Their hospitality was boundless.
No stranger was ever sent away from their gates.

The gentry received one another, and travelled to each other's houses, in a state almost feudal.
The question of Slavery was not born at the time of which we write.

To be the proprietor of black servants shocked the feelings of no Virginian gentleman; nor, in truth, was the despotism exercised over the negro race generally a savage one.

The food was plenty; the poor black people lazy and not unhappy.

You might have preached negro emancipation to Madam Esmond of Castlewood as you might have told her to let the horses run loose out of her stables; she had no doubt but that the whip and the corn-bag were good for both.
Her father may have thought otherwise, being of a sceptical turn on very many points, but his doubts did not break forth in active denial, and he was rather disaffected than rebellious.