DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2023.1.3| WILLIAMS-FORSON: SEEKING THE ABSENT POTENTIAL_ INSIGHTOUT 1(2023) 49pes required a pound of butter to be used for chickenthat is fried or fricasseed(a process of stewing pieces of meat in butter). In contrast to a single cookingmethod, Lucy Lee, one of several enslaved cooks atMount Vernon, most likely blended African, NativeAmerican, and European styles of preparation andcooking, thereby leaving her imprint on Washingtonfamily meals. This discussion is illustrated by recipebooks found in the NLM collection.Another object in the neighbouring display case wasa dinner plate from the Mount Vernon collection,which we used to represent how enslaved butlerslike Frank Lee, of the Washington estate, masteredinvaluable management skills. More than ensuringthe costly porcelain was simply well maintained, butlers like Frank helped safeguard the Washingtons’ability to entertain in genteel society. This includedorchestrating meals with symmetry and exactitude.For example, at the conclusion of each course, heremoved soiled napery to reveal a new tablecloth.To illustrate the complexity of the tasks, we includeda page fromThe Complete Practical Cook: or, newSystem of the Whole Art and Mystery of CookerybyCharles Carter(1730), showing what a table filledwith only the second course would look like.The final banner was simply titled“Freedom”, emphasising the truism that slavery was never benevolent or kind regardless of an enslaved person’s status on the plantation or farm. Though some wereafforded extra privileges, including the opportunityto travel outside the plantation to earn income fromselling leftover foodstuffs or their own crops in themarketplace, the opportunity to wear fine clothes; orto have various tools(hammer, nails, fishing rod, andeven a shaving razor), they knew they were not free.Despite these minor advantages, and no matter howappreciated or“well-treated” they were, enslavedpeople still longed for freedom.And slaveowners did everything they could to remind enslaved people of their status as property. Forexample, during his presidency, George Washingtonrepeatedly rotated, albeit illegally, enslaved Africansbetween their official household in Philadelphia andthe Mount Vernon plantation. This circumventedthe Gradual Abolition Act, which allowed those slaves who remained in Pennsylvania for more than sixmonths to gain their freedom. Rotating them consistently reset the point when the clock on their residency began.Fig. 9:“A Second Course thus”, taken fromThe CompletePractical Cook: or, new System of the Whole Art and Mysteryof Cookery, by Charles Carter(1730)). The rendering showswhat a table filled with the second course of a genteel mealwould look like. Courtesy National Library of Medicine, 2016.Despite these shenanigans, enslaved men and somewomen and children found ways to escape, oftenusing the distractions provided by holidays and celebrations. For example, it is said that noted chefHercules, considered George Washington’s favourite“capital cook”, used the occasion of 22 February,1797, Washington’s sixty-fifth birthday, to escapeand was never heard of again. Similarly, in her bookNever Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuitof Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge,historian EricaArmstrong Dunbar tells the story of how Judge,
