemy to +destroy their former owners, these negro slaves remained faithful, +manifesting kindness, and in many instances protecting the white +families and plantations during their masters' absence. + +Oh! the long terrible nights helpless women and children passed, in our +plantation homes; the enemy encamped around them; the clash of swords +heard against the doors and windows; the report of guns on the air +which might be sending death to their loved ones. + +But why try to describe the horrors of such nights? Who that has not +experienced them can know how we felt? Who can imagine the heart +sickness, when stealing to an upper window at midnight we watched the +fierce flames rising from some neighboring home, expecting our own to +be destroyed by the enemy before daylight in the same way? + +Such pictures, dark and fearful, were the only ones familiar to us in +old Virginia those four dreadful years. + +At last the end came--the end which seemed to us saddest of all. But +God knoweth best. Though "through fiery trials" He had caused us to +pass, He had not forsaken us. For was not His mercy signally shown in +the failure of the enemy to incite our negro slaves to insurrection +during the war? Through His mercy those who were expected to become +our enemies, remained our friends. And in our own home, surrounded by +the enemy those terrible nights, our only guard was a faithful negro +servant who slept in the house, and went out every hour to see if we +were in immediate danger; while his mother--the kind old nurse--sat all +night in a rocking chair in our room, ready to help us. Had we not then +amidst all our sorrows much to be thankful for? + +Among such scenes one of the last pictures photographed on my memory, +was that of a negro boy very ill with typhoid fever in a cabin not +far off, and who became greatly alarmed when a brisk firing commenced +between the contending armies across our house. His first impulse--as +it always had been in trouble--was to fly to his mistress for +protection; and jumping from his bed--his head bandaged with a white +cloth, and looking like one just from the grave--he passed through the +firing as fast as he could, screaming: "O, mistress, take care of me! +Put me in your closet, and hide me from the Yankees!" He fell at the +door exhausted. My mother had him brought in and a bed made for him in +the library. She nursed him carefully, but he died in a day or two from +fright and exhaustion. + +Soon after this was the surrender at Appomattox, and negro slavery +ended forever. + +All was ruin around us; tobacco factories burned down, sugar and +cotton plantations destroyed. The negroes fled from these desolated +places, crowded together in wretched shanties on the outskirts of +towns and villages, and found themselves, for the first time in their +lives, without enough to eat, and with no class of people particularly +interested about their food, health or comfort. Rations were furnished +them a short time by the United States Government, with promises of +money and land, which were never fulfilled. Impoverished by the war, it +was a relief to us no longer to have the responsibility of supporting +them. This would indeed have been impossible in our starving condition. + +Twelve years have passed since they became free, but they have not, +during this time, advanced in intelligence or comfort. Wanting the care +of their owners, they die more frequently; and, it is thought,--by +those who have studied the subject--that abandoned to themselves, they +are returning to the superstitions of their forefathers. A missionary +recently returned from Africa, and witnessing here their religious +rites, says they are the same he saw practiced before the idols in +Africa. + +They still have a strange belief in what they call "tricking," and +often the most intelligent, when sick, will say they have been +"tricked," for which they have a regular treatment and "trick doctors" +among themselves. This "tricking" we cannot explain, and only know that +when one negro became angry with another, he would bury in front of his +enemy's cabin door a bottle filled with pieces of snakes, spiders, bits +of tadpole, and other curious substances; and the party expecting to be +"tricked," would hang up an old horse shoe outside of his door to ward +off the "evil spirits." + +Since alienated from their former owners they are, as a general thing, +more idle and improvident; and, unfortunately, the tendency of their +political teaching has been to make them antagonistic to the better +class of white people, which renders it difficult for them to be +properly instructed. That such animosity should exist towards those who +could best understand and help them, is to be deplored. For the true +negro character cannot be fully comprehended or described, but by those +who--like ourselves--have always lived with them. + +At present their lives are devoted to a religious excitement which +demoralizes them, there seeming to be no connection between their +religion and morals. In one of their Sabbath schools is a teacher, who +although often arrested for stealing, continues to hold a high position +in the church. + +Their improvidence has passed into a proverb--many being truly objects +of charity; and whoever would now write a true tale of poverty and +wretchedness, may take for the hero "Old Uncle Tom without a cabin." +For "Uncle Tom" of the olden time in his cabin with a blazing log fire +and plenty of corn bread, and the Uncle Tom of to-day, are pictures of +very different individuals. + +And this chapter ends my reminiscences of an era soon to be forgotten, +and which will perish under the heel of modern progress. It is a +faithful memorial. Would that it might rescue from oblivion some of the +characters worthy to be remembered! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The scenes connected with the late war will recall to the mind of +every Southern man and woman the name of Robert E. Lee--a name which +will be loved and revered as long as home or fireside remains in old +Virginia--and which sets the crowning glory on the list of illustrious +men from plantation homes. Admiration and enthusiasm naturally belong +to victory; but the man must be rare indeed, who in defeat, like +General Lee, received the applause of his countrymen. + +It was not alone his valor, his handsome appearance, his commanding +presence, his perfect manner, which won the admiration of his +fellow-men. There was something above and beyond all these--his true +Christian character. Trust in God ennobled his every word and action. +Among the grandest of human conquerors was he, for early enlisting as +a soldier of the cross--to fight against the world, the flesh and the +devil--he fought the "good fight" and the victor's crown awaited him in +the "kingdom not made with hands." + +Trust in God kept him calm in victory as in defeat. When I remember +General Lee during the war, in his family circle at Richmond--then at +the height of his renown--his manner, voice and conversation were the +same as when, a year after the surrender, he came to make my mother a +visit from his Lexington home. + +His circumstances and surroundings were now changed--no longer the +stars and epaulets adorned his manly form; but dressed in a simple suit +of pure white linen, he looked a king, and adversity had wrought no +change in his character, manner, or conversation. + +To reach our house he made a journey--on his old war horse, +"Traveler"--forty miles across the mountains, describing which, on the +night of his arrival, he said: + +"To-day an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything that +has happened for a long time. As I was riding over the most desolate +mountain region, where not even a cabin could be seen, I was surprised +to find, on a sudden turn in the road, two little girls playing on a +large rock. They were very poorly clad, and after looking a moment at +me, began to run away. 'Children,' said I, 'don't run away. If you +could know _who_ I am, you would know that I am the last man in the +world for anybody to run from now.' + +"'But we do know you,' they replied. + +"'You never saw me before,' I said, 'for I never passed along here.' + +"'But we do know you,' they said, 'And we've got your picture up yonder +in the house, and you are General Lee! And we ain't dressed clean +enough to see you.' + +"With this they scampered off to a poor log hut on the mountain side." + +It was gratifying to him to find that even in this lonely mountain hut +the children had been taught to know and revere him. + +He told us, too, of a man he met the same day in a dense forest who +recognized him, and throwing up his hat in the air, said: "General, +_please_ let me cheer you," and fell to cheering with all his lungs! + + * * * * * + +My last recollections of General Lee, when making a visit of several +weeks at his house, the year before his death--although not coming +properly under the head of "plantation reminiscences"--may not be +inappropriate here. + +It has been said that a man is never a "hero to his valet;" but this +could not have been said of General Lee, for those most intimately +connected with him could not fail to see continually in his bearing and +character something above the ordinary level, something of the hero. + +At the time of my visit the commencement exercises of the College, of +which he was President, were going on. His duties were necessarily +onerous. Sitting up late at night with the board of visitors, and +attending to every detail with his conscientious particularity, there +was little time for him to rest. Yet every morning of that busy week +he was ready, with his prayer-book under his arm, when the church bell +called its members to sun-rise service. + +It is pleasant to recall all he said at the breakfast, dinner and tea +table, where in his hospitality he always insisted upon bringing all +who chanced to be at his house at those hours--on business or on social +call.[8] + +This habit kept his table filled with guests, who received from him +elegant courtesy. + +Only once did I hear him speak regretfully of the past. It was one +night when sitting by him on the porch in the moonlight, he said to me, +his thoughts turning to his early childhood: + +"It was not my mother's wish that I should receive a military +education, and I ought to have taken her advice, for," he said very +sadly, "my education did not fit me for this civil life." + +In this no one could agree with him, for it seemed to all that he +adorned and satisfactorily filled every position in life, civil or +military. + +There was something in his manner which naturally pleased every one +without his making an effort; at the same time a dignity and reserve +which commanded respect and precluded anything like undue familiarity. +All desirable qualities seemed united in him to render him popular. + +It was wonderful to observe--in the evenings when his parlors were +overflowing with people young and old, from every conceivable +place--how by a word, a smile, a shake of the hand he managed to give +_all_ pleasure and satisfaction, each going away charmed with him. + +The applause of men excited in him no vanity; for those around soon +learned that the slightest allusion or compliment, in his presence, to +his valor or renown, instead of pleasing, rather offended him. Without +vanity, he was equally without selfishness. + +One day, observing several quaint articles of furniture about his +house, and asking Mrs. Lee where they came from, she told me that an +old lady in New York city--of whom neither herself nor the General had +ever before heard--concluded to break up housekeeping. Having no family +and not wishing to sell or remove her furniture to a boarding house, +she determined to give it to "the _greatest living man_," and that man +was General Lee. + +She wrote a letter asking his acceptance of the present, requesting +that, if his house was already furnished and he had no room, he would +use the articles about his College. + +The boxes arrived. But--such was his reluctance at receiving +gifts--weeks passed and he neither had them opened or brought to his +house from the express office. + +Finally, as their house was quite bare of furniture, Mrs. Lee begged +him to allow her to have them opened, and he consented. + +First there was among the contents a beautiful carpet large enough +for two rooms, at which she was delighted, as they had none. But the +General, seeing it, quickly said: "That is the very thing for the floor +of the new chapel! It must be put there." + +Next were two sofas and a set of chairs. "The very things we want," +again exclaimed the General, "for the platform of the new chapel!" + +Then they unpacked a side-board. "This will do _very well_," said +the General, "to be placed in the basement of the chapel to hold the +College papers!" + +And so with everything the old lady sent, only keeping for his own +house the articles which could not be possibly used for the College or +chapel--a quaint work-table, an ornamental clock and some old fashioned +preserve dishes--although his own house was then bare enough, and the +old lady had particularly requested that only those articles which they +did not need should go to the College. + +The recollection of this visit, although reviving many pleasant hours, +is very sad, for it was the last time I saw the dear, kind face of Mrs. +Lee; of whom the General once said when one of us, alluding to him, +used the word "hero:" "My dear, _Mrs._ Lee is the hero. For although +deprived of the use of her limbs, by suffering, and unable for ten +years to walk I have never heard her murmur or utter one complaint." + +And the General spoke truly, Mrs. Lee was a heroine. With gentleness, +kindness and true feminine delicacy, she had strength of mind and +character a man might have envied. Her mind well stored and cultivated +made her interesting in conversation; and a simple cordiality of manner +made her beloved by all who met her. + +During this last visit she loved to tell about her early days at +Arlington--her own and her ancestors' plantation home--and in one of +these conversations gave me such a beautiful sketch of her mother--Mrs. +Custis--that I wish her every word could be remembered that I might +write it here. + +Mrs. Custis was a woman of saintly piety, her devotion to good works +having long been a theme with all in that part of Virginia. She had +only one child--Mrs. Lee--and possessed a very large fortune. In early +life she felt that God had given her a special mission, which was to +take care of and teach the three hundred negroes she had inherited. + +"Believing this," said Mrs. Lee to me, "my mother devoted the best +years of her life to teaching these negroes, for which purpose she had +a school house built in the yard, and gave her life up to this work; +and I think it an evidence of the ingratitude of their race, that +although I have long been afflicted, only one of those negroes has +written to enquire after me, or offered to nurse me." + +These last years of Mrs. Lee's life were passed in much suffering, +being unable to move any part of her body except her hands and head. +Yet her time was devoted to working for her church. Her fingers were +always busy with fancy work, painting or drawing--she was quite an +accomplished artist--which were sold for the purpose of repairing and +beautifying the church in sight of her window, and as much an object +of zeal and affection with her, as the chapel was with the General. + +Indeed the whole family entered into the General's enthusiasm about +this chapel--just then completed--especially his daughter Agnes, with +whom I often went there, little thinking it was so soon to be her place +of burial. + +In a few short years all three--General Lee, his wife and daughter--were +laid here to rest, and this chapel they had loved so well became their +tomb. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +All plantation reminiscences resemble a certain patch-work, made when +we were children, of bright pieces joined with black squares. The black +squares were not pretty, but if left out, the character of the quilt +was lost. And so with the black faces, if left out of our home pictures +of the past, the character of the picture is destroyed. + +What I have written is a simple record of facts in my experience +without an imaginary scene or character; intended for the descendants +of those who owned slaves in the South, and who may in future wish +to know something of the high-toned character and virtues of their +ancestors. + +The pictures are strictly true, and should it be thought by any that +the brightest have alone been selected, I can only say, I knew no +others. + +It would not be possible for any country to be entirely exempt from +crime and wickedness; and here, too, these existed; for prisons, +penitentiaries and courts of justice were, as elsewhere, important; but +it is a sincere belief that the majority of Southern people were true +and good. And that they have accomplished more than any other nation +towards civilizing and elevating the negro race, may be shown from the +following paragraph in a late magazine: + +"From a very early date the French had their establishment on the +Western coast of Africa. In 1364 their ships visited that portion of +the world. But with all this long intercourse with the white man the +natives have profited little. _Five centuries_ have not civilized them, +so as to be able to build up institutions of their own. Yet the French +have always succeeded better than the English with the negro and Indian +element." + +Civilization and education are slow; for, says a modern writer: + +"After the death of Roman intellectual activity, the seventh and eighth +centuries were justly called dark. If Christianity was to be one of +the factors in producing the present splendid enlightenment, she had +no time to lose, and she lost no time. She was the only power at that +day that could begin the work of enlightenment. And starting at the +very bottom, she wrought for _nine hundred years_ alone. The materials +she had to work upon, were stubborn and unmalleable. _For one must be +somewhat civilized to have a taste for knowledge at all; and one must +know something to be civilized at all._ She had to carry on the double +work of civilizing and educating. Her progress was necessarily slow at +first. _But after some centuries_ it began to increase in arithmetical +progression until the sixteenth century." + +Then our ancestors performed a great work--the work allotted them +by God, civilizing and elevating an inferior race in the scale of +intelligence and comfort. That this race may continue to improve, and +finally be the means of carrying the gospel into their native Africa, +should be the prayer of every earnest Christian. + +Never again will the negro race find a people so kind and true to them +as the Southerners have been. For, said a gentleman the other day, who +lives in New York, "In the Northern cities white labor is preferred, +and the negroes are to be found on the outskirts, poor, wretched and +friendless." + +There is much in our lives not intended for us to comprehend or +explain; but believing that nothing happens by chance, and that our +forefathers have done their duty in the "place it had pleased God to +call them," let us cherish their memory, and remember that the Lord God +Omnipotent reigneth. + + For He who rules each wondrous star, + And marks the feeble sparrow's fall + Controls the destiny of man, + And guides events however small. + + Man's place of birth; his home; his friends, + Are planned and fixed by God alone-- + "Life's lot is cast"--e'en death He sends + For some wise purpose of His own. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] Rev. G. W. Leyburn. + +[2] John Randolph, of Roanoke. + +[3] John Preston, afterwards Governor of Virginia. + +[4] On the route to "Rustic" was a small village called "Liberty," +approaching which, and hearing the name, "English Louis" swore he would +not pass through any such "---- little Republican town," and turning +his horses travelled many miles out of his way to avoid it. + +[5] From this vicinity went nine ministers, who were eminent in their +several churches; two Episcopal Bishops, one Methodist Bishop, three +distinguished Presbyterian and three Baptist divines of talent and fame. + +[6] General Scott. + +[7] Harpers Ferry. + +[8] Here was seen the Mount Vernon silver, which had descended to Mrs. +General Washington's great-grandson, General Custis Lee, and which +was miraculously preserved during the war, having been concealed in +different places--and once was buried near Lexington in a barn, which +was occupied by the enemy several days. + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as + possible, including inconsistent hyphenation. + + The following is a list of changes made to the original. + The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. + + Page 12: + + small servants, who speedily gat them into their clean aprons, + small servants, who speedily got them into their clean aprons, + + Page 16: + + Every inch of mahogony was waxed and rubbed to the highest state + Every inch of mahogany was waxed and rubbed to the highest state + + Page 20: + + and which always looked so pretty on the mahogony. + and which always looked so pretty on the mahogany. + + Page 29: + + "Oh!" replied another, the idea of us poor Virginia girls taking + "Oh!" replied another, "the idea of us poor Virginia girls taking + + Page 30: + + or by the gardener to direct the plauting of certain seeds or roots + or by the gardener to direct the planting of certain seeds or roots + + Page 34: + + not only to furnish their masters table with the choicest meats, + not only to furnish their master's table with the choicest meats, + + Page 39: + + four horses, with footman, postilion and driver in English livery. + four horses, with footman, postillion and driver in English livery. + + Page 42: + + of much smaller means than Virginia and South Corolina belles! + of much smaller means than Virginia and South Carolina belles! + + Page 43: + + who dwell in the desert are always pusilanimous and groveling!" + who dwell in the desert are always pusillanimous and groveling!" + + Page 45: + + At last, when the latter was seized with a contageous fever + At last, when the latter was seized with a contagious fever + + Page 46: + + Mr. Thackaray was once entertained at one of them. + Mr. Thackeray was once entertained at one of them. + + Page 48: + + At Magdalene College, Frances was left for a moment in a parlor, + At Magdalen College, Frances was left for a moment in a parlor, + + Page 49: + + A scene almost horrible ensued." + A scene almost horrible ensued. + + Page 53: + + the house at which he was stopping was beseiged by reporters + the house at which he was stopping was besieged by reporters + + Page 54: + + by the passage of a canon ball through the upper story, + by the passage of a cannon ball through the upper story, + + Page 55: + + paying all the bills, this genteman had no "rights" there whatever; + paying all the bills, this gentleman had no "rights" there whatever; + + Her furniture was polished mahogony, and she kept most delicious + Her furniture was polished mahogany, and she kept most delicious + + Page 62: + + of Southern eloquence--real, soul-inspiring eloquence? + of Southern eloquence--real, soul-inspiring eloquence! + + Page 63 + + Soon after this was the surrender at Appomatox, and negro slavery + Soon after this was the surrender at Appomattox, and negro slavery + + Page 65: + + To-day an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything + "To-day an incident occurred which gratified me more than anything + + Page 67: + + that athough I have long been afflicted, only one of those + that although I have long been afflicted, only one of those + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANTATION REMINISCENCES*** + + +******* This file should be named 44626.txt or 44626.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/6/2/44626 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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