The Colonial Cavalier; or, Southern Life before the Revolution — John Shaqi
The Colonial Cavalier; or, Southern Life before the RevolutionGoodwin, Maud Wilder
History
The Colonial Cavalier; or, Southern Life before the Revolution
Goodwin, Maud Wilder
Southern States -- Social life and customs -- To 1775; Upper class -- Southern States
Another visitor says that the Virginia houses are spacious, but the
apartments are not commodious, "and they make no ceremony of putting three
or four persons into the same room, nor do these make any objections to
being thus heaped together."
The Colonial Cavalier was gregarious by nature. He was warmly social, and,
being so much shut off by plantation life from intercourse with his
fellows, he welcomed a guest as a special providence, to relieve the
monotony of his life. The gentleman-planter in affluent circumstances had
nothing to do, and he did it in a very leisurely way. His occupations were
such as could be shared by a guest. An observant traveller has left us a
vivid picture of the daily routine of such an individual: "He rises about
nine o'clock. He may perhaps make an excursion to walk as far as his
stable to see his horses, which is seldom more than fifty yards from his
house. He returns to breakfast between nine and ten, which is generally
tea or coffee, bread and butter, and very thin slices of venison, ham, or
hung beef. He then lies down on a pallet on the floor in the coolest room
in the house, in his shirt and trousers only, with a negro at his head,
and another to fan him and keep off the flies. Between twelve and one, he
takes a draught of toddy or bombo, a liquor composed of water, sugar, rum
and nutmeg, which is made weak, and kept cool. He dines between two and
three, and at every table, whatever else there may be, a ham and greens,
or cabbage, is always a standing dish. At dinner he drinks cider, toddy,
punch, port, claret, and Madeira, which is generally excellent here.
Having drunk some few glasses of wine after dinner, he returns to his
pallet, with his two blacks to fan him, and continues to drink toddy or
sangaree all the afternoon. He does not always drink tea. Between nine and
ten in the evening, he eats a light supper of milk and fruit or wine,
sugar and fruit, etc., and almost immediately retires to bed for the
night."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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