opposite end of the main street; it is a heavy pile, which bears, as Mr.
Jefferson, I think, says, “a very close resemblance to a large brick
kiln, excepting that it has a roof.” The students were about thirty in
number when I was there: from their appearance one would imagine that
the seminary ought rather to be termed a grammar school than a college;
yet I understand the visitors, since the present revolution, finding it
full of young boys just learning the rudiments of Greek and Latin, a
circumstance which consequently deterred others more advanced from going
there, dropped the professorships for these two languages, and
established others in their place. The professorships, as they now
stand, are for law, medicine, natural and moral philosophy, mathematics,
and modern languages. The bishop of Virginia is president of the
college, and has apartments in the buildings. Half a dozen or more of
the students, the eldest about twelve years old, dined at his table one
day that I was there; some were without shoes or stockings, others
without coats. During dinner they constantly rose to help themselves at
the side board. A couple of dishes of salted meat, and some oyster soup,
formed the whole of the dinner. I only mention this, as it may convey
some little idea of American colleges and American dignitaries.
The episcopalian church, the only one in the place, stands in the middle
of the main street; it is much out of repair. On either side of it is an
extensive green, surrounded with neat looking houses, which bring to
mind an English village.
The town contains about twelve hundred inhabitants, and the society in
it is thought to be more extensive and more genteel at the same time
than what is to be met with in any other place of its size in America.
No manufactures are carried on here, and scarcely any trade.
There is an hospital here for lunatics, but it does not appear to be
well regulated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
+LETTER + XIII.
_Hampton.—Ferry to Norfolk.—Danger in crossing the numerous Ferries in
Virginia.—Norfolk.—Laws of Virginia injurious to the Trading
Interest.—Streets narrow and dirty in Norfolk.—Yellow Fever
there.—Observations on this Disorder.—Violent Party Spirit amongst the
Inhabitants.—Few Churches in Virginia.—Several in Ruins.—Private Grave
Yards._
Norfolk, April.
FROM Williamsburgh to Hampton the country is flat and uninteresting.
Hampton is a small town, situated at the head of a bay, near the mouth
of James River, which contains about thirty houses and an episcopalian
church. A few sea boats are annually built here; and corn and lumber are
exported annually to the value of about forty-two thousand dollars. It
is a dirty disagreeable place, always infested by a shocking stench from
a muddy shore when the tide is out.
From this town there is a regular ferry to Norfolk, across Hampton
roads, eighteen miles over. I was forced to leave my horses here behind
me for several days, as all the flats belonging to the place had been
sent up a creek some miles for staves, &c. and they had no other method
of getting horses into the ferry boats, which were too large to come
close into shore, excepting by carrying them out in these flats, and
then making them leap on board. It is a most irksome piece of business
to cross the ferries in Virginia; there is not one in six where the
boats are good and well manned, and it is necessary to employ great
circumspection in order to guard against accidents, which are but too
common. As I passed along I heard of numberless recent instances of
horses being drowned, killed, and having their legs broken, by getting
in and out of the boats.
Norfolk stands nearly at the mouth of the eastern branch of Elizabeth
River, the most southern of those which empty themselves into the
Chesapeak Bay. It is the largest commercial town in Virginia, and
carries on a flourishing trade to the West Indies. The exports consist
principally of tobacco, flour, and corn, and various kinds of lumber; of
the latter it derives an inexhaustible supply from the Dismal Swamp,
immediately in the neighbourhood.
[Sidenote: NORFOLK.]
Norfolk would be a place of much greater trade than it is at present,
were it not for the impolicy of some laws which have existed in the
state of Virginia. One of these laws, so injurious to commerce, was
passed during the war. By this law it was enacted, that all merchants
and planters in Virginia, who owed money to British merchants, should be
exonerated from their debts if they paid the money due into the public
treasury instead of sending it to Great Britain; and all such as stood
indebted were invited to come forward, and give their money in this
manner, towards the support of the contest in which America was then
engaged.
The treasury at first did not become much richer in consequence of this
law; for the Virginian debtor, individually, could gain nothing by
paying the money that he owed into the treasury, as he had to pay the
full sum which was due to the British merchant; on the contrary, he
might lose considerably: his credit would be ruined in the eyes of the
British merchant by such a measure, and it would be a great impediment
to the renewal of a commercial intercourse between them after the
conclusion of the war.
However, when the continental paper money became so much depreciated,
that one hundred paper dollars were not worth one in silver, many of the
people, who stood deeply indebted to the merchants in Great Britain,
began to look upon the measure in a different point of view; they now
saw a positive advantage in paying their debts into the treasury in
these paper dollars, which were a legal tender; accordingly they did so,
and in consequence were exonerated of their debts by the laws of their
country, though in reality they had not paid more than one hundredth
part of them. In vain did the British merchant sue for his money when
hostilities were terminated; he could obtain no redress in any court of
justice in Virginia. Thus juggled out of his property he naturally
became distrustful of the Virginians; he refused to trade with them on
the same terms as with the people of the other states, and the
Virginians have consequently reaped the fruits of their very
dishonourable conduct[21].
Footnote 21:
In February 1796, this nefarious business was at last brought before
the supreme court of the United States in Philadelphia, by the agents
of the British merchants, and the decision of the judges was such as
redounded to their honour; for, they declared that these debts should
all be paid over again, bona fide, to the British merchant.
[Sidenote: IMPOLITIC LAWS.]
Another law, baneful in the highest degree to the trading interest, is
one which renders all landed property inviolable. This law has induced
numbers to run into debt; and as long as it exists foreigners will be
cautious of giving credit to a large amount to men who, if they chuse to
purchase a tract of land with the goods or money entrusted to their
care, may sit down upon it securely, out of the reach of all their
creditors, under protection of the laws of the country. Owing to this
law they have not yet been enabled to get a bank established in Norfolk,
though it would be of the utmost importance to the traders. The
directors of the bank of the United States have always peremptorily
refused to let a branch of it be fixed in any part of Virginia whilst
this law remains. In Boston, New York, Baltimore, Charleston, &c. there
are branches of the bank of the United States, besides other banks,
established under the sanction of the state legislature.
Repeated attempts have been made in the state assembly to get this last
mentioned law repealed, but they have all proved ineffectual. The
debates have been very warm on the business, and the names of the
majority, who voted for the continuation of it, have been published, to
expose them if possible to infamy; but so many have sheltered themselves
under its sanction, and so many still find an interest in its
continuance, that it is not likely to be speedily repealed.
The houses in Norfolk are about five hundred in number; by far the
greater part of them are of wood, and but meanly built. These have all
been erected since the year 1776, when the town was totally destroyed by
fire, by the order of Lord Dunmore, then regal governor of Virginia. The
losses sustained on that occasion were estimated at £.300,000 sterling.
Towards the harbour the streets are narrow and irregular; in the other
parts of the town they are tolerably wide; none of them are paved, and
all are filthy; indeed, in the hot months of summer, the stench that
proceeds from some of them is horrid. That people can be thus
inattentive to cleanliness, which is so conducive to health, and in a
town where a sixth part of the people died in one year of a pestilential
disorder, is most wonderful!![22]
Footnote 22:
The yellow fever, which has committed such dreadful ravages of late
years in America, is certainly to be considered as a sort of plague.
It first appeared at Philadelphia in the year 1793; in 1794 it
appeared at Baltimore; in 1795, at New York and Norfolk; and in 1796,
though the matter was hushed up as much as possible, in order to
prevent an alarm, similar to that which had injured the city so much
the preceding year, yet in New York a far greater number of deaths
than usual were heard of during the summer and autumn, strongly
supposed to have been occasioned by the same malignant disorder.
The accounts given of the calamitous consequences attendant upon it,
in these different places, are all much alike, and nearly similar to
those given of the plague:—The people dying suddenly, and under the
most shocking circumstances—such as were well flying away—the sick
abandoned, and perishing for want of common necessaries—the dead
buried in heaps together without any ceremony—charity at an end—the
ties of friendship and consanguinity disregarded by many—others, on
the contrary, nobly coming forward, and at the hazard of their own
lives doing all in their power to relieve their fellow citizens, and
avert the general woe.——At Philadelphia, in the space of about three
months, no less than four thousand inhabitants were swept off by this
dreadful malady, a number, at that time, amounting to about one tenth
of the whole. Baltimore and New York did not suffer so severely; but
at Norfolk, which is computed to contain about three thousand people,
no less than five hundred fell victims to it.
The disorder has been treated very differently by different
physicians, and as some few have survived under each system that has
been tried, no general one has yet been adopted. I was told, however,
by several people in Norfolk, who resided in the most sickly part of
the town during the whole time the fever lasted, that as a
preventative medicine, a strong mercurial purge was very generally
administered, and afterwards Peruvian bark; and that few of those who
had taken this medicine were attacked by the fever. All however that
can be done by medicine to stop the progress of the disorder, when it
has broke out in a town, seems to be of no very great effect; for as
long as the excessive hot weather lasts the fever rages, but it
regularly disappears on the approach of cold weather. With regard to
its origin there have been also various opinions; some have contended
that it was imported into every place where it appeared from the West
Indies; others, that it was generated in the country. These opinions
have been ably supported on either side of the question by medical
men, who resided at the different places where the fever has appeared.
There are a few notorious circumstances, however, which lead me, as an
individual, to think that the fever has been generated on the American
continent. In the first place, the fever has always broken out in
those parts of towns which were most closely built, and where the
streets have been suffered through negligence to remain foul and
nasty; in the second place, it has regularly broken out during the
hottest time of the year, in the months of July and August, when the
air on the American coast is for the most part stagnant and sultry,
and when vegetable and animal matter becomes putrid in an incredible
short space of time; thirdly, numbers of people died of the disorder
in New York, in the year 1796, notwithstanding that every West Indian
vessel which entered the port that season was examined by the health
officer, a regular bred physician, and that every one suspected was
obliged to perform quarantine. The people in New York are so fully
persuaded that the fever originates in America from putrid matter,
that they have stopped up one or two docks, which were receptacles for
the filth of the neighbourhood, and which contaminated the air when
the tide was out.
[Sidenote: YELLOW FEVER.]
Amongst the inhabitants are great numbers of Scotch and French. The
latter are almost entirely from the West Indies, and principally from
St. Domingo. In such prodigious numbers did they flock over after the
British forces had got footing in the French islands, that between two
and three thousand were in Norfolk at one time; most of them, however,
afterwards dispersed themselves throughout different parts of the
country; those who staid in the town opened little shops of different
kinds, and amongst them I found many who had been in affluent
circumstances before they were driven from their homes.
[Sidenote: GRAVE YARDS.]
A strong party spirit has always been prevalent amongst the American
inhabitants of this town; so much so that a few years ago, when some
English and French vessels of war were lying in Hampton roads, and the
sailors, from each, on shore, the whole people were up and ready to join
them, on the one side or the other, in open contest; but the mayor drew
out the militia, and sent them to their respective homes.
Here are two churches, one for episcopalians, the other for methodists.
In the former, service is not performed more than once in two or three
weeks, and very little regard is paid by the people in general to
Sunday. Indeed, throughout the lower parts of Virginia, that is, between
the mountains and the sea, the people have scarcely any sense of
religion, and in the country parts the churches are all falling into
decay. As I rode along, I scarcely observed one that was not in a
ruinous condition, with the windows broken, and doors dropping off the
hinges, and lying open to the pigs and cattle wandering about the woods;
yet many of these were not past repair. The churches in Virginia,
excepting such as are in towns, stand for the most part in the woods,
retired from any houses, and it does not appear that any persons are
appointed to pay the smallest attention to them.
A custom prevails in Norfolk, of private individuals holding grave
yards, which are looked upon as a very lucrative kind of property, the
owners receiving considerable fees annually for giving permission to
people to bury their dead in them. It is very common also to see, in the
large plantations in Virginia, and not far from the dwelling house,
cemeteries walled in, where the people of the family are all buried.
These cemeteries are generally built adjoining the garden.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
+LETTER + XIV.
_Description of Dismal Swamp.—Wild Men found in it.—Bears, Wolves,
&c.—Country between Swamp and Richmond.—Mode of making Tar and
Pitch.—Poor Soil.—Wretched Taverns.—Corn Bread.—Difficulty of getting
Food for Horses.—Petersburgh.—Horse Races there.—Description of
Virginian Horses.—Stile of Riding in America.—Description of Richmond,
Capital of Virginia.—Singular Bridge across James River.—State
House.—Falls of James River.—Gambling common in Richmond.—Lower
Classes of People very quarrelsome.—Their Mode of Fighting.—Gouging._
Richmond, May.
[Sidenote: GREAT SWAMP.]
FROM Norfolk I went to look at the great Dismal Swamp, which commences
at the distance of nine miles from the town, and extends into North
Carolina, occupying in the whole, about one hundred and fifty thousand
acres. This great tract is entirely covered with trees; juniper and
cypress trees grow where there is most moisture, and on the dry parts,
white and red oaks and a variety of pines.
These trees grow to a most enormous size, and between them the brushwood
springs up so thick that the swamp in many parts is absolutely
impervious. In this respect it differs totally from the common woods in
the country. It abounds also with cane reeds, and with long rich grass,
upon which cattle feed with great avidity, and become fat in a very
short space of time; the canes, indeed, are considered to be the very
best green food that can be given to them. The people who live on the
borders of the swamp drive all their cattle into it to feed; care
however is taken to train them to come back regularly to the farms every
night by themselves, otherwise it would be impossible to find them. This
is effected by turning into the swamp with them, for the first few weeks
they are sent thither to feed, two or three old milch cows accustomed to
the place, round whose necks are fastened small bells. The cows come
back every evening to be milked; the rest of the cattle herd with these,
following the noise of the bells, and when they return to the farm a
handful of salt, or something of which they are equally fond, is given
to each as an inducement for them to return again. In a short time the
cattle become familiar with the place, and having been accustomed from
the first day to return, they regularly walk to the farms every evening.
In the interior parts of the swamp large herds of wild cattle are found,
most probably originally lost on being turned in to feed. Bears, wolves,
deer, and other wild indigenous animals are also met with there. Stories
are common in the neighbourhood of wild men having been found in it, who
were lost, it is supposed, in the swamp when children.
[Sidenote: CANAL.]
The swamp varies very much in different parts; in some the surface of it
is quite dry, and firm enough to bear a horse; in others it is
overflowed with water; and elsewhere so miry that a man would sink up to
his neck if he attempted to walk upon it; in the driest part, if a
trench is cut only a few feet deep, the water gushes in, and it is
filled immediately. Where the canal to connect the water of Albemarle
Sound with Norfolk is cut, the water in many places flows in from the
sides, at the depth of three feet from the surface, in large streams,
without intermission; in its colour it exactly resembles brandy, which
is supposed to be occasioned by the roots of the juniper trees; it is
perfectly clear however, and by no means unpalatable; it is said to
possess a diuretic quality, and the people in the neighbourhood, who
think it very wholesome, prefer it to any other. Certainly there is
something very uncommon in the nature of this swamp, for the people
living upon the borders of it do not suffer by fever and ague, or
bilious complaints, as is generally the case with those resident in the
neighbourhood of other swamps and marshes. Whether it is the medicinal
quality of the water, however, which keeps them in better health or not,
I do not pretend to determine.
As the Dismal Swamp lies so very near to Norfolk, where there is a
constant demand for shingles, staves, &c. for exportation, and as the
very best of these different articles are made from the trees growing
upon the swamp, it of course becomes a very valuable species of
property. The canal which is now cutting through it will also enhance
its value, as when it is completed, lumber can then be readily sent from
the remotest parts. The more southern parts of it, when cleared, answer
uncommonly well for the culture of rice; but in the neighbourhood of
Norfolk, as far as ten feet deep from the surface, there seems to be
nothing but roots and fibres of different herbs mixed with a whitish
sand, which would not answer for the purpose, as rice requires a very
rich soil. The trees, however, that grow upon it, are a most profitable
crop, and instead of cutting them all down promiscuously, as commonly is
done, they only fell such as have attained a large size, by which means
they have a continued succession for the manufacture of those articles I
mentioned. Eighty thousand acres of the swamp are the property of a
company incorporated under the title of “The Dismal Swamp Company.”
Before the war broke out a large number of negroes was constantly
employed by the company in cutting and manufacturing staves, &c. and
their affairs were going on very prosperously; but at the time that
Norfolk was burnt they lost all their negroes, and very little has been
done by them since. The lumber that is now sent to Norfolk is taken
principally off those parts of the swamp which are private property.
[Sidenote: ACCOMMODATION.]
From the Dismal Swamp to Richmond, a distance of about one hundred and
forty miles, along the south side of James River, the country is flat
and sandy, and for miles together entirely covered with pine trees. In
Nansemonde county, bordering on the Swamp, the soil is so poor that but
very little corn or grain is raised; it answers well however for peach
orchards, which are found to be very profitable. From the peaches they
make brandy, and when properly matured it is an excellent liquor, and
much esteemed; they give it a very delicious flavour in this part of the
country by infusing dried pears in it. Spirit and water is the universal
beverage throughout Virginia. They also make considerable quantities of
tar and pitch from the pine trees. For this purpose a sort of pit is
dug, in which they burn large piles of the trees. The tar runs out, and
is deposited at the bottom of the pit, from whence it is taken, cleared
of the bits of charcoal that may be mixed with it and put into barrels.
The tar, inspissated by boiling, makes pitch.
The accommodation at the taverns along this road I found most wretched;
nothing was to be had but rancid fish, fat salt pork, and bread made of
Indian corn. For this indifferent fare also I had to wait oftentimes an
hour or two. Indian corn bread, if well made, is tolerably good, but
very few people can relish it on the first trial; it is a coarse, strong
kind of bread, which has something of the taste of that made from oats.
The best way of preparing it is in cakes; the large loaves made of it
are always like dough in the middle. There is a dish also which they
make of Indian corn, very common in Virginia and Maryland, called
“hominy.” It consists of pounded Indian corn and beans boiled together
with milk till the whole mass becomes firm. This is eat, either hot or
cold, with bacon, or with other meat.
As for my horses, they were almost starved. Hay is scarcely ever made
use of in this part of the country, but in place of it they feed their
cattle upon fodder, that is, the leaves of the Indian corn plant. Not a
bit of fodder, however, was to be had on the whole road from Norfolk to
Richmond, excepting at two places; and the season having been remarkably
dry, the little grass that had sprung up had been eat down every where
by the cattle in the country. Oats were not to be had on any terms; and
Indian corn was so scarce, that I had frequently to send to one or two
different houses before I could get even sufficient to give one feed
each to my horses. The people in the country endeavoured to account for
this scarcity from the badness of the harvest the preceding year; but
the fact, I believe, was, that corn for exportation having been in great
demand, and a most enormous price offered for it, the people had been
tempted to dispose of a great deal more than they could well spare. Each
person was eager to sell his own corn to such advantage, and depended
upon getting supplied by his neighbour, so that they were all reduced to
want.
[Sidenote: HORSE RACING.]
Petersburgh stands at the head of the navigable part of Appamatox River,
and is the only place of consequence south of James River, between
Norfolk and Richmond. The rest of the towns, which are but very small,
seem to be fast on the decline, and present a miserable and melancholy
appearance. The houses in Petersburgh amount to about three hundred;
they are built without any regularity. The people who inhabit them are
mostly foreigners; ten families are not to be found in the town that
have been born in it. A very flourishing trade is carried on in this
place. About two thousand four hundred hogsheads of tobacco are
inspected annually at the warehouses; and at the falls of the Appamatox
River, at the upper end of the town, are some of the best flour mills in
the state.
Great crowds were assembled at this place, as I passed through,
attracted to it by the horse races, which take place four or five times
in the year. Horse racing is a favourite amusement in Virginia; and it
is carried on with spirit in different parts of the state. The best bred
horses which they have are imported from England; but still some of
those raised at home are very good. They usually run for purses made up
by subscription. The only particular circumstance in their mode of
carrying on their races in Virginia is, that they always run to the
left; the horses are commonly rode by negro boys, some of whom are
really good jockies.
[Sidenote: RICHMOND.]