Heyward - Washington House Audio Tour Narration
Top Talent
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
have a look in the laundry room, past the stairs and down the hall. Of course, in the 18th and 19th centuries there weren't any mechanical Washington, als, so laundry was an incredibly laborious task. An enslaved woman would sit on a small chair and soak the fabrics and water in a wooden washing tub. Then she applied stain treatments to the fabric, including brick dust or pipe clay for grease stains. Next, the material was boiled in a copper tub, like the one you see here and rinsed several times. Once the excess water was removed, clothes and bed linens were either dried by the fire in this room or hung on a line in the work yard. In 1790, when Thomas Hayward owned the property, 17 enslaved people lived either in this kitchen building or in the main house. We know the names of some of the enslaved people who lived on this property, including women named Celia and Hetty. We're continuing to do research and hope to find out more about these women and other enslaved people who lived and worked here.