Plantation Reminiscences

The antiquity of the furniture in our homes can scarcely be described--every article appearing to have been purchased during the reign of George III., since which period no new...

From the sorrows of Miss Burney in the palace--a striking contrast with the menials described in our own country homes--I will return to another charming place on James river--P...

"Yes it is slander to say you oppress'd them Does a man squander the prize of his pelf. Was it not often that he who possessed them Rather was owned by his servants himself?"

In the region of country just described and in the counties beyond abound the finest mineral springs, one or more being found on every plantation. At one place were seven differ...

Among other early recollections is a visit with my mother to the plantation of a favorite cousin, not far from Richmond, and one of the handsomest seats on James river. This res...

O, bright winged peace! Long did'st thou rest o'er the homes of old Virginia; while cheerful wood fires blazed on hearthstones in parlor and cabin, reflecting contented faces wi...

His daughters--a band of lovely young girls--presided over his house, dispensing its hospitality with grace and dignity. Their mother's death occurring when they were very young...

We were, in those days, not "whirled with glowing wheel over the iron track in a crowded car," with dirty, shrieking children and repulsive-looking people--on their way to the s...

It was a long time before it dawned upon my mind there were places and people different from these. The plantations we visited seemed exactly like ours. The same hospitality eve...

The scenes connected with the late war will recall to the mind of every Southern man and woman the name of Robert E. Lee--a name which will be loved and revered as long as home...

English books never fail to make honorable mention of a "roast of beef," "a leg of mutton," "a dish of potatoes," "a dish of tea," &c., while with us the abundance of such thing...

One morning in the spring of 18-- a singular looking man presented himself at our house. He was short of stature, and enveloped in furs although the weather was not cold. Everyt...

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, rem...

As soon as my sister and myself had learned to read and cipher, we were inspired with a desire to teach the negroes who were about the house and kitchen; and my father promised...

The extent of these estates precluding the possibility of near neighbors, their isolation would have been intolerable but for the custom of visiting which prevailed among us. Ma...

All plantation reminiscences resemble a certain patch-work, made when we were children, of bright pieces joined with black squares. The black squares were not pretty, but if lef...

The grandmother, about ninety years of age, had been in her youth one of the belles at the Williamsburg Court in old colonial days. A daughter of Sir Dudley Digges, and descende...

Confining these reminiscences strictly to plantation life, no mention has been made of the families we knew and visited in some of our cities, whose kindness to their slaves was...

It will have been observed from these reminiscences that the mistress of a Virginia plantation was more conspicuous--although not more important--than the master. In the house s...