The Hearth and the Hands Who Worked It: Foodways at the Owens-Thomas House, Part 1

The kitchen in the basement of the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters was state of the art for the pre-Civil War period– equipped with a cast iron range, baking oven, and warming oven. On these innovative apparatuses, those enslaved by wealthy politician and landholder George W. Owens (1786–1856) utilized generational and acquired knowledge to prepare food for both the Owens family and the enslaved household. But what was cooked here?

Photo Courtesy of Calvin Wayne Photography
Built in 1819, the kitchen of the Owens Thomas House & Slave Quarters was stocked with a warming oven (upper left), cast iron range (center), and baking oven (far right).

Due to the urban nature of Savannah, produce and other goods were available at the market. The Owenses likely would have purchased some of their foodstuffs through those means, but family letters indicate that they also sourced some of their food from their plantations throughout the state. In a letter to his mother, Sarah, John Wallace Owens (1821-1862) complains that he had not received any vegetables from the plantation and that he needed to “market for my okra & potatoes.” He also mentions “one or two cart loads” of melons being sent to market in Savannah from their Silk Hope plantation.¹ Other foods regularly acquired from the Owenses’ rural properties include corn, figs, peaches, and meats such as mutton.²

Enslaved laborers were not only growing these foods on the Owenses’ various plantations but also preparing dishes and other foodstuffs with them at the Owens-Thomas House. For instance, an enslaved woman named Emma was instructed to make marmalade for the Owenses and some of their friends from sour oranges likely grown on one of their plantations.³

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¹John W Owens to Sarah W Owens, Savannah, GA, July 11, 1843, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society.
²Ibid.; John W Owens to Mary W Owens, Maesmynach, Wales, August 26, 1839, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society; Sarah W Owens to Richard W Owens, Clarksville, GA, 1837, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society; George W Owens to Mary W Owens, Savannah, GA, July 11, 1840, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society; John W Owens to Sarah W Owens, Clarksville, GA, July 27, 1843, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society; Richard W Owens to Sarah W Owens, Clarksville, GA, July 13, 1854, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society.
³ Sarah W Owens to Margaret W Owens, Guinas (Habersham County, GA), December 25, 1854, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society.

Morse, Sidney E, Samuel Breese, and Harper & Brothers. Morse’s North American atlas. [New York: Harper & brothers, -5, 1842] Map, https://www.loc.gov/item/map54000295/, Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. Text overlay added by Telfair Museums.

This map indicates the locations of the Owens family’s plantations in Georgia. Some plantation locations are unknown and are noted in parentheses within their associated county.

While entertaining during the social season, which typically ran from November to May, the Owenses’ diet may have looked slightly different, as the dishes served during lavish dinner parties largely displayed the wealth of the family. There are limited references of dishes the Owens family consumed, but documents from other elite, landholding Savannahians can provide an idea of what was likely served. For example, a book of recipes accumulated by the Telfair’s contains cooking directions for English puddings and other desserts like fromage of pineapple (likely cheesecake), which consisted of exotic fruits and required ice to set, both of which are indicators of luxury and wealth.⁴ Seafood and rice were also often seen on the tables of wealthy Savannahians. As a coastal city, seafood was plentiful, with mentions of dishes like oyster pies in historic recipe books. Likewise, rice was a major cash crop cultivated on southern plantations and was often served in puddings and pies.⁵

One thing Owens family records do show is the regular consumption of alcohol, especially at social events. George Owens’ receipt book shows purchases of porter and “wine Cliquot,” likely champagne.⁶ Other liquors noted include ale, brandy, sherry, Chablis, and madeira for social and medical purposes.⁷

Sherry glass, c. 1857; ruby-flashed and etched glass; bequest of Margaret Gray Thomas, OT1951.80.1

In 1857 during his travels in Europe, John Wallace Owens (1821-1862) purchased a set of this ruby Bohemian glassware in Vienna, present-day Austria.

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⁴Item 291: Notebook of Recipes, undated, Deposit GHS 0793, Telfair Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society.
⁵Ibid.; Item 1: Recipe book, 1838-1849. GHS 0652 Ruth Erwin Welman Reid recipe book. Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Georgia.
⁶Transcription of “Receipt Book of G.W. Owens,” 1852, Georgia Historical Society.
⁷John W Owens to Sarah W Owens, Savannah, GA, July 11, 1843, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society; Sarah W Owens to Mary W Owens, Savannah, GA, June 18, 1840, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society; John W Owens to Mary W Owens, Clarksville, GA, October, 1840, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society.

While enslaved people contributed directly to Owens family foodways through cultivation, transportation, and preparation of foodstuffs, records provide little information on what those individuals were eating. The only indication we have of this is a letter from Richard Owens (1817–1883), the eldest son, asking his mother how much meat enslaved people laboring on their Guinas plantation were allowed. Otherwise, there is no other mention of enslaved people and food consumption in Owens family records.⁸

However, interviews conducted in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration help fill this gap and provide supplementary context. Commonly known as the WPA Slave Narratives, formerly enslaved individuals recorded the distribution of cornmeal and pork. In addition, there was sometimes an allowance to cultivate kitchen gardens and hunt.⁹ Other helpful documents include that of wealthy Savannahian Alexander Telfair (1789–1832), who provides detailed instructions for rations for his enslaved laborers on his Thorn Island Plantation in Barnwell County, South Carolina. Telfair relates to the plantation’s overseer that the enslaved servants are to be given, “a peck of Corn each week, and a pint of Salt, and a piece of meat, not exceeding fourteen pounds, per month.” He also notes that “a Turnip Patch [is] to be planted each year for the use of the Plantation.”¹⁰

There is a greater lack of primary resources on the diets of people who were enslaved in urban settings. Historically, there is evidence that leftover scraps from meals and ingredients not consumed by the enslavers were sometimes given to their enslaved laborers. It is possible the enslaved servants at the Owens-Thomas House received the same, in addition to other rations such as meats and vegetables prepared by the enslaved cook.

The foods found at the Owens-Thomas House, and the American South at large, are direct reflections of the transatlantic slave trade. The cooking traditions and practices brought forth by enslaved Africans through this transit have been adapted and reinvented based on new environments and adopted into what is now considered “Southern” cuisine. In part two, we will discuss the African origin of crops and dishes brought across this passage, and how they made it into “Southern” foodways.

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⁸ Richard W Owens to Sarah W Owens, Clarksville, GA, July 13, 1854, Owens and Thomas Family Papers, Georgia Historical Society.
⁹ Federal Writers Project: Slave Narrative Project, Vol.4, Georgia, Part 1, Adams-Furr, 1936, Manuscript/Mixed Material, https://www.loc.gov/item/mesn041/.
¹⁰ Charles J. Johnson Jr., Mary Telfair: The Life and Legacy of a Nineteenth-Century Woman (United States: Frederic C. Beil Publisher, 2002), 403-404.