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 
SN, Whe 
~ 
NEGRO QUARTERS. 
an intelligent countenance and prompt manner, directed me 
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 with 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 
