Note 19 — CHAPTER ONE

The Tidewater plantation economy had spread into the Piedmont section prior to the American Revolution. A paroled British officer writing of his situation in Albemarle County in 1779, said: "The house that we reside in is situated upon an eminence, commanding a prospect of near thirty miles around it, and the face of the country appears an immense forest, interspersed with various plantations, four or five miles distant from each other; on these there is a dwelling-house in the center, with kitchens, smoke-house, and out-houses detached, and from the various buildings, each plantation has the appearance of a small village; at some little distance from the houses, are peach and apple orchards, &c. and scattered over the plantations are the negroes huts and tobacco-houses, which are large built of wood, for the cure of that article." Cf. Anburey, Thomas, Travels Through the Interior Parts of America, Vol. II, p. 187.