Sally Seymour (died 3 April 1824), was an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

pastry chef and restaurateur. Seymour built up an elite culinary business in

Charleston Charleston most commonly refers to: * Charleston, South Carolina * Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital * Charleston (dance) Charleston may also refer to: Places Australia * Charleston, South Australia Canada * Charleston, Newfoundlan ...

, South Carolina and was one of a few African American business owners at the time. She influenced food styles in Charleston through her restaurant and the numbers of chefs she trained.

Life

Seymour was a slave of Thomas Martin, who was the father of her children. In the 1780s Seymour oversaw Martin's house and kitchen. She received training as a pastry chef by Englishman Adam Prior, one of only two French trained chefs in Charleston. In 1795, Thomas Martin

manumitted Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...

her, and she took the name Seymour or Seymore. She established her own pastry bakery in Charleston, and was able to buy it in 1802. She had several pupils among the

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...

in the city. A former slave, became a slave owner herself, and used slave labour in her staff: she had between six and nine slaves working in her kitchen at any time between 1805 and 1824. Two of these enslaved persons were an African American woman named Chloe, purchased for $400 in 1802, and an African American man named Felix, purchased for $800 in 1814. The types of food she learned from Adam Prior were cakes, hot meat pies, sweet pies, trifles, jellies and confectionery, her food became more popular than her teachers. Seymour was very successful: in 1817, the

St. Cecilia Society The St. Cecilia Society of Charleston, South Carolina, named for the traditional patron saint of music, was formed in 1766 as a private subscription concert organization. Over the next fifty-four years, its annual concert series formed the most ...

held their meeting in her establishment. Thomas Grimké,

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (February 25, 1746 – August 16, 1825) was an American Founding Father, statesman of South Carolina, Revolutionary War veteran, and delegate to the Constitutional Convention where he signed the United States Constit ...

and

Thomas Pinckney Thomas Pinckney (October 23, 1750November 2, 1828) was an early American statesman, diplomat, and soldier in both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, achieving the rank of major general. He served as Governor of South Carolina an ...

convened the Mutton Chop Club every fortnight at Seymour's restaurant. Described as a matriarch of a dynasty of pastry chefs and restaurateurs in Charleston, part of the legacy of Seymour was the African American chefs she trained, which included those who were kitchen slaves of planters, free black women and her own children Eliza and William. Some of the people she taught included Camilla Johnson, Eliza Dwight, Martha Gilchrist, Cato McCloud, and the Holton sisters who became rivals of Seymour's business. Seymour's teaching influenced the food of Charleston for vegetables to be cooked in a French style of balanced flavor as highlighted in the cookbook, ''The Carolina Housewife,'' by Sarah Rutledge. She left her business to her daughter

Eliza Seymour Lee Eliza Seymour Lee (1800–1874), was an American pastry chef and restaurateur.Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston' She was the daughter of the famous pastry chef Sally Seymou ...

when she died in 1824, who was also a noted pastry chef. Eliza Lee expanded the business.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour, Sally 18th-century births 1824 deaths 18th-century American businesswomen 19th-century American businesswomen 18th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American businesspeople 18th-century American slaves American slave owners Pastry chefs African-American history in Charleston, South Carolina African-American businesspeople American bakers 18th-century African-American women 19th-century African-American women Black slave owners in the United States African-American women in business Free Negroes American women slave owners American women slaves

Life

See also

References