CHAP. XIX.] NEGRO HOUSES. 263 



children are looked after by an old negress, called Mom Diana. 

 Although very ugly as babies, they have such bright, happy 

 faces when three or four years old, and from that age to ten or 

 twelve have such frank and confiding manners, as to be very en 

 gaging. Whenever we met them, they held out their hands to 

 us to shake, and when my wife caressed them, she was often 

 asked by some of the ladies, whether she would not like to bring 

 up one of the girls to love her, and wait upon her. The parents 

 indulge their own fancies in naming their children, and display 

 a singular taste ; for one is called January, another April, a third 

 Monday, and a fourth Hard Times. The fisherman on the estate 

 rejoices in the appellation of &quot; Old Bacchus.&quot; Quash is the name 

 of the favorite preacher, and Bulally the African name of another 

 negro. 



The out-door laborers have separate houses provided for them ; 

 even the domestic servants, except a few who are nurses to the 

 white children, live apart from the great house an arrangement 

 not always convenient for the masters, as there is no one to an 

 swer a bell after a certain hour. But if we place ourselves in 

 the condition of the majority of the population, that of servants, 

 we see at once how many advantages we should enjoy over the 

 white race in the same rank of life in Europe. In the first place, 

 all can marry ; and if a mistress should lay on any young woman 

 here the injunction so common in English newspaper advertise 

 ments for a maid of all work, &quot; no followers allowed,&quot; it would 

 be considered an extraordinary act of tyranny. The laborers 

 begin work at six o clock in the morning, have an hour s rest at 

 nine for breakfast, and many have finished their assigned task by 

 two o clock, all of them by three o clock. In summer they di 

 vide their work differently, going to bed in the middle of the day, 

 then rising to finish their task, and afterward spending a great 

 part of the night in chatting, merry-making, preaching, and 

 psalm-singing. At Christmas they claim a week s holidays, 

 when they hold a kind of Saturnalia, and the owners can get 

 no work done. Although there is scarcely any drinking, the 

 master rejoices when this season is well over without mischief. 

 The negro houses are as neat as the greater part of the cottages 



