Food Heritage, USA: Enslaved Africans and the Wye House Orangery

"Today, the orangery - so called because oranges and lemons were grown there - is the only surviving 18th-century greenhouse in North America..."

This line leapt out of a WaPost piece this morning, detailing archaeological work by University of Maryland researchers on the Wye House plantation near Easton on the Eastern Shore. Estate owner Richard Tilghman, whose family has owned Wye since 1659, paid for the work. Apparently he wanted more information about the orangery, and the slaves who built it, and did all the work emanating from it. At one time the Wye Plantation had about 1000 slaves

Literally, living in their quarters next to the orangery.

Writers often glibly say George Washington planted a stand of pecans or Thomas Jefferson created a trial vineyard, but we keep needing reminding that those who did the food-related work-- the planting, the harvesting, the cooking, were all slaves. ( And all the other work, for that matter.)

Orangeries, popular in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, originated in Italy, and were perfected by the Dutch. Status symbols, they were glass-heavy buildings where tender citrus and other tropicals brought in from the gardens of the wealthy could be wintered over in safety. 

Frederick Douglass, who spent some of his childhood as a slave at Wye House, wrote this about the Wye House garden in 1845: "This garden was probably the greatest attraction of the place. During the summer months, people came from far and near - from Baltimore, Easton, and Annapolis - to see it. It abounded in fruits of almost every description, from the hardy apple of the north to the delicate orange of the south."

Photo: Library of Congress. 1920's image of the Wye orangery.                                                                                                                                                                              

 

Comments

[Mark Osborne]

Orangeries were once a luxury only afforded by the very wealthy due to the initial cost of building them and then the high maintenance costs. Orangeries had a tradition of leaking and if not looked after could become a bit of an eyesore. However times have changed and technology has moved on. Thanks to improvements in the manufacturing of UPVC windows,
http://www.wood-orangery.co.uk/