Transcriber's note: Minor spelling inconsistencies, including hyphenated words, have been harmonized. Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. A GIRL'S LIFE IN VIRGINIA BEFORE THE WAR [Illustration: "AN EVENING PARTY"--_Page 115._] A GIRL'S LIFE IN VIRGINIA BEFORE THE WAR BY Letitia M. Burwell _WITH SIXTEEN FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY_ William A. McCullough AND Jules Turcas _Second Edition_ New York FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1895, by Frederick A. Stokes Company. DEDICATION. _Dedicated to my nieces, who will find in English and American publications such expressions applied to their ancestors as: "cruel slave-owners"; "inhuman wretches"; "southern taskmasters"; "dealers in human souls," etc. From these they will naturally recoil with horror. My own life would have been embittered had I believed myself to be descended from such monsters; and that those who come after us may know the truth, I wish to leave a record of plantation life as it was. The truth may thus be preserved among a few, and merited praise may be awarded to noble men and virtuous women who have passed away._ _L. M. B._ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE "AN EVENING PARTY" _Frontispiece_ "CARPENTERS ALWAYS AT WORK FOR THE COMFORT OF THE PLANTATION" 2 "ACCOMPANIED BY ONE OF THESE SMILING 'INDISPENSABLES'" 4 "I USE TO WATCH FOR DE CARRIAGE" 10 "I DON'T WANT TO BE FREE NO MO'" 12 "SHE ALWAYS RETURNED IN A CART" 18 "READING AND REPEATING VERSES TO HIM" 26 "MY GRANDMOTHER WOULD SHOW US THE STEP OF THE MINUET" 32 "THERE WERE OLD GENTLEMEN VISITORS" 34 "NOW, MARSTER, YOU DONE FORGOT ALL 'BOUT DAT" 36 "THREE WOMEN WOULD CLEAN UP ONE CHAMBER" 42 "LUNCH BY SOME COOL, SHADY SPRING" 66 "HIS MISSION ON EARTH SEEMED TO BE KEEPING THE BRIGHTEST SILVER URNS" 78 "HOW DEY DOES GROW!" 86 "WHERE IS MY MUTTON?" 98 "AUNT FANNY 'SPERSED DAT CROWD'" 160 A GIRL'S LIFE IN VIRGINIA BEFORE THE WAR CHAPTER I. That my birthplace should have been a Virginia plantation, my lot in life cast on a Virginia plantation, my ancestors, for nine generations, owners of Virginia plantations, remain facts mysterious and inexplicable but to Him who determined the bounds of our habitations, and said: "Be still, and know that I am God."