The House Servant's Directory An African American Butler's 1827 Guide

by Roberts, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780486449050
• ISBN10: 048644905X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-04-21
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

One of the first works written by an African-American and published by a commercial press, this book became the standard text on household management. Roberts, a servant to a prominent New England family, offered keen insight into the social milieu, hierarchy, and maintenance of the antebellum manor. A classic survey of work, home life, and race relations in early America.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the House Servant's Directory	p. 11
The benefit of early rising to servants	p. 17
On dress suitable for their work	p. 17
Cleaning boots and shoes	p. 18
Cleaning knives and forks	p. 19
Directions for cleaning steel forks	p. 20
Trimming and cleaning lamps	p. 21
Directions for cleaning plate	p. 22
Cleaning plate with dry plate powder	p. 23
Cleaning silver and plated articles	p. 24
Setting up the candles	p. 25
Cleaning polished steel grates	p. 26
Directions for cleaning mahogany furniture	p. 27
Hints on taking out stains from mahogany	p. 28
Brushing and folding gentlemen's clothes	p. 28
Brushing and cleaning gentlemen's hats	p. 29
Regulations for the pantry	p. 30
Directions for cleaning tea trays	p. 31
Washing and cleaning decanters	p. 32
Trimming the cruet stand or casters	p. 33
To clean tea and coffee urns	p. 33
Mahogany dinner trays	p. 34
Remarks on the morning's work in winter	p. 35
Directions for setting out the breakfast table	p. 36
Regulations for the dinner table	p. 38
Laying the cloth, &c.	p. 39
Setting out the dinner table	p. 39
Setting out the sideboard	p. 41
Setting out the side table	p. 42
Dinner on the table	p. 44
Waiting on dinner	p. 44
The first course removed	p. 46
Second course removed	p. 47
Placing on the dessert	p. 48
Preparations for tea and coffee	p. 49
Carrying round tea and coffee	p. 50
Observations on supper	p. 51
Observations on the supper table	p. 52
Directions for extinguishing lamps, shutting up the house, &c.	p. 53
Address and behaviour to your employers	p. 55
Behaviour to your fellow servants	p. 56
Behaviour of servants at their meals	p. 58
Hints to house servants on their dress	p. 60
Remarks on answering the bells	p. 62
All the various receipts useful for servants to know	p. 63
To make the best liquid blacking for boots and shoes	p. 63
To make boots and shoes water proof	p. 63
Composition to clean furniture	p. 64
Furniture oil for mahogany, most excellent	p. 64
Italian varnish, most superb for furniture	p. 64
Italian polish to give furniture a brilliant lustre	p. 65
To take ink stains out of mahogany furniture	p. 65
An excellent wash for dirty tables, after a party	p. 65
To take the black off the bright bars of polished steel	p. 66
To polish the bars of a polished steel grate	p. 66
The best way to clean a polished steel grate	p. 66
For the black parts or inner hearth of a grate	p. 67
Another excellent black mixture for the same	p. 67
A beautiful mixture to clean brass or copper	p. 67
To give Britannia metal a brilliant polish	p. 68
A beautiful polish for black grates	p. 68
To make the best plate powder	p. 68
A most superb way to clean plate	p. 69
Another way to make plate powder, by J. R. W. of London	p. 69
To clean any kind of plated articles whatever	p. 70
To clean japanned tea and coffee urns	p. 70
To preserve iron or steel from rust	p. 70
To take rust out of steel	p. 71
To blacken the front of stone chimney pieces	p. 71
An excellent composition to blacken stove grates	p. 71
To clean mirrors or large looking glasses	p. 72
To make a beautiful black varnish	p. 72
To give silver a beautiful polish	p. 72
An excellent mastick for mending China and glass	p. 72
A wash to revive old deeds or other writings	p. 73
An excellent wash to keep flies from pictures or furniture	p. 73
To remove flies from rooms	p. 73
To render old pictures as fine as new	p. 73
A varnish that suits all kinds of pictures and prints	p. 74
To take ink spots out of mahogany	p. 74
A most delicious salad sauce, by J. R. W.	p. 74
A great secret to mix mustard, by H. B. London	p. 75
To extract oil from boards	p. 75
To colour any kind of liquor	p. 76
To make liquid currant jam of the first quality	p. 76
A secret against all kind of spots on silk or cotton	p. 76
To make all kinds of syrups of all sorts of flowers	p. 76
To make excellent currant jelly	p. 77
A most delicious lemonade, to be made a day before wanted	p. 77
Lemonade that has the appearance and flavour of jelly	p. 78
To make raspberry vinegar most delicious	p. 78
To make the best wine vinegar in one hour	p. 78
An excellent preparation for vinegar	p. 79
A dry portable vinegar, or vinaigre en poudre	p. 79
To turn good wine into vinegar in three hours	p. 79
To restore that same wine to its former taste	p. 80
To correct a bad taste or sourness in wine	p. 80
To preserve good wine unto the last	p. 80
To recover a person from intoxication	p. 80
To make raspberry strawberry, cherry and all kinds of waters	p. 81
Lemonade water of a most delicious flavour	p. 81
Another excellent lemonade, by R. R.	p. 81
To whiten ivory that has been spoiled	p. 82
A cooling cinnamon water in hot weather	p. 82
An excellent good ratifia, by F. N.	p. 82
A strong aniseseed water	p. 83
To take off spots of any sorrt, from any kind of cloth	p. 83
A great secret against oil spots, &c.	p. 83
To restore carpets to their first bloom	p. 84
To restore tapestries to their former brightness	p. 84
To revive the colour of cloth	p. 84
To take spots out of white cloth, &c.	p. 85
A composition of soap that will take out all sorts of spots	p. 85
Turkey cement for joining all metals, glass, china, &c.	p. 85
To preserve the brightness of fire arms, &c.	p. 86
To remove ink stains from cloth, plaid, silk, worsted, &c.	p. 86
To preserve milk for sea that will keep for six months	p. 86
To preserve apples for the year round	p. 87
To loosen stoppers that are congealed in decanters	p. 87
To take stains out of black cloth, silk, or crape	p. 87
To know whether a bed is damp or not, when travelling	p. 88
To make the best ginger beer	p. 88
To make excellent spruce beer	p. 88
To make a beautiful flavoured punch	p. 88
To cement any kind of broken glass	p. 89
A black varnish for straw or chip hats	p. 89
Blacking for harness that will not injure leather	p. 89
To make a strong paste for paper	p. 90
A water that gilds copper and bronze	p. 90
A wash for gold, silver, silk, or any other kind of embroidery	p. 90
To make iron as beautiful and white as silver	p. 91
To preserve furs or woollen clothes from moths	p. 91
To dye gloves so as to look like York tan	p. 91
To reform those that are given to drink	p. 91
To prevent the breath from smelling, after liquor	p. 92
A wash to give lustre to the face	p. 92
A wash for the hair most superb	p. 92
Excellent paste for the skin	p. 92
A beautiful corn poultice	p. 93
To make the best corn plaster	p. 93
A safe liquid to turn red hair black	p. 93
To refine cider for one barrel	p. 93
To clarify strong or table beer, or ale	p. 94
A cheap and wholesome beer	p. 94
Excellent jumble beer	p. 94
To make excellent ginger beer, for ten gallons	p. 94
A wash to give a brilliant lustre to plate	p. 95
Water proof varnish of the best quality	p. 95
Chinese varnish for miniature painting	p. 95
To make a cement for bottles	p. 96
Directions for putting dishes on table	p. 96
Directions for placing all kinds of joints, fowls, fish, &c. on table	p. 97
Directions for carving	p. 98
Going to market	p. 104
How to choose poultry	p. 108
How to choose fish	p. 109
A few observations to cooks, &c.	p. 111
A word to heads of families	p. 122
Directions how to make a fire of Lehigh coal	p. 126
Miscellaneous observations, compiled for the use of house servants	p. 136
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