5fish
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2019
- Messages
- 10,708
- Reaction score
- 4,558
I found this interesting article about the servants in Lincoln White House... its worth a look... Of course Lincoln perfect...
www.whitehousehistory.org
snip...
Lincoln made it clear that “I take no charge of the servants about the house,” but a frequent guest observed that he gave them “peculiar care and solicitude” and let them bear no hardship he could lift.7 Years later, one of the African-American staff said he treated them “like people,” as if it were exceptional, which it was for that time and place. Dr. Washington’s sources recalled how Lincoln would “laugh and say kind things” and always request their service “rather than demand it of them.” He “sympathized with us colored folks,” one former servant said, “and we loved him."
snip...
Mrs. Lincoln, nonetheless, was the “absolute mistress” of the White House, Lincoln’s aide William Stoddard wrote, except for the office wing upstairs.9 Unfortunately, her credentials, unimproved by an explosive temperament, fell short of the job. She had grown up in Kentucky commanding enslaved servants in her father’s household but had no idea how to run the Executive Mansion. Many of the “colored” staff, Dr. Washington wrote, “knew better than she what was to be done, how it should be done, and why it should be done.”10 Some of them helped her through it, but others left to “live with gentlefolks,” and the staff turned over with record speed.11 Dr. Washington’s sources recalled Mrs. Lincoln fondly and insisted that “her bark was worse than her bite,” but the record shows time and again that her bite was as fierce as her bark.
snip...
Ranking second only to the White House steward, who managed the household’s accounts and oversaw its operations, Slade arranged formal functions, served at dinner parties, prepared special dishes, and “bossed all the help,” in the words of Rosetta Wells.29 Elderly veterans of Slade’s regime told Dr. Washington that when large-scale White House events exceeded their capacity, cooks and waiters were recruited “from among the colored men who worked for other officials and knew just how to handle things” under the joint command of Cornelia Mitchell and William Slade
There is so much more in the article like the servant areas under the White House and much more...
Slavery's Mark on Lincoln's White House
On a bright March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln took office as President of the United States “entirely ignorant not only of...
snip...
Lincoln made it clear that “I take no charge of the servants about the house,” but a frequent guest observed that he gave them “peculiar care and solicitude” and let them bear no hardship he could lift.7 Years later, one of the African-American staff said he treated them “like people,” as if it were exceptional, which it was for that time and place. Dr. Washington’s sources recalled how Lincoln would “laugh and say kind things” and always request their service “rather than demand it of them.” He “sympathized with us colored folks,” one former servant said, “and we loved him."
snip...
Mrs. Lincoln, nonetheless, was the “absolute mistress” of the White House, Lincoln’s aide William Stoddard wrote, except for the office wing upstairs.9 Unfortunately, her credentials, unimproved by an explosive temperament, fell short of the job. She had grown up in Kentucky commanding enslaved servants in her father’s household but had no idea how to run the Executive Mansion. Many of the “colored” staff, Dr. Washington wrote, “knew better than she what was to be done, how it should be done, and why it should be done.”10 Some of them helped her through it, but others left to “live with gentlefolks,” and the staff turned over with record speed.11 Dr. Washington’s sources recalled Mrs. Lincoln fondly and insisted that “her bark was worse than her bite,” but the record shows time and again that her bite was as fierce as her bark.
snip...
Ranking second only to the White House steward, who managed the household’s accounts and oversaw its operations, Slade arranged formal functions, served at dinner parties, prepared special dishes, and “bossed all the help,” in the words of Rosetta Wells.29 Elderly veterans of Slade’s regime told Dr. Washington that when large-scale White House events exceeded their capacity, cooks and waiters were recruited “from among the colored men who worked for other officials and knew just how to handle things” under the joint command of Cornelia Mitchell and William Slade
There is so much more in the article like the servant areas under the White House and much more...