Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-08-01

ARIsroCRACY IN New ENGLAND AND
VIRGINIA-T. w. Higgipson gives in
Harper'S these interesting facts ON early
New England life: The late venerable
Isaac Peace Hazard of Newport, r. L.,
told me that his grea. grandfather, Robert
Hazard of Narragansett, used in later life,
when he had given away many of bis
farms 10 his children, TO congratulate him
self on the small limits to which he had
reduced his household, having only 20 in
parlor and kitchen. He occupied at one
time nearly 10000 acres of land, and kept
some 1000 sheep, from whose fleece his
large household was almost wholly clothed.
He had in his dairy IL negro women. all
slaves, and each having young girl TO
assist her; each dairy maid had the care
of II cows, and they were expected to
make from one to two dozen che, ses every
day. This was the agricultural and do
mestic side; the social life consisted of
one long series of gay entertainments,
visiting from house to house. fox hunting
and horse racing with the then famous
breed of Narragansett PAGERS. Isaac
Hazard had known old men who in their
youth had gone 10 Virginia to ride their
own horses at races, anu Kept open house
for the Virginia riders in return. To
illustrate how thoroughly the habits OF
slavery were infused into the daily life. he
told me that another OF heae Nar,agan1ett
magnates, his great uncle, Rowland Rob
lnson. said, impulsively, one day: "l have
not servants enough; 90 fetch me some
from Guinea Upon this the master of
small packet OF 20 tons, belonging to Mr..
Robinson, fitted her ont al once, Set
sail for Guinea and brought out Is slaves,
burst into tears on their arrival, his order
had not been seriously gwen. But all
this was not in Maryland or Virginia; it
was in Rhode Island, and on a part of
Rhode Island so much a place of resort
for the leading Boston families that a
portion of it is called Boston Neck to this
day. These descriptions could be paral-
leled, though not quite fully, in all the
northern colonies. The description of the
Schuyler family and of their way of living
at Albany, as given by Mrs. Grant OF
Laggan, about 1850, is quite on n par with
these early scenes at Narragansett. In
Connecticut it is recorded of John Peters,
father of the early and malicious historian
of that name, that he "aped the style of a
British nobleman, built his house in
forest, kept coach, and looked with some
degree of scorn upon republicans. The
stone house of the Lee family at Marble
head cost 10000; the house of Godfrey
Malbone at Newport cost 100000; the
Wentworth house at Portsmouth had So
rooms. Through all the colonies these
evidences of stately way of living were
to be found. These facts ale unques-
tionable, and would not so fully have
passed out of sight but for another fact
never yet fully explained. When the war
of indepedence came it made no social
change in the southern provinces, but it
made a social revolution in the northern
provinces. For some reason, perhaps only
for the greater nearness to Nova Scotia,
the gentry of the New England provinces
took the loyal side, and fled, while the
gentry of Virginia fell in with the new
movement, becoming its leaders. From
my window, as write, have glimpses
of some of the large houses of TORY
Row." in Cambridge, Mass, where, ac-
cording to the contemporary description
of the Baroness Riedcsel, seven kindred
families lived in the greatest luxury until
the revolution, all probably slave holders,
like the Vassalls. and some of them own
ing plantations in Jamaica. All fled, most
of their estates were confscated, and the
war transferred the leadership of the New
England colonies, as Prof Sumner has
lately we'll shown in his Life of jackson.
to a new race of young lawyers. Hence
all the anti-revolutionary life disappeared.
and was soon forgotten; slavery disap
peared also, while the self same social
order still subsisted in Virginia, though
constantly decaying, until more recent
war brought that also to an end. Mr..
Lodge has best summed it up: "The aris-
tocracy of New England did not have at
bottom any of the great strength of that
in Virginia; but its existence was as real.
ard its power almost as great and unques
toned"