Note: Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
https://archive.org/details/plantationremini00burw
Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
The author's name on the cover and in the copyright notice
seems to be a pseudonym. According to the catalog of the
Library of Congress, the author was Letitia M. Burwell.
PLANTATION REMINISCENCES
by
PAGE THACKER.
1878.
Copyrighted in 1878 by Page Thacker.
DEDICATION.
Dedicated to my nieces, who will find in English and American
publications such epithets applied to their ancestors as: "Cruel
slave-owners;" "inhuman;" "Southern task masters;" "hard-hearted;"
"dealers in human souls," &c. From these they will naturally recoil
with horror. My own life would have been embittered had I believed
myself descended from such; 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 the praise they deserve
awarded noble men and virtuous women who have passed away.
PREFACE.
For several years I have felt a desire to write these reminiscences,
but did not conclude to do so until receiving, a few months ago,
a letter from Mr. Martin F. Tupper--the English poet--in which he
wrote: "Let me encourage you in the idea of writing 'Plantation
Reminiscences.' It will be a good work; and it is time the world was
learning the truth. I myself have learned it and shall not be slow in
telling it to others."
PLANTATION REMINISCENCES.
CHAPTER I.
That my birth place 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, house-keeping
in the cabins, with negro children dancing, romping, singing, jumping,
playing around the doors, 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, brick 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.
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, chesnuts, 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 inspire some
literary thirst among the rising generation, who, 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 quick 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; up stairs and down stairs, 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, &c., that one had not the heart to refuse, although it
would have been sometimes more agreeable to have been left alone.
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 which was considered 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," cognomens of respect.
The atmosphere of our own home was 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 sweet meat, cake or candy.
I remember once, when my grand-mother scolded nurse Kitty, saying:
"Kitty, the butler tells me you disturb the breakfast cream every
morning, dipping out milk to wash your face," I burst in tears, and
thought it hard 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 by you, and 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, candy or sweet cakes.
The negroes made pocket money by selling their own vegetables, poultry,
eggs, &c.--made 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 grand-mother were almost always talking over the wants
of the negroes,--what medicine should be sent--who they should
visit--who needed new shoes, clothes or blankets,--the principle
object of their lives seeming to be 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 grand-mother 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; was very black and very portly, and her sceptre 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: "Haven't I been, long before this
here little master whar is was born, bakin' the best light-bread and
waffles and biscuit; and in my old master's time managed my own affars!"
She was generally left to manage "her own affars," and being a pattern
of neatness and industry her fame went abroad from Botetourt, even unto
the remotest ends of Mecklenburg county.
That this marvellous 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 will never forget," to
use her own words, "how I watched the road every day, hoping that
mistress would come back, and when I saw the carriage I would run a
mile, shouting and clapping my hands."
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 liveliest demonstrations of pleasure.