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The house servant's directory : or, A monitor for private families, comprising hints on the arrangement and performance of servants' work ... and upwards of 100 various and useful receipts, chiefly compiled for the use of house servants
by Robert Roberts
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Good
- Seller
-
Boonsboro, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Boston : Munroe and Francis ; New York : C.S. Francis, 1827. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. [First edition of the first commercially published book (and cookbook) written by an African American in the United States.] Housed in a specially made clamshell box. Bound in early 20th century black cloth. Good binding and cover. (i)-xiv, (1)-180pp. 8 pages (155-162 p.) supplied in facsimile (parts of "A Word to Head of Families," and "How to Make a fire of Lehigh Coal"). Notes on the front paste down state that this copy was owned by George Putnam, acquired in Portland Maine. Refs: Lowenstein 107; American Imprints 30468; Blockson 9537 (See note). <br> Robert Roberts (1780-1860) was born in South Carolina. It is unknown if he was born into freedom or slavery. He worked as head butler for Christopher Gore, Governor and Senator from Massachusetts. Later in life, he became known in Boston as an abolitionist and advocate for equality of education. He contributed to William Lloyd Garrison's paper, The Liberator. In this guide for servants, Roberts provides 105 home recipes. Roberts takes a measured tone and states that "'The labourer is worthy of his hire,' and should be treated in health or in sickness with pity and feeling. If it is necessary to place servants under strict surveillance, let them at least be treated as fellow beings and candidates for a future world." - 154 p. Some of the recipes include one for "a most delicious lemonade", "how to refine cider", make "a cheap and wholesome beer", "to recover a person from intoxication", "To make the best ginger beer", etc. A rare and interesting view into the world of the early American domestic. The recipes included in this book constitute the first published cookbook by an African American in the United States.
Synopsis
Published in Boston in 1827, this volume in the American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection is an American milestone—the first book written by an African American and published by a commercial publisher. Author Robert Roberts was butler and majordomo at the country estate of U.S. senator and governor of Massachusetts Christopher Gore. “In order to get through your work in proper time, you should make it your chief study to rise early in the morning; for an hour before the family rises is worth more to you than two after they are up.” These are Robert Roberts’s first words to his readers in this classic resource for those employed as domestic servants. More household-management manual than cookbook, the book does contain recipes for making beer and punch, salad sauce, mustard, currant jam, syrups, and fruit-flavored waters of all kinds. There are directions for carving, marketing, choosing meats, fish and poultry, and preserving, and how to complete household chores successfully, clean everything in the house, behave properly, and prepare and serve food for family dinners and parties of all sizes. The book has suggestions for employers on how to manage domestic help (very unusual for the time), but Roberts was more interested in teaching young black men how to succeed in their work and ensure their advancement. This edition of The House Servant’s Directory was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.
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Details
- Bookseller
- SequiturBooks
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 2003280002
- Title
- The house servant's directory : or, A monitor for private families, comprising hints on the arrangement and performance of servants' work ... and upwards of 100 various and useful receipts, chiefly compiled for the use of house servants
- Author
- Robert Roberts
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Boston : Munroe and Francis ; New York : C.S. Francis
- Date Published
- 1827
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Bookseller catalogs
- African American History;
Terms of Sale
SequiturBooks
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About the Seller
SequiturBooks
Biblio member since 2008
Boonsboro, Maryland
About SequiturBooks
Sequitur Books is an independent academic bookstore. We pride ourselves on a thought provoking selection, with extensive collections in philosophy, history, social science, African studies, Near Eastern studies, and physical science. Our motto, "For every person, a good book!"
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Facsimile
- An exact copy of an original work. In books, it refers to a copy or reproduction, as accurate as possible, of an original...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Clamshell Box
- A protective box designed for storing and preserving a bound book or loose sheets. A clamshell box is hinged on one side, with...
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