Existing comment:
The Slaves' Experience at White Haven:
The stone building separated White Haven's owners from the heat generated by summer cooking and laundry, keeping the main house more comfortable for them. This room served primarily as a kitchen. The continual use of the fireplace coupled with the heat and humidity common during St. Louis' summers made it very uncomfortable for the slaves.
Enslaved house servants and cooks perhaps also used this structure as living quarters. Their owners expected the slaves to be conveniently available, regardless of their own needs.
Personal Activities: As in the winter kitchen, artifacts other than those for culinary use were found. Objects such as a toothbrush, pipes, and a hairbrush support the slaves' use of this space for personal activities. Slate pencils suggest the slaves were secretly learning to write, an activity prohibited by Missouri law after 1847. They conducted personal activities in the early morning or late evening so as not to interfere with the work for their owners, but even then they could be interrupted since slaves had no time exclusively their own.
Food Preparation: Enslaved cooks Mary Robinson and "Aunt Eadie" rose before dawn to begin their work, bending over an open flame all day using pot cranes and heavy cast iron cookware to prepare meals. Bones and shells found indicate that they prepared dishes of pork, beef, poultry, and wild game, as well as shellfish and eggs.
Common utilitarian ceramics used to prepare and store foods were found throughout the room. The varieties of china uncovered suggest that slaves such as Kitty transferred meals to serving dishes and carried them into the dining room, similar to the routine used to be winter kitchen. |