March 25, 1728: Surely there is no place in the world where the
inhabitants live with less labor than in North Carolina. It approaches
nearer to the description of Lubberland [_a mythical land of plenty
and idleness_] than any other, by the great felicity of the climate,
the easiness of raising provisions, and the slothfulness of the
people.
Indian corn is of so great increase that a little pains will subsist a
very large family with bread, and then they may have meat without any
pains at all, by the help of the low grounds, and the great variety of
mast [_nuts_] that grows on the high land. The men, for their parts,
just like the Indians, impose all the work upon the poor women. They
make their wives rise out of their beds early in the morning, at the
same time that they lie and snare till the sun has run one-third of
his course and dispersed all the unwholesome damps. Then, after
stretching and yawning for half an hour, they light their pipes, and,
under the protection of a cloud of smoke, venture out into the open
air, though if it happens to be never so little cold, they quickly
return shivering into the chimney corner. When the weather is mild,
they stand leaning with both their arms upon the cornfield fence, and
gravely consider whether they had best go and take a small heat at the
hoe, but generally find reasons to put it off till another time. Thus
they loiter away their lives....
March 27: Within 3 or 4 miles of Edenton [_North Carolina_], the soil
appears to be a little more fertile, though it is much out with
slashes [_swamps_], which seem all to have a tendency towards the
Dismal.
This town is situate on the north side of Albemarle Sound, which is
there about 5 miles over. A dirty slash runs all along the back of it,
which in the summer is a foul annoyance and furnishes abundance of
that Carolina plague, mosquitoes. There may be 40 or 50 houses, most
of them small and built without expense. A citizen here is counted
extravagant, if he has ambition enough to aspire to a brick chimney.
Justice herself is but indifferently lodged, the court house having
much the air of a common tobacco house. I believe this is the only
metropolis in the Christian or Mohammedan world, where there is
neither church, chapel, mosque, synagogue, or any other place of
public worship of any sect or religion whatsoever.
What little devotion there may happen to be is much more private than
their vices. The people seem easy without a minister, as long as they
are exempted from paying him. Sometimes the society for propagating
the Gospel has had the charity to send over missionaries to this
country; but unfortunately the priest has been too lewd [_worthless_]
for the people, or, which oftener happens, they too lewd for the
priest. For these reasons these reverend gentlemen have always left
their flocks as arrant heathen as they found them. Thus much, however,
may be said for the inhabitants of Edenton, that not a soul has the
least taint of hypocrisy or superstition, acting very frankly and
aboveboard in all their excesses.
Provisions here are extremely cheap and extremely good, so that people
may live plentifully at a trifling expense. Nothing is dear but law,
physic, and strong drink, which are all bad in their kind, and the
last they get with so much difficulty, that they are never guilty of
the sin of suffering it to sour upon their hands. Their vanity
generally lies not so much in having a handsome dining room as a
handsome house of office [_kitchen_]. In this kind of structure they
are really extravagant.
They are rarely guilty of flattering or making any court to their
governors, but treat them with all the excesses of freedom and
familiarity. They are of opinion their rulers would be apt to grow
insolent, if they grew rich, and for that reason take care to keep
them poorer, and more dependent, if possible, than the saints in New
England used to do their governors.
A Virginia planter had many responsibilities and many interests. Besides
growing tobacco and raising livestock, Byrd and his associates made
their plantations as self-sufficient as possible. Late in his life Byrd
visited some mining property he owned in western Virginia, and on the
trip stopped off to see Colonel Spotswood, a former governor of
Virginia. The following account, from _A Progress to the Mines_, gives
us a glimpse of another Virginian’s house. Note, too, how Byrd concerns
himself with collecting medicinal herbs.