chant in taking possession of the tobacco of his debtor had to meet the cost of the hogsheads in which it was packed.[1] This expense, however, was often covered by the amount of goods advanced.
The purchaser of tobacco, whether a local merchant, a trading planter, or the master of a ship, having secured the hogsheads which he had bought either in his own person or in the person of his agent, directed their removal to the nearest warehouse, or rolling-house, as it was called in that age. When the landing was situated at a distance they were conveyed in carts.[2] A common method, at this time, appears to have been, not to draw the cask over the ground by means of horses or oxen, like an enormous clod crusher, the custom of a later period, but to propel it by the application of a steady force from behind.[3]
Those who were most frequently employed in this work were the servants and slaves, but the energies of the seamen were also called into requisition, as a rule, however, when the hogsheads of tobacco were stored in barns situated not far from landings. The exertion demanded on their part in pushing the heavy casks over the surface of the colonial roads, in addition to the relaxing effect of the heat of the sun, caused them to express their disgust in unrestrained imprecations. It was from them that many unfavorable impressions of Virginia were obtained by people in England, who were not aware of the special reasons prompting the sailors to speak with
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 352.
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1664-1672, p. 114, Va. State Library; Hartwell, Chilton, and Blair’s Present State of Virginia, 1697, p. 9.
- ↑ The hogshead was made as strong as possible in order to withstand the strain of rolling. See Hening’s Statutes at Large, vol. III, p. Notwithstanding this precaution, the heading sometimes fell out. Records of Henrico County, vol. 1688-1697, p. 317, Va. State Library.
