Hampton's Cooks

A ranger explains the kitchen and who would have labored in it.

NPS/Tim Ervin

Who worked in Hampton’s Kitchen? Before Emancipation (1864), we know of at least three enslaved workers who were cooks.

The kitchen was a center for activity in the house. Dinah Toogood (c. 1795-c. 1882), was the head cook in the 1840s-1860s. She oversaw the kitchen. Eliza Ridgely III recalls in the 1890s that she was a good "fine cook." Eliza Ridgely’s records show Dinah receiving several coarse aprons a year, indicating the possibly messy nature of her work.

 

Advertisement for cruise, food supplied by “famous caterer” Nelson Hawkins, Baltimore Sun, June 26, 1880.

NPS

Harriet Davis Smith (1831-lv.1870), sister of dairymaid Caroline Davis Brown, was one of Dinah’s younger assistants. Both women were paid cooks for the Ridgelys in the mid-1860s before leaving Hampton to start new lives in freedom with their husbands, Dinah in the Orchard Street neighborhood of Baltimore City, Harriet in southwestern Baltimore County. Another young kitchen assistant and waiter, Nelson Hawkins (1843-1916) had fled Hampton in early 1863 and joined the Union Navy in 1864. He later established a very successful career as a “famous” caterer in Baltimore’s affluent Mount Vernon neighborhood before moving to Philadelphia in the 1890s.

 

 

Learn More

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  Toogood Family

  Learn about the Toogood family, their life after emancipation, and the impression they left on the Ridgely family.

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  Nelson Hawkins

  From Chattel Slavery at Hampton to a new life in freedom as a successful cook and "Famous Caterer"

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  Two Families, Different Paths

  The story of Davis sisters Caroline and Ellen is an example of how the formerly enslaved took different paths once Emancipation came to MD

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  Freedom Seekers

  Learn all about people that would seek their freedom from Hampton.

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  Chattel Slavery at Hampton

  From the colonial period through 1864, the Ridgelys enslaved over 500 people. Enslaved people, from young children to the elderly

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  Forms of Control

  From physical to mental abuse for the youngest ages to the oldest. Learn about the harsh truths and forms of control.

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  Descendants of the Enslaved

  Learn about the amazing things the descendants of the enslaved would go on to do.

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  Revealing the Lives of the Enslaved

  A recent Ethnographic Study uncovered major information on the lives of those enslaved at Hampton and their descendants. Read about it here.

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  Learn about more

  People of Hampton

  Hundreds of people lived, worked, and were enslaved at Hampton coinciding America's development as a nation. Explore more of their stories.