[Rarebooks] FS: FIRST COMMERCIALLY PUBLISHED BOOK WRITTEN BY AN AFRICAN AMERICAN IN THE UNITED STATES

[Charles Agvent]

ROBERTS, Robert. THE HOUSE SERVANT'S DIRECTORY, OR A MONITOR FOR PRIVATE 
FAMILIES: COMPRISING HINTS ON THE ARRANGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF 
SERVANTS' WORK, WITH GENERAL RULES FOR SETTING OUT TABLES AND SIDEBOARDS 
IN FIRST ORDER; THE ART OF WAITING IN ALL ITS BRANCHES; AND LIKEWISE HOW 
TO CONDUCT LARGE AND SMALL PARTIES WITH ORDER; WITH GENERAL DIRECTIONS 
FOR PLACING ON TABLE ALL KINDS OF JOINTS, FISH, FOWL, &C. WITH FULL 
INSTRUCTIONS FOR CLEANING PLATE, BRASS, STEEL, GLASS, MAHOGANY; AND 
LIKEWISE ALL KINDS OF PATENT AND COMMON LAMPS: OBSERVATIONS ON SERVANTS' 
BEHAVIOUR TO THEIR EMPLOYERS; AND UPWARDS OF 100 VARIOUS AND USEFUL 
RECEIPTS, CHIEFLY COMPILED FOR THE USE OF HOUSE SERVANTS; AND 
IDENTICALLY MADE TO SUIT THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF FAMILIES IN THE 
UNITED STATES WITH FRIENDLY ADVICE TO COOKS AND HEADS OF FAMILIES; AND 
COMPLETE DIRECTIONS HOW TO BURN LEHIGH COAL. Boston & New York: Munroe 
and Francis; Charles S. Francis, 1828. Second Edition. Duodecimo (4-1/4" 
x 6-3/4") bound in contemporary calf, recently and neatly rebacked; 180 
pages. A rare example of the FIRST COMMERCIALLY PUBLISHED BOOK WRITTEN 
BY AN AFRICAN AMERICAN IN THE UNITED STATES and THE FIRST COOKBOOK 
WRITTEN BY AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN. A guide for house servants to help them 
to understand the rules of keeping a prominent white household, it 
includes recipes and advice to black servants on how to properly clean 
plates, what to wear, what time to arise for work, how to deal with 
drunk people, how to restore furniture, and how to take care of 
themselves. More household-management manual than cookbook, Roberts 
gives suggestions for employers on how to manage domestic help (very 
unusual for the time), but he was more interested in teaching young 
black men how to succeed in their work and ensure their advancement. 
Roberts begins the book: "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." The author was a butler at the country estate of U.S. 
senator and governor of Massachusetts, Christopher Gore, a friend of 
Daniel Webster's. The First Edition was published the year before, 1827. 
This edition seems to be just as scarce. A Fine example of this scarce 
title.

BLOCKSON COLLECTION, 9537 (1969 reprint); LONGONE CATALOGUE, page 2: 
"Although only two other editions of Roberts's book are recorded, some 
historians think that this work was seminal in producing men of singular 
ability as caterers, and managers -- rather than servants -- of large 
households"; Lowenstein, AMERICAN COOKERY BOOKS, 107; Weinstein, AGAINST 
THE TIDE 57: "Roberts also published the only substantial work by an 
abolitionist, black or white, to contain neither hint nor trace of 
race"; not in WORK. (#021250)        $35,000

https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/021250/robert-roberts/the-house-servants-directory-or-a-monitor-for-private-families-comprising-hints-on-the

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