The Old Dominion

"The Old Dominion" by G. P. R. James is a historical romance novel. The plot is based on a legal imbroglio, and a painstaking study of that perennial problem, the negro question. The negro's insane ferocity when freed from control, and the peril of a small white population at the mercy of a host of revolted slaves, are brought out in the history of the negro insurrection. Excerpt: «I wrote to you, my dear sister, from the pretty little town of Baltimore; and I hope you have received my letter. Although this so speedily follows it, my only motives for writing are, to occupy idle time, and to relieve your mind from apprehension regarding my safety during my passage through all the terrors of Chesapeake Bay: „that long and dreadful inlet,“ as you call it, „in which uncle Richard was shipwrecked twenty or thirty years ago.“ Believe me, all these dangers are imaginary.»