Letters of Ann Gillam Storrow to Jared Sparks

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The Westover Journal of John A. Selden, Esqr. CHAPTER I Introduction The history of social life in the ante-bellum South is embodied to a large extent in the history of the Southern plantation. To know what the persons did who lived on such an estate, to see how they conducted their labors and spent their...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The Westover Journal of John A. Selden, Esqr. CHAPTER I Introduction The history of social life in the ante-bellum South is embodied to a large extent in the history of the Southern plantation. To know what the persons did who lived on such an estate, to see how they conducted their labors and spent their leisure, to understand their ideals and their aspirations, is to know what the old Southern life was like. In the Journal here published all these things are reflected with a degree of accuracy that challenges dispute. It is the record of a man who had a strong sense of detail and who wrote for the purpose of expressing the thoughts and interests that occupied his daily life. Most probably he never thought that the work would be published. It has every indication of being an unconscious witness of what he did and thought. It speaks for itself to him who would know the character of a phase of life that is irrevocably past, a life that has often been described under the influence of romantic motives, a life that will never be better portrayed than in the candid pages of such men as Mr. Selden. The Westover estate, on the James River, is itself one of the best known of all the historic estates of this country. It is situated on the James River, about twenty miles east of Richmond, at a place where the rich low-grounds are broad and inviting. One of the early proprietors described it as lying two miles above where the great ships rode; and from this fact it undoubtedly derived some of its early importance. Adjoining it on the east was the estate of Berkley, the home of one branch of the Harrison family. A few miles to the west was Shirley, the home of the James River branch of the Carters. A few miles below it was the famous Brandon estate, and not much further away was G...