Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Lately Published
- LETTER I To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER II To the Abbate Giromachi
- LETTER III To the Same
- LETTER IV To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER V To the Baron Von Kemperfelt
- LETTER VI To the Abbate Giromachi
- LETTER VII To the Same
- LETTER VIII To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER IX To the Professor Christian Jansen
- LETTER X To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- LETTER XI To the Same
- LETTER XII To the Professor Jansen
- LETTER XIII To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER XIV To the Abbate Giromachi
- LETTER XV To the Professor Christian Jansen
- LETTER XVI To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- LETTER XVII To the Same
- LETTER XVIII To the Same
- LETTER XIX To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER XX To the Same
- LETTER XXI To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- NOTES
LETTER XVI - To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Lately Published
- LETTER I To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER II To the Abbate Giromachi
- LETTER III To the Same
- LETTER IV To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER V To the Baron Von Kemperfelt
- LETTER VI To the Abbate Giromachi
- LETTER VII To the Same
- LETTER VIII To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER IX To the Professor Christian Jansen
- LETTER X To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- LETTER XI To the Same
- LETTER XII To the Professor Jansen
- LETTER XIII To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER XIV To the Abbate Giromachi
- LETTER XV To the Professor Christian Jansen
- LETTER XVI To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- LETTER XVII To the Same
- LETTER XVIII To the Same
- LETTER XIX To the Count Jules de Béthizy
- LETTER XX To the Same
- LETTER XXI To Sir Edward Waller, Bart
- NOTES
Summary
It is an age since I wrote to any of the club. But though my pen has been necessarily quiet, the intervening time has not been unemployed. In the interval I have run over an immense surface in the southern and western states. It would be idle to attempt to describe all I have seen, and there would be the constant danger of leading you astray by exceptions, should I descend into detail. Still, as there is a great deal that is distinctive, I shall endeavour to convey to you some general ideas on the subject.
The first, and by far the most important feature, which distinguishes these states from their northern sisters, is slavery. Climate and productions induce some other immaterial differences. The laws, usages, institutions, and political opinions, with such exceptions as unavoidably grow out of states of society marked by such distinctions as the use or the absence of domestic slaves, are essentially the same.
There is a broad, upland region, extending through the interior of Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia, where slaves are used, more as they were formerly used in New York and in the eastern states, than as they are now used in the other sections of the states named. That is to say, the farmer is the master of three or four labourers, and works in the field at their sides, instead of being a planter, who keeps a driver, and what are called gangs.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Notions of the AmericansPicked Up by a Travelling Bachelor, pp. 340 - 366Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009