In his autobiography, Olaudah Equiano described his first encounter with such a device in the mid-1700s. . . "I had seen a black woman slave as I came through the house, who was cooking the dinner ...

It was in these slave kitchens that Hemings is said to have innovated and ... shall have taught such person as I shall place ...

cooking and preserving the produce of those gardens, and caring for clothing. The latter activity was a special concern to George Washington, because his slaves sometimes mended their clothes with ...