just amusing themselves with seeing what is going forward. The work is
done wholly by slaves, whose numbers are in this part of the country
more than double that of white persons. The slaves on the large
plantations are in general very well provided for, and treated with
mildness. During three months nearly, that I was in Virginia, but two or
three instances of ill treatment towards them came under my observation.
Their quarters, the name whereby their habitations are called, are
usually situated one or two hundred yards from the dwelling house, which
gives the appearance of a village to the residence of every planter in
Virginia; when the estate, however, is so large as to be divided into
several farms, then separate quarters are attached to the house of the
overseer on each farm. Adjoining their little habitations, the slaves
commonly have small gardens and yards for poultry, which are all their
own property; they have ample time to attend to their own concerns, and
their gardens are generally found well stocked, and their flocks of
poultry numerous. Besides the food they raise for themselves, they are
allowed liberal rations of salted pork and Indian corn. Many of their
little huts are comfortably furnished, and they are themselves, in
general, extremely well clothed. In short, their condition is by no
means so wretched as might be imagined. They are forced to work certain
hours in the day; but in return they are clothed, dieted, and lodged
comfortably, and saved all anxiety about provision for their offspring.
Still, however, let the condition of a slave be made ever so
comfortable, as long as he is conscious of being the property of another
man, who has it in his power to dispose of him according to the dictates
of caprice; as long as he hears people around him talking of the
blessings of liberty, and considers that he is in a state of bondage, it
is not to be supposed that he can feel equally happy with the freeman.
It is immaterial under what form slavery presents itself, whenever it
appears there is ample cause for humanity to weep at the sight, and to
lament that men can be found so forgetful of their own situations, as to
live regardless of the feelings of their fellow creatures.
With respect to the policy of holding slaves in any country, on account
of the depravity of morals which it necessarily occasions, besides the
many other evil consequences attendant upon it, so much has already been
said by others, that it is needless here to make any comments on the
subject.
The number of the slaves increases most rapidly, so that there is
scarcely any estate but what is overstocked. This is a circumstance
complained of by every planter, as the maintenance of more than are
requisite for the culture of the estate is attended with great expence.
Motives of humanity deter them from selling the poor creatures, or
turning them adrift from the spot where they have been born and brought
up, in the midst of friends and relations.
[Sidenote: CULTIVATION.]
What I have here said, respecting the condition and treatment of slaves,
appertains, it must be remembered, to those only who are upon the large
plantations in Virginia; the lot of such as are unfortunate enough to
fall into the hands of the lower class of white people, and of hard
task-masters in the towns, is very different. In the Carolinas and
Georgia again, slavery presents itself in very different colours from
what it does even in its worst form in Virginia. I am told, that it is
no uncommon thing there, to see gangs of negroes staked at a horse race,
and to see these unfortunate beings bandied about from one set of
drunken gamblers to another for days together. How much to be deprecated
are the laws which suffer such abuses to exist! yet these are the laws
enacted by people who boast of their love of liberty and independence,
and who presume to say, that it is in the breasts of Americans alone
that the blessings of freedom are held in just estimation.
The Northern Neck, with the exception of some few spots only, is flat
and sandy, and abounds with pine and cedar trees. Some parts of it are
well cultivated, and afford good crops; but these are so intermixed with
extensive tracts of waste land, worn out by the culture of tobacco, and
which are almost destitute of verdure, that on the whole the country has
the appearance of barrenness.
This is the case wherever tobacco has been made the principal object of
cultivation. It is not, however, so much owing to the great share of
nutriment which the tobacco plant requires, that the land is
impoverished, as to the particular mode of cultivating it, which renders
it necessary for people to be continually walking between the plants
from the moment they are set out, so that the ground about each plant is
left exposed to the burning rays of the sun all the summer, and becomes
at the end of the season a hard beaten pathway. A ruinous system has
prevailed also of working the same piece of land year after year, till
it was totally exhausted; after this it was left neglected, and a fresh
piece of land was cleared, that always produced good crops for one or
two seasons; but this in its turn was worn out and afterwards left
waste. Many of the planters are at length beginning to see the absurdity
of wearing out their lands in this manner, and now raise only one crop
of tobacco upon a piece of new land, then they sow wheat for two years,
and afterwards clover. They put on from twelve to fifteen hundred
bushels of manure per acre at first, which is found to be sufficient
both for the tobacco and wheat; the latter is produced at the rate of
about twenty bushels per acre.
In some parts of Virginia, the lands left waste in this manner throw up,
in a very short time, a spontaneous growth of pines and cedars; in which
case, being shaded from the powerful influence of the sun, they recover
their former fertility at the end of fifteen or twenty years; but in
other parts many years elapse before any verdure appears upon them. The
trees springing up in this spontaneous manner usually grow very close to
each other; they attain the height of fifteen or twenty feet, perhaps,
in the same number of years; there is, however, but very little sap in
them, and in a short time after they are cut down they decay.
[Sidenote: TOBACCO PLANTATIONS.]
Tobacco is raised and manufactured in the following manner: When the
spring is so far advanced that every apprehension of the return of frost
is banished, a convenient spot of ground is chosen, from twenty to one
hundred feet square, whereon they burn prodigious piles of wood, in
order to destroy the weeds and insects. The warm ashes are then dug in
with the earth, and the seed, which is black, and remarkably small,
sown. The whole is next covered over with bushes, to prevent birds and
flies, if possible, from getting to it; but this, in general, proves
very ineffectual; for the plant scarcely appears above ground, when it
is attacked by a large black fly of the beetle kind, which destroys the
leaves. Persons are repeatedly sent to pick off these flies; but
sometimes, notwithstanding all their attention, so much mischief is done
that very few plants are left alive. As I passed through Virginia, I
heard universal complaints of the depredations they had committed; the
beds were almost wholly destroyed.
As soon as the young plants are sufficiently grown, which is generally
in the beginning of May, they are transplanted into fields, and set out
in hillocks, at the distance of three or four feet from each other. Here
again they have other enemies to contend with; the roots are attacked by
worms, and between the leaves and stem different flies deposit their
eggs, to the infallible ruin of the plant if not quickly removed; it is
absolutely necessary, therefore, as I have said, for persons to be
continually walking between the plants in order to watch, and also to
trim them at the proper periods. The tops are broken off at a certain
height, and the suckers, which spring out between the leaves, are
removed as soon as discovered. According also to the particular kind of
tobacco which the planter wishes to have, the lower, the middle, or the
upper leaves are suffered to remain. The lower leaves grow the largest;
they are also milder, and more inclined to a yellow colour than those
growing towards the top of the plant.
[Sidenote: TOBACCO WAREHOUSES.]
When arrived at maturity, which is generally about the month of August,
the plants are cut down, pegs are driven into the stems, and they are
hung up in large houses, built for the purpose, to dry. If the weather
is not favourable for drying the leaves, fires are then lighted, and the
smoke is suffered to circulate between the plants; this is also
sometimes done to give the leaves a browner colour than what they have
naturally. After this they are tied up in bundles of six or seven leaves
each, and thrown in heaps to sweat; then they are again dried. When
sufficiently cured, the bundles are packed, by means of presses, in
hogsheads capable of containing eight hundred or one thousand pounds
weight. The planters send the tobacco thus packed to the nearest
shipping town, where, before exportation, it is examined by an inspector
appointed for the purpose, who gives a certificate to warrant the
shipping of it if it is sound and merchantable, if not, he sends it back
to the owner. Some of the warehouses to which the tobacco is sent for
inspection are very extensive, and skilful merchants can accurately tell
the quality of the tobacco from knowing the warehouse at which it has
been inspected[20]. Where the roads are good and dry, tobacco is sent to
the warehouses in a singular manner: Two large pins of wood are driven
into either end of the hogshead by way of axles; a pair of shafts, made
for the purpose, are attached to these, and the hogshead is thus drawn
along by one or two horses; when this is done great care is taken to
have the hoops very strong.
Footnote 20:
By the laws of America, no produce which has undergone any sort of
manufacture, as flour, potash, tobacco, rice, &c. can be exported
without inspection, nor even put into a boat to be conveyed down a
river to a sea-port. The inspectors are all sworn, are paid by the
states, and not suffered to take fees from any individual. This is a
most politic measure; for as none but the best of each article can be
sent out of the country, it enhances the price of American produce in
foreign markets, and increases the demand.
Tobacco is not near so much cultivated now as it was formerly, the great
demand for wheat having induced most of the planters to raise that grain
in preference. Those who raise tobacco and Indian corn are called
planters, and those who cultivate small grain, farmers.
Though many of the houses in the Northern Neck are built, as I have
said, of brick and stone, in the style of the old English manor houses,
yet the greater number there, and throughout Virginia, are of wood;
amongst which are all those that have been built of late years. This is
chiefly owing to a prevailing, though absurd opinion, that wooden houses
are the healthiest, because the inside walls never appear damp, like
those of brick and stone, in rainy weather. In front of every house is a
porch or pent-house, commonly extending the whole length of the
building; very often there is one also in the rear, and sometimes all
round. These porches afford an agreeable shade from the sun during
summer. The hall, or saloon as it is called, is always a favourite
apartment, during the hot weather, in a Virginian house, on account of
the draught of air through it, and it is usually furnished similar to a
parlour, with sofas, &c.
[Sidenote: VIRGINIAN WOMEN.]
The common people in the lower parts of Virginia have very sallow
complexions, owing to the burning rays of the sun in summer, and the
bilious complaints to which they are subject in the fall of the year.
The women are far from being comely, and the dresses, which they wear
out of doors to guard them from the sun, make them appear still more
ugly than nature has formed them. There is a kind of bonnet very
commonly worn, which, in particular, disfigures them amazingly; it is
made with a caul, fitting close on the back part of the head, and a
front stiffened with small pieces of cane, which projects nearly two
feet from the head in a horizontal direction. To look at a person at one
side, it is necessary for a woman wearing a bonnet of this kind to turn
her whole body round.
In the upper parts of the country, towards the mountains, the women are
totally different, having a healthy comely appearance.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
+LETTER + XII.
_Town of Tappahannock.—Rappahannock River.—Sharks found in it.—Country
bordering upon Urbanna.—Fires common in the Woods.—Manner of stopping
their dreadful Progress.—Mode of getting Turpentine from
Trees.—Gloucester.—York Town.—Remains of the Fortifications erected
here during the American War.—Houses shattered by Balls still
remaining.—Cave in the Bank of the River.—Williamsburgh.—State House
in Ruins.—Statue of Lord Bottetourt.—College of William and
Mary.—Condition of the Students._
Williamsburgh, April.
[Sidenote: SNIPES.]
SINCE I last wrote, the greater part of my time has been spent at the
houses of different gentlemen in the Northern Neck. Four days ago I
crossed the Rappahannock River, which bounds the Northern Neck on one
side, to a small town called Tappahannock, or Hobb’s Hole, containing
about one hundred houses. Before the war this town was in a much more
flourishing state than at present; that unfortunate contest ruined the
trade of this little place, as it did that of most of the sea-port towns
in Virginia. The Rappahannock is about three quarters of a mile wide
opposite the town, which is seventy miles above its mouth. Sharks are
very often seen in this river. What is very remarkable, the fish are all
found on the side of the river next to the town.
From Tappahannock to Urbanna, another small town on the Rappahannock
River, situated about twenty-five miles lower down, the country wears
but a poor aspect.
The road, which is level and very sandy, runs through woods for miles
together. The habitations that are seen from it are but few, and they
are of the poorest description. The woods chiefly consist of black oak,
pine, and cedar trees, which grow on land of the worst quality only.
On this road there are many creeks to be crossed, which empty themselves
into the Rappahannock River, in the neighbourhood of which there are
extensive marshes, that render the adjacent country, as may be supposed,
very unhealthy. Such a quantity of snipes are seen in these marshes
continually, that it would be hardly possible to fire a gun in a
horizontal direction, and not kill many at one shot.
[Sidenote: FIRES.]
As I passed through this part of the country, I observed many traces of
fires in the woods, which are frequent, it seems, in the spring of the
year. They usually proceed from the negligence of people who are burning
brushwood to clear the lands, and considering how often they happen, it
is wonderful that they are not attended with more serious consequences
than commonly follow. I was a witness myself to one of these fires, that
happened in the Northern Neck. The day had been remarkably serene, and
appearing favourable for the purpose, large quantities of brushwood had
been fired in different places; in the afternoon, however, it became
sultry, and streams of hot air were perceptible now and then, the usual
tokens of a gust. About five o’clock, the horizon towards the north
became dark, and a terrible whirlwind arose. I was standing with some
gentlemen on an eminence at the time, and perceived it gradually
advancing. It carried with it a cloud of dust, dried leaves, and pieces
of rotten wood, and in many places, as it came along, it levelled the
fence rails and unroofed the sheds for the cattle. We made every
endeavour, but in vain, to get to a place of shelter; in the course of
two minutes the whirlwind overtook us; the shock was violent; it was
hardly possible to stand, and difficult to breathe; the whirlwind passed
over in about three minutes, but a storm, accompanied by heavy thunder
and lightning, succeeded, which lasted for more than half an hour. On
looking round immediately after the whirlwind had passed, a prodigious
column of fire now appeared in a part of the wood where some brushwood
had been burning; in many places the flames rose considerably above the
summit of the trees, which were of a large growth. It was a tremendous,
and at the same time sublime sight. The negroes on the surrounding
plantations were all assembled with their hoes, and watches were
stationed at every corner to give the alarm if the fire appeared
elsewhere, lest the conflagration should become general. To one
plantation a spark was carried by the wind more than half a mile;
happily, however, a torrent of rain in a short time afterwards came
pouring down, and enabled the people to extinguish the flames in every
quarter.
When these fires do not receive a timely check, they sometimes increase
to a most alarming height; and if the grass and dead leaves happen to be
very dry, and the wind brisk, proceed with so great velocity that the
swiftest runners are often overtaken in endeavouring to escape from the
flames. Indeed I have met with people, on whose veracity the greatest
dependance might be placed, that have assured me they have found it a
difficult task, at times, to get out of the reach of them, though
mounted on good horses.
There is but one mode of stopping a fire of this kind, which makes such
a rapid progress along the ground. A number of other fires are kindled
at some distance a head of that which they wish to extinguish, so as to
form a line across the course, which, from the direction of the wind, it
is likely to take. These are carefully watched by a sufficient number of
men furnished with hoes and rakes, and they are prevented from
spreading, except on that side which is towards the large fire, a matter
easily accomplished when attended to in the beginning. Thus the fires in
a few minutes meet, and of consequence they must cease, as there is
nothing left to feed them, the grass and leaves being burnt on all
sides. In general there is but very little brushwood in the woods of
America, so that these fires chiefly run along the ground; the trees,
however, are often scorched, but it is very rare for any of them to be
entirely consumed.
[Sidenote: GLOUCESTER AND YORK.]
The country between Urbanna and Gloucester, a town situated upon York
River, is neither so sandy nor so flat as that bordering upon the
Rappahannock. The trees, chiefly pines, are of a very large size, and
afford abundance of turpentine, which is extracted from them in great
quantities by the inhabitants, principally, however, for home
consumption. The turpentine is got by cutting a large gash in the tree,
and setting a trough underneath to receive the resinous matter distilled
from the wound. The trees thus drained last but a short time after they
are cut down. In this neighbourhood there are numbers of ponds or small
lakes, surrounded by woods, along some of which the views are very
pleasing. From most of them are falls of water into some creek or river,
which afford excellent seats for mills.
Gloucester contains only ten or twelve houses; it is situated on a neck
of land nearly opposite to the town of York, which is at the other side
of the river. There are remains here of one or two redoubts thrown up
during the war. The river between the two places is about one mile and a
half wide, and affords four fathom and a half of water.
The town of York consists of about seventy houses, an episcopalian
church, and a gaol. It is not now more than one third of the size it was
before the war, and it does not appear likely soon to recover its former
flourishing state. Great quantities of tobacco were formerly inspected
here; very little, however, is now raised in the neighbourhood, the
people having got into a habit of cultivating wheat in preference. The
little that is sent for inspection is reckoned to be of the very best
quality, and is all engaged for the London market.
York is remarkable for having been the place where Lord Cornwallis
surrendered his army to the combined forces of the Americans and French.
A few of the redoubts, which were erected by each army, are still
remaining, but the principal fortifications are almost quite
obliterated; the plough has passed over some of them, and groves of pine
trees sprung up about others, though, during the siege, every tree near
the town was destroyed. The first and second parallels can just be
traced, when pointed out by a person acquainted with them in a more
perfect state.
[Sidenote: YORK TOWN.]
In the town the houses bear evident marks of the siege, and the
inhabitants will not, on any account, suffer the holes perforated by the
cannon balls to be repaired on the outside. There is one house in
particular, which stands in the skirt of the town, that is in a most
shattered condition. It was the habitation of a Mr. Neilson, a secretary
under the regal government, and was made the head quarters of Lord
Cornwallis when he first came to the town; but it stood so much exposed,
and afforded so good a mark to the enemy, that he was soon forced to
quit it. Neilson, however, it seems, was determined to stay there till
the last, and absolutely remained till his negro servant, the only
person that would live with him in such a house, had his brains dashed
out by a cannon shot while he stood by his side; he then thought it time
to retire, but the house was still continually fired at, as if it had
been head quarters. The walls and roof are pierced in innumerable
places, and at one corner a large piece of the wall is torn away; in
this state, however, it is still inhabited in one room by some person or
other equally fanciful as the old secretary. There are trenches thrown
up round it, and on every side are deep hollows made by the bombs that
fell near it. Till within a year or two the broken shells themselves
remained; but the New England men that traded to York finding they would
sell well as old iron, dug them up, and carried them away in their
ships.
The banks of the river, where the town stands, are high and
inaccessible, excepting in a few places; the principal part of the town
is built on the top of them; a few fishing huts and storehouses merely
stand at the bottom. A cave is shewn here in the banks, described by the
people as having been the place of head quarters during the siege, after
the cannonade of the enemy became warm; but in reality it was formed and
hung with green baize for a lady, either the wife or acquaintance of an
officer, who was terrified with the idea of remaining in the town, and
died of fright after her removal down to the cave.
Twelve miles from York, to the westward, stands Williamsburgh, formerly
the seat of government in Virginia. Richmond was fixed upon during the
war as a more secure place, being farther removed from the sea coast,
and not so much exposed to depredations if an enemy were to land
unexpectedly. Richmond also had the advantage of being situated at the
head of a navigable river, and was therefore likely to increase to a
size which the other never could attain. It is wonderful, indeed, what
could have induced people to fix upon the spot where Williamsburgh
stands for a town, in the middle of a plain, and one mile and a half
removed from any navigable stream, when there were so many noble rivers
in the neighbourhood.
[Sidenote: WILLIAMSBURGH COLLEGE.]
The town consists of one principal street, and two others which run
parallel to it. At one end of the main street stands the college, and at
the other end the old capitol or state house, a capacious building of
brick, now crumbling to pieces from negligence. The houses around it are
mostly uninhabited, and present a melancholy picture. In the hall of the
capitol stands a maimed statue of lord Botetourt, one of the regal
governors of Virginia, erected at the public expence, in memory of his
lordship’s equitable and popular administration. During the war, when
party rage was at its highest pitch, and every thing pertaining to
royalty obnoxious, the head and one arm of the statue were knocked off;
it now remains quite exposed, and is more and more defaced every day.
Whether the motto, “_Resurgo rege favente_,” inscribed under the coat of
arms, did or did not help to bring upon it its present fate, I cannot
pretend to say; as it is, it certainly remains a monument of the
extinction of monarchical power in America.