Cookin’ for the Big House: Virginia’s Enslaved Cooks and their Kitchens

On November 12, 2016, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, Dr. Kelley Deetz will present a program on Virginia’s enslaved cooks, which will include a lecture in the duPont Library and a tour of Stratford’s historic kitchen–an eighteenth-century outbuilding. Tickets are $25.00 per person, and seating is limited to 75 persons. Please register for the program by emailing Jon Bachman at jbachman@stratfordhall.org or calling 804-493-1972. The last day to register is November 7, 2016.

Drawing extensively from her work When Her Thousand Chimneys Smoked: Virginia’s Enslaved Cooks and Their Kitchens, Dr. Deetz offers a wide-ranging interdisciplinary examination of Virginia’s enslaved plantation cooks seeking to advance our understanding of their contributions to Virginia’s rich cultural traditions. By examining the archaeological record, material culture, cultural landscapes, folklore, written records and radicalized and gendered spaces, the lecture seeks to uncover the hidden voices of the men and women who cooked for the enslavers.