VIRGINIA PLANTERS. 317 



gives the following description of a Virginia plantation: 

 " Half an hour after this I arrived at the negro quarters 

 a little hamlet of ten or twelve small and dilapidated cabins. 

 Just beyond them was a plain farm gate at which several 

 negroes were standing ; one of them, a well-made man, with 



NEGRO QUARTERS. 



an intelligent countenance and prompt manner, directed ine 

 how to find my way to his owner's house. It was still nearly 

 a mile distant; and yet, until I arrived in its immediate 

 vicinity, I saw no cultivated field, and but one clearing. 



" In the edge of this clearing, a number of negroes, male 

 and female, lay stretched out upon the ground near a small 

 smoking charcoal pit. Their master afterwards informed 

 me that they were burning charcoal for the plantation black- 

 smith, using the time allowed them for holidays from Christ- 

 mas to New Years to earn a little money for themselves in 

 this way. He paid them by the bushel for it. When I said 

 that I supposed he allowed them to take what wood they 

 chose for this purpose, he replied that he had five hundred 

 acres covered witn wood, which he would be very glad to 

 have any one burn, or clear off in any way. Cannot some 

 Yankee contrive a method of concentrating some of the 

 valuable properties of this old field pine, so that they may 

 be profitably brought into use in more cultivated regions ? 

 Charcoal is now brought from Virginia; but when made 

 from pine it is not very valuable, and will only bear trans- 

 portation from the banks of the navigable rivers whence it 



