Unidentified John Adams Kitchen Assistant
Cite this Page
"Unidentified John Adams Kitchen Assistant," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/112.
- Position
- Kitchen Assistant
- Years in President's House
- circa 1797
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Presidency
- John Adams
- Biography
- In a May 1797 letter, Abigail Adams mentions an unnamed African-American woman working with the cook in the kitchen at the President’s House in Philadelphia:“...the Female I have none, but those I brought with me, except a Negro woman who is wholy with the Cook in the kitchen…” (1) No other information is currently known about this woman.
- (1) “Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, May 24, 1797, Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12, https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-04-12-02-0079#sn=99.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from Context
- Related Association Content
- https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-households-of-john-adams