QUESTIONS

What hours did colonial schools keep? On what basis were holidays allowed? What were the motives that led Virginians to desire a college in the seventeenth century? Why did Governor Berkeley oppose it? Describe the founding of William and Mary College.

VIII

THE LIFE AND HOME OF A COLONIAL
PLANTER

The plantation which is here described was doubtless more elaborate and more thoroughly organized and managed than were the majority of the large plantations in colonial Virginia, and yet it can fairly be taken as representative. The big plantation, a little world by itself, owned by one man and managed by him or under his general supervision, was the striking feature of the old South, as the town which is described in the following selection was characteristic of New England. George Mason, the owner of this plantation, was an important person in Virginia in the Revolutionary days. He was the author of the Virginia Bill of Rights of 1776, or at least was largely responsible for it; he was a member of the Federal Convention of 1787. His plantation was within a few miles of Mount Vernon, the home of Washington.

Gunston Hall is situated on a height on the right bank of the Potomac river within a short walk of the shores, and commanding a full view of it, about five miles above the mouth of that branch of it on the same side called the Occoquan. When I can first remember it, it was in a state of high improvement and carefully kept. The south front looked to the river; from an elevated little portico on this front you descended directly into an extensive garden, touching the house on one side and reduced from the natural irregularity of the hill top to a perfect level platform, the southern extremity of which was bounded by a spacious walk running eastwardly and westwardly, from

which there was by the natural and sudden declivity of the hill a rapid descent to the plain considerably below it. On this plain adjoining the margin of the hill, opposite to and in full view from the garden, was a deer park, studded with trees, kept well fenced and stocked with native deer domesticated. On the north front, by which was the principal approach, was an extensive lawn kept closely pastured, through the midst of which led a spacious avenue, girded by long double ranges of that hardy and stately cherry tree, the common black heart, raised from the stone, and so the more fair and uniform in their growth, commencing at about two hundred feet from the house and extending thence for about twelve hundred feet; the carriage way being in the center and the footways on either side, between the two rows, forming each double range of trees, and under their shade.

But what was remarkable and most imposing in this avenue was that the four rows of trees being to be so alligned as to counteract that deception in our vision which, in looking down long parallel lines makes them seem to approach as they recede; advantage was taken of the circumstance and another very pleasant delusion was effected. A common center was established exactly in the middle of the outer doorway of the mansion, on that front, from which were made to diverge at a certain angle the four lines on which these trees were planted, the plantation not commencing but at a considerable distance therefrom (about two hundred feet as before mentioned) and so carefully and accurately had they been planted, and trained and dressed in accordance each with the others, as they progressed in their growth, that from the point described as taken from the common center, and when they had got to a great size, only the first four trees were visible. More than once have I known my father, under whose special care this singular and beautiful display of trees had been arranged and preserved, and who set great value on them, amuse his friends by inviting some gentleman or lady

(who, visiting Gunston for the first time, may have happened to arrive after night, or may have come by the way of the river and entered by the other front, and so not have seen the avenue) to the north front to see the grounds, and then by placing them exactly in the middle of the doorway, and asking, 'how many trees do you see before you?' 'four' would necessarily be the answer because the fact was that those at the end of the four rows next the house completely, and especially when in full leaf, concealed from that view, body and top, all the others, though more than fifty in each row. Then came the request, 'Be good enough to place yourself now close to either side of the doorway, and then tell us how many you see.' The answer would now be with delight and surprise, but as necessarily, ‘A great number, and to a vast extent, but how many it is impossible to say!' And in truth to the eye placed at only about two feet to the right or left of the first position, there were presented, as if by magic, four long, and apparently close walls of wood made up of the bodies of the trees, and above, as many of rich foliage constituted by their boughs stretching, as seemed to an immeasurable distance.

To the west of the main building were first the schoolhouse, and then at a little distance, masked by a row of large English walnut trees, were the stables. To the east was a high paled yard, adjoining the house, into which opened an outer door from the private front, within or connected with which yard were the kitchen, well, poultry houses, and other domestic arrangements; and beyond it on the same side, were the corn house and granary, servants' houses (in those days called negro quarters), hay yard and cattle pens, all of which were masked by rows of large cherry and mulberry trees. And adjoining the enclosed grounds on which stood the mansion and all these appendages on the eastern side was an extensive pasture for stock of all kinds running down to the river, through which led the road to the Landing, emphatically so called,

where all persons or things water borne, were landed or taken off, and where were kept the boats, pettiangers and canoes of which there were always several for business transportation, fishing, and hunting, belonging to the establishment. Farther north and on the same side was an extensive orchard of fine fruit trees of a variety of kinds. Beyond this was a small and highly fenced pasture devoted to a single brood horse. The occupant in my early days was named Vulcan, of the best stock in the country and a direct descendant of the celebrated Old James. The west side of the lawn or enclosed grounds was skirted by a wood, just far enough within which to be out of sight, was a little village called Log-Town, so-called because most of the houses were built of hewn pine logs. Here lived several families of the slaves serving about the mansion house; among them were my father's body-servant James, a mulatto man and his family, and those of several negro carpenters.

The heights on which the mansion house stood extended in an east and west direction across an isthmus and were at the northern extremity of the estate to which it belonged. This contained something more than five thousand acres, and was called Dogue's Neck (I believe after the tribe of Indians which had inhabited this and the neighboring country), water-locked by the Potomac on the south, the Occoquan on the west, and Pohick Creek (a bold and navigable branch of the Potomac, on the east, and again by Holt's Creek, a branch of the Occoquan, that stretches for some distance across from that river in an easterly direction. The isthmus on the northern boundary is narrow and the whole estate was kept completely enclosed by a fence on that side of about one mile in length running from the head of Holt's to the margin of Pohick Creek. This fence was maintained with great care and in good repair in my father's time, in order to secure to his own stock the exclusive range within it, and made of uncommon height to keep in the native deer which had been preserved

there in abundance from the first settlement of the country and indeed are yet there (1832) in considerable numbers. The land south of the heights and comprising more than nine tenths of the estate was an uniform level elevated some twenty feet above the surface of the river, with the exception of one extensive marsh and three or four water courses, which were accompanied by some ravines and undulations of minor character and about two-thirds of it were yet clothed with the primitive wood; the whole of this level tract was embraced in one view from the mansion house. In different parts of this tract and detached from each other, my father worked four plantations with his own slaves, each under an overseer; and containing four or five hundred acres of open land. The crops were principally Indian corn and tobacco; the corn for the support of the plantations and the home house, and the tobacco for sale. There was but little small grain made in that part of the country in those days. He had also another plantation worked in the same manner, on an estate he had in Charles County, Maryland, on the Potomac about twenty miles lower down, at a place called Stump Neck.

It was very much the practise with gentlemen of landed and slave estates in the interior of Virginia, so to organize them as to have considerable resources within themselves; to employ and pay but few tradesmen, and to buy little or none of the coarse stuffs and materials used by them; and this practise became stronger and more general during the long period of the Revolutionary War which in great measure cut off the means of supply from elsewhere. Thus my father had among his slaves, carpenters, coopers, sawyers, blacksmiths, tanners, curriers, shoemakers, spinners, weavers and knitters, and even a distiller. His woods furnished timber and plank for the carpenters and coopers, and charcoal for the blacksmith; his cattle, killed for his own consumption and for sale, supplied skins for the tanners, curriers and shoemakers, and his sheep gave wool