"Dawson's Landing was a slaveholding town, with a rich slave-worked grain and pork country back of it. The town was sleepy and comfortable and contented."
This gives you an idea of both how the "marginal illustrations" looked at the edges of the page, and how readers of the novel were visually introduced to the landscape of "slaveholding" and slaves working.
The Barrett Collection, UVA PS 1317 .A1 1894