Is very pleasantly situated on the Ohio, and, standing upon high ground,
appears to be healthy; it is also a very thriving town, as a number of
excellent buildings and others rapidly carrying up sufficiently testify;
among these is a public seminary endowed by a professional man in the
law, who, dying without heirs, left amply sufficient to endow it:[21]
near to this stands a neat chapel erected by methodists. Two good
vineyards {58} are planted here, which looked thriving and, we were
told, produce excellent wine.
Without meaning to speak in favour of slavery, I will yet state the
fact that, during the drive across this small arm of the slave state of
Virginia, the white people seemed far more respectable and civilized
than in the free state we had just left; almost all we met accosted us
pleasantly, as if to welcome a stranger without that rude stare to which
we had become accustomed; the blacks, too, appeared to be well clothed,
civilized, and comfortable; very superior to the free black population
elsewhere seen. We had scarcely crossed the Ohio into the free state of
that name, when we found a rogue and rudeness; freedom must at least
take honesty for her companion or she is not worth a rush.