DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2023.1.3| WILLIAMS-FORSON: SEEKING THE ABSENT POTENTIAL_ INSIGHTOUT 1(2023) 48Fig. 7: The adjacent display case held a smaller serving bowlused for mint water and other foods, along with faux springsof mint and an imaging plate depicting the mint herb.Photo taken by the author, 2016.ry boundaries that separated those who ate fromthose who worked. Though food preparation is oftendescribed as a labour of love, capable of strengthening family ties, this was less so for those enslaved—regardless of gender, age, or health—who preparedfood. Regardless of the kind of plantation or farm onwhich one found themselves, the work day might never end because they were always at the beck andcall of the landowner, as mentioned above in relationto Old Doll.meal times were coordinated. But how do you conveyall of this, and especially the demarcation and mealtaking boundaries, in an exhibition with banners anddisplay cases? On the banner, we used a paintingcourtesy of Mount Vernon Ladies’ Associates titled,The Washington Family/La Famille de Washington,by Edward Savage and David Elkin(1798). The painting illustrated the Washington family taking a mealwhile an enslaved person stood just off to the right inthe shadows. The banner caption reads:“Servants’skills were invaluable, as they worked as the conduitsbetween dining rooms and kitchens in wealthy homes. At Mount Vernon, under the watchful eyes ofMartha Washington, Frank Lee, the enslaved butler,supervised the maids and the waiters to ensure thetable was properly set, and the house meticulouslycleaned.”In the fields, for example, women and men may havekilled hogs, shelled corn, planted and gathered crops,dug holes for fence poles, and other seasonal agrarian duties. But, they were usually also cooking and/orpossibly tending to smaller children and doing othertasks. Seasons primarily mattered inside the housebecause they determined the kinds of work neededto be done—from decorating interiors to preparingmeals for birthdays, holidays, and even everydayactivities. And similar to the work in the fields, therewere always multiple tasks to be completed.In the kitchen, scullions handled the menial tasks.Maids and houseboys assisted the head cook, whowas often male, as was the butler who made sure thatFig. 8: The display case contained a faux chicken prop withfeathers to illustrate how a cook or scullion would chase,catch, and chop off the head of a chicken. It was accompaniedby cookbooks with recipes for fried and fricasseed chickendishes. Photo taken by the author, 2016.The display case beneath this banner contained afaux chicken prop with feathers to illustrate how acook or scullion would chase, catch, and chop off thehead of a chicken. Sometimes, the animal would jumparound without a head, spurting blood everywhere.After pulling pin feathers, the remaining hair wouldbe singed, and the chicken would be dressed—gizzards and liver removed—and either trussed(tied)so it cooked evenly on a spit, or the carcass cut intopieces for frying. One of Martha Washington’s reci-
