Garden Design - Mount or Mound

Colonial British American gardeners often constructed artificial viewing sights called mounts or mounds to survey their gardens and the nearby countryside. These mounts usually consisted of a pile of earth heaped up to be used as the base for another structure such as a summerhouse or as an elevated site for surveying the adjoining landscape or as an elevated post for defensive reconnaissance or just a spot for fresh and cooling air in the summer.

Occasionally gardeners planted their mounts with ornamental trees and shrubs. Mounts were often formed from the earth left from digging of cellars and foundations. Walks leading up the slope of a mount sometimes has their breadth contracted at the top by one half to add the illusion of greater length.

European pleasure gardens & parks often contained a model Greek Mountain of Parnassus [see Catshuis for example]. In antiquity, the Parnassus, dedicated to Apollo & the Muses, was the traditional home of poetry & music. Deer are being hunted at the foot of the 'mountain.'

Francis Bacon, (1561-1626), English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, & author, wrote in his 1625 Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall in the essay entitled Of Gardens, "I would also have the alleys spacious and fair. You may have closer alleys upon the side grounds, but none in the main garden. I wish also, in the very middle, a fair mount, with three ascents and alleys, enough for four to walk abreast; which I would have to be perfect circles, without any bulwarks or embossments; and the whole mount to be thirty feethigh, and some fine banqueting house, with some chimneys neatly cast, and without too much glass."

Bacon added, "At the end of both the side grounds I would have a mount of some pretty height, leaving the wall of the enclosure breast-high, to look abroad into the fields."

English writer John Evelyn had mentioned a mount in the middle of his garden in his 1641-1705 Diary. In his 1718 Ichnographia Rustica; or The Nobleman, Gentleman, and Gardener's Recreation, Stephen Switzer described a garden, "On one Side you ascend several Grass Steps, and come to an artificial Mount, whereon is a large spreading Tree, with a Vane at the Top, and a Seat enclosing it, commanding a most agreeable and entire Prospect of the Vale below."

Switzer describes another garden of the period, "From hence you advance to a Mount considerably higher... on the Top of which is a large Seat, call'd a Windsor Seat, which is contriv'd to turn round any Way, either for the Advantage of Prospect, or to avoid the Inconveniencies of Wind, the Sun... Here 'tis you have a most entertaining Prospect, all all round, and you fee into several Counties of England, as well as into Wales."

"There are abundance of Ever-greens, and Green Slopes regularly displayed; and to the West of the Garden, on an artificial Mount, is a pleasant Summer-house." This description is from one of Daniel Defoe's (1659-1731) greatest works, (often overlooked) the magisterial A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–27), which provided a panoramic survey of the British landscape & trade on the eve of England's Industrial Revolution.

South Carolinian Eliza Lucas Pinckney described her neighbor William Middleton's mount at his estate Crowfields in 1743, “to the bottom of this charming spot where is a large fish pond with a mount rising out of the middle-the top of which is level with the dwelling house and upon it is a roman temple.”

By the fall of 1769, William Eddis wrote of the Governor's House at Annapolis, Maryland, "The garden is not extensive, but it is disposed to the utmost advantage; the center walk is terminated by a small green mount, close to which the Severn approaches."

Also built in Annapolis during the 1760s is the 2 acre William Paca Garden. Multi-tier terraces define the garden. The lower terraces feature a fish-shaped pond whose bridge leads to a 2-story summer house built upon an artificial mount, plus serpentine paths through lush lawns & past beds of native plants.
William Paca Garden in Annapolis, Maryland. Dr. Jean Russo, historian for Historic Annapolis, writes that Paca built his garden mount with dirt dug out of his fishpond to give visitors a prospect from the summer house of the harbor & river over his brick wall and to keep "an eye eye on the governor on the other side of the (governor's) pond!"

George Washington wrote in his spring 1786 diary from Mount Vernon, Virginia, "I set the people to raising and forming the mounds of Earth by the gate in order to plant Weeping Willow thereon."

In 1787, the Rev. Manasseh Cutler described the mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in his journal, "The artificial mounds of earth, and depressions, and small groves in the squares have a most delightful effect."

Eliza Clitherall wrote in her 1801 diary when visiting, Wilmington, North Carolina, "In this Garden were several Alcoves, Summer Houses, a hot-house ...Upon a mound of considerable height was erected a Brick room containing shelves and a large number of books--chairs and table and this was call'd the family chapel, for in those days there was no regular worship in Wilmington."

More detailed descriptions of garden mounts are easier to come by in British publications mid-century. Details of the New College garden at Oxfordshire appeared in a 1755 issue of The Universal Magazine in London, "In the middle of the garden is a beautiful mount with an easy ascent to the top of it, and the walks round about it, as well as the summit of it, guarded with yew hedges." The children of the gentry in the British American colonies often made their way to Oxford to continue their education during this period.

In 1783, the garden at New College in Oxford was described in a guidebook, "In the Garden is a beautiful Mount well disposed, behind which and on the North Side are some curious and uncommon Shrubs and Trees. The whole is surrounded by a Terras. Great Part of the Garden... is encompassed by the City Wall, which serves as a Fence to the College."

An issue of the 1773 London Magazine published a view of Mr. Garrick's House and Gardens at Hampton. "At the north part of the garden is a mount, which commands an extensive prospect into Surry; from thence, by a gradual descent, you pass through an arch, and immediately you are surprised with a prospect of the Thames."

Some British American gardeners constructed more than one mount on their grounds during the colonial period. An advertisement offered for sale “a very large garden both for pleasure and profit, with a variety of pleasant walks, mounts, basons, canals” in the South Carolina Gazette on January 30, 1749.
Artist Diane Johnson's Depiction of Thomas Jefferson's Plan for Poplar Forest.

Thomas Jefferson built two mounts at his retreat Poplar Forest 90 miles south of Monticello in Bedford County, Virginia. Poplar Forest was an estate of 4,800 acres which Jefferson inherited in 1773, from his father-in-law, John Wayles. He supervised the laying of the foundations for a new octagonal house in 1806, in accordance with Andrea Palladio's architectual principles.

The house includes a central cube room, on a side, porticos to the north and south, and a service wing to the east. On either side of the house, Jefferson had mounts built. Two artificial mounds on either side of the sunken lawn behind the house served as ornamental architectural elements and screened identical octagonal privies.
Poplar Forest Mound and Privy.

Palladio’s architecture normally featured a central architectural mass, flanked by two wings, each ending in a pavilion. However, Jefferson substituted landscape elements for bricks-and-mortar: double rows of paper mulberry trees formed the “wings” and earthen mounds replaced the pavilions.

In Europe, Jefferson had seen mounds placed away from the houses to serve as vantage points for surveying ornamental grounds. At Poplar Forest, Jefferson placed his mounds close to the house, planted them with circles of aspens and willows, and used them as a component of his symmetrical landscape.
Thomas Jefferson used the landscape he planted around his house, including the mounts, to visually imitate a Palladian archiectural plan. Poplar Forest with earthen mounds planted with trees subsituting for traditonal pavilions and lines of trees forming Palladian“wings” or “hyphens.”

The house, “wings” comprised of trees, and earthen mounds formed an east-west axis, separating the ornamental grounds within the circle into two distinct areas which Jefferson designed to reflect opposing sensibilities. At the front of the house, he created a landscape that appeared natural, even wild, like gardens he had seen in England.
Poplar Forest Mound or Mount.  See: Masters thesis on Poplar Forest , University of Virginia School of Architecture: C. Allan Brown, "Poplar Forest: Thomas Jefferson and the Ideal Villa," UVA Landscape Architecture 1987

A Curiosity

William Stuckeley (English, 1687–1765)  1723 image of Marlborough “Mount” Wiltshire, England

William Stuckeley (English, 1687–1765) 1723 image of Marlborough “Mount” Wiltshire, England Detail

An article on 31 May 2011 from the BBC notes, Marlborough Mound: 'Merlin's burial place' built in 2400 BC. "A Wiltshire mound where the legendary wizard Merlin was purported to be buried has been found to date back to 2400 BC.  Radiocarbon dating tests were carried out on charcoal samples taken from Marlborough Mound, which lies in Marlborough College's grounds.  The 19m (62ft) high mound had previously mystified historians...Silbury Hill, an artificial man-made mound about five miles away, also dates back to 2,400 BC. Marlborough Mound was reused as a castle and became an important fortress for the Norman and Plantagenet kings.  It was also the scene for major political events, such as the general oath of allegiance sworn to King John in 1209."  It had previously been suggested the Mound dated back to about 600 AD, the Arthurian Age, legend claiming it as the elusive site of Merlin’s grave. Merlin, as Arthur's wizard, is largely the creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Vita Merlini, (Life of Merlin) c.1150AD.

1810 Engraving of Marlborough Mount from Colt Hoare's Ancient Wiltshire

Marlborough Mount today

19C After Slavery - Gathering Broom Straw

After Slavery - Gathering Broom Straw by Mary Lyde Hicks Williams

Mary Lyde Hicks William (1866-1959) Mary's paintings of freed slaves reflect daily life she saw on her uncle's plantation during Reconstruction in North Carolina.

Old, but proper, potting sheds

Taking a break from being in the house typing. Each year at this time, I long to be outdoors in a garden somewhere. I will take you along with me...Today is a good day to dream about those old pots & proper potting sheds. 

Down House, Home of Charles Darwin, South East, Kent, England

Calke Abbey. Ticknall, Derby, Derbyshire, England

Royal Horticultural Society Harlow Carr Botanical Gardens, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England


Beningborough Hall, North Yorkshire, England

Beningborough Hall, North Yorkshire, England
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England



Down House, Home of Charles Darwin, South East, Kent, England
Exbury Gardens, Southampton, Hampshire, England
Royal Horticultural Society Harlow Carr Botanical Gardens, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
Lost Gardens of Heligan, South West, Cornwall, England
Royal Horticultural Society Harlow Carr Botanical Gardens, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
Lost Gardens of Heligan, South West, Cornwall, England

Lost Gardens of Heligan, South West, Cornwall, England
Royal Horticultural Society Harlow Carr Botanical Gardens, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England

Royal Horticultural Society Harlow Carr Botanical Gardens, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England

19C After Slavery - Picking Strawberries

After Slavery - Picking Strawberries by Mary Lyde Hicks Williams

Mary Lyde Hicks William (1866-1959) Mary's paintings of freed slaves reflect daily life she saw on her uncle's plantation during Reconstruction in North Carolina.

Chinese Influence on Early American Gardens

J. C. Loudon, “View from the Chinese Temple,” Cheshunt Cottage, 

The Gardener’s Magazine 15, no. 117 (December 1839)

By the 1760s, colonial British Americans were becoming restless with their limited choices in an expanding world. (And then, of course, there was that taxation problem.) Britain controlled what they could import & what they could manufacture. And, yet, they knew of the world beyond the limits imposed by the mother country.

Voltaire, although he had never been there, fancied China to be a diest philosopher's paradise. The colonials were banned from direct contact with goods from China by the British East India Company, but they could see Chinese designs in porcelain, textiles, wallpapers & pattern books and on trips abroad. They longed to show that they, too, had a larger view of an Enlightenment world filled with cross-cultural inspiration.

Books displaying Chinese designs, such as Matthais Lock & Henry Copland's 1752 New Book of Ornaments; Thomas Chippendale's 1754 Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director; William Chambers' 1757 Designs for Chinese Building, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils; and Thomas Johnson's 1762 New Book of Ornaments, were widely circulated in the British American colonies. By 1774, the first American furniture book with Chinese designs appeared, The Carpenter's Rules of Work, in the Town of Boston.

From 1755-1758, London-trained indentured servant architect & carver William Buckland (1734-1774) was installing Chinese detailing in George Mason's home Gunston Hall at Mason Neck in Fairfax County, Virginia. Buckland & his chief carver, William Bernard Sears, were creating Chinese-style chairs for the house. Gunston Hall was filled with Chinese fretwork & moldings on the fireplace, doorways, & windows. Originally Buckland had been hired on a 4 year indenture to create a Chippendale parlor "in the Chinese taste" for George Mason's brother Thomson.

Hannah Callender wrote in her diary in 1762, of William Peters' Belmont near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, "We left the garden for a wood cut into vistas. In the midst is a Chinese temple for a summer house. One avenue gives a fine prospect of the city...Another avenue looks to the obelisk."
1772. William Paca of Annapolis painted by Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827).

Young Annapolis attorney William Paca (1740-1799) had traveled to England in 1761, to further his legal training abroad. Shortly after his return, he married wealthy Philadelphian Ann Mary Chew in 1763, & began to plan their Annapolis home & gardens, which he began building in 1765.
1772. Detail of Chinese Bridge in painting of William Paca by Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827).

William Buckland is credited with designing his garden, which was dominated by geometric terraces that fell to a small naturalized wilderness garden boasting a pond, a Chinese-style bridge, & a classical pavilion.
Chinese bridge in restored gardens at William Paca home in Annapolis, Maryland.

In 1768, New York City's public pleasure garden Ranelagh offered a musical concert & fireworks featuring "Three Chinese Fountains, with Italian Candles, and a garandole."

Maryland newspaper advertisements offered fancy wooden paling constructed "emulating Chinese designs" for sale in the Chesapeake region by the late 1760s.

Mayor Samuel Powel (1738-1793) of Philadelphia redecorated his house after returning from 7-year-long Grand Tour of Europe in 1769. Young gentlemen of means often deferred the start of a career for the opportunity to broaden their knowledge & language skills on a Grand Tour. Among those he met on his continental travels were the Pope & Voltaire. Upon his return, Powel redesigned his garden & hung Chinese-style wallpaper in the parlor. Powel's cousin, financier Robert Morris (1734-1806) soon ordered Chinese wallpaper from Europe for his Philadelphia home.

Although he never built them, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) looked to William Chamber's book, when he was contemplating building 2 Chinese pagoda garden pavilions at Monticello in Virginia in 1771.

Soon after the Treaty of Paris ended the war & ended the British East India Company's monopoly over the China trade in the colonies, America sent the vessel the Empress of China from the port in New York to China on George Washington's birthday in 1784.

Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1786, "the Chinese are an enlightened people, the most anciently civilized of any existing, and their arts are ancient, a presumption in their favour."

A former employee of the Dutch East India Company, who frequently traveled to China, settled in America in 1784, Andreas Everardu van Braam Houckgeest (1739-1801). He was known as van Braam. In 1796, he built "China's Retreat" at Croydon, near Philadelphia, featurning sliding windows & a cupola with Chinese fretwork balustrade.

Visitor Moreau de Saint Mery wrote that "the furniture, ornaments, everything at Mr. van Braam's reminds us of China. It is even impossible to avoid fancying ourselves in China while surrounded at once by living Chinese (servants) and by representations of their manners, their usages, their monuments, and their arts."
Catharina van Braam (1746-1799) & her daughter Francoise. In van Braam's home hung a Chinese portrait of his wife & daughter clad in classical costumes & seated in a garden. But the garden was not Chinese. On a 1794 trip to Guangzhou, China, van Bramm commissioned the reverse glass painting, for which Chinese artists used engraved versions of paintings by, among others, the German painter Angelika Kaufmann (1741-1807). The subjects’ faces often were copied from miniatures; but for the rest, the paintings were direct imitations of European originals. The portrait of Catharina & Françoise is based on a 1773 Kaufmann painting of Lady Rushout & her daughter Anne, from a stipple engraving made by Thomas Burke (1749-1815) in 1784. Burke’s engraving apparently made its way to Guangzhou.

After only 2 years of living at his Philadelphia new mansion, van Braam sold it to a Captain Walter Sims in 1798. Captain Sims was also enamored of Chinese culture & ornament; so he, too, enjoyed the exotic atmosphere of the mansion. His only change was to rename it "China Hall."

In 1798, a newspaper advertisement offering for sale a small plot of land in New York City noted that, "A Chinese Temple, placed on one or two inviting spots, would render the appearance at once romantic and delightful."  These depictions of Chinese gardens during the period give a glimpse into the inspiration for Chinese designs in colonial America & the new republic.

Engravings of the Yuan Ming-Yuan Summer Palaces and Gardens of the Chinese Emperor Ch'ien Lung. by Giuseppe Castiglione. (Published 1786)  Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) was an Italian Jesuit brother serving in China as a painter at the court of the Emperor. Castiglione was sent there as a missionary, arriving in China in 1715, and remaining until his death in 1766.  As a youth, Castiglione learned to paint from Carlo Cornara & Andrea Pozzo, a member of the Society of Jesus at Trento. In 1707, at the age of 19, Castiglione formally entered the Society and traveled to Genoa for further training. By this time, his skill as a painter was recognized, & he was invited to do wall paintings at Jesuit churches. At the age of 27, he received instructions to go to China, completing wall paintings in Jesuit churches in Portugal & Macao along the way.

While in China, Castiglione took the name Lang Shining. In addition to his court duties, he was also in charge of designing the Western-Style Palaces in the imperial gardens of the Old Summer Palace.  He practiced his art & his religion as court painter to 3 Emperors during the last Chinese Quing dynasty for 51 years. He introduced the ideas from his Italian Renaissance training of perspective, anatomical accuracy, and depicting 3 dimensional objects by using light & shade to Chinese art. He also absorbed Chinese artistic techniques into his own works.
Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766). 1786 Xushuilou dongmian, east façade of Reservoir.
Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766). 1786 Xieqiqu beimian, north façade of Palace of the Delights of Harmony.

Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766). 1786 Xianfashanmen zhengmian, façade of gate leading to Hill of Perspective.

Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766). 1786 Wanhuazhen huayuan, the Maze.

Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766). 1786 Haiyantang dongmian, east façade of Palace of Calm Seas.

Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766). 1786 Dashuifa nanmian, Great Waters, south side.

19C After Slavery - Corn Shucking in the Moonlight

After Slavery - Corn Shucking in the Moonlight by Mary Lyde Hicks Williams

Mary Lyde Hicks William (1866-1959) Mary's paintings of freed slaves reflect daily life she saw on her uncle's plantation during Reconstruction in North Carolina.

Slave Gardeners - From Raising Tobacco to Food & Flowers

Slave Gardeners in the Mid-Atlantic & South

Enslaved African Americans were the backbone of the garden labor force throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic and Southern gardens planted for both pleasure and use. This pattern persisted throughout the colonial period. After the Revolution, as indentured & convict servants were absorbed into the regular labor pool in America, slaves became even more important as gardeners.

Records for slave gardeners are scant. Sale & runaway advertisements, journals & letters, and a few inventories identify slave gardeners by name.

African American slaves were very familiar with sustenance gardening, even if they worked as a field slave or a house servant during the daylight hours. Many slave owners in the 18th century allowed their workers to layout & plant small gardens to supplement the usually meager food provisions allocated to the field slaves. Some masters intentionally delegated a common plot of ground for this purpose near the slave quarters. Slaves would prepare their garden plots after sundown and on Sundays, when most had a lighter work schedule.

The procedures & problems associated with planting & harvesting herbs & vegetables were the same for both groups of gardeners. The the slaves knew the challenges well, since some on each plantation helped plant & maintained the gardens of their masters. Nature makes no class distinctions. It was inevitable that enslaved African Americans would become the backbone of both the pleasure garden and the kitchen garden labor force.

It may have started with growing tobacco, but turned to growing fruits & vegetables and planning more elegant landscape gardens by the 18th-century.  Slaves working with tobacco in Virginia, attributed to an unknown artist, 1670.

In South Carolina during the 1740s, several runaway notices mentioned gardeners, both enslaved and serving under an indenture. RUN away, an old Negro Man...is a Gardener (South Carolina Gazette, May 26, 1746).

Caesar was the slave gardener of Joseph Wragg who died in Charleston County, South Carolina, in 1753. Caesar was valued at 400 pounds, when his ownership transferred to Elizabeth Manigault, wife of Peter Manigault. Quash was the slave gardener of Joseph Wragg who lived in South Carolina as well. He was valued at 120 pounds, and his ownership fell to Charlotte Wragg.

In 1756, John Swift, a merchant in Market Street, Philadelphia, advertised for sale a young "Negroe man" who "understands gardening." Two slave gardeners were auctioned at the London Coffee House in Philadelphia on July 6, 1769. When John MacPherson decided to sell his plantation in Northern Liberties, on the Schuykill, he also auctioned off his two "young healthy" slave gardeners in 1769.

In 1769, William Bethune, identified as a gardener of Charleston, South Carolina, sells two garden slaves to Daniel Cannon, a carpenter.

A June 1773 issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette carried an advertisement for the sale of "Three healthy likely Negroe men" capable of attending a garden. A notice in the same newspaper in 1782, advertised for the return to John Churchill of Fauquier County in Virginia of a "likely Virginia born Slave named Jacob" who was well acquainted with gardening.

As Edward Lloyd IV designed & planted his Annapolis gardens in the 1770s, he, too, supplemented his indentured garden staff with slave gardeners, as had Dr. Henry Stevenson; when he installed the terraced falls & geometric flat garden at his Baltimore County seat, Parnassus, in the 1760s.

In Virginia, the Williamsburg gentry vied for the service of James, the slave of Nathaniel Burwell. He served under four head gardeners at the Governor’s Palace. Governors Botetourt (Norbonne Berkeley) & Francis Fauquier paid the Burwell family 12 pounds per year for his services, & Governors Dunmore (John Murray) & Patrick Henry each paid 14 pounds a year for his expertise. James was a master at pruning fruit trees, transplanting native seedlings, & forcing plants in hot beds & bell glasses.

On April 5, 1777, Virginia plantation owner Landon Carter, having surveyed his newly green fields & budding trees & just about able to taste the strawberries setting flower in his garden, wrote in his diary, “My gardiner now 5 days weeding his Strawberry beds & not yet half done them. They must be well whipt.”

Quomina was listed as a slave gardener at the Snee Plantation of Charles Pickney, when Pickney died in 1782.

African American slaves were often purchased by the new crop of professional white gardeners & plant merchants who appeared in growing numbers throughout the Mid-Atlantic & South after the Revolution, to tend their nursery gardens, sell their stock at market, & maintain the gardens of their regular clients. These new garden entrepeneurs, usually freshly arrived from overseas, knew they could learn from their enslaved servant gardeners, who had been tending America's gardens for decades.

After the death of longtime South Carolina gardener, John Watson, his sons James Mark & John carried on his nursery business until 1802, when John left South Carolina for health reasons. The Charleston Times ran the following notice on April 30, 1802. “The Subscriber BEING obliged to leave the country on account of his bad state of health, offers his handsome retreat for sale...the land is in the highest state of cultivation, both with vegetables and as complete a Nursery as Carolina can produce. He likewise offers his valuable NEGRO FELLOW, complete gardener and understands perfectly the management of raising, grafting, budding, and pruning of trees-it is unnecessary to mention any particulars about him, as he is well known in this city, JOHN WATSON.”

In the 1790s, visiting English agriculturalist Richard Parkinson insisted that, of all of the help he had to hire outside of his immediate family, white agricultural & garden labor was inferior to black labor, “for all the white men I employed there ate much & worked little…the black man or slave is both clothed & fed at less expense than a white man…they bear the heat of the sun much better than any white man, and are more dexterous with the hoe.”

Benjamin Henry Latrobe (English-born American artist, 1764-1820).  An Overseer Doing His Duty, sketched from life near Fredericksburg, 13 March 1798

Craftsman William Faris owned several slaves over the period of his residence in Annapolis. His most constant gardening companion during the 1790s was his slave Sylva. Parkinson wrote of the advantages of buying female slaves, less expensive than males, to assist in Mid-Atlantic & Upper South agricultural pursuits. He noted that they could perform gardening tasks as well as male slaves, & “the women will be a saving…in the first place, & they will wash & milk.” Faris did indeed use Sylva to cook & help with general housework as well as to work regularly as his primary gardener during the growing season.

In Virginia, George Washington employed both male & female slaves in creating his garden. A 1799 visitor to Mount Vernon wrote, “Here many male & female negroes were at work digging & carrying away ground to make a level grass plot with a gravel walk around it.”

Records show Stephen Bordley spending 3 hours each day during the growing season with his slave head gardener on his Wye Island plantation. Annapolitan Charles Carroll kept slaves at his Doughoregan Manor plantation to tend the gardens including Jack & Harry who appear in Carroll inventories as gardeners.

Both Faris & Parkinson also rented the male slaves of others to assist with garden labor. Many slaves who worked in gardens were “hired” on a short-term basis. Hiring out was a system in which a gardener would temporarily lease a slave from an owner. In this system, slave owners generated revenue from their slaves’ labor without having an investment in the actual work itself. Specialized slaves, such as seasoned garden workers, were more likely to face weekly, monthly, or yearly hiring than being permanently sold.  Such slaves and the variety of jobs reflected not only the flexibility of slavery but also the importance of slaves as capital for owners.

The hiring-out system generated a potential tension between hirer and owner.  Slave renters wanted to make the most out of a short-term investment; owners wanted to protect their long-term capital. Contracts typically placed the burden of clothing, food, and shelter on the hirer. 

Physical distance between hirer and owner gave hired slaves an opportunity to influence their own experience, and this daily resistance undermined the hirer’s authority. Parkinson’s writings give a glimpse into the lives of the slaves he rented in Baltimore in the late 1790s, “Though you have them slaves all the day, they are not so in the night. All the black men I employed used to be out all night & return in the morning.” 

No matter how the rented slaves spent their nights, they were expected to begin working vigorously the following morning. Shortly after Faris employed his neighbor Mrs. Brewer’s slave Harry, the craftsman wrote in his diary, “Man Harry crawled Home this morning between 6 & 7. Went to Working Dung on the older bed by the Walnut Tree.”  Many slaveholders questioned the safety of hiring out because in practice it gave slaves some slight power in who they worked for and under what terms.

By the end of the 18th century, Maryland slaveowner James Moss wrote in his journal, that his slaves raised thousands of watermelons on his plantation. His slave Mingo took them to market to sell in Baltimore after each harvest.

Professional gardener James Wilkes offered an unusually high $100 reward for his 25-year-old runaway slave gardener, John, in Baltimore in 1801. Two other independent Baltimore gardeners, Philip Walter & John Mycroft, also used slaves to assist to their gardens.

In November of 1803, Rosalie Steir Calvert of Riversdale in Prince George County, Maryland, wrote her mother, “My gardener John works as hard as four people—he is a good man.” John was one of the slaves from her husband George Calvert’s plantation, Mount Albion. However, in early 1805, Rosalie Calvert was unable to control her husband's slave gardener and wrote, “I had to dismiss my gardener John because he had become so insolent. He has been back three times since, begging me to take him back.” Perhaps life as a garden slave was more desirable than life as a field slave.

Unfortunately, very little is known about most slave gardeners, like the following South Carolina gardener. In her will proven on November 21, 1815, Rebecca Motte of Elderado Plantation in the parish of St. James Santee left to her son-in-law, Major Thomas Pickney and his wife, her daughter Frances, a slave gardener named Adam from that plantation.

One South Carolina gardener did the unusual at the time of his death. Sebastian Spencer was identified as a gardener of Hampstead at the time of his death in 1817. He was married to Elizabeth Spidel in December of 1783, in South Carolina. In his will, he emancipated several of his gardening slaves, leaving them money as well.

Garden Labor - Renting out Indentured Servants in colonial America

Indentured & Convict Servant Gardeners Rented Out in the Mid-Atlantic & South

Mid-Atlantic & South landowners commonly rented the unused time of their indentured gardeners to others. The practice of renting out servants & slaves with special skills allowed those who could not afford to buy an entire indenture or a slave to have an opportunity to use their expertise in the planning & installation of their gardens or to undertake special projects without a large capital outlay.

In May 1738, Sarah Blakeway advertised in the South Carolina Gazette that she had a gardener to hire out. Blakeway was apparently a planter of some importance in her own right. She often advertised in the newspaper for slaves to hire out, houses for rent, Indian corn and land for sale. In 1741, she announced her intention to leave the province selling her land, slaves, piano, mahogany chairs, beds, and books.

In 1750 Philadelphia, William Sellars in Letitia Court advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette to sell the time of his English indentured servant. The servant had 4 years left to serve on his 7 year indenture, and he understood "gardening very well."

Two years later, another English indentured servant, a 22 year old "gardiner by trade who understands the management of trees" was offered for sale for about 3 1/2 years of the remainder of his contract. Inquiries about buying his time could be made at the Philadlephia New Printing Office.

Occasionally, landowners simply lent idle or unfriendly garden servants to family & friends. In the spring of 1751, in Williamsburg, John Blair Sr. (1687-1771) lent to Peyton Randolph (1722-1775) his gardener, of whom “Mrs. Randolph gave a fine account.”

The servant had a history of picking fights with Blair’s slaves; & in the end, apparently Blair valued his slaves more that his feisty gardener. Shortly after the servant’s return, Blair “ordered the gardener to go, for I couldn’t bear him.”

In 1752, Maryland's Provincial Secretary Edmund Jennings & his wife Catherine of Annapolis, attempted to sell the time of their indentured gardener, noting that he was “an extraordinary good Gardener… understands the laying out of new work or anything belonging to a Garden.”

Even the wealthy rented the services of others’ skilled workers, when they undertook extraordinary projects. Charles Carroll of Annapolis (1702-1782) rented two servant gardeners in 1770. He wrote to his son, “I will give Colonel Sharpes Gardener 3 pounds per month computing 26 Working days to the Month & I will allow the Man who Works with Him 40/ per month if He be a good Spadesman.”

When these particular rented servant gardeners arrived at the Carroll home in Annapolis, the elder Carroll was less that enthusiastic, “Mr. Sharpes…Gardener…I do not like His looks as they are very Scottish, He may buy Rum.”

Garden to Table - - Women as Makers of Cordial & Syrups in 1863

“Indian sugar camp (Maple Syrup) - Capt. S. Eastman, U.S. Army” John C. McRae. , engraver; 1853; courtesy of Library of Congress.  

When European colonists settled the Atlantic coast of North America, area, they learned how to tap maple trees from the indigenous people. However, instead of using a wedge to extract sap, they would drill holes in the trees using augers. They would then insert wooden spouts into the holes and hang buckets from them to collect sap. Colonists made these buckets by hollowing segments of a tree to create a seamless container

Women who live in the country, & have small fruit, would find it pay well to make cordials, berry vinegars, &c. There are some establishments where it is made, & women are employed to gather the fruit. 

The people of the Southern States have depended on the North for these articles, but we presume a change will be wrought. The abundant growth of small fruit in the South will enable the South before long to meet the demand. We think there will be many openings of this kind, in the South & West, for many years to come. 

Some manufacturers of ginger wine, bitters, syrups, cordials, & grape wines, write: “In reply to your circular we say-We do not employ any women in our business, although we indirectly furnish employment for several hundred, during the various fruit seasons, in gathering most kinds of fruit, which we use in our business. Many of these fruits are wild, which we buy at a specified price. The gatherers control their own time, & their earnings will vary from fifty cents to $1 each, per day. It would probably require the labor of abcut six hundred for six months of each year, in gathering the amount of fruit which we use. But as we do not directly employ them, or know anything about the general business of those thus employed, we are unable to give further particulars.”

The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work by Virginia Panny Published Boston, MA. by Walker, Wise & Company. 1863

To read about women's changing roles in the 2nd half of the 19th century. see:
Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York:Random House, 1973.
Clinton, Catherine. The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 1984.
Cott, Nancy. A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Cott Nancy. History of Women in the United States, Part 6, Working the Land. New York: K. G. Saur, 1992.
Degler, Carl. At Odds: Women and the Family from Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
Juster, Norton. So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America 1865-1895. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982
Mintz, Stephen and Susan Kellogg. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988.
Ryan, Mary P. Womanhood in America front he Colonial Times to the Present. New York: F. Watts, 1983.
Smith-Rosenberg, Caroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York Pantheon Books, 1982.
Welter, Barbara. Dimity Convictions : the American Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Athens : Ohio University Press, 1976.

Plants in Early America - The Christmas Poinsettia

Christmas poinsettia by Joel T Fry, curator at Bartam's Garden in Philadelphia. (Joel T. Fry, B.A., Anthropology, Univ. of Penn. M.A., American Civ./Historical Archaeology, Univ. of Penn.)

America's First Poinsettia: The Introduction at Bartram’s Garden Poinsettia's first public display was in 1829 at the PHS Flower Show by Joel Fry, Curator, Bartram's Garden - 12/12/2011

 The Cuetlaxochime were sacred plants in what is now known as the early America Western Hemisphere that were used in ceremonies to celebrate the birth of Huitzilopochtli during winter solstices. They were also used for medicinal and healing purposes to cure sicknesses, aid the flow of breast milk, as well as for dyeing fabrics. Pronunciation: Kwe•tla•so•cheetl

"It is a little known fact that the poinsettia was introduced to the gardening world from the Bartram Botanic Garden in 1829. This international symbol of winter cheer was first successfully grown outside its Mexican homeland by Robert and Ann Bartram Carr at the Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. The plant now known as poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima, is native to the pacific coast of Mexico and has an ancient history of human use. It was almost certainly seen by early European explorers and colonists, but somehow never entered cultivation in Europe. It was re-discovered or at least brought to the attention of the outside world in the 1820s by an American, Joel Roberts Poinsett (1778-1851).

"Poinsett, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, held various diplomatic and political positions through his life, but always continued a strong interest in natural science and horticulture. He first served as a special envoy to Mexico in 1822-1823, and when the new Mexican Republic was recognized in 1824, Poinsett was first U. S. Minister Plenipotentiary. He resided in Mexico from 1825 to early 1830. During this period, perhaps in the winter of 1827-1828 Poinsett encountered the unnamed plant that now bears his name.

"As part of his mission to expand cooperation between the two countries, Poinsett shipped plants and seeds between Mexico and the United States. At present there is evidence that four different collections of seeds and plants were sent from Mexico to Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia in the period 1828-1829. Poinsett was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia in early 1827, and this seems to have cemented his connection with the Philadelphia scientific community and with Bartram’s Garden .In early 1828, William Maclure, a longtime friend of Poinsett, and Thomas Say, a Bartram nephew, travelled to Mexico, visiting Vera Cruz and Mexico City. William Keating, a geologist from the University of Pennsylvania also traveled to Mexico in 1828 to prospect for American mining interests. Poinsett, Maclure, Say, and Keating all arranged for Mexican seeds of plants to be sent to Bartram’s Garden.

"Thomas Say sent over a hundred varieties of seeds from Mexico, “of my own collecting” in a letter to Robert Carr dated July 23, 1828. This list is in large part made up of fruits and vegetables offered in the markets in Mexico, but some trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants from the wild were included, notably several forms of cactus. William Maclure returned briefly to Philadelphia in the fall of 1828, and he brought yet more Mexican seeds and plants with him. This is the most likely route for plants of the poinsettia to Bartram’s Garden.

"Robert Buist, a Philadelphia nurseryman, remembered seeing the first poinsettia roots unpacked at Bartram’s Garden in 1828: “On my arrival in this country from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, in 1828, I paid a visit to the famed “Bartram Botanic Garden,” and there saw two cases of plants which had just arrived from Mexico. Among the contents were the stumps of a strange-looking Euphorbia, which, after a few months’ growth, showed some very brilliant crimson bracts.” (The young Buist soon built a very successful career on the new scarlet plant, and as a result he was credited with the introduction of the poinsettia to Europe in 1834.)

"The paper trail of the poinsettia next appears at “The first semi-annual Exhibition of fruits, flowers and plants, of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society,” held June 6, 1829. This was the first public show of the PHS, a tradition continued today as the Philadelphia Flower Show. One of the noteworthy exhibits was “A new Euphorbia with bright scarlet bracteas or floral leaves, presented to the Bartram collection by Mr. Poinsett, United States Minister to Mexico.” There can be no doubt that this was the poinsettia, now known as Euphorbia pulcherrima. The plant on display, apparently the original sent from Mexico, was still colorful in early June. And while we now take for granted the connection of poinsettias and Christmas, it would take a while for nurserymen to reliably flower the new scarlet plant in time for the early winter holidays.

"A year later, in July 1830 a committee of the PHS, “For visiting the Nurseries and Gardens in the vicinity of Philadelphia,” made particular note of the “Euphorbia heterophylla, with its large scarlet flowers,” as well as “some curious species of Cactus, lately received from Mexico” at the Bartram Botanic Garden. At this early stage, the appropriate scientific name for the poinsettia was still in doubt. Poinsettia resembled a known North American native, Euphorbia heterophylla and so for a time it was referred to under that name. Philadelphia nurserymen also used the name “Poinsett’s euphorbia” and around 1832 Robert Buist began using “Euphorbia poinsettia” for the new plant. Between 1833 and 1836 the poinsettia went through a rapid series of scientific names as it was described and published in the US and Europe—first Pleuradena coccinea, then Poinsettia pulcherima, and finally Euphorbia pulcherima. (Although there is still some debate whether some North American Euphorbia species should be split off into a new genus Poinsettia.)

"In the summer of 1833, the botanist Constantine Rafinesque published the first scientific description of the poinsettia in Philadelphia, for his Atlantic Journal. Rafinesque recorded the brief history of the plant in Philadelphia to date: “The Botanical Garden of Bartram received some years ago from Mr. Poinsett our ambassador in Mexico, a fine new green-house shrub, akin to Euphorbia, with splendid scarlet blossoms, or rather bracts. It has since been spread in our gardens near Philadelphia, and is know in some as the Euphorbia Poinseti; but appears to me to form a peculiar genus or S. G. at least”

"In the early 1830s Robert Buist began sending plants or cuttings of poinsettia to Europe, and particularly to his friend James McNab at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. Buist had trained at the Edinburgh garden, and he returned to Scotland in 1831 to acquire stock for his new nursery business. James McNab also visited Philadelphia, and Bartram’s Garden in the summer of 1834, and probably took the first successful poinsettia plants back with him to Edinburgh in the fall.

"The poinsettia flowered in Edinburgh for the first time in the spring of 1835, but imperfectly. When it flowered again in 1836 it was drawn for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. The new euphorbia was re-named Poinsettia pulcherrima by Robert C. Graham, Regius Professor of Botany at Edinburgh, in an article prepared both for Curtis’s and the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. The modern common name “poinsettia” arose from Graham’s description, and as the plant spread rapidly in cultivation in the UK and Europe it was known under the name poinsettia. Unfortunately for history, Graham relied on Buist’s own incorrect account of the introduction of the plant, and omitted any mention of the Carrs or Bartram’s Garden. (Graham’s new genus Poinsettia has since been returned to Euphorbia.)

"It has long been the story that Poinsett personally introduced the poinsettia first to Charleston, bringing the plant on his return from Mexico, and from there it was discovered or sent to the Carrs in Philadelphia. This is impossible for the poinsettia was shown to the Philadelphia public in June of 1829, over six months before Poinsett returned from Mexico. All available evidence suggests that the poinsettia was first sent to the Bartram Garden in Philadelphia in the fall of 1828. The successful transport of live plants from Mexico to Philadelphia in 1828 was almost certainly due to the fact that a number of friends of Bartram’s Garden were on the scene in Mexico. After the new scarlet euphorbia was introduced to the public in 1829, the plant was widely propagated, and became a popular mainstay of the Philadelphia florist trade. The young gardener, Robert Buist, returned to Europe in 1831 and found the scarlet flower was unknown. Buist was a great popularizer of the new plant, but has undeservedly received major credit for its introduction. When Poinsett began to grow his namesake plant in Charleston after his return, it probably returned to him via the Philadelphia nursery community."

A little more to the tale...

Poinsettia plants are native to Central America, especially an area of southern Mexico known as 'Taxco del Alarcon,' where they flower during the winter. The ancient Aztecs called them 'cuetlaxochitl'. The Aztecs had many uses for them including using the flowers (actually special types of bright leaves known as bracts rather than flowers) to make a purple dye for clothes & cosmetics The milky white sap, latex,was made into a medicine to treat fevers.

Poinsettias were cultivated by the Aztecs of Mexico long before the introduction of Europe's Christianity to the Western Hemisphere. These plants were highly prized by Kings Netzahualcyotl & Montezuma, but because of climatic restrictions could not be grown in their capital, which is now Mexico City.

Perhaps the1st religious connotations were placed on poinsettias during the 17C. Because of its brilliant color & convenient holiday blooming time, Franciscan priests, near Taxco, began to use the flower in the Fiesta of Santa Pesebre, a nativity procession. 

The poinsettia may have remained a regional native American sacred plant for many years to come had it not been for the efforts of Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779 – 1851). The son of a French physician, Poinsett was appointed as the first United States Ambassador to Mexico (1825-1829) by President James Madison. Poinsett had attended medical school himself, but was a dedicated, almost obsessive botany-lover.

A German botanist, Wilenow, named it Euphorbia pulcherrima (most beautiful) in 1833, the scientific name to this day. The common name we use today was believed to have been coined around 1836. Philadelphia nurseryman Robert Buist 1st sold the plant as Euphorbia poinsettia, although a German botanist had already given the plant the botanical name Euphorbia pulcherima.

The Poinsettias is native to southern Mexico & Mesoamerica, unlike today’s commercial cultivars, grow into straight& tall trees. Often these trees can reach heights up to 10 feet tall. Through selection & breeding by growers, many cultivars have been developed in the United States & Europe.

After its introduction in Philadelphia, the "poinsettia" was shipped around 19C United States during the 1800's, usually as an outdoor plant for warm climates. 

Around 1920 in southern California, a horticulturist named Paul Ecke became the next key person to promote the poinsettia. He felt this shrub growing wild along roadsides would make a perfect Christmas flower, so set about producing these in fields in what is now Hollywood. 

A few years later, due to the commercial & arts development in Hollywood, he was forced to move south to Encinitas, where the Paul Ecke Ranch produced poinsettias. Through the marketing efforts of Paul Ecke and his sons, the poinsettia became symbolic with Christmas in the United States. 

"On July 20, 2002, the House passed H. Res 471 designating a National Poinsettia Da on December 12, the day of the death of Joel Poinsett, as National Poinsettia Day to commemorate man and the native Mexican Aztec plant.