Those who hold slaves are usually indolent, proud, and inefficient.
They think it a disgrace to work by the side of the negro,
and therefore will allow things to be left in a very careless,
untidy way, rather than put forth their energy to alter or improve them.
And as it is impossible for slaves, untaught and degraded as they are,
to give a neat and thrifty appearance to their homes, we, who have
been brought up at the North, accustomed to work ourselves,
assisted by well-trained domestics, can scarcely realize
the many discomforts often to be experienced in Southern houses.
But Miss Lee was unusually energetic and helpful, desirous of having
every thing about her neat and tasteful, and not afraid to do
something towards it with her own hands.
Being the eldest daughter, the entire charge of the family had
devolved upon her since the death of her mother, which had occurred
about ten years before. Within this time, her brothers and sisters
had been married, and now she and her father were all that were left
at the old homestead.
Their servants, too, had dwindled away. Some had been given to the sons
and daughters when they left the parental roof; some had died,
and others had been sold to pay debts and furnish the means of living.
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