The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-08-23

through all the colonies. No matter how
small the proportion of slaves, expe.
rience shows that it affected the whole
tone of society. In Massachusetts,, in
ITS, there was probably population of
some $50, 900, of whom but 5000 were
slaves. It was enough; the effect fol.
lowed. 1t was in Cambridge, Massa.
chusetts, not in Virginia. that Long
fellow found his tradition of the lady
who was buried by her own order with
slave attendants:
'.At her feet and at her head
Lies slave to attend the dead;
But their dust il as white as hers"
1t is curious to compare this command
of this dying lady of Vassall race
whether it was an act of arrogance or of
humility with the standardization of a
directed the burial of her body beneath
that portion of the church occupied by
the poor, as he had despised them in life
and wished them to trample upon her
when dead. Historians have dwelt too
much, / think, upon the differences in
social life between the different colonies
and too little on the points of likeness.
Let us consider, by way of illustration,
the way of living on the Narragansett
shore of Rhode Island and see how
closely it resembled that of Virginia.
The late venerable Isaac Peace Haz-
ard, of Newport, Rhode Island, told me
that his great grandfather. Robert Haz-
ard, of Narragansett, used in later life,
when he had given away many of his
farms to his children, to congratulate
himself on the small limits to which he
had reduced his household, having only
seventy in parlor and kitchen. He occu-
pied at one time nearly twelve thousand
acres of land, and kept some four thous-
and sheep, from whose fleece his large
household was almost wholly clothed.
He had in his dairy twelve negro women,
all slaves, and each having young girl
to assist her; each dairy maid had the
care of twelve cows, and they were ex-
pected to make from one to two dozen
cheeses every day. This was the
agricultural and domestic side: tho 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. Mr.. Isaac Hazard
had known old men who in their youth
had gone to Virginia to ride their own
horses at races, end kept open house for
tue Virginia riders in return. To
illustrate how thoroughly the habits OF
slavery were infused into the daily life,
he told me that another Of these
Narraganset; magnates, his great-uncle.
Rowland Robinson, said, impulsively,
one day, II have not servants enough;
20 fetch me some from Guinea. Upon
this the master of small packet Of
twenty tons, belonging to Mr.. Robinson,
fitted her out at once, set sail for
Guinea, and brought home eighteen
slaves, one Of whom was kings son.
His employer burst into tears on their
arrival, his order not having been seri-
ously given. But all this was not in
Maryland or Virginia: it was in Rhode
Island, and on q part of Rhode Island 80
much place of resort for the leading
Boston families that a portion of it is
called Boston Neck to this day.
These descriptions could the 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, MS given by Mrs.
Grant, of Laggan, about 1850, lis quite on
par with these early scenes at Nara
gansett. In Connecticut it is recorded
of John Peters, father of the early and
malicious historian of that name, that he
"aped the style of British nobleman,
built his house i'll o forest, kept his
coach, and looked with some degree of
scorn upon republicans" The stone
house of the Lee family at Marblehead
cost El0, 900; the house of Godfrey Nal
bone at Newport cost eco 900; the Went
worth house at Portsmouth had fifty-two
rooms. Through all the colonies these
evidences OF a stately way of living were
to be found.
These facts are questionable, and
would not so fully have passed out of
sight but for another fact Fever yet fully
explained. When the war of Indepen.
dence cane it made no social change in
the Southern provinces, but it made q
social revolution in the Northern prov
inces. For some reason, perhaps only
| for the greater nearness to Nova Scotia,
tho gentry of the New England prov
inces took the loyal side, and fed. while
the gentry OF Virginia fell in with the new
movement, becoming its leaders. From
nv window. as write, have gil "pses
of some OF the large houses OF Tory
Row." in Cambridge. Massachusetts,.
where, according TO the contemporary
description OF the Baroness Riedesel,
seven kindred families lived in the
greatest luxury until the Revolution, all
probably slave. holders. like the Vassells,
and some Of them owning plantations in
Jamaica. All fed. most OF their estates