The House Servant's Directory: An African American Butler's 1827 Guide

By Robert Roberts and Roberts Robert Servant

Book Overview

"In order to get through your work in proper time, you should make it your chief study to rise early in the morning; for an hour before the family rises is worth more to you than two after they are up."
So begins Robert Roberts' The House Servant's Directory, first published in 1827 and the standard for household management for decades afterward. A classic survey of work, home life, and race relations in early America, the book was the result of many years of Roberts' personal and professional experiences. One of the first books written by an African-American and published by a commercial press, this manual for butlers and waiters offers keen insight into the social milieu, hierarchy, and maintenance of the antebellum manor.
As a servant to a prominent New England family, Roberts provided valuable insights into what was expected of domestic servants. His book contains an abundance of instructions for successfully completing household chores as well as suggestions for properly cleaning furniture and clothing; and for buying, preparing, and serving food and drink for dinner parties of all sizes (much of which is still useful information today). The text also contains suggestions for arranging servants' work routines, and advice to heads of families on how best to manage their domestic help -- extraordinary recommendations for master-servant relationships and highly unusual for the time.
Among the most famous of etiquette books to provide instruction on proper behavior for domestic servants in the early nineteenth century, Roberts' Directory remains a critical primary source in sociology and African-American history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 048644905X
• ISBN13: 9780486449050
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Be the best Butler you can be!

Do you know how to clean plate and silver wear? How to set up the dining room table? Make sure the tea set is ready for the mistress of the house? Which hard coal is the best one to use? How to prepare fish, fowl or mammals to be carved? How to make the best beer, lemonade and cooling cinnamon water? Well, this book is the answer to your dreams. Just don't use quick silver.

A slice of history with possible use today

I bought this book both as a training guide for my own servants and as a bit of historical research into butlers. Published in 1827 originally this book is a look into the lives of an upper class American family through the eyes of their butler. He covers everything you can image from claening to serving meals to appropriate dress to a philosophical discussion of the roles of servant and employers.

A Piece of Social History

I worked at Gore Place as an intern in college, where Robert Roberts worked. Many don't realize that this is often credited as the first book published in the US by an African-American. Insight into the labors of a butler in the early republic, of interest to those who are curious about lives of Af-Ams of the era, even though his race is never mentioned in the book.