rd; still I could not help it.
I wonder will there be any row about it. I don't much expect there will,
the Jacksons don't stand well now, and this would not do them any good
with the people round; besides I don't think Jackson would like to go
into court to complain of being thrashed by a fellow a head shorter than
himself. It's blackguards like him who give the Abolitionists a right to
hold up the slave-owners as being tyrants and brutes."

The Jacksons were newcomers in Virginia. Six years before, the estate,
of which the Cedars, as their place was called, formed a part, was put up
for sale. It was a very large one, and having been divided into several
portions to suit buyers, the Cedars had been purchased by Jackson, who,
having been very successful as a storekeeper at Charleston, had decided
upon giving up the business and leaving South Carolina, and settling
down as a landowner in some other State. His antecedents, however, were
soon known at Richmond, and the old Virginian families turned a cold
shoulder to the newcomer.

Had he been a man of pleasant manners, he would gradually have made his
way; but he was evidently not a gentleman. The habits of trade stuck to
him, and in a very short time there were rumors that the slaves, whom he
had bought with the property, found him a harsh and cruel master. This
in itself would have been sufficient to bring him into disrepute in
Virginia, where as a rule the slaves were treated with great kindness,
and, indeed, considered their position to be infinitely superior to that
of the poorer class of whites. Andrew Jackson had been for a few months
at school with Vincent; he was unpopular there, and from the rumors
current as to the treatment of the slaves on the estate was known by the
nickname of the "slave-driver."

Had Vincent been the son of a white trader, or a small cultivator, he
knew well enough that his position would be a very serious one, and that
he would have had to ride to the border of the State with all speed. He
would have been denounced at once as an Abolitionist, and would have
been accused of stirring up the slaves to rebellion against their
masters; a crime of the most serious kind in the Southern States. But
placed as he was, as the heir of a great estate worked by slaves, such a
cry could hardly be raised against him. He might doubtless be fined and
admonished for interfering between a master and his slave; but the
sympathy of the better classes in Virg