Mosiana Milledge, Chef

[18thVirginia]

In Ladies Tea, we don't usually confine our threads on black women of the Civil War era to Black History Month, but this year I'd like to focus this month on some women of color who aren't the famous names that we usually associate with the Civil War time period.

We don't know exactly when Mosiana Milledge was born, but sometime in the mid 1800s and we know she lived in Savannah, Georgia. Many enslaved women were cooks during this time, but few traveled from slave to maid to chef, as Mossiana did, ended up for awhile in England, or owned several pieces of property. The staff at the Julie Gordon Lowe Birthplace in Savannah have researched Mosiana's story and some of these details come from their research.

We know the name of Juliette Gordon Low as the woman who brought the Girl Guides, which became the Girl Scouts, to the United States. Gordon Low had been born in Savannah, had lived in Chicago in the Civil War, and had returned to Savannah after schooling in New York and New Jersey. Juliette Gordon would marry William Mackay Low and spend some years in England, where her husband had gone to boarding school and college and where he would buy houses in Warwickshire and London. Juliette would become a celebrated hostess among the British aristocracy.

Mosianna Milledge and her husband

Juliette Gordon Low - in center

 

[18thVirginia]

The Lows would bring Mosiana, their cook from the States, to England to serve some Southern dishes at their parties. Their house in Warwickshire had been renovated to look like a southern plantation. Milledge came over to prepare southern specialties like Smithfield ham, brandied peaches, pecan pie and beaten biscuits to guests of the Lows.

Wellesbourne House, the Low estate in Warwickshire in the 1910s
http://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_wow/wellesbourne-wellesbourne-house

 

[18thVirginia]

Milledge brought her techniques for cooking cured ham, sweet potatoes and okra to her cooking in Britain. She taught another maid who became a chef, Rosa Lewis, her American South techniques.

"Mosianna initiated her into the secrets of making perfect rice and gave her many recipes for Southern cooking. She learned how to make waffles which were served with hot maple syrup from Vermont- an innovation to London society." http://www.gpb.org/news/2015/12/09/forgotten-women-part-8-mosianna-milledge

Rosa Lewis was a renowned cook and the owner of the Cavendish Hotel in London.

 

[donna]

Thanks for posting this. This could be part of Food Forum too but know you want in Ladies' Tea.

 

[18thVirginia]

Thought about it, but didn't have any recipes. Will find some and create a Food Forum thread.

 

[18thVirginia]

Mosianna's husband, Thomas, was 20 years older than her, and a well-respected member of the Savannah community. He has a monument to him in the Laurel Cemetery in Savannah. Mosianna is buried nearby, but her grave is unmarked--she died in 1909.

His tombstone reads: For many years the faithful friend and servant of ANDREW LOW of Savannah.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95940329/thomas-a.-milledge#view-photo=157646391

Andrew Low was Juliette Gordon Low's father-in-law, who moved his family to Britain during Reconstruction.

 

[18thVirginia]

Juliette Gordon Low was quite the socialite among the aristocracy in Great Britain, with the Prince of Wales visiting their home in Warwickshire.

 

[18thVirginia]

Mosianna Milledge taught Rosa Lewis, who also started as a maid in England, how to cook Southern favorites. Rosa would become an acclaimed cook and the owner of the Cavendish Hotel in London.

Rosa Lewis

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

What a crazy good story and unbelievably filled life! I don't know- one, more life qualifying as a movie no one has remembered to produce. Goodness, although a little distracted on how well the countryside loved having a replica plantation manor erected in the English countryside. You just do not see ' different ', when it comes to design. A lot of the larger places have been torn down, since the big tax laws- wonder if it's still there?

Sounds like a project, doesn't it, ensuring such an accomplished, well known, well traveled woman has somewhere she may be visited in the cemetery? An unmarked grave is disappointing although you'd defy anyone to be brief in what could be said of her, unless her eventual memorial stone is 20 feet tall.