en.

On entering the cottages I found also a great difference in the
manner of living. Here, indeed, there were few cottages without
a slave, but there were fewer still that had their beefsteak and
onions for breakfast, dinner, and supper. The herrings of the
bountiful Potomac supply their place. These are excellent
"relish," as they call it, when salted, and, if I mistake not,
are sold at a dollar and a half per thousand. Whiskey, however,
flows every where at the same fatally cheap rate of twenty cents
(about one shilling) the gallon, and its hideous effects are
visible on the countenance of every man you meet.

The class of people the most completely unlike any existing in
England, are those who, farming their own freehold estates, and
often possessing several slaves, yet live with as few of the
refinements, and I think I may say, with as few of the comforts
of life, as the very poorest English peasant. When in Maryland,
I went into the houses of several of these small proprietors,
and remained long enough, and looked and listened sufficiently,
to obtain a tolerably correct idea of their manner of living.

One of these families consisted of a young man, his wife, two
children, a female slave, and two young lads, slaves also. The
farm belonged to the wife, and, I was told, consisted of about
three hundred acres of indifferent land, but all cleared. The
house was built of wood, and looked as if the three slaves might
have overturned it, had they pushed hard against the gable end.
It contained one room, of about twelve feet square, and another
adjoining it, hardly larger than a closet; this second chamber
was the lodging-room of the white part of the family. Above
these rooms was a loft, without windows, where I was told the
"staying company" who visited them, were lodged. Near this
mansion was a "shanty," a black hole, without any window, which
served as kitchen and all other offices, and also as the lodging
of the blacks.

We were invited to take tea with this family, and readily
consented to do so. The furniture of the room was one heavy huge
table, and about six wooden chairs. When we arrived the lady was
in rather a dusky dishabille, but she vehemently urged us to be
seated, and then retired into the closet-chamber above mentioned,
whence she continued to address to us from behind the door, all
kinds of "genteel country visiting talk," and at length emerged
upon us in a smart new dress.

Her fem