What was the Aubigny household plantation like prior to Armand's marriage?

Armand Aubigny is lord and master of the L'Abri plantation; he treats his slaves with great harshness and cruelty. At home, he's also a dominant character, controlling his wife in keeping with prevailing gender relations. The brooding, oppressive atmosphere on the plantation is reflected in its physical appearance. Whenever Madame Valmondé arrives at L'Abri, she always shudders at the very sight of it:

The roof came down steep and black like a cowl, reaching out beyond the wide galleries that encircled the yellow stuccoed house. Big, solemn oaks grew close to it, and their thick-leaved, far-reaching branches shadowed it like a pall.

The connotations of death are hard to miss. The tense, overhanging atmosphere is dark and funereal, reflecting the fact that it has been without "the gentle presence of a mistress" for some time. Old Monsieur Aubigny's first wife passed away and is now buried in France; one senses quite strongly that when she died, the plantation died with her. She was the very soul of L'Abri, but since her death, the place has turned into a gigantic mausoleum, savoring of death and decay.