Stew Stoves in the British Atlantic: An Example from Monticello

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of the Mid-Atlantic (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1789 enslaved chef James Hemings prepared elite French cuisine at Monticello on one of the earliest stew stoves in Virginia. His owner, Thomas Jefferson, had taken Hemings to Paris five years earlier to be trained in preparing French cuisine. Recently archaeologists at Monticello excavated Monticello's first kitchen and discovered the masonry base of Hemings’ stove. We draw on documentary and archaeological evidence to trace change at Monticello in stew stove technology and the spatial organization of the kitchen. We situate Monticello’s stew stoves in the larger context of the British Atlantic, outlining why French cuisine and stew stoves evolved when they did and how they signaled elite status.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021   •
• Historical Archaeology of the Mid-Atlantic (General Sessions)

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology