that the labor of slaves was of more value than before, and hence
there was a greater demand for slaves.

As slavery now became such an important feature of southern life, let us
pause for a glimpse of a southern plantation where slaves are at work. If
we are to see such life in its pleasantest aspects, we may well go back to
Virginia in the old days before the Civil War. There the slaves led a
freer and easier life than they did farther south among the rice-fields of
South Carolina or the cotton-fields of Georgia.

If we could visit one of these old Virginia plantations as it used to be,
where wheat and tobacco were grown, we should see first a family mansion,
often situated on a hilltop amid a grove of oaks. The mansion is a
two-story house, perhaps made of wood, and painted white. With its
vine-clad porch in front, and its wide hallway inside, it has a very
comfortable look.

Not far away is a group of small log cabins. This cluster of simple
dwellings, known as "the quarters," is the home of the slaves, who do the
work in the house and fields.

On the large plantations of the far south, there were sometimes several
slave settlements on one plantation, each being a little village, with the
cabins set in rows on each side of a wide street. Each cabin housed two
families; belonging to each was a small garden.

The log cabins contained large fireplaces, and it was not unusual for the
master's children to gather about them when the weather was cold enough
for fires, to hear the negroes tell quaint tales and sing weird songs. The
old colored "mammies" were very fond of "Massa's chillun" and liked to pet
them and tell them stories.

Sometimes the cooking for the master's family was done in the kitchen of
the "big house," but more often in a cabin outside, from which a negro
waitress carried the food to the dining-room. The slaves had regular
allowances of food, most of which they preferred to cook in their own
cabins. Their common food was corn bread and ham or bacon.

Some of the slaves were employed as servants in the master's house, but
the greater part of them worked in the fields. They went out to work very
early in the morning. It often happened that their breakfast and dinner
were carried to them in the fields, and during the short rest which they
had while eating their meals they would often sing together.

[Illustration: A Colonial Planter.]

The slaves had their holidays, one of them being at the time o