Urban Slavery at the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters

[Music] for more than four decades the Magnificent Owens Thomas mansion on Savannah's Oglethorpe square was home to a succession of wealthy white families as well as a varying number of enslaved african-americans who tended to their every need the day-to-day experience of these individuals differed greatly from the Plantation slavery portrayed in popular movies and books the labor of those that worked in homes like the Owens Thomas house was 24-hour labor they really got much sleep because they had to be on call 24 hours a day we really have to remember that for enslaved people being in the house was not pleasant it was a job and it was a job constantly under the thumb of the employers and it all happened here these roughly finished rooms that hardly changed in the past century and a half represent one of the few intact slave quarters and workspaces in existence in America today historians Leslie M Harris and Dinah Rainey berry have conducted groundbreaking research into the lives of the slaves who lived and worked in this one-of-a-kind space we're very lucky to have the owens thomas house it was so well preserved to have the urban slave quarters as a pretty rare thing for decades these historic spaces were overlooked and overshadowed by the ornate rooms upstairs but that neglect was actually a blessing creating an architectural time capsule that preserved secrets for historians to uncover the basement of the Owens Thomas house is a unique space interestingly because for some years it was neglected as a result of that the plaster work the floors the ceilings they weren't constantly updated and maintained in the way the ones upstairs would have been that can seem like a bad thing but in this case it allows us to have the original plaster the original stones on the floors that can really give us evidence that helps us answer questions about how people lived and worked in these spaces the tell fairs Owens Thomas house museum has decided to expand its focus to tell the story of all the people who made this house their home adding their narrative to the story of the wealthy whites who lived in relative comfort upstairs this house still has so many stories to tell we're telling stories of people who in some ways have been forgotten by history and it's an honor for us to be able to take the opportunity to introduce them to the public and bring their stories back to life from before dawn until well after sundown enslaved people perform with difficult complex tasks to keep the house running well documented research has revealed that a skilled cook named Diane worked here for years preparing complicated meals for up to 20 people or more Diane is not just a cook and when you think about just a cook you have to think about what that means what does it mean in the 19th century to prepare food in a space like this with the type of utensils and equipment that we don't have like toaster ovens and microwaves and and in ways to heat up food fast you know I think our conception of that is very different today than it was for someone like Diane who had to spend almost all of her waking hours preparing food and serving this family we can look at the Illin stahma's house and see all of the places where enslaved people put things in place make sure the house was running efficiently these were all very highly skilled jobs that enslaved people performed throughout their lives we also know that Diane may have served or cooked for president pulk so these are the kinds of guests that were in this house we're not just talking about you know a savannahs citizen we're also talking about important dignitaries and guests and so they're cooking food for some of the most important citizens of Savannah and of the United States in a nearby room other enslaved workers worked to clean the mansion's laundry a dangerous and exhausting task doing laundry the 19th century was laborious work and it was dangerous because you're working with not only boiling water but also chemicals such as lye which could damage the skin the people that were doing this work were probably young girls that were being trained they were probably you know under 14 years of age and they were working with older women who taught them how to do this labor which was very very labor intensive and dangerous we're removing the chimney cap to access the flues from up here on the roof reinterpreting this basement space coincides with an opportunity to utilize best practices in the field of historic preservation throughout the house the experts started with the HVAC system the most obvious thing that needed to be addressed was the air conditioning equipment that ran through the basement there was ductwork running throughout the basement it's all insulated with silver insulation it's a real visual impediment to the space modern HVAC ducts were removed from the basement have been a completely customized system was routed through the two century-old chimneys this process has only been performed in a few other locations in the world while difficult to install it provides temperature and humidity control without disrupting the historic fabric of the house crumbling plaster ceilings and walls are stabilized leaving as much of the original plaster as possible these walls contain so much history that's yet to be discovered we want to keep that intact it's a super slow tedious process I could sit here and brush all day glass floors are installed to give visitors an up-close look at one of the first indoor plumbing systems in the nation one of the things that makes it Ellen's Thomas house absolutely unique is that in 1819 when it was completed it had indoor plumbing on all three levels that includes bathing chambers with showers and bathtubs as well as flush water closets and sinks in the past visitors haven't really been able to experience that in an up-close personal way today visitors can walk into the bathing chamber and the cistern on newly installed glass floors and they can experience those faces and get a sense of how they functioned in time and in this space that stayed unchanged for so long state-of-the-art restoration and new exhibits tells stories and as challenging questions about life in Savannah before the end of the Civil War what's different about the owns Thomas's house is that visitors will leave here knowing about specific enslaved people and how they contributed to the functioning of the house they're not just learning about the architecture and the furniture and the paintings on the walls they're learning about people and not just the the owners of the house but those that helped make the house function history preservation and exhibits come together to tell a more complete story of this historic house and the people black and white free and enslaved who called it home history didn't stop in 1840 when we interpret our house it's still happening and I think we're still grappling with issues that grew out of slavery and until we get to the historical root of all those issues we're never going to move beyond them the history of slavery matters today because it's shaped the way we interact with one another it informs our racial climate of today so this history is extremely important understanding that is to understand a huge part of our history in this nation and places like the owns Thomas house can be a place where we can begin to understand that terrible history and then hopefully move forward from it what makes the Owens Thomas house special is that they're telling stories very detailed stories about what enslaved people did in this house and no one's Thomas house is a perfect space to do this because we need to understand American history and its fullest and I think for a long time we've studied American history and ignored groups of people like African American enslaved people and we haven't really recognized their contributions to urban centers like Savannah so I think this is a time for us to learn this whole history so that our children and their children and their children will understand all the contributions to the United States it's a very complex story it's a pretty amazing story and we're really lucky to have this site to tell that story through you you

Channel: Michael Jordan

Views: 457,352

Rating: 4.6828794 out of 5

Keywords: savannah, owens-thomas house, slavery

Id: UoooEllRUv0

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 09 2018