“Take Heede When Ye Wash”: Recognizing the Labor of Enslaved Laundresses on Southern Plantations

ABSTRACT

Laundry represented a significant portion of the domestic labor on nineteenth century plantations. However, despite the ubiquity of their task, enslaved African American washerwomen have been neglected in the historical study of plantation labor. By situating archaeological interpretations of enslaved labor within the historical context of laundry, archaeologists can better incorporate this oft-overlooked chore into interpretations of female labor on Southern plantations. Using this technique, this article explores laundering at Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson’s retreat home and plantation in central Virginia.

KEYWORDS:

• Plantation
• slavery
• women
• household
• domestic labor
• Virginia
• Thomas Jefferson

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Dr. Eric Proebsting and Jack Gary for their invaluable support and guidance during the research and formation of this study. Additionally, this research would not have been possible without the work of Drs. Jennifer Ogborne, William Kelso, and Barbara Heath, and all former staff members of Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest that participated in excavations and analysis of the Wing of Offices.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 According to a survey from 2012, almost 78% of the laundry in the United States is still performed by female household members (PLMA 2012).

2 The Lynchburg Virginian was also known as The Virginian, and The Lynchburg Daily Virginian during its more than 70-year long run between 1822 and 1893.

3 Poplar Forest plantation is located about 10 miles from Lynchburg and 120 miles west of Richmond. Newspapers from both cities were readily available to readers at Poplar Forest. The Richmond Enquirer was selected to represent the Richmond portion of the sample due to availability of digitized material.

4 These dates were chosen due to accessibility. Digitized issues of Lynchburg Press (May 13, 1809 to November 5, 1810, and July 27,1815 to April 24, 1818), Lynchburg Virginian (January 7, 1828 to December 23, 1841), and Richmond Enquirer (May 9, 1804 to December 31, 1840) are available at genealogybank.com. Microfilm issues of Lynchburg Press (May 1809 to April 1822) and Lynchburg Virginian (August 1822 to December 1827) were inspected at the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, VA.

5 Blistering was a common medical practice in the early nineteenth century whereby a caustic agent was applied to the patient’s skin in order to induce the formation of a blister. It was believed that the pain of a blister could cure disease by drawing it away from the affected body part to the blister, which could then be drained and dressed. “It is a principle sufficiently established with regard to the living system, that where a morbid action exists, it may often be removed by inducing an action of a different kind in the same or neighboring part” (Hooper and Akerly 1829, 136).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen E. McIlvoy

Karen E. McIlvoy is the Archaeology Laboratory Analyst at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. She is currently working on her PhD through the University of Florida.