Our new house was no better than the one we had left on the old plantation in Virginia.

In fact, in one respect it was worse.
Notwithstanding the poor condition of our plantation cabin, we were at all times sure of pure air.

Our new home was in the midst of a cluster of cabins crowded closely together, and as there were no sanitary regulations, the filth about the cabins was often intolerable.

Some of our neighbours were coloured people, and some were the poorest and most ignorant and degraded white people.

It was a motley mixture.