This collection of artifacts from the Vermilionville Historic Village includes objects that enslaved house servants would have used on a daily basis. Enslaved house servants included seamstresses, cooks, butlers, and many others to keep the house in order. While a life of working inside the house seems more appealing than the back-breaking labor of the field, the life of a domestic servant was still filled with constant work and harsh punishments. Despite the harsh circumstances, the ability to perform these duties was something that many enslaved women took great pride in (Stevenson p. 235). These jobs included sewing, weaving, and doing laundry, tasks that were accomplished by using the tools contained in this collection. “Domestic service, even given its benefits, still was difficult for some to withstand. It meant working long hours, sometimes being accessible twenty-four hours a day… House servants could suffer from an overwhelming emotional strain. They soon discovered that the mistress could be just as difficult and demanding as the master, and cruel as well," (Stevenson p. 197). Ca 19th Century Bonnet Loom  “Loom,” Vermilionville Educational Enrichment Program, Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park collections. Looms were hand-operated machines used to make cloth from individual pieces of thread. The one shown above is a 19th century bonnet loom that is likely made of cherry wood. On a southern plantation, either the free women or an enslaved person would weave cloth to make clothes for everyone on the plantation. According to Louis Hughes, a former enslaved person, the woman who worked the loom had to weave nine to ten yards per day. Another former enslaved person recalled her experience weaving and said that her mistress would make her weave clothes for the soldiers until 12 o’clock at night (Glymph p.113). Primary Sources Hughes, Louis. Thirty Years a Slave from Bondage to Freedom the Institution of Slavery as Seen on the Plantation and in the Home of the Planter. Milwaukee, Wi: South Side Printing Company, 1896. https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/hughes/hughes.html Wilkinson, Eliza, and Joseph Meredith Toner Collection. Letters of Eliza Wilkinson, during the invasion and possession of Charlestown, S.C. New York, S. Colman, 1839. Web.. https://lccn.loc.gov/13018437. Glymph, Thavolia. Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Sewing Machine  “Singer Sewing Machine,” Vermilionville Educational Enrichment Program, Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park collections. Sewing played a large part in the lives of all 19th century women (and sometimes men), both enslaved and free. On a plantation, this task was often delegated to an enslaved house servant, whose job would be to make clothes for everyone on the plantation. Former enslaved person Louis Hughes mentioned how he would often sew for the entire day when making clothes for the farm hands. Even after slavery was formerly abolished, sewing was still a big part of life. A newspaper article about the Hampton Institute in 1900 describes how sewing was one of the primary lessons taught to former enslaved peoples. Primary Sources Hampton Institute: Shaw, Albert, and Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection. "Learning by doing" at Hampton. [New York: American Monthly Review of Reviews, 1900], PDF. https://www.loc.gov/item/91898485/. Medium [16] p. : ill. ; 23 cm. Hughes, Louis. Thirty Years a Slave from Bondage to Freedom the Institution of Slavery as Seen on the Plantation and in the Home of the Planter. Milwaukee, Wi: South Side Printing Company, 1896. https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/hughes/hughes.html. Stevenson, Brenda. Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Internet Archive. Mangle  “Mangle,” Vermilionville Educational Enrichment Program, Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park collections. “Original Miele” cast iron and wood laundry mangle with wooden handle, pin, and table. The press sits on wheels for easy relocation. There is an “M” at the base of the legs. Invented in 1850, this machine was used in washrooms by domestic servants to press and wring the water out of clothing and cloth. Typically, the tasks of washing and ironing clothes took place on separate days. Louis Hughes worked in the laundry room while he was enslaved and after slavery was abolished, he opened up his own laundry service where he would have used tools like the mangle in order to clean and press clothing for his clients. In her book, Thavolia Glymph mentions a former mistress who “did the washing for six weeks, came near ruining [her]self,” revealing just how difficult and time consuming it was to wash, dry, and iron clothes (p. 143). Sources Hughes, Louis. Thirty Years a Slave from Bondage to Freedom the Institution of Slavery as Seen on the Plantation and in the Home of the Planter. Milwaukee, Wi: South Side Printing Company, 1896. https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/hughes/hughes.html. “Washing Machines, Wringers, Mangling Machines, Drying Closets: Catalogue No. 119.” Manchester EN, 1878. smithsonian.summon.serialssolutions.com, Accessed 15 Oct. 2020. Glymph, Thavolia. Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Questions to consider:1. What can we learn from people who were enslaved house servants in the 1800s? 2. What was daily life like for an enslaved house servant? 3. What inventions or technology did enslaved house servants use for their jobs? 4. How did the sewing machine, loom, and mangle affect enslaved house servants’ work? “K-5 Framework.” Teaching Tolerance, Southern Poverty Law Center, 1991-2020. https://www.tolerance.org/. Accessed 14 October 2020. 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