Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series - RR0136
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library
Williamsburg, Virginia
1990
"She presideth in the house, and there is peace;--Oeconomy of Human Life (London, 1751), p. 47
she commandeth with judgment, and is obeyed.
She ariseth in the morning, she considers her affairs,
and appointeth to every one their proper business."
| Introduction | i |
| Household Management | 1 |
| II. Members of the Household | |
| A. The Mistress | 4 |
| B. Assistants | 6 |
| C. House Servants | 17 |
| III.Housekeeping Procedures | |
| A. Procuring Provisions and Preparing Meals | 55 |
| B. Serving Meals | 55 |
| C. Housecleaning and Laundry | 64 |
| D. Making Clothes | 71 |
Because the members of the Burwell family who lived at Carter's Grove have left us no letters or diaries and only a limited number of business papers, we cannot describe their housekeeping practices with any precision. For this report, therefore, I have studied the records of contemporaries living in comparable style, whose extant papers include information about the households at Nomini Hall, Sabine Hall, Gunston Hall, Mount Vernon, and Monticello. From de-tails about procedures in each of these households, a sort of pattern emerges for a composite picture of plantation housekeeping.
I have given the house servants special attention because no historian has described them at work, The reminiscences of former slaves, collected after the Civil War, are invaluable to sociologists and anthropologists studying the system and the inter-relationships of blacks and whites, but for the colonial historian these oral-history records are useful only for comparison of nineteenth-century cotton culture and the very different eighteenth-century tobacco system. I have depended upon their masters' records for details concerning their work assignments, personality traits, work habits, and living conditions.
August 28, 1974
Jane Carson
Research Associate
The management of household affairs was the responsibility of the planter, who delegated authority to his wife as he saw fit. There was no conventional rule about the division of responsibility; it was a flexible partnership which varied according to their respective talents, interests, and other duties. When he was away from home, the lieutenant acting in his place might have been his wife alone or in association with a steward or kinsman, whose legal authority as a male was useful in making contracts and other business agreements.
The ideal of each household was self-sufficiency, with the home plantation producing the basic requirements of food, shelter and clothing for members of the family and all dependents. Supplemental supplies came from other quarters. Luxuries were imported, along with staples, furnishings, and equipment that could not be made easily and cheaply at home.
The production and storage of food supplies engaged a large proportion of administrative attention. To be sure of having provisions on hand when needed, the planter and his wife had to pay close attention to the details of planning the kitchen garden, the orchard, field crops, animal husbandry. Plantation bookkeeping included annual estimates of food rations for people at outlying quarters as well as at the home plantation; on the other side of the ledger, estimating supplies of grain, meat, butter, etc. that could be expected from the quarters made it possible to anticipate the purchase of additional staples or the sale of surplus supplies. Orders for European goods were usually planned a year ahead of delivery.
The requirements of shelter and clothing were considered in similar plans. Plantation carpenters built fences, barns, storehouses, and other outbuildings and furnished most of the labor for the mansion house itself. While specialists were usually hired when the planter decided to build a new mansion, his own workmen customarily took care of repairs and later additions. Special articles of furniture were imported, but basic, everyday pieces were made at home.
Clothing, too, was made at home, even when the bulk of materials was imported. Until about 1770 "Negro shoes," Dutch blankets, and yards of osnaburg were customary items in orders to British merchants; however, spinning and weaving were normal household activities, providing cloth for everyday use, and a resident shoe-maker mended everyone's shoes and often made them for the servants.
Since it was the only social institution except the church, the colonial home performed many of the functions now the province of government and other social agencies. The master and mistress looked after the health, education and welfare of every member of the household, their morals and manners, recreations and pastimes.
There was a sort of hierarchy of household helpers. Older sons and daughters and dependent relatives acted as assistant managers and supervisors. Salaried assistants—steward or housekeeper, tutor or governess—often lived in the house, like members of the family. Part-time employees, hired for special functions, included -2- doctors and midwives, gardeners and craftsmen working at their trades and teaching specialized skills to household servants. By the middle of the century house servants were usually slaves; indentured servants were still being used only rarely, and then in the Northern Neck. While house servants were plentiful, they were unskilled and reluctant workers who had to be trained and kept busy.
The planter's wife was a busy person. A Williamsburg girl, Ann Barraud, became the mistress of Bremo when she married John Hartwell Cocke. Shortly after her marriage, she informed her parents, "I never was so industrious as I have been since I came here." In later letters she mentioned the supervision of a dozen house servants in daily chores of cooking and cleaning, spinning, weaving, knitting, tailoring and simple sewing, making butter and soap. In the next twelve years she bore six children and tended, clothed, and trained them. She found it "all interesting." Her husband, declining an invitation to visit friends, once explained: "Ladies who have Children to teach, and cloth to weave, & poultry to raise, and the Kitchen and Dairy, and Store Room, and Dining room to attend to, can only visit at particular seasons."1
When Mrs. Robert Carter of Nomini Hall was showing Fithian "her stock of Fowls & Mutton for the winter," she remarked that "to live in the Country, and take no pleasure at all in Groves, Fields, or Meadows, nor in Cattle, Horses, & domestic Poultry, would be a manner of life too tedious to endure."2 There were other conventional activities to relieve the occasional tedium of country life and at the same time find domestic outlets for artistic talents: notably gardening and needle-work. When Martha Jefferson was a school girl, her father suggested:
Music, drawing, books, inventions and exercise will be so many resources to you against ennui. But there are others which to this object add that of utility. These are the needle, and domestic oeconomy.3
The mistress of the plantation shared with the master Virginia's reputation for lavish hospitality. The "full Tames & open Doors" praised by Edward Kimber4 were her special responsibilities. Not only must she provide meals for any number of unexpected guests, she must also be a relaxed hostess at any hour. Her husband expected to "ask a friend to partake of his dinner in full confidence of finding his wife unruffled by petty vexations" and "usher his guest into the dining-room assured of seeing that methodical nicety which is the essence of true elegance."5 Though uncongenial or demanding guests might create tensions, she could not complain, even to her husband. Many a hostess must have felt like Louisa Cocke, John Hartwell Cocke's second wife, who kept a diary and recorded there her attitude toward the approaching visit of "two of the greatest connoisseurs" in the art of eating and drinking. One of them was William Short, Jefferson's protege in Paris, a diplomat and sophisticated man of the world, who was "so extremely nice & particular" that she "greatly dreaded the honour of his visit." It was six long days before she "had the relief to see Mr. Short drive off this morning."6 The relaxed charm praised by so many of her guests7 was one of the rewards of good household management and well-trained servants.
At Carter's Grove when Carter Burwell (1716-1756) was building the brick house, there were no dependent relatives in the household; Burwell was his own builder, overseer, and steward. When his son Nathaniel (1750-1814) inherited the finished house at the age of six, the guardian of the Children—William Nelson—probably assisted the widow, Lucy (Grymes) Burwell, in household management, and Burwell relatives at King's Mill lived conveniently nearby to advise her. Nathaniel came of age in 1771 and married his cousin Susannah Grymes in 1772; like his father, he was his own manager. His elder sister Sarah (born about 1746) was still living at Carter's Grove at the age of thirty, when she married John Bracken in 1776; doubt-less she had been helping with household management for many years.
At Sabine Hall, Landon Carter was a widower during the period of his diary and reluctant to allow his grown children to share in management details. His eldest son Robert Wormeley Carter, eighteen years old when the diary begins in 1752, was still being treated like a child in 1778. Though he was sometimes given responsibility for one of the quarters, he never pleased his father. In January of 1771, e.g., Colonel Carter was disappointed with the overseer's crops at Rings Neck:
I may call this my son's Management, for I have not here interfered in one thing. Can it be any other then than either a devilish disposition always and at all hazard to quarrel with my management or an ease in him to tie deceived by any fellow that shall applaud and flatter him?8Wormeley's wife Winifred was the titular housekeeper for more than twenty years, but her father-in-law never respected her judgment and usually relied instead on his daughters Judith and Lucy until marriage removed them to their own separate homes. On March 28, 1771, e.g., Carter complained:
…I shall have no house keeping this year … because Ladies are now grown too delicate to look into family affairs. Lucy could not be got to walk out. Judy has been near a year at Hanover, and Mrs. Carter has her children to take care of. In short Owen [Griffith, indentured clerk], as great a rogue as he was, proved of more Service to me than all this management.9
At Nomini Hall Mrs. Carter was "a remarkable Economist,"10 and her "reigning Characters" were "Neatness variety & Plenty."11 Fithian was "more & more every day pleased with the manner, Temper, Oconomy, & whole management of this good Lady,"12 who had no family assistants until her daughters grew up.
At Monticello Mrs. Jefferson managed the household until her death in 1782, when ten-year-old Martha began her life-long role of favorite companion and helper to her father. From 1783 until 1809 Jefferson was at home only for short periods between public offices, and the plantation was managed by a steward. After Martha's marriage in 1790, the Randolphs lived there or nearby at Edgehill, and she was able to keep a watchful eye on the care of the house and gardens. When Jefferson retired from the presidency, Martha became the formal hostess and mistress of Monticello. Thomas Mann Randolph was given few responsibilities, for in everyone's estimation he was a poor manager of his own affairs, and even before their separation he was away from home for long periods. Together Martha and Jefferson managed the household and trained her six daughters. Even while their grandfather was president of the United States, the little girls received letters and presents encouraging their interest in gardening 4 and household management—the same kind of detailed attention he had given his own young daughters. Martha Jefferson Randolph, like Frances Tasker Carter, was de-scribed by her associates as the ideal mistress of a great plantation.
At Mount Vernon Washington's nephews often lived with him and served him as clerk-stewards, but they were treated more like valued employees than dependent relatives: Lawrence Lewis, George Augustine Washington, and Bushrod Washington. Duties of stewards and clerks did not include household management, for Mount Vernon was closed when the Washingtons were away. Martha was an efficient mistress and manager, assisted by Nelly Custis in later life and by hired housekeepers from time to time.
At Carter's Grove no clerk or steward was recorded. Ann King and Molly Peters, who were supplied with clothing and small sums of money in the late 1770's, may have been young women living in the house and learning household arts.
At Belvidera Mr. Lewis and Anthony Fraser were not concerned with house-keeping, for Lucy Gaines and Nancy Holmes were beginning housekeepers assisting Mrs. Daingerfield while they learned housekeeping skills and management.
At Nomini Hall in Fithian's day Dr. Henry Franks and a Mr. Randolph were clerk-stewards; these men kept Carter's business accounts. A hired housekeeper, Miss Sally Stanhope, in residence when Fithian was there, helped Mrs. Carter look after the children and the house, ate with the family, slept in the nursery with the younger girls, and accompanied them on walks about the gardens, but she rarely visited with the family, as Fithian did. Perhaps she was elderly—she had rheumatism--and her position was inferior to Fithian's, for he tipped her five shillings when he left Nomini Hall.
At Monticello the steward lived in a separate building and had nothing to do with the housekeeping. When Jefferson was away from home, Burwell Hemings kept the keys and acted as head of the resident household. In contrast, Jefferson's French steward in Paris and Philadelphia—Adrien Petit—and in Washington—Etienne Lemaire—was called a maitre d'hotel, who managed all the details of everyday living and entertaining, with a minimum of supervision and advice.
At Mount Vernon clerks and stewards kept accounts of housekeeping supplies and to some extent planned their production at other quarters. When the Washingtons were away from home, the steward supervised the work of the house servants and the behavior of their families and managed some of the household crafts. In New York President Washington's steward, Sam Fraunces, did the marketing, planned and served the meals, and supervised the other servants—satisfactorily enough, but not so economically as Martha was accustomed to do. Back at Mount Vernon, retired from public life, Washington was willing to pay a housekeeper £150 a year to relieve Martha's "distresses for want of a good housekeeper." He required that she be neat, sensible, honest, "active and spirited in the execution of her business," possess a knowledge of cookery and understand "ordering and setting out a Table," and he preferred a lady accustomed to the kind of life she would find at Mount Vernon.13 Mrs. Forbes, a former housekeeper for Governor Robert Brooke, came to Mount Vernon in the winter of 1797-1798.
At Sabine Hall many stewards and overseers assisted Carter with the management 5 of his estate, but their responsibilities did not extend beyond the quarters assigned to them. His indentured clerk Owen Griffith apparently kept books on supplies, incoming and outgoing, and may have acted for Carter in their distribution. There was a hired housekeeper in residence, 1763-1770, a Mrs. Woods who kept the keys and gave out supplies as Mrs. Wormeley Carter had formerly done. (Keys were the housekeeper's badge of office. Expensive and scarce supplies, locked away in cup-boards and closets and chests, were "given out" to the servants as needed. See Mrs. Randolph's instructions for management in her "Introduction.")
The Burwell boys at Carter's Grove usually attended the grammar school at the College of William and Mary. (Carter also took dancing lessons from Charles Stagg in 1723; Nathaniel, in attendance 1759-1772, stayed on to graduation from the college.) The only governess mentioned in the ledgers was Mrs. Ann Wager, paid £20 for "Schooling my Children two Years," 1748-1750. (Note that this is the first mention of her; she was employed in 1760 for Bray's Associates and in 1765 was "pretty much advanced in Years.")14
At Sabine Hall in 1772 George Menzie was employed as tutor for Landon Carter's grandchildren at £30 a year. There was no regular music teacher: when Mr. Stadler called in 1775, he only came to dinner. Mr. Gualdo, in March 1767, began to teach Lucy to play the guitar; for 34 lessons a year he charged 13 pistoles.15
At Nomini Hall Fithian and Peck taught both boys and girls, and no governess was needed. He described the English governess, Miss Sally Panton, at the Turberville plantation, Hickory Hill.
Jefferson employed neither tutor nor governess. Martha was educated in Philadelphia and Paris, Mary in Paris and Philadelphia. Martha and her father supervised the education of all her children.
Washington employed neither tutors nor governesses, but sent the children away to school.
There was a school house at Gunston Hall and Mason employed a tutor until the Revolution—"first a Mr. McPherson, of Maryland, next a Mr. Davidson, and then a Mr. Constable, of Scotland." The two Scotsmen were hired in Scotland to come to Virginia, live at Gunston Hall, and educate the children. The girls had a governess, a Mrs. Newman. Near the end of the war the two youngest sons, John and Thomas, were sent to an academy in Stafford County kept by the Rev. Mr. Buchan and then to a Mr. Hunter in Calvert County, Maryland.16
When Harrower was tutor at Belvidera, he taught both boys and girls, and Mrs. Daingerfield trained her daughters in all the household arts.
For treating unspecified illness at Carter's Grove, Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie of Williamsburg was paid 610.9/7 in 1743. Several nurses and midwives were employed from time to time: In 1743 Ann Fortune, midwife, was paid 10/0, and in 1747 Mary Roberts, midwife, received 10/0. In 1744-45 Frances White was paid £10 for nursing a Burwell child one year. Elizabeth Hansford looked after the Negroes in the small-pox 6 in 1749, earning £10.16/3, and another £2 for unspecified services. In 1743 she had been paid £11.17/1, unspecified.17
Landon Carter was especially vain about his medical talents and doctored his own household unmercifully; only for critical illness did he call in Dr. Walter Jones from Lancaster County or Dr. Charles Mortimer from Fredericksburg. Only one midwife is mentioned in his diary—a Mrs. Falkes was fetched from Mrs. Jones's to assist Dr. Jones, who had already been sent for to attend Winifred Carter's difficult and unexpected delivery in October, 1774.18
At Nomini Hall Councillor Carter also employed Dr. Jones and Dr. Thomas Thompson of Westmoreland County, a neighbor and friend of the family. Mrs. Oakley, formerly nurse in residence, was not living at Nomini Hall in 1775.
Jefferson was especially interested in medical science and kept informed about current discoveries and theories, but he did not practice medicine on his family. A practical man, he preferred preventive medicine and, when illness came, relied upon intelligent and careful nursing to help nature cure all illness instead of dosing and bleeding. He was a good nurse; in his wife's last illness he shared nursing duties with his sister Martha Carr and her sister Elizabeth Eppes. For childbirth—the great killer of women—he believed in intelligent preparation. He explained to his younger daughter Mary Eppes: "The material thing is to have scientific aid in readiness, that if any thing uncommon takes place, it may be re-dressed on the spot, and not be made serious by delay. It is a case which least of all will wait for Doctors to be sent for."19 He preferred to have a midwife in residence well in advance of the expected delivery, and then to call a doctor if necessary. To his elder daughter Martha Randolph, already the mother of six children, he recommended a Mrs. Suddarth for her "great experience" and "sound judgment."20 In other illnesses he consulted the best physician available. The doctor Martha mentions in attendance on her children from time to time was probably George Gilmer, Jr., of Pen Park, Albemarle, and after his death in 1796, perhaps his son John. On his deathbed Jefferson was attended by Dr. Robley Dunglison, professor of anatomy and medicine at the University.
At Mount Vernon doctors were habitually consulted for unusual or critical illness of the family and the slaves. Dr. Blanton21 counted sixty-seven doctors mentioned in Washington's diary as visitors. Many of these were personal friends who were not only guests but also medical advisers: Dr. David Stuart of Fairfax County who married Jacky's widow; the Reverend Charles Green, physician and minister of Pohick Church, who attended both Martha and George in the early 1760's; Dr. James Laurie of Alexandria, who attended the Mount Vernon Negroes on a salary basis at £15 a year and sometimes treated Martha for minor illness; Dr. William Rumney of Alexandria, a close friend and medical advisor for family and slaves in the period before the Revolution; Dr. James Craik, army surgeon in the French and Indian War, a life-long friend, perhaps Washington's favorite doctor. In his last illness, Dr. Craik and Dr. Elisha Dick of Alexandria and Dr. Gustavus Brown of Port Tobago were in attendance. The women in the family were in better health than Washington, but a doctor was called for unusual illnesses and Patcy Custis was taken to doctors in Williamsburg and to the Springs in search of help for her epilepsy.
Many a Virginia planter employed white artisans to work at their trades and to teach them to Negroes—smiths, coopers, carpenters, brick layers, millers, 7 gardeners—but not to work in the house or to train slaves in special household skills. It is true that newspaper advertisements of newly arrived indentured servants continued to list a few house servants along with numerous farm laborers and craftsmen.22 By mid-century, however, the market for these servants was in the new lands of the Northern Neck and the Valley; Tidewater planters were already provided with slaves, who were more reliable than white servants. Once in a life-time, perhaps, a planter might build or remodel a great house—Carter's Grove, for example, or Mount Vernon. Or in the 1770's, when the Navigation Acts sparked in-creased production of Virginia cloth, he might import weavers and spinners to set up a cloth factory like Councillor Carter's at Aries.
For building the mansion house at Carter's Grove, Carter Burwell employed the Williamsburg brickmason David Minitree on contract for the brick work and window glazing. Slave artisans made the bricks and Minitree burned them.23 Other bricklayers and glaziers assisting Minitree are mentioned in Carter Burwell's Account Book, 1738-1755: William Vanner, Thomas Wharton, William Wynn, two unnamed bricklayers from Gloucester. For the woodwork Burwell made a separate contract with John Wheatley, Williamsburg master carpenter, whose assistants included Edward Hansford, Jenkins Watkins, Thomas Wade, Hollywood, Sumpter and Sancho. Various kinds of building supplies were purchased locally—wainscotting, carving, and the like—an English artisan, Richard Baylis, was brought in with his family at Burwell's expense. Six assistants, paid by the day, are named in the accounts: Richard Munday, Edward Hansford, James Powell, Henry Crieghton, James Taylor, James Wood.
For remodeling Mount Vernon and for major repairs from time to time, Washington hired joiners, masons, and painters to work with slave and hired assistants. John Askew, joiner, whose work and upkeep were shared with Fairfax at Belvoir in 1762, proved to be unreliable and incompetent. Borrowed tools and money were not returned and his family, described as "starving," were a drain on patience and supplies. Going Lanphier, master joiner brought in from Alexandria to work on the new library in 1774, was a good craftsman, but he came and went at his own convenience. John Rawlings, decorative plasterer from Baltimore, in 1786 and 1787 made the ceiling in the New Room.
Thomas Green, employed in January 1786 as overseer of carpenters, unreliable and a chronic drunkard, was kept on for the sake of his wife (Sally Bishop) and their children. He deserted them in 1794, and they remained objects of Washington's charity. She, too, was irresponsible, not to be trusted with money, but Washington gave her food, shelter, and firewood. When Green disappeared, he was replaced by a newly-arrived Englishman, James Donaldson, a competent artisan but an unsatisfactory instructor and manager of Negroes under his care—a handicap of other English employees, notably Anthony Whiting and James Bloxham.
As early as 1775 Robert Carter of Nomini Hall began planning a "Manufactory" of textiles and stockings. In his first experiments he used slave labor. When he was ready to set up the factory at Aries in 1778, he employed a group of six experienced artisans to do the work of spinning, weaving, dyeing, and fulling. They worked efficiently and profitably until 1782, when one Daniel Sullivan took the contract to manage the factory with six Negro weavers and other slave helpers trained by the original six white artisans. For another three years the business remained prosperous, then profits began to diminish. While Carter lived, the factory continued to enjoy a community market and modest prosperity.24
House servants were kept busy with a variety of household tasks. As a rule, all of them helped with seasonal chores: for example, spinners and weavers, housemaids and waiting boys helped field hands harvest crops. John Mason recalled that at Gunston Hall in the war years George Mason kept "a considerable force" of spinners and weavers "besides the house servants" and made "occasional drafts from them of labor for particular occasions."25 To plan alternate or secondary work for winter months and rainy weather was an essential element of good management. Supervision required constant, individual attention, for a new task had to be assigned as each chore was completed.26
Want ads for slaves, announcements of sales, and descriptions of runaways present house servants trained in general housework and in the performance of special services—the more varied the skill, the more valuable the servant. Male house servants were described as waiters (or waiting men),27 hostlers, postilions, drivers and coachmen, cooks, barbers, gardeners, shoemakers, a few tailors and weavers.28 Thomas Gaskin's David was unusually versatile. "He has always been my Waiting Man when I went from home," declared his master, "and is a good Waiter, Driver, and Hostler, understands something of Gardening, of combing and dressing Wigs and Hair, can plough, work at the Hoe and Axe very well, and is, on the Whole, a very clever active brisk Fellow."29 Other waiting men were trained to wait at table, to treat and nurse the sick, to black boots and keep the master's clothing brushed and in order. Those who could be trusted to act independently as personal agents of their masters were described as right-hand men about the plantation and in the house.30
The training of a good waiting man began when he was a young child. Charles Grymes's Johnny, for example, age about 22 had been "always bred to the House" and was "an extraordinary good Waiter."31 A mulatto boy, about 17, was "a very valuable Servant, having been brought up from his Infancy to House Work"; he was healthy, sober, honest, "an excellent Waiter," valet, and postilion.32 John Barret's "very likely Negro Boy" was "bred a Waiter" and understood "taking Care of Horses."33 The superior position of waiting men and boys in the house-hold hierarchy could be recognized by their appearance: They wore livery or new, clean clothes of superior quality and cut, and their hair was neatly combed and trimmed.34
Female house servants were usually described as Virginia born, young enough to have children, experienced in "waiting and tending in the house."35 There were good cooks, laundresses, kitchen maids, dairy maids, spinners and weavers, knitters (of stockings), seamstresses, and nurses.36 Neither house-maids nor personal maids were listed in separate categories. Housemaids could be found among those "capable of doing any house business."37 Personal attendants for ladies and girls of the family, like waiting men, were chosen and trained as children. For example: Richard Hipkins's Peg, age 15 or 16, "brought up as a house servant, and understands that business well";38 Mrs. Bradley's Kate, age 19 or 20, "brought up in the house from her infancy";39 William Dandridge's Hannah, age 19, "bred to house business."40 Often a favorite maid accompanied her mistress when she traveled or when she married and moved to a new husband's plantation. Personal maids, like waiting men, occupied privileged positions in the household.41
That many female house servants customarily worked part time in the fields is clearly advertised in qualifications like the following: "Works exceeding 9 well both in the house and field."; a "very good hand at the hoe or in the house"; "used both to the house and plough."42
For what we know of house servants as individual human beings working in a great house, performing the services necessary for gracious living, we depend upon the master's records. Only a few planters prepared systematic slave lists which have survived, and even these do not often separate house servants from all the slaves working at the home plantation. The number of identifiable house servants varies considerably from time to time and from place to place. Only Landon Carter's diary records all the minutiae of his daily activities as manager of Sabine Hall. (Byrd was more concerned with private thoughts and actions—not household affairs.) When the master was away from home for any length of time—Washington, for example—his correspondence with stewards and overseers sometimes reveals close personal knowledge of his slaves and detailed plans for their working and living conditions.
Carter's Grove. The Burwell ledgers and account books contain no lists of slaves and so few references to individual servants that no "informed guess" about them can be made from these sources. However, the tax records for land and personal property begin in 1782, and from these records rough estimates may be deduced.43
In the 1780's Nathaniel Burwell owned 1288 acres in James City County and 3300 acres in York. On the James City lands in Yorkhampton Parish he paid taxes on 52 tithables: 47 slaves, himself and 4 other adult white males. These 47 slaves over 16 years of age were both men and women, working at Carter's Grove and at other unspecified quarters—perhaps the Black Swamp Quarter across the road, roughly where the modern settlement of Grove now is, and Burwell's Mill. In York County in 1782 he paid taxes on 54 tithables—a total of 106 in the two counties.
In 1784 he declared 35 slaves out of the 38 tithables in James City. In the York County part of Yorkhampton Parish he declared 15 slaves at New Quarter, 8 at Mill Quarter, and 1 at the Mill; at the Fouaces quarter in the Bruton Parish part of York County he declared 15 slaves—a total of 39 adult slaves in York Country and 2 adult white males (the New Quarter overseer and the miller).
In 1785 he declared 32 slaves in James City and 35 in York—14 at New Quarter, 5 at Mill Quarter, and 16 at Fouaces.
From these data, we may estimate that Nathaniel Burwell used about 15 field hands at a farming quarter. With a comparable number of field hands at Carter's Grove and at the other James City quarters, he could have no more than half a dozen adult house servants at Carter's Grove in the 1780's.
One other bit of tax information is extant: a 1763 list of tithables in Yorkhampton Parish prepared by the rector, John Camm. In that year Col. Carter Burwell had 61 tithables on 3 estates, which are not identified; therefore, the relative numbers in James City and York cannot be estimated.44
At Carter's Grove, as in other households the world over, there were different numbers of house servants at different times, depending on the changing size and needs of the family in residence and of guests. Carter Burwell's accounts in the 1740's (before the present mansion house was built) record the distribution 10 of rugs and caps to "the People at Merchants Hundred." In the six-year period, 1740-1745, 21 field hands, 4 craftsmen, and 11 house servants may be identified, partly by inference. Of these 11, several were obviously children (e.g., "little Mary" and "little Betty") and some of the adults who were "in the house" in 1740 did not receive rugs in 1745. Therefore, this list is an approximation: Juba, Richmond, Cyrus, Hannah, Patt, Sally, Judith, Molly, and Betty.45
Nomini Hall. When Councillor Carter in 1791 decided to free his slaves, he planned the manumission program with care to comply with the Virginia Act of 1782 and to provide for each freedman's economic needs. His program was arranged in a graduated scale extending from 1792 through 1812; a folio volume of memoranda names 509 slaves in several lists which state ages, plantations, family groups, and emancipation dates.46 Special skills, notably in male craftsmen, are usually mentioned because, free, they must be self-supporting. At Nomini Hall there were 114 slaves. By eliminating smiths, carpenters, coopers, millers, bakers, weavers, sailors, brick layers, tanners, shoemakers, carters, and children, and by allowing for flexible assignments and movement to and from other quarters, it is possible to identify about 26 adult house servants.
An earlier list, dated 1775, names 15 or 16 adult house servants.47 Used with Fithian's dairy and letters, this list pictures the household on the eve of the Revolution, and individuals in the picture may be followed into the 1791 lists.
Carter's slaves were unusual: almost all of them were descended from the 100-odd inherited from his grandfather, "King" Carter. He tried to free them in family units and his lists suggest—but do not demonstrate—that they customarily lived in family groups at Nomini Hall and at the other plantations.
The Nomini household listed in 1775 reflects a number of changes since Fithian's departure in October, 1774. Fithian was replaced by John Peck (20) and the clerk, Mr. Randolph, by Robert Mitchell (22). James Gregory's place as gardener was filled by John Derry (26), an indentured servant with four years to serve. Miss Stanhope, housekeeper (age not given) was still in residence.
Carter's valet-barber, Sam Harrison (30 in 1775, 51 in 1791) sometimes helped Fithian dress, shaved him, and mended his shoes.48 Sam's wife, Great Judith, was a housemaid in 1775; by 1791 (47) she was the mother of six children: Beverley (16), Clara, Henry, Berkley, Amelia, and Sally (4). The Harrisons were emancipated with the first group in 1792, and Sam then hired himself and five children to Carter for 1715, agreeing to shave him, dress his wig, make the fire in his study, and perform other personal services.49
The "Waiting men" Fithian knew included postilions and drivers who accompanied members of the family when they traveled about the countryside.50 Nat, postilion (17 in 1775), rode with Ben Garter on horseback trips and also upon occasion drove a chair or a wagon.51 Tom postilion (23), was also a coachman and a hostler who took care of Fithian's horse.52 In 1791 Tom (37) was still a postilion; his wife Rose (also 37) was a spinner and the mother of eight children: Edmond, Alex, Betty, Thadeus, Sally, Oliver, Henney, George, Edmond, an infant in 1775, had become a waiter by the time he was 19. In 1791 there was another postilion, Billy (26).
Fithian was "waited on" by two other boys, Nelson and Dennis. Nelson 11 made his fire, blacked his shoes, and ran errands.53 Nelson, age 14 in Carter's list, was a cabinet maker in 1775 and in 1791 (age 32) a joiner.
"Dennis, a Boy of about twelve Years old, one of the Waiters at Table" sometimes brought messages or punch to the school house, and in September 1774 came for lessons. He had already learned to spell one-syllable words, and his father arranged for Fithian to give him further instruction.54 Carter's lists supply only his age without reference to family connections or later task assignments: Dennis (24) at Taurus in 1791.
Another table waiter, named John, sometimes did chores at the school. One June evening "John the waiting Man play'd, & the young Ladies spent the evening merrily in dancing."55 In Carter's lists no slave named John can be identified with Fithian's waiting man.
Sam Jones (43) and Daniel (18) were the cooks in 1775; Fithian does not name a cook or tip one. In 1791 Sam Jones, now 59, was still at work in the kitchen, assisted by Stephen (16), scullion. Sam's wife Martha (55 in 1791) was listed in 1775, without age or specialty; she was probably the housemaid Martha who made Fithian's bed. He gave her a bit for her Christmas box. 56 When emancipated, Sam and Martha kept the surname Jones.
The dairy maid Sarah was 36 in 1791. Tom the butcher (42) probably worked in an outbuilding preparing meat for use all over the plantation; he succeeded James (54 in 1775).
Other housemaids in 1791 (in addition to Martha and Great Judith) were Betty (26), mother of two young children, who was 12 in 1775; Little Judith (24), mother of three young children, was listed in 1775 as Jude, age 10.
The only laundress Carter identifies is Criss (49 in 1791). In the 1775 list she appears without age or occupation but already the mother of an infant, Bridget. Fithian tipped "the Wash woman" and her little girl.57 Criss and Bridget chose Newman as a surname when they were freed.
One of the seamstresses was Lucy (38), mother of 7 children and a grand-mother in 1791. Teanor (46), mother of three children over 14 and one young son, took the surname Johnson; her husband Prince Johnson (48), now a tanner, had been a shoemaker in 1775. Before Fithian came to Nomini Hall another seamstress and nurse maid, Mary Anna, had been banished for cruelty to one of the children.58
Other craftsmen who helped make clothes for the Nomini Hall people included, in 1791: Daniel (49), tailor; Bob (25), hatter; Nacey (30), shoemaker.
There were three nurses on the 1791 list: Mary (59), Betty (16), and Joanna (13), an orphan. Two midwives, Sarah (66) and Lucy (65), were retired. Fithian mentions Sukey, nursemaid to the baby John Tasker Carter, "a plump, sleek, likely Negro Girl about sixteen" who was the central figure in a "wonderful To do" when a prowling "ghost" invaded the nursery at midnight, "tickled her, & said whish, whish." Some concluded "it was a Ghost because it would not speak," but Fithian decided "more probably it was one of the warmblooded, well fed young Negroes, trying for the company of buxom Sukey."59 Sukey, listed in 1775 with the young servants, was 31 in 1791, wife of Solomon the miller (48) and mother of 8 children; she was probably still a housemaid, part time. Sukey and Solomon took the surname Dixon upon emancipation.
12Until 1777 when the spinning factory was set up at Aries, spinners, weavers and stocking knitters worked at Nomini Hall, and a few continued to live at the home plantation. Rose (37 in 1791) was wife of Tom, the postilion (37) and mother of 7 children; the eldest, Edmond, became a "waiter" at the age of 19—like his father, no doubt, a waiting man.
Another spinner, Prue (29 in 1791), was wife of Gloster Will (39) and mother of a 16-year-old girl, Henny. Both Prue and Gloster Will are on the 1775 list; he was a sailor then, illustrating the importance of river travel, especially for freight. Freed, they became William and Prue Dickson.
Emancipation surnames suggest family relationships which cannot be determined precisely. Jack, blacksmith (39 in 1775) listed as John, blacksmith (54 in 1791) became John Smith; the only female Smith was Rose (63 in 1791). Abraham (65) and Betty (66) Daniel may have been husband and wife. James, brick-layer (39), and his wife Eve (20) chose the name Henry; but there is no recorded connection with Rose, Lucy, and Thomas Henry. In 1792 Carter proposed that James and Eve Henry live at Aries in the dwelling house where James Goosoncraft had lived, with a garden, milk cow, sow, geese, and poultry.60
Daddy Gumby, 94 in 1774, told Fithian that he and his wife were the oldest of Carter's Negroes and that they lived in retirement on Carter's bounty in a little house about 20 rods from the Nomini Hall garden. At the old man's request, Fithian prepared a list of his descendants with their ages but did not copy the Gumby family tree into his diary. On emancipation Willoughby, carpenter, his wife Sarah, and five children took the name Gumby.
Personal attendants, like Sukey, slept in the great house. House servants with families lived in the little village of cabins located behind a screen of trees near the fields, outside the quadrangle of buildings and gardens surrounding the great house. Those who ate their meals in their cabins probably received the regular weekly ration of a peck of corn, a pint of salt, and a pound of meat and, like the farm laborers, supplemented the rations with vegetables and chickens raised on their own small plots of land.61 In addition, they doubtless enjoyed the customary perquisite of house servants, left-overs from the great house. Some of them probably ate with the "Gardeners, Carpenters & other work-men" summoned to meals at the great house by the plantation bell.02 Much of the linen and cotton material for their clothing was purchased in London before the Revolutions after 1775 all of it was made at home or at Aries. Seamstresses at Nomini Hall made the garments for themselves and for all the slaves at the other quarters. Fithian made no comment about their clothing.
Sabine Hall. Landon Carter left no slave lists, no systematic farm and household records. The diary mentions many slaves by name, victims of his constant dosing, and those most frequently dosed were likely to be house servants. There are many references to chores, with comment on work habits and some data on reassignments as rewards or punishments. In spite of his criticism and interference, Mrs. Wormeley Carter and Mrs. Woods directed most of the work of the house servants.
His own personal servants receive enough attention in the diary to suggest the tone of their relationship with the master and the variety of their duties. His body servant Nassau was a skilled barber who served Carter as a valet and a trusted assistant—a waiting man who accompanied his master on inspection tours and sometimes substituted for him and made independent reports on conditions in fields and living quarters. Nassau also waited at table, ran errands, and assisted 13 Carter as slave doctor and nurse and disciplinarian. He was trusted but constantly criticized for chronic drunkenness; he was lectured, beaten, and prayed over, and Carter once threatened to send him to the West Indies. He often disappeared after punishment but always returned and remained Carter's right-hand man all during the period of the diary, 1757-1778. Several sons can be identified, but no mention is made of a wife; he apparently had no separate living quarters, for he was always on call, day or night.
Another favorite was Gardener Johnny, whose gardening experience began about 1750. He had a family and lived near the kitchen. A constant church goer but a drunkard, he was often negligent and sometimes accused of theft; with his son Sam he was once suspected of harboring runaway slaves in the "kitchen vault." In 1770 he was demoted to field work and replaced by his son-in-law Postilion Tom, who proved to be lazy, too impudent to follow orders and too inattentive to care for young lambs properly. After a year as a field hand, Johnny, was restored to his old position of gardener. In June of 1776 he ran away after unusually severe punishment—"locked up and tied neck and heels with his hands behind him."
Another waiting man Joe and his wife Winney (probably a housemaid) were often dosed for minor ailments. The carpenter McGinnis had a wife and children with a family characteristic: hysterics when threatened with medical treatment. The frequency of these occurrences suggests housework; their daughter Mary was probably a housemaid.
A part of Lucy Carter's marriage settlement was Lucy's personal maid Frankey, a good worker whose mother was still living at Sabine Hall. Mrs. Wormeley Carter's maid Betty was married to Sawney, whose brother Simon was one of the runaways hidden by Gardener Johnny. Sawney himself became a runaway in 1775, but Betty stayed on, free of Colonel Carter's control because she belonged to his daughter-in-law. Two other house servants, belonging to the Colonel, were named Betty: a seamstress and a dairy maid. "Peg my Cook wench" had a daughter who was one of the spinners. Spinning women at Sabine Hall often helped with field work. Several old women, unsuitable for field work, herded stock and looked after fowls. Young boys performed similar chores: for example, "Robin the hog boy."
Carter recorded no precise details about rations of food and clothing or living conditions, but there are hints. When the "house people all to a family" ran out of corn meal July 31, 1771, Carter reluctantly gave them half rations of corn and some peas, declaring it "the last time that I will do it for they have the same with the Gang who work hard and these have the Offals of the Kitching to help out."63 Some families of house servants had their own cabins near Sabine Hall and probably raised chickens and eggs for sale and trade, like the other cabin dwellers. (Postilion Tom was assigned a new cabin when he was promoted in September, 1772.) Housemaids had boxes in the attic to hold personal possessions; they probably slept there and ate in the kitchen with the cooks and waiting boys.64
Shirts, shifts, and suits made of linen, cotton and woolen cloth were regularly issued to all the slaves. At Sabine Hall, as elsewhere, house servants were better dressed than field hands. In May, 1766, 6 yards of oznaburg were allotted to Betty, Winny, and Peg each for a waistcoat and petticoat and 4 yards each for waistcoats and breeches for Joe, Tom and Nassau.65 In December, 1763, Carter ordered from London 3 livery suits and 3 silver laced hats for middle-sized men66—probably Nassau, Postilion Tom, and another postilion or coachman.
14Mount Vernon. Washington made three lists of slaves: the first, about 1760, is in the Custis Papers, Virginia Historical Society; the list dated February 18, 1786 is printed in Fitzpatrick's edition of the Diaries, III, 15-22; the last, made in the summer of 1799, is printed in Fitzpatrick's edition of the Writings, XXXVII, 256-268. In all the years when he was absent from his plantation, his letters to overseers and managers frequently mention slaves by name and reveal his knowledge of their individual talents, personality traits, and work habits. These letters demonstrate the importance of detailed planning and close super-vision of individual tasks to prevent idleness. He explained to William Pearce that "Method, in all these things, is desirable, and after it is once adopted, and got into a proper train things will work easy."67 Letters to Anthony Whiting carried the recurring refrain: keep the "House gang steadily at work" or they will be "ruined by idleness."68 Whiting was advised to care for the Negroes:
first by seeing that they have everything that is proper for them, and next, that they be prevented, as far as vigilance can accomplish it, all irregularities and improper conduct. And this oftentimes is easier to effect by watchfulness and admonition, than by severity; and certainly must be more agreeable to every feeling mind in the practice of them.69When Washington leased Mount Vernon from the Lees in 1755, eighteen slaves went with the estate, and he bought three additional ones. But before he could set up a household, he was off to war. In 1760 the house was staffed largely with Martha's dower servants: Breechy, age 24, butler-waiter; Mulatto Jack (41), Breechy's assistant; Doll (38), cook; Beck (23), scullion; Mima (36), ironer, and Jenny (39), washer; Phillis (25), spinner; Betty (21), seamstress; Julius (10), Jacky's personal servant; Rose (12), Patcy's maid; Moll (19), children's nurse and seamstress; Sally (15), Martha's maid. Washington had two white attendants: John Alton and Thomas Bishop. Alton had been his orderly during the French and Indian War, was now acting as a general assistant and steward, and would soon be moved to the Dogue Run quarter as overseer. Alton died in 1785, an "old and faithful servant" for thirty years, leaving a daughter, Mrs. Walker, who still lived at Mount Vernon. Bishop, formerly Braddock's orderly, was Washington's body servant—valet, postilion, and messenger—not very dependable, in Lund's opinion. He was pensioned in 1779, and Washington built a cottage for him and his wife and daughter, where he lived until his death in 1795.
By 1786 there had been many changes in the household staff, now numbering forty-one adults and twenty-six children. Breechy (50), now a laborer at the River Farm, had been replaced by Billy, a mulatto purchased in 1768, Washington's faithful body servant all during the Revolution; after a knee injury in 1785, Billy does less riding and has more household responsibility as a butler. Billy is assisted by two waiters: Frank, also purchased in 1768, and a dower slave named Austin.
Martha's cook, Doll, almost past service at age 65 has been replaced by two male cooks, Hercules and Nathan. The housemaids Sall and Caroline are dower slaves, as are Dolly, laundress; Lame Alice and Charlotte, seamstresses; Lame Peter, Alice, and Kitty, spinners. Betty, the seamstress in 1760, is still at work, now in her late forties. Martha's laundresses in 1760, Jenny and Mima, about Doll's age, are no longer active; Jenny is listed in 1799 as retired.
Among Washington's slaves in the 1786 household are Sall Brass, laundress; Myrtilla, spinner; Bristol, gardener; Giles, Joe and a boy Paris, drivers and postilions.
15In New York and Philadelphia President Washington was served by many of the Mount Vernon house slaves, but not in a plantation environment, and therefore they are inapplicable to this study. Letters to managers and overseers these years were largely concerned with farming, but household servants had to be kept busy at other tasks while the family was away and the house closed, and they received greater attention in preparations for short visits of the family and guests and, of course, in preparations for retirement—first in 1793, then in 1797. Billy, injured in another fall in 1788, as early as 1790 had a substitute, Christopher Sheels, still valet in 1799 and in attendance at Washington's death bed. Christopher apparently never acted as butler. Frank, married to Lucy, a cook who sometimes helped with the knitting, was living in the detached kitchen in 1793. Nathan, still cooking in 1799, was married to Peg, one of Washington's slaves at Muddy Hole farm. Hercules, spoiled by prestige and special favors in Philadelphia, ran away from Mount Vernon in 1797; his duties were taken over by Mrs. Forbes, the housekeeper.
The housemaids Sall and Caroline were still at work in 1799. Sall's son Cyrus (17), postilion, was sent to Port Tobago for Doctor Brown during Washington's last illness and led the riderless horse in the funeral procession. Caroline, mother of five children, was married to Peter Hardman; she made the fire in the bedroom the day of her master's death. Cyrus, too, was married; his wife Lucy (18) lived at the River Farm. Cyrus had been working at the Mansion House for some time, helping Frank and Hercules in odd jobs. Washington thought him "likely, young, and smart enough" to be trained as a gardener, though "strongly suspected of roguery and drinking."70 But Cyrus apparently preferred to work in the house, and Washington was willing to allow him a choice. In December, 1795, he instructed Pearce:
If Cyrus continues to give evidence of such qualities as would fit him for a waiting man, encourage him to persevere in them; and if they should appear to be sincere and permanent, I will receive him in that character when I retire from public life, if not sooner. To be sober, attentive to his duty, honest, obliging and cleanly, are the qualifications necessary to fit him for my purpose. If he possesses these, or can acquire them, he might become useful to me at the same time that he would exalt, and benefit himself.71Late in the Spring Cyrus still needed encouragement, and Washington informed Pearce:
I would have you again stir up the pride of Cyrus; that he may be fitter for my purposes against I come home; sometime before which…I will direct him to be taken into the house, and clothes be made for him. In the meanwhile, get him a strong horn comb and direct him to keep his head well combed, that the hair, or wool may grow long.72When his master came home in 1797, Cyrus was wearing a postilion's livery, not a waiting man's clothes.
Gardening received special attention in Washington's retirement plans: planting new fruit trees, grafting, mending hedges, keeping the gardens, lawns, and the vineyard in order. Bristol now needed new assistants or a replacement. In addition to Cyrus, other young slaves who were acute 16 and honest were being trained as gardeners; Washington suggested Sam, Moses at the Mill, and Daphne's children at the River Farm.73 From 1788 until 1797 these slaves were directed by a Dutch gardener, John Christian Ehler, whose wife was in charge of the spinners. Ehler drank too much but, sober, he was a good gardener and got along well with his Negro helpers. Washington explained to him how to manage John when he gave himself "impudent airs" and said "he would not have this thing, nor would not have that thing, because they were either not good enough or not made to his liking":
You may tell him from me, that this is neither the way to make me his friend, or to get better things. The way to obtain them is to ask for what he wants modestly, without which he will not get them at all, or at least nothing more than what is absolutely necessary.74The next year John's work and behavior were rewarded with a dollar a month and new clothes "of tolerable good cloth made to his own taste" to "keep him in a good humor."75
The year of Washington's death he listed the Mount Vernon servants by category: 21 artisans, 2 gardeners, 9 spinners and knitters, 2 postilions, 2 male cooks, 1 milkmaid, 7 other "house servants" (3 men and 4 women), 3 men and 2 women past labor.76 Compared with the 11 house servants listed in 1759, we may conclude that the normal complement at Mount Vernon was about a dozen. 77
In the 1790's Frank, the waiting man, his wife Lucy, cook, and their children lived in the kitchen; families of other house servants were assigned cabins like field hands. Washington complained to Pearce:
There are a great number of Negro children at the Quarters belonging to the house people; but they have Always been forbid (except two or 3 young ones belonging to the Cook, and the Mulatto fellow Frank in the house, her husband; both of whom live in the Kitchen) from coming within the Gates of the Inclosures of the Yards, Gardens &ct; that they may not be breaking the Shrubs, and doing other mischief; but I believe they are often in there notwithstanding but if they could be broke of the practice it would be very agree-able to me, as they have no business within; having their wood, Water, &ct at their own doors without.78When the Polish visitor Count Niemcewicz inspected the cabins in 1798, he found living conditions barely adequate:
The husband and his wife sleep on a miserable bed, the children on the floor. A very poor chimney, a little kitchen furniture amid this misery—a tea-kettle and cups. … A small orchard with vegetables was situated close to the hut. Five or six hens, each with ten or fifteen chickens, walked there. … They receive a peck of Indian corn every week, and half of it is for the children, besides twenty herrings in a month. At the harvest-time those who are working in the field obtain salt and meat. They receive a cotton jacket and a pair of breeches yearly.79
Niemcewicz saw the slaves in June, when they were wearing summer clothing—not cotton, but linen, part of the material purchased and part 17 made at Mount Vernon. Heavier woolen garments for outside wear in cold weather were made from coarse woolen cloth of home manufacture. Stockings were knit by Lame Peter, Sarah, and other knitters and shoes were made from leather tanned on the plantation or purchased from merchants in Alexandria or abroad. In 1787 a shipment of shoe leather from Boston was black, and Washington ordered it made into shoes for the house servants.80 Heavy blankets similar to the rugs used at Carter's Grove were regularly issued to Mount Vernon servants; for economy Washington preferred to buy the striped "Dutch Blanketings" which came in large rolls of fifteen blankets to the roll.81
In 1755 Washington ordered two complete livery suits, two hats, and "horse furniture to match," the colors to be chosen "by my Arms" except that the impractical all-white field be replaced by scarlet facings and waistcoat.82 Just before his marriage he ordered caps for two postilions, and in 1761 a suit of livery for Julius, Jacky's servant, the livery to be "suited to the Arms of the Custis Family."83
Monticello. From his father's estate, Jefferson inherited about 20 slaves. In 1773 he received 11 from his mother, and in 1774 his wife Martha inherited 135. The total number in 1774 was 187; 45 of these were at Monticello, and 19 of the 45 were house servants and craftsmen. From time to time he bought, sold, or hired slaves, and their number was increased and decreased, of course, by births and deaths. In 1810 there were 25 house servants.
Slave rolls and lists of rations of clothing and food in Jefferson's Farm Book84 are arranged by quarters and by families; therefore, Monticello servants appear separately, often with notes distinguishing laborers in the ground from those following other occupations. Among the house servants, two families are of special interest in the recollections of Edmund Bacon (overseer, 1806-1822) and the slave Isaac (1775-ca. 1848): Isaac's family and the descendants of Betty Hemings.85 Other house servants in 1774 included: Jupiter (age 31), Sukey (16), Frank (17), Ned (14), Barnaby (14), Dinah (13), Scilla (12), and old Jenny (retired). Their special talents or assignments are not noted in the 1774 list—or later ones—but Bacon and Isaac supply enough details to show great variety in household skills and assignments.
Isaac's father George (called Great George or King George) was a skilled blacksmith, the first manager of the Monticello nail factory. Isaac's mother Ursula (nicknamed Queen), pastry cook and laundress, had been purchased in 1773 from the estate of Col. William Fleming of Goochland. When Isaac was born, in December 1775, George was 45 and Ursula 38, and there were two elder brothers, Little George (16), also a smith, and Bagwell (7). In Philadelphia Isaac was trained to be a tinsmith and later became a blacksmith. None of the males in Ursula's family were house servants, but Isaac performed house chores as a child, carrying wood for his mother, feeding the park deer with his father, making fires, etc.
After Isaac was a grown man, one of his nieces, named Ursula, became the Randolph children's nurse. Bacon said of her:
She was a big, fat woman. She took charge of all the children that were not in school. If there was any switching to be done, she always did it. She used to be down at my house a great deal with the children . … They were all very much attached to their nurse. They always called her "Mammy."8618 This Ursula, named for her grandmother, was a daughter of Bagwell and Minerva, born in 1787. She married Wormeley Hemings, gardener, grandson of Betty Hemings; by 1815 Ursula and Wormeley had five children. Bagwell and Minerva, meanwhile, had been moved to Tufton, their home after 1810.87
Betty Hemings and her ten children, servants of John Wayles, came to Monticello as part of Martha Jefferson's inheritance and remained the most privileged family among the slaves.88 Two other children were born at Monticello.
Mary (b. 1753) was a cook and seamstress. With Jefferson in Richmond, she was courted in the kitchen by Mat Anderson, a drummer who taught Isaac "how to beat." Among her children was Joe Fosset, blacksmith.
Martin (1755-1807) was a butler.
Bett (b. 1759), called Betty Brown, was a seamstress and house maid. Her eight children included Wormley (b. 1781), gardener, and Burwell (b. 1783), skilled painter and successor to Martin as butler. He was head servant at Monticello while Jefferson was in Washington, trusted to keep the keys to the wine cellar, and he sometimes rode postilion accompanying Jefferson as body servant.
Robert (b. 1762) was a carriage driver and barber.
James (b. 1765), body servant, went with Jefferson to Paris, where he was taught "the art of cookery" at "great expense." In 1793 he was promised his freedom if he would train substitute cooks at Monticello.
Peter (b. 1770) was a cook in 1809, when he was replaced by Edy and Fanny; he had a room next to the kitchen until he moved to a log house on Mulberry Row.
Sally (b. 1773) was a lady's maid, a beautiful quadroon. She accompanied Mary Jefferson to Paris in the summer of 1787, when she was 14 and Polly 8. Abigail Adams thought Sally incompetent and useless and that she required more care and attention than Polly.89 Sally's daughter Harriet, also a beauty, was a spinner and weaver.
John (b. 1775) was an especially skilled carpenter, trained by James Dinsmore, who was in charge of the remodeling at Monticello. John made the boxes for Jefferson's books when they were sold to Congress—sixteen wagon loads. In turn, John trained two apprentices, his nephews Madison and Eston, Sally's sons.
Other Hemings slaves are listed with the Monticello servants, but their jobs are not specified: Nance (b. 1761), Thenia (b. 1767), Critta (b. 1769), and Lucy (1777-1786). Several members of the family were sold or freed before Jefferson's death: Mary, sold in 1792; Robert, freed in 1794; Thenia, sold in 1794; James, freed in 1796; Harriet, freed in 1822. John, Burwell, Madison, and Eston were emancipated by Jefferson's will; Sally, shortly after 1827.
Bacon identified two other cooks by name, Eda and Fanny. In Washington, Bacon recalled, Mr. Jefferson:
had eleven servants with him from Monticello. He had a French cook in Washington named Julien, and he took Eda and Fanny there 19 to learn French cookery. He always preferred French cookery. Eda and Fanny were afterwards his cooks at Monticello.90When Jefferson was preparing to leave Washington, in March 1809, his overseer was expected to help him "move home his goods and servants," and Bacon was given the following special instructions:
As the two cooks which are here will take the place of Peter Hemings in the kitchen, it will be necessary that one of them should have his room next the kitchen and that it should be vacant on their arrival. I would wish you therefore before your departure to let him make choice of any one of the log-houses vacant, on the Mulberry row, and to direct your people to proceed immediately to fit it up in an entirely comfortable and decent manner. It should be done at once that the cramming may be dry.91In the roll of Negroes for the winter of 1798-1799 Edy (b. 1787) appears as one of the ten children of Isabel, a house servant, and Fanny (b. 1788) was a daughter of Jenny, house servant. In 1810 Edy was the mother of three children and Fanny, of two; both are listed among the twenty-five house servants.
Slave housing at Monticello was in two locations. The log houses on Mulberry Row, on the side of the mountain near the vegetable garden, out of sight from the mansion, were grouped together so that "fewer nurses may serve & that the children may be more easily attended to by the superannuated women."93 Many of the house servants, notably cooks and personal attendants, lived in rooms along the row of the Southeast Offices adjoining the mansion house. Bacon explained:
Under the house and the terraces that surrounded it, were his cisterns, icehouse, cellar, kitchen, and rooms for all sorts of purposes. His servants' rooms were on one side. They were very comfortable, warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Then there were rooms for vegetables, fruit, cider, wood, and every other purpose. There were no Negro and other outhouses around the mansion, as you generally see on plantations.94
The Farm Book records regular rations of equipment, clothing, and food: beds, blankets, pots, sifters; linen, woolen, and cotton cloth or thread; shoes, stockings, and hats; pork, fish, meal, flour, and molasses.
House servants were clothed with extra care. Jefferson's memorandum for Bacon, about 1806, summarized his rationing system and specified that:
Mrs. Randolph always chooses the clothing for the house servants; that is to say, for Peter Hemings, Burwell, Edwin, Critta, and Sally. Colored plains are provided for Betty Brown, Betty Hemings, Nance, Ursula, and indeed all the others.95There is a hint of conventional Virginia livery in Isaac's reference to "caps and gilded bands" worn by Jupiter and John, coachman and postilion, interchangeably.96
Belvidera. Harrower described the household to his wife:
Our Family consists of the Coll. his Lady & four Childreen a housekeeper an overseer and myself all white. But how many 20 blacks young and old the Lord only knows for I belive there is about thirty that works every day in the field besides the servants about the house; such as Gardner, livery men and pages, Cooks, washer & dresser, sewster and waiting girle.97Although he saw most of them every day, he rarely mentioned them by name. Barnaby carried messages.98 Jacob and Abraham ran errands.99 Ganzera and Pattie were spinners.100 But the cooks, waiters, and housemaids are nameless—even the "bonny black bairn" who cleaned his room and made his bed every day.
And the tutor had nothing to say of their living conditions. They probably lived in conventional cabins near the fields with gardens similar to his own, where he raised watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, pumpkins, gourds, potatoes, and cotton.101 He heard one of them play a "Barrafou," a crude marimba, and he read to a small group of them and taught them the catechism.102
Gunston Hall. In John Mason's admirable description of the plantation economy, he recalled that his father "had among his slaves carpenters, coopers, sawyers, black-smiths, tanners, curriers, shoemakers, spinners, weavers and knitters, and even a distiller." To carry on the various household operations,
a considerable force was necessary, besides the house servants who for such a household, a large family and entertaining a great deal of company, must be numerous—and such a force was constantly kept there … . As I had during my youth constant intercourse with all these people, I remember them all and their several employments, as if it was yesterday. As it will convey a better idea of the state of the family and the habits of the times, I will describe them all.103Alas! the manuscript ended at this point, with the promise unfulfilled.
Mason's description of the plantation lay-out, however, makes a clear distinction between housing for house servants and for field hands. The out-buildings to the east of the mansion house (kitchen, poultry houses, "and other domestic arrangements") were backed by rows of cherry and mulberry trees, which screened the corn house, granary, Negro laborers' quarters, hay yard, and cattle pens. To the west of the mansion house were the school, then a row of walnut trees, then the stables, and an edge of the front lawn. This western side of the lawn:
was skirted by a wood, just far enough within which to be out of sight, was a little village called Log-Town, so-called because most of the houses were built of hewn pine logs. Here lived several families of slaves serving about the mansion house; among them were my father's body-servant James, a mulatto man and his family, and those of several negro carpenters.104
A summary statement of the rights and duties of the slave, written by George E. Harrison of Brandon:
In its simplest aspect, as understood and acted on in Virginia, I should say that the slave is entitled to an abundance of good plain food; to coarse but comfortable apparel; to a warm but humble dwelling; to protection when well, and to succor when sick; and, in return, that it is his duty to render to his master all the service he can, consistently with perfect health, and to behave submissively and honestly. 105
See Jane Carson, Colonial Virginia Cookery (Williamsburg, 1968).
Meal Times. Though everyone got up early, usually "with the sun," breakfast was not served until eight or nine o'clock. The London custom of drinking tea before rising or immediately after, so far as we know, was not followed in the colony.
Dinner was served in the early afternoon, at two or three o'clock usually. (In Virginia, as in England, the fashionable hour for dinner advanced with the century.)
A light family supper was served shortly before bedtime.
Setting the Table. The earliest detailed instructions we have found are given in Robert Roberts, The House Servant's Directory or A Monitor for Private Families (Boston, 1827). The author was a Negro, for many years employed as butler by Christopher Gore, Massachusetts governor and senator. An old man about to retire, Roberts wrote the book to give practical instructions to young 56 servants in all phases of house work.1 Since the Boston merchant and the Virginia planter had similar tastes, patterned on standards of the English gentry, household furnishings and fashions in Boston were not very different from those in Virginia. Roberts had observed that many young waiting men "require much instruction" because they "do not know how to begin their work in proper order unless being drove by the lady of the family, from one thing to another, which keeps them continually in a bustle and their work is never done.... and on the other hand, how disagreeable it must be for a lady, who has to tell them every thing that she wants to2 be done."
To set the table for breakfast:
In the first place, dust off your table clean, and spread your cloth neatly, observing that the centre crease of your cloth is right in the centre of the table, and that it don't hang longer at one end than at the other: then proceed to set out your breakfast tray; laying a cup and saucer for each person, with a teaspoon in each saucer, at the right hand side of the cup; then set in the centre of the tray, your sugar pot on the right hand, your cream pot on the left, and your slop bowl in the centre, with your tea pot behind them.... As soon as you have this done, set your tray at the end of the table where the lady sits that pours out the tea, then put around your plates, one for each person, putting them at a proper distance from each other; then your knife and fork to each small plate, the knife on 57 the right hand, the fork on the left, with the end of the handles even with the edge of the table....
If your breakfast table is rather small you must spread a napkin on a small stand, place it on the left hand side of the lady that makes tea; place on this the tea caddy, and if there is not room on the breakfast tray, for all your cups and saucers to be placed uniform, you may put the remainder on the stand. Remember to put on a knife for your bread and one for the butter, and if any cold meat is put on the table lay a dinner knife and fork for it for carving....
When you have every thing properly arranged on your breakfast table, then put round the chairs, and if it is cold weather, see that your fires burn well, and your room comfortable, against the family come down to breakfast....
Whatever you have to carry in for breakfast, such as toast, rolls, eggs, &c. always take them in on a waiter; never carry in, or hand any thing with the naked hand, as it looks very ungenteel.3
For dinner, of course, preparations in the dining room as well as in the kitchen were more elaborate.
In the first place, the greatest attention should be paid, to have all the things that are for use properly arranged, and appointing each attendant his proper place, and what he has to do. You will always find that the more help there is to wait on table, the more confusion there is, especially if their different offices are not pointed out before dinner....
In putting the cloth on the table, you should be very particular, observing, in the first place, to have its right side uppermost. This you may easily learn by looking at the hem and fold. Likewise you must be very particular to have the bottom of the cloth to the bottom of the table. In most all dinner cloths that are spread for company, there is generally some ornamental work wrought on them, on some there is the family's coat de arms, on others, baskets of flowers, birds, 58 branches, &c. Then suppose there is a basket of flowers, the bottom of the basket should be towards the person at the bottom of the table, as the design should always go up the table; the centre of the table cloth should likewise go exactly down the centre of the table, and not hang the eighth of an inch longer at one end than the other.
When your cloth is perfectly even, then put round your plates, laying four at each side, and one at each end [for ten diners], observing to have them at equal distance from each other, then put on your napkins, having them neatly folded so as to admit the bread into them, without being seen; then put round your knives and forks, placing the knives at the right hand, with the edge of the blade towards the plate, and the end of the handle to come even with the edge of the table; then place round your forks, on the left hand, in the same manner; [then the] tumblers, one at the right side of each plate, about three inches from the edge of the table; ... then put round your wine glasses, one before each tumbler; let the foot of each wine glass touch the tumbler, and this will keep them even. [Carving knives and forks, spoons, gravy and sauce ladles should be placed conveniently for serving the dinner dishes, the spoons] with the bowls upwards, as they show much better to advantage. [For ten diners, six salts and salt spoons would be adequate.] If you have four wines, put one at each corner of the table, but not so near as to be knocked off.4
The sideboard or side table should be set out with equal care for symmetry. Additional wine glasses, dessert plates and silver and napkins, casters, decanters, small silver hand waiters, knife trays—whatever might be needed for the next course—should be at hand.
In setting out your sideboard and side table you should always study convenience and elegance, in putting your things on, and study to have plenty of every thing, that you need not have to leave the room during the course of dinner. You must never be afraid of a little trouble when there is company, for where the sideboard and side table is set out with taste and 59 ingenuity, it has a very pleasing5 effect to those who go in and see order and design prevail.
Strangely enough, Roberts neglects to explain precisely how the dishes of food should be placed on the table. However, several English cookbooks provide diagrams,6 and Roberts assumes that the conventional arrangements are understood:
When your dinner is on the table, and every thing that is necessary, stand at the bottom and cast your eyes along the table, and you will perceive in an instant if any of your dishes are not properly placed. You should observe to have your side dishes in a straight line, and at a regular distance from each other, and also match in size and colour, cross corners, your four corner dishes should go rather on a square, and to match each other cross corner; as a middling dinner when well served up, and the dishes well matched, and at a proper distance from each other, has a more pleasing aspect that double as large a one, when crowded, and improperly put on table; you should pay the greatest attention to this rule.7Now the chairs may be put around the table and dinner may be announced.
Table Service. By mid-century the French fashion of table service was in general use in Virginia. The hostess carved and served the top dish while the host carved and served the bottom dish. Each of the 60 dishes placed along the sides of the table was served by the person seated nearest it, and diners passed their plates about the table to be served as they wished. The older English service required the hostess to carve and serve every dish for every guest. Modern service "from the side" by waiters carrying dishes around the table to each guest, who served himself, was known as "service á la russe" and was rarely in use in America before the Civil War.
After the guests are seated, the butler removes covers from soup or fish and takes his place about a yard behind the person that sits at the foot of the table, standing "rather a little to the left of his chair." If he has waiting men to assist him, they are stationed near the sides of the table, ready to receive his signals.8
After the "remove" has been served, the covers are lifted from the other dishes, beginning at the bottom and moving clockwise around the table, and waiters return to their places, ready to pass guests' plates, if desired, or to serve additional bread or sauce, or to supply anything the hosts may require. Then:
When you perceive the company do not seem to eat of the dishes on the table, keep your eye on the lady or gentleman of the family, as they generally give the signal to remove the first course.961
Serving knives, forks, and spoons are removed first, using a knife tray, then dishes of food, clockwise. When there is a second course before dessert, guests use the same plates, waiters replace first-course dishes with those of the second course, arranged in similar patterns, and the service is the same. This course finished, first remove dishes and serving pieces, "all your dirty glasses," and presumably the guests' plates and silver. The "best means of doing this is to have a large waiter; let one of those who help you, take a firm hold of it between his two hands" and follow you around while you clear the table. Next, crumb the table and
then put round your finger glasses, one to each person.... When the company are all done with their glasses, begin at the bottom and take them off all round. When this is done, take off your table cloth, napkins, &c. and then take a towel and wipe off your table.10
The dessert course, according to Roberts' instructions, was served on the bare table; in English usage a fresh, dessert cloth was used. Roberts first puts individual dessert plates around, one before each person; each plate has a "dowlas" (small napkin) on it, "with a dessert knife, fork and spoon, the knife to the right side and the fork to the left, with the spoon in the centre."11 Then the wine glasses and decanters of dessert wine. Then the dishes of food 62 with appropriate serving pieces.12
Bits of personal advice to waiting men about manner and method include the following:
To remove a large dish from the table, stand "at the left side of the person who sits opposite" and use both hands. "Always take a firm hold of the dishes when taking them off the table" and "always lift the dishes high enough to clear the glasses, &c. &c."13 Hold small plates "in your left hand, with your thumb on the rim of the plate, and your two fingers extended under the bottom; you should never let your thumb go farther than the rim of the plate, for it is a very improper thing to run your thumb half way across the plate." 14
Place and remove individual plates and silver to the left of the diner; glasses to the right.15
When you hand a glass, knife and fork, or any thing else to any of the company, always take a hand waiter, as it is very improper to hand any thing with the naked hand; likewise when you are taking any thing off the table, such as a glass, spoons, or any other small article, have a waiter in your left hand, and take off the article with your right.1663In the next place you should be careful not to make any more noise than you possibly can. When changing the plates, take off your dirty knife and fork very gently, and lay them in your knife tray, and put the plate into the plate basket as gently as you can. When returning a clean plate, lay your knife and fork on it as easy as you can, so as to cause no rattle nor noise. Put the knife on the right and the fork on the left in the bowl of the plate, and lay it before the lady or gentleman as gently as possible.17
You never should take a dish from the table with the knife and fork in it, as it is very dangerous; if the knife or fork should fall off, it might perhaps stick in your foot, or, on the other hand, it will dirty the carpet, which is a very disagreeable thing, and is sure to give dissatisfaction to the lady of the family.
There are many such disasters as this that happen through the servant's not attending properly to the regular rules of waiting at table. There are many servants that put themselves quite in a state of confusion, by being in too great a hurry. The beauty of a servant is to go quietly about the room when changing plates or dishes; he never should seem to be in the least hurry or confusion, for this plainly shows that he is deficient of his duty. A man that knows his business well, should take hold of things as a first-rate mechanic, and never seem to be agitated in the least. You should always have a quick, but light and smooth step, around the room while waiting; practice will soon bring you to this. And in the next place you should always wear tight shoes or thin pumps while waiting at dinner, as it impossible for you to go quick and light, if you wear heavy shoes or boots.18
The cleaning agents and implements in common use in England were available in Virginia. John Greenhow, for example, advertised borax, sal ammoniac, alum, ox-gall, "polishing powders of most kinds," pumice stone, rottenstone, brushes and brooms of various kinds,19 Other merchants sold also mops, powder blue, beeswax, soap. York County inventories recorded mops, brooms, and brushes of many kinds. Governor Fauquier owned 4 hearth brooms, 20 scrubbing brushes, 4 house brushes, 16 hair brooms, 2 clothes brushes, 2 mops, 6 bottle brushes.20
Floors. Eighteenth-century English houses rivaled the Dutch in their reputation for cleanliness. A visiting Frenchman in 1726 declared that "every morning most kitchens, staircases and entrances are scrubbed."21 To scrub at that time was to clean by rubbing with a hard brush and water; when soap or a polishing agent was used, the process was called scouring.
In Virginia, too, floors were scrubbed. Fithian's anecdote about the little Carter girls playing house records: 65
It is curious to see the Girls imitating what they see in the great House.... Sometimes they get sticks & splinter one end of them for Brushes, or as they call them here Clamps, & spitng on part of the floor, they scrubb away with great vigor.22
Household hints in cookbooks and in Roberts, The House Servant's Directory offer no suggestion of cleaning agents for use on floors. Mrs. Glasse's "Directions to the house-maid" recommend a way to keep down the dust:
Always when you sweep a room, throw a little wet sand all over it, and that will gather up all the flew and dust, prevent it from rising, clean the boards, and save the bedding, pictures, and all other furniture from dust and dirt.23
The rugs and carpets in use in the eighteenth century were not always floor coverings. Made of thick woolen material, they were sometimes table covers, sometimes bed covers, sometimes travelers' lap robes. The rugs which Carter Burwell issued to slaves in the 1740's were probably used like blankets.24 The Wilton carpet so popular in Virginia was woven like a Brussels carpet and then cut to produce a velvety pile. Well-to-do planters did own floor coverings of this kind, and inventories occasionally include floor cloths made 66 of linen and sometimes painted in colorful designs.
To remove dust and spots from floor carpets and rugs, they were taken outdoors and beaten and swept. Oily spots were brushed with soapy water and then rinsed with clear water. Mrs. Harrison suggested that alum be added to the rinse water.25 Roberts offered a special cleaning mixture made of shaved white soap, ammonia, egg yolks, ox-gall, cabbage juice, and tartar (the sediment deposited in wine casks, also called argol). After cleaning with this mixture, Roberts directed,
take a hot loaf of white bread, split down the centre, having the top and bottom crust one on each half, with this rub your carpet extremely well over, then hang it out on or across a line with the right side out; should the night be fine, leave it out all night, and if the weather be clear, leave it out for two or three such nights, then sweep it with a clean corn broom, and it will look as when first new.26
Similar cleaning methods were recommended for tapestries, damask curtains, and chair covers.27 White chalk, brushed in and then brushed out a day later, might be used instead of bread crumbs.28 Wall paper, too, might be cleaned with bread crumbs.29
67Ink stains required special attention with lemon juice or oxalic acid.30
Furniture. To remove ink stains from mahogany, Roberts suggested rubbing with diluted sulfuric acid and rinsing with milk before applying polish.31 Furniture polish made of yellow wax and spirits of turpentine was applied with a piece of flannel cloth and polished with a soft cloth--flannel, linen, or silk. Interim cleaning with a mixture of milk, turpentine, and sweet oil or with linseed oil tinted with alkanet was recommended.32
Mirrors. For cleaning and polishing mirrors, a London manufacturer recommended a piece of soft flannel moistened with gin, which would dissolve fly specks "and other soils," followed by a dry cloth with powder blue (i.e., laundry bluing).33
Metal Furnishings. Fireplace equipment had to be protected from rust by generous and frequent rubbing with unsalted fat. Roberts recommended occasional supplemental dusting with unslaked lime and rubbing with a black polish made of black lead, beer, and soft soap or egg whites.34 68 To clean the brass or steel parts of fire irons, a paste made of an abrasive powder (rottenstone or emery), an acid (oxalic or sulfuric), and soap or oil might be applied with plenty of elbow grease.35
Cleaning silver was a special chore; Virginia planters bought it as an investment, for show as well as use. Mrs. Harrison suggested two ways to clean it: Rub it with a mixture of soft soap, whiting, and vinegar; then with dry bran. Or boil it in water to which unslaked lime, alum, vinegar, and aqua vitae (crude alcohol) has been added.36 Roberts suggested a paste made of powdered chalk, quick-silver, and ammonia thinned with alcohol, followed by careful polishing with a chamois skin, or boiling the plate in soft water and ammonia.37
Ivory handled knives and forks could be brightened by rubbing them with alum.38
Kitchen. Though germs were not yet recognized, cleanliness was considered "the chief cardinal virtue of the kitchen."39 Floors and tables were 69 scrubbed and scoured regularly. Walls were whitewashed from time to time.
Cooking utensils made of wood could be scrubbed with wet sand, and plantation carpenters might mend, scrape, or re-polish them. Metal utensils of all kinds were washed in hot soapy water and dried immediately; periodically they could be polished with the same cleaning agents used for other fireplace equipment.
Copper utensils required special care to avoid poisoning by verdigris. Roberts directed:
If copper utensils be used in the kitchen, the cook should be charged to be very careful not to let the tin be rubbed off, and to have them fresh done when the least defect appears, and never to put by any soup, gravy, &c. in them, or any metal utensil; stone and earthen vessels should be provided for those purposes, as likewise plenty of common dishes, that the table-set may not be used to put by cold meat.40The stone and earthenware containers were breakable, but easier to clean with soap and hot water.
Clothing. Garments that could not be washed were cleaned like damask curtains. Vigorous brushing and the use of white chalk or bread crumbs would usually freshen the fabric, but stubborn spots and stains called for individual attention. Light sponging with warm soap and 70 water and careful rinsing was recommended for both silk and woolen cloth; also ox-gall, fuller's earth, turpentine, and ammonia.41
Laundry. For household laundry, home-made soft soap was the universal cleansing agent.42 Work clothes heavily encrusted with dirt might receive pre-soaking treatment or be taken to the river bank and beaten in running water in the age-old manner.43
White clothes and household linen were washed, then boiled in a big iron pot outdoors or in the laundry, rinsed thoroughly, and spread on the grass to bleach. Spots were removed with lemon juice, vinegar and salt, alum, ammonia, or borax.44 Powder blue was avail-able for bluing in the rinse water. Harrower was especially pleased with the efficiency of the laundresses at Belvidera; he explained to 71 his wife:
They wash here the whitest that ever I seed for they first Boyle all the Cloaths with soap, and then wash them, and I may put on clean linen every day if I please.45
Jefferson wrote:
Every family in the country [Virginia] is a manufactory within itself, and is very generally able to make within it-self all the stouter and middling stuffs for its own clothing and household use. We consider a sheep for every person in the family as sufficient to clothe it, in addition to the cotton, hemp and flax which we raise ourselves.46
Wool, flax, hemp, and cotton were grown on the plantation, harvested, cleaned, and prepared for the spinners. After the thread was spun, it was dyed or bleached, if desired, and then woven into fabric. All these processes are demonstrated and interpreted at our Spinning and Weaving House.
Spinners were female slaves, working under the supervision of the mistress or one of her assistants.47 At Mount Vernon in the 1790's Mrs. Ehler, wife of the Dutch gardener, "was put in charge of the Spinners; that is, to deliver out the Wool and flax, and receive the 73 thread, Yarn &c." The supervisor inspected the quality of the work, planned the quantity, and scheduled seasonal changes from wool to flax so that weavers and seamstresses would be able to finish winter and summer clothing in time for it to be issued to the slaves.48 Men and boys also worked at the loom.49
By 1770 at Mount Vernon a variety of "new" fabrics were being made: woolen plaids and stripes, mixed wool and cotton, broadcloth, dimity, calico, striped silk and cotton.50 Normal domestic fabrics, however, were plain heavy woolen, coarse linen, canvas, linseywoolsey, and coarse cotton. (The best quality of canvas, made from hemp, was very much like the coarser linen. Hemp fibers were produced exactly like linen, and the hempen threads were also used for rope, twine, sail cloth, and the bags that are still called croker-sacks.)
In normal times osnaburg, Dutch blanketing, and other coarse fabrics could be purchased less expensively than they could be made at home, if labor costs were included.51 Yet every household regularly 74 made some of the cloth for Negro clothing and household use. Spinning was a basic household art,52 and the symbol of the happy, busy house-wife was the spinning wheel.
In most of the great houses sewing women cut out and made garments for all the slaves, those at the quarters as well as those at the home plantation. For male laborers the basic garments were shirts, breeches, and waistcoats or jackets; for women, shifts, shirts, petticoats and waistcoats (i.e., shirt-and-jacket combinations or suits). Landon Carter's Betty, for example, in one unit of work cut out 10 boys' suits and 40 men's and women's.53 Coats and caps, shoes and stockings were added for cold weather and outdoor wear.
Knitting women made the stockings from thread spun for that purpose. Landon Carter once estimated Winifred Carter's production rates: In a day she could knit 150 rounds of 185 stitches per row; in six days she could finish one stocking--166,500 stitches.54 One year at Mount Vernon Lame Peter and Sarah had made 60 pairs by mid-November, a "deficiency."55
75Heavy shoes for men and women were either purchased in large numbers and varied sizes or else made by resident shoemakers from hides tanned on the plantation.56 Joseph Ball's Negroes at Morattico received "Good strong shoes & stockings" and those "much in the Wet" were allotted two pairs of shoes.57
Negro clothes were customarily delivered to overseers at the quarters seasonally, well in advance of the new season so that they might be distributed by the time they were needed.58 When Mary Ambler became a widow, she took over the management of Edward Ambler's estate and Charles Dabney continued to manage the quarters in Hanover and Louisa for her. Her letters to her agent in 1772 reveal special attention to clothing for the families living there; she worried about having everything finished on time and about the fit of some of the garments. (She needed an up-to-date list of sizes.) In November everything was ready except baby clothes and blankets, and she sent up two casksful. The inventory of the contents of one of the casks has survived: 36 pairs of shoes, 18 men's suits and one for Carpenter Ben, 4 large boys' suits, 5 small boys' suits, 36 men's shirts, 18 76 boys' shirts, 35 small shirts and shifts, 35 children's frocks, 18 monmouth caps, 5 dozen and 1 pairs of stockings, 1 piece of Dutch blanket. Presumably the women's things were in the other cask: a marginal notation in another hand listing things "taken out and given out" included 33 petticoats, 33 jackets, 44 shifts, 22 for large girls.59
Also, the more elaborate clothing worn by house servants was made at home by Negro seamstresses, but with greater attention to style, individual tastes and fit. In general, clothing for housemaids included aprons, and one-piece gowns similar to those worn by their mistresses but with less trimming and of coarser material. Traditional perquisites of personal attendants were the cast-off garments from the wardrobes of their employers.
Col. Edward Carrington and his wife Eliza (Ambler) Carrington were frequent guests at Mount Vernon. She has left us a pen portrait of Martha Washington, a Virginia lady who, "though abounding with servants," yet is never idle, for "the very number of her servants creates employment." Her room is:
nicely fixed for all sorts of work. On one side sits the chamber-maid, with her knitting; on the other, a little coloured pet, learning to sew. An old, decent woman is there, with her table and shears, cutting out the negroes' winter-clothes, while the 77 good old lady directs them all, incessantly knitting herself. She points out to me several pair of nice coloured stockings and gloves she had just finished....60