Transcriber's note:
Minor spelling inconsistencies, including hyphenated words, have been
harmonized. Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.
A GIRL'S LIFE
IN VIRGINIA
BEFORE THE WAR
[Illustration: "AN EVENING PARTY"--_Page 115._]
A GIRL'S LIFE
IN VIRGINIA
BEFORE THE WAR
BY
Letitia M. Burwell
_WITH SIXTEEN FULL-PAGE
ILLUSTRATIONS BY_
William A. McCullough AND Jules Turcas
_Second Edition_
New York
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1895, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company.
DEDICATION.
_Dedicated to my nieces, who will find in English and American
publications such expressions applied to their ancestors as: "cruel
slave-owners"; "inhuman wretches"; "southern taskmasters"; "dealers in
human souls," etc. From these they will naturally recoil with horror.
My own life would have been embittered had I believed myself to be
descended from such monsters; 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 merited praise may be
awarded to noble men and virtuous women who have passed away._
_L. M. B._
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
"AN EVENING PARTY" _Frontispiece_
"CARPENTERS ALWAYS AT WORK FOR THE COMFORT
OF THE PLANTATION" 2
"ACCOMPANIED BY ONE OF THESE SMILING
'INDISPENSABLES'" 4
"I USE TO WATCH FOR DE CARRIAGE" 10
"I DON'T WANT TO BE FREE NO MO'" 12
"SHE ALWAYS RETURNED IN A CART" 18
"READING AND REPEATING VERSES TO HIM" 26
"MY GRANDMOTHER WOULD SHOW US THE STEP OF
THE MINUET" 32
"THERE WERE OLD GENTLEMEN VISITORS" 34
"NOW, MARSTER, YOU DONE FORGOT ALL 'BOUT
DAT" 36
"THREE WOMEN WOULD CLEAN UP ONE CHAMBER" 42
"LUNCH BY SOME COOL, SHADY SPRING" 66
"HIS MISSION ON EARTH SEEMED TO BE KEEPING
THE BRIGHTEST SILVER URNS" 78
"HOW DEY DOES GROW!" 86
"WHERE IS MY MUTTON?" 98
"AUNT FANNY 'SPERSED DAT CROWD'" 160
A GIRL'S LIFE IN VIRGINIA BEFORE THE WAR
CHAPTER I.
That my birthplace 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, housekeeping
in the cabins; with negro children dancing, romping, singing, jumping,
playing around the doors,--these 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,
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.
[Illustration: "CARPENTERS ALWAYS AT WORK FOR THE COMFORT OF THE
PLANTATION"--_Page 2._]
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, chestnuts, 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 create some
literary thirst in the rising generation, whose members, 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 quickest 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, upstairs and downstairs, 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, etc.--that one had not the heart to refuse, although
it would have been sometimes more agreeable to be left alone.
[Illustration: "ACCOMPANIED BY ONE OF THESE SMILING
'INDISPENSABLES'"--_Page 4._]
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 this rite being regarded as 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,"--these being terms of respect.
The atmosphere of our own home was one of 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 sweetmeat to
the offended one.
I remember that once, when my grandmother scolded nurse Kitty,
saying: "Kitty, the butler tells me you disturb the breakfast cream
every morning by dipping out milk to wash your face," I burst into
tears, and thought it hard that, 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 at hand,
and to 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, some candy, or sweet cakes.
The negroes made pocket-money by selling their own vegetables,
poultry, eggs, etc.,--produced 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 grandmother were almost always talking over the wants of
the negroes,--what medicine should be sent, whom they should visit,
who needed new shoes, clothes, or blankets,--the principal object of
their lives seeming to be in 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 grandmother 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; she was very black and very portly; and her scepter 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, "aint I bin--long fo' dis yer
little marster whar is was born--bakin' de bes' loaf bread, an' bes'
beat biscuit and rice waffles, all de time in my ole marster time? An'
I bin manage my own affa'rs, an' I gwine manage my own affa'rs long is
I got breff. Kase I 'members 'way back yonder in my mammy time fo' de
folks come fum de King's Mill plantation nigh Williamsbu'g. All our
black folks done belonks to de Burl fambly uver sence dey come fum
Afiky. My granmammy 'member dem times when black folks lan' here stark
naked, an' white folks hab to show 'em how to war close. But we all
done come fum all dat now, an' I gwine manage my own affa'rs."
She was generally left to manage her "own affa'rs," and, being a
pattern of neatness and industry, her fame went abroad from Botetourt
even unto the remotest ends of Mecklenburg County.
That this marvelous 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 nuver will
forgit," to use her own words, "how I use to watch for de carriage to
bring miss home, an' how I watch up de road an' run clappin' my han's
an' hollerin': 'Miss done come! an' I aint gwine stay wid Aunt
Chrishun no longer!'"
[Illustration: "I USED TO WATCH FOR DE CARRIAGE"--_Page 9._]
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 the liveliest demonstrations of
pleasure.