"In order to get through your work in proper time, you should make it your chief study to rise early in the morning; for an hour before the family rises is worth more to you than two after they are up."So begins Robert Roberts' The House Servant's Directory, first published in 1827 and the standard for household management for decades afterward. A classic survey of work, home life, and race relations in early America, the book was the result of many years of Roberts' personal and professional experiences. One of the first books written by an African-American and published by a commercial press, this manual for butlers and waiters offers keen insight into the social milieu, hierarchy, and maintenance of the antebellum manor.As a servant to a prominent New England family, Roberts provided valuable insights into what was expected of domestic servants. His book contains an abundance of instructions for successfully completing household chores as well as suggestions for properly cleaning furniture and clothing; and for buying, preparing, and serving food and drink for dinner parties of all sizes (much of which is still useful information today). The text also contains suggestions for arranging servants' work routines, and advice to heads of families on how best to manage their domestic help -- extraordinary recommendations for master-servant relationships and highly unusual for the time.Among the most famous of etiquette books to provide instruction on proper behavior for domestic servants in the early nineteenth century, Roberts' Directory remains a critical primary source in sociology and African-American history.

Introduction to the House Servant's DirectoryThe benefit of early rising to servantsOn dress suitable for their workCleaning boots and shoesCleaning knives and forksDirections for cleaning steel forksTrimming and cleaning lampsDirections for cleaning plateCleaning plate with dry plate powderCleaning silver and plated articlesSetting up the candlesCleaning polished steel gratesDirections for cleaning mahogany furnitureHints on taking out stains from mahoganyBrushing and folding gentlemen's clothesBrushing and cleaning gentlemen's hatsRegulations for the pantryDirections for cleaning tea traysWashing and cleaning decantersTrimming the cruet stand or castersTo clean tea and coffee urnsMahogany dinner traysRemarks on the morning's work in winterDirections for setting out the breakfast tableRegulations for the dinner tableLaying the cloth, &c.Setting out the dinner tableSetting out the sideboardSetting out the side tableDinner on the tableWaiting on dinnerThe first course removedSecond course removedPlacing on the dessertPreparations for tea and coffeeCarrying round tea and coffeeObservations on supperObservations on the supper tableDirections for extinguishing lamps, shutting up the house, &c.Address and behaviour to your employersBehaviour to your fellow servantsBehaviour of servants at their mealsHints to house servants on their dressRemarks on answering the bellsAll the various receipts useful for servants to know 1. To make the best liquid blacking for boots and shoes 2. To make boots and shoes water proof 3. Composition to clean furniture 4. Furniture oil for mahogany, most excellent 5. Italian varnish, most superb for furniture 6. Italian polish to give furniture a brilliant lustre 7. To take ink stains out of mahogany furniture 8. An excellent wash for dirty tables, after a party 9. To take the black off the bright bars of polished steel 10. To polish the bars of a polished steel grate 11. The best way to clean a polished steel grate 12. For the black parts or inner hearth of a grate 13. Another excellent black mixture for the same 14. A beautiful mixture to clean brass or copper 15. To give Britannia metal a brilliant polish 16. A beautiful polish for black grates 17. To make the best plate powder 18. A most superb way to clean plate 19. Another way to make plate powder, by J. R. W. of London 20. To clean any kind of plated articles whatever 21. To clean japanned tea and coffee urns 22. To preserve iron or steel from rust 23. To take rust out of steel 24. To blacken the front of stone chimney pieces 25. An excellent composition to blacken stove grates 26. To clean mirrors or large looking glasses 27. To make a beautiful black varnish 28. To give silver a beautiful polish 29. An excellent mastick for mending China and glass 30. A wash to revive old deeds or other writings 31. An excellent wash to keep flies from pictures or furniture 32. To remove flies from rooms 33. To render old pictures as fine as new 34. A varnish that suits all kinds of pictures and prints 35. To take ink spots out of mahogany 36. A most delicious salad sauce, by J. R. W. 37. A great secret to mix mustard, by H. B. London 38. To extract oil from boards 39. To colour any kind of liquor 40. To make liquid currant jam of the first quality 41. A secret against all kind of spots on silk or cotton 42. To make all kinds of syrups of all sorts of flowers 43. To make excellent currant jelly 44. A most delicious lemonade, to be made a day before wanted 45. Lemonade that has the appearance and flavour of jelly 46. To make raspberry vinegar most delicious 47. To make the best wine vinegar in one hour 48. An excellent preparation for vinegar 49. A dry portable vinegar, or vinaigre en poudre 50. To turn good wine into vinegar in three hours 51. To restore that same wine to its former taste 52. To correct a bad taste or sourness in wine 53. To preserve good wine unto the last 54. To recover a person from intoxication 55. To make raspberry strawberry, cherry and all kinds of waters 56. Lemonade water of a most delicious flavour 57. Another excellent lemonade, by R. R. 58. To whiten ivory that has been spoiled 59. A cooling cinnamon water in hot weather 60. An excellent good ratifia, by F. N. 61. A strong aniseseed water 62. To take off spots of any sorrt, from any kind of cloth 63. A great secret against oil spots, &c. 64. To restore carpets to their first bloom 65. To restore tapestries to their former brightness 66. To revive the colour of cloth 67. To take spots out of white cloth, &c. 68. A composition of soap that will take out all sorts of spots 69. Turkey cement for joining all metals, glass, china, &c. 70. To preserve the brightness of fire arms, &c. 71. To remove ink stains from cloth, plaid, silk, worsted, &c. 72. To preserve milk for sea that will keep for six months 73. To preserve apples for the year round 74. To loosen stoppers that are congealed in decanters 75. To take stains out of black cloth, silk, or crape 76. To know whether a bed is damp or not, when travelling 77. To make the best ginger beer 78. To make excellent spruce beer 79. To make a beautiful flavoured punch 80. To cement any kind of broken glass 81. A black varnish for straw or chip hats 82. Blacking for harness that will not injure leather 83. To make a strong paste for paper 84. A water that gilds copper and bronze 85. A wash for gold, silver, silk, or any other kind of embroidery 86. To make iron as beautiful and white as silver 87. To preserve furs or woollen clothes from moths 88. To dye gloves so as to look like York tan 89. To reform those that are given to drink 90. To prevent the breath from smelling, after liquor 91. A wash to give lustre to the face 92. A wash for the hair most superb 93. Excellent paste for the skin 94. A beautiful corn poultice 95. To make the best corn plaster 96. A safe liquid to turn red hair black 97. To refine cider for one barrel 98. To clarify strong or table beer, or ale 99. A cheap and wholesome beer 100. Excellent jumble beer 101. To make excellent ginger beer, for ten gallons 102. A wash to give a brilliant lustre to plate 103. Water proof varnish of the best quality 104. Chinese varnish for miniature painting 105. To make a cement for bottlesDirections for putting dishes on tableDirections for placing all kinds of joints, fowls, fish, &c. on tableDirections for carvingGoing to marketHow to choose poultryHow to choose fishA few observations to cooks, &c.A word to heads of familiesDirections how to make a fire of Lehigh coalMiscellaneous observations, compiled for the use of house servants