Hemings & Hercules

Plantation kitchens were the heart of what we know today as Southern Hospitality. These round the clock jobs required a strong mind, body and soul. One needed physical strength to maneuver the heavy cast iron pots and pans filled with hot fats, stocks, and boiling water; mental toughness to endure the thousand degree heat of the hearth, or the smell of butchered animals in a time lacking the knowledge of sanitation; and a strong soul to produce beautifully flavored, nourishing, multi-coursed meals while still enduring the everyday rigors of slavery. Plantation kitchens were also more than just kitchens to these men and women, they were living quarters, bedrooms, washrooms, and spaces for community gatherings and celebrations.

Almost everything farmed on the grounds, ended up in the kitchen. From grains, grown and milled by slaves, then turned into bread, cakes and brews, to farmed animals slaughtered and butchered, and vegetables all made ready for the planters table in the kitchen. Cooking aside, reading, writing, and arithmetic were of the few skills given to enslaved cooks, as the necessity to read and adjust recipes was and is vital to a cook’s job. They'd often use and share these skills with others who mostly lacked them. Due to the reliance of the house on their cooks, some were able to negotiate their labor conditions, and were used as representatives to test the temperature of the enslaved community.  Eventually, even enslaved presidential and state level cooks were looked upon almost like cabinet members, do to their elevated status in the black communities.

Cooking was one of the few ways a free or enslaved black person could make a name and potential living for themselves, though rarely free from harassment. Unfortunately, most names, recipes, menus, and records of these people were never recorded or retained. Hemings & Hercules is an attempt to look past the pop culture stereotyped products sold in stores, and show what these men and women created and inspired in future generations of American cooks.