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. Head cook Dinah Toogood (c.1795-c.1882), purchased by John Ridgely in 1830, was a "fine cook,” Eliza Ridgely III recalled in 1895.

 

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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  Enslaved People

  Hampton was the second largest plantation in Maryland. Learn about the struggle, hardships, and lives of the enslaved.

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  Freedom Seekers

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

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  Slavery at Hampton

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

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  Free Black Laborers

  Free Black Laborers worked at Hampton for various reasons. A good amount did to eventually purchase their family members.

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  Gruesome

  Working Conditions

  Accounts of the working conditions of the forced labor iron works.

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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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  The Ridgelys of Hampton

  Learn about the history of the Ridgely family at Hampton.

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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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  History & Culture

  History & Culture

  Hampton National Historic Site today preserves the core of what was once a vast commercial, industrial, and agricultural plantation.