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William Priest - Travels in the United States of America
We will suppose them descended from the original english emigrants, who came over with Penn; like
them, to possess a high sense of religion; and that this family are now in the quiet possession of about
three hundred acres of land, their own property[Footnote: There are very few farms
properly so called in the United States.], situate in Pennsylvania, about seventy or eighty miles from
Philadelphia. Whatever difficulties they, or their ancestors, struggled formerly with, are now over; their
lands are cleared, and in the bosom of a fine country, with a sure market for every article of produce they
can possibly raise, and entirely out of the reach of the most desperate predatory excursions of the
savages.
They enjoy a happy state of mediocrity[Footnote: The quakers in particular. I have seen at a meeting in
West Jersey, in a very small town, upwards of two hundred carriages, one horse chairs, and light
waggons, which are machines peculiar to this country, and well adapted to the sandy soil of the state of
New Jersey; they are covered like a caravan, and will hold eight persons; the benches are removable at
pleasure, and they are also used to convey the produce of the country to market.], between riches and
poverty, perhaps the most enviable of all situations. When the boys of this family are numerous, those the
father cannot provide for at home, and who prefer a planter's life to a trade, or profession, are, when
married, presented with two or three hundred acres of uncultivated land, which their parents purchase for
them as near home as possible. The young couple are supplied with stock, and supported till they have a
sufficient quantity of land cleared to provide for themselves.
If unsuccessful through want of industry, &c., they often sell off, and emigrate to Kentucky, or some
other new country seven or eight hundred miles to the S.W., and begin the world again as back settlers.
The daughters are brought up in habits of virtue and industry; the strict notions of female delicacy,
instilled into their minds from their earliest infancy, never entirely forsake them. Even when one of these
girls is decoyed from the peaceful dwelling of her parents, and left by her infamous seducer a prey to
poverty and prostitution in a brothel at Philadelphia, her whole appearance is neat, and breathes
an air of modesty: you see nothing in her dress, language, or behaviour, that could give you any reason to
guess at her unfortunate situation; (how unlike her unhappy sisters so circumstanced in England!) she by
no means gives over the idea of a husband, she is seldom disappointed: and, I am informed, often makes
an excellent wife.
The chief amusement of the country girls in winter is sleighing, of which they are passionately fond, as
indeed are the whole sex in this country. I never heard a woman speak of this diversion but with rapture.
You have doubtless read a description of a sleigh, or sledge, as it is common in all northern
countries, and can only be used on the snow. In British America this amusement may be followed nearly
all the winter; but so far to the south as Pennsylvania, the snow seldom lies on the ground more than
seven or eight days together. The consequence is, that every moment that will admit of sleighing is
seized on with avidity. The tavern and inn-keepers are up all night; and the whole country is in motion.
When the snow begins to fall, our planter's daughters provide hot sand, which at night they place in bags
at the bottom of the sleigh. Their sweethearts attend with a couple of horses, and away they glide with
astonishing velocity; visiting their friends for many miles round the country. But in large towns, in order
to have a sleighing frolic in style, it is necessary to provide a fiddler who is placed at the
head of the sleigh, and plays all the way. At every inn they meet with on the road, the company alight
and have a dance. But I perceive I am dancing from my subject, which I suppose you are by this
time heartily tired of; I shall therefore conclude, by assuring you,
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