The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-04-19

nuhoIco. A i2rge pfoporuon Of these
 had no claim, or, at any rate. no au-
 thentic claim, to colonial descent, and a
 great many would have been exceedingly
 puzzled fl accurate details about their
 grardfathers had been demanded: but
 still, all were more or less bouAd together
 by a better education and a higher
 standard of property than the mass of
 slaveh oiders, were recognized as quality
 by the negroes, and as good family |"
 by all (the word good in America no, irn-
 plying the sense of :" old" exclusively as
 with us, but having a slightly different
 sensel intermarrying till all relationship
 IS lost, naming their children by the sur
 names of mothers and cousins with a
 pertinacity enough to upset all ones mo-
 tions of fApglo-Saxon nomenclature, back
 ing one anoiher's bills with a reckless
 ness we know nothing of. Polished in
 manners. bu. rustic and trough and
 ready in habits of life fluent of tongue
 and admirable debatefs. Intensely fond
 of talking and hospitality contemptuous
 oi clocks and watches and tae iiieh, of
 time they mark. Fond of field sports
 but with much greater respec, for
 literature and the arts than seems quite
 expiicable, seeing how utterly serious
 study ot either was ignored. Not as a
 rule irreiiglous nor prof me: but with d
 detided Puritan tendency, Tn fact, IF
 many outward obsesv tnoes. Something
 Ike this were the better class planter. ot
 SirgInIl at the opening of the war; and
 suiiie.eai tuie has r9; yet elapsed :o
 iaiategi-.N att he ehasac,er in ihe
 same "a3 H circumstances. lt
 does not i''7y .t ms class included
 all the larger ,i.reh ,lders, bu; l, in
 c.u5;s's ii1s.s' ,: sae;ii, and :he psop.r;iou
 ot land and negroes per head would have
 been within its !ls;s fa- greater than in
 the large yeoman class bcios. Rural
 law va, a:;nsaisiered in former days by
 unpaid m .gis;ra;es on the Ens,ish
 system. and from this aris,ocracy na,ur-
 ally came thee magistrates. From .hi, i,
 class. ioo, came the politicians, ,he
 oincers Tn the army and navy, the ,c,ors
 Tor the noss part thas pr.ctieed in the
 country. the lawyers ;ha, clustered round the court-house. A good property would
 have comprised probably two thousand
 acres around the homestead, with an
 other thousand or SO scattered abou, elsewhere, and perhaps large, vaguely dehncd tract of mountain forests. v.lue
 less except as ground on which 10 plant 2 small colony of slaves to clear land.
 make their own living under an overseer. and inerea SC Tn number and value. The owner oi such a property migh, have had 200 negroes of all ages and sexes. The value oi the land, II must be remember ed, "oald not have been more than abou, ten or fifteen thousand pounds. The value ei the negroes would have been at least i've and twenty. and 1 tnins this would not he lar on 4 fair estimate of ihe pTepof,ioRate value of slayes 10 land thEoughou, Virginia and large par, of the south, taking. that is, the possession. only oi sl.veholders. The average number of negroes belonging to the ncher elass of planters would have been nothing like two hundIed-no more than one, qrobably-m women and child rcn. A lew. however. had i.r more. A gentleman in the county of Iiaiii,x |, sad 10 have owned something like thousand, numbers of the younger of whom ne did not even know by sight. These were, of course. distributed over several plantations, and many hired out at wages commensurate with their skill as iaborers te other parties. the wages gong to the master, who kept jealous watch over the weil-beins and the treat ment of his property.
 The laws of entail and primogeniture were abolished in Virginia. amid ,remen- dous opposition, by Jefferson in ITO. and the colonial ar,stoeracy-originali Tor the mos. part, self-made. il is true. ou, meilowed by century or more of placid rural authority collapsed on to the basis of their merits. Many families survived this and lived on to the late war. prosperous. distinguished and honored l ou, they formed minority among the | second aristocracy that arose chiefly r after the revolutionary war, on more | purely wealth basis, resulting from the ! rapid development of slavery and the great enhancement Tn the value of ne- sroes The crumbling mansions of the cider colonial ariStocracy are still here and ,here 10 be found upon the old sea board counties of the s:a,e, lifting their gables above wilderness of sIid growth. The sassafras and the dog wood tree. the locust and the wild vine wine their boughs together in a tangled chaos over green strips of turf tha, lean ,attie. wandering in the woods, still keep bright and fresh with constant and greedy The wild broom sedge has or many long year run rio: over broken ombstones, whose messy faces sill aintly proclaim tue v.slues ana the slo- les of some forgotten race. The poor white or the negro, trailing listIessly be- hind some venerable steer or mule. turns ID in ragged ilirows the worn-oW soil ): paddocks that once echoed 10 the read of inpored English lhoroughbreds. shiie beneath the warped wainsco,ing md the Nigh carved mantelpieces of the .esola,e rooms lie piled the scanty crop 'f wheat or Indian corn tha. the rag ,eo occupant has squeezed from the much enduring soil. Blu, these oc- ,asionai relies n the very cid and long lso semi-deserted parts of the state have lothing bu. a purely sentimental and interest. have nothing o do with the late crisis or the period ,etore it. When the second ar ne,v a,;S.