LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE
DECEMBER, 1885
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A TOBACCO PLANTATION by PHILIP A. BRUCE. 533
SCENES OF CHARLOTTE BRONTÉ'S LIFE IN BRUSSELS by THEO. WOLFE. 542
COOKHAM DEAN by MARGARET BERTHA WRIGHT. 549
BIRDS OF A TEXAN WINTER by EDWARD C. BRUCE. 558
THE FERRYMAN'S FEE by MARGARET VANDEGRIFT. 566
"WHAT DO I WISH FOR YOU?" by CARLOTTA PERRY. 580
LETTERS AND REMINISCENCES OF CHARLES READE by KINAHAN CORNWALLIS. 581
IN A SUPPRESSED TUSCAN MONASTERY by KATE JOHNSON MATSON. 591
THE SUBSTITUTE by JAMES PAYN. 601
NEW YORK LIBRARIES by CHARLES BURR TODD. 611
THE DRAMA IN THE NURSERY by NORMAN PEARSON.623
"The Man Who Laughs." by C.P.W. 627
Why We Forget Names by XENOS CLARK. 629
A Reminiscence of Harriet Martineau by F.C.M. 631
LITERATURE OF THE DAY. 633
Illustrated Books. 634
A TOBACCO PLANTATION.
In the following article I propose to give some account of a typicaltobacco-plantation in Virginia and the life of its negro laborers as Ihave observed it from day to day and season to season. Although it isrestricted to narrow local bounds and runs in the line of exactingroutine, that life is yet varied and eventful in its way. The negrostands so much apart to himself, in spite of all transforminginfluences, that everything relating to him seems unique and almostforeign. Even now, when emancipation has done so much to improve hiscondition, his social and economic status still presents peculiar andanomalous aspects; and in no part of the South is this more notably thecase than in the southern counties of Virginia, which, before the latewar, were the principal seat of slavery in the State, and where to-daythe blacks far outnumber the whites. This section has always been animportant tobacco-region; and this is the explanation of its teemingnegro population, for tobacco requires as much and as continuous work ascotton. There were many hundreds of slaves on the large plantations, andtheir descendants have bred with great rapidity and show littleinclination to emigrate from the neighborhoods where they were born.Some few, by hoarding their wages, have been able to buy land; but forthe most part the soil is still held by its former owners, whosuperintend the cultivation of it themselves or rent it out at low ratesto tenants. The negroes are still the chief laborers in the fields andartisans in the workshops; and, excep