Similarity of pursuit and interest draw
these together. There is no rivalry, and consequently no jealousy
between them. All their relations are harmonious, and their intercourse
during the summer is continuous, for at that season the business of the
plantation may be safely trusted to a manager, one of whom is found on
every plantation.
This social intercourse is highly promotive of a general amity, as it
cultivates an intimacy which at once familiarizes every one with the
feelings, situation, and intentions of the other. Sometimes the
contiguity of plantations enables the families of planters to exchange
formal morning and evening calls, but most generally the distance to be
overgone is too great for this. Then the visiting is done by families,
and extends to days, and sometimes weeks. Provisions are so abundant
that the extra consumption is never missed, and the residences are
always of such dimensions that the visitors seem scarcely to increase
the family--never to be in the way; and the suits of apartments
occupied by them were built and furnished for the purpose to which they
are then devoted.
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