The House Servant's Directory: Or, a Monitor for Private Families: Comprising Hints on the Arrangement and Performance of Servants' Work

Rating:
Summary: Good household advice c. 1827
Review: The author, a black freeman and a prominent figure in Boston Abolitionist politics, published this remarkable work in 1827 not only as a handbook for servants but as a guide for proper behavior by masters toward their employees.
The recipes given are practical and detailed, and the editor believes "still useful today", but some ingredients may prove inconvenient, (bullock's gall) or downright dangerous (mercury) and adding live eels to a master's libations to discourage intoxication seems more a prescription for brief employment than a useful intervention.
Quibbles aside, Robert's work stands as a readable and useful view into an era little known to most Americans today.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)