Existing comment:
The Farmhouse Kitchen (1806-1821):
Soon after Andrew Jackson moved to The Hermitage log farmhouse, he built a two-room log building at the rear of the farmhouse to serve as a kitchen and quarters for several of his slaves. The kitchen was located in the north room, with its larger 6-foot wide fireplace. The south room and probably the attic space housed slaves. Old Hannah, the Hermitage cook, and her family lived here. Old Hannah had at least three children -- Betty, who later became cook, George, and Squire, who later had important jobs as Jackson's manservant and press foreman. Betty's son, Alfred, who lived at The Heritage longer than anyone else, was probably born here in the kitchen building about 1810. While the slaves, the Jackson family, and their many guests during this period lived and worked in close proximity, relationships could be tense. Rachel Jackson sometimes found managing the slaves during Jackson's many absences especially difficult. Like slaves at many other plantations, the slaves at The Hermitage could be disobedient and neglectful, and some even tried to run away. Rachel once wrote Jackson "theay vex me often and in my situation it is hurtful..."
Jackson's slave Betty replaced her mother, Old Hannah, as cook in the last years the Jackson lived in the farmhouse. She traveled with the Jacksons to Florida during the time Jackson served as territorial governor. |