Punkahs

[Eleanor Rose]

A detailed picture of the punkah located in the main house at Melrose in Mississippi. Library of Congress.
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Assigning slaves to work the punkah fans during dinner parties was a way of life for Southern plantation owners. However, according to Dana E. Byrd, a Bowdoin College scholar who has studied plantation life, there were some "benefits" for the slaves assigned to do this arduous task. These slaves could easily listen to dinner conversations and sometimes learn useful and important news. The "fanners" often learned about owners who might soon auction their enslaved families, abolitionists growing active in their region and the names of neighboring slaves who had managed to escape.

A watercolor drawing depicts a dinner party held in Giles County, Virginia. An enslaved woman and boy serve food and drink, while a third slave controls the punkah fans. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.​

When the Civil War ended, several freed slaves shared what they had endured while operating their master's punkah fan. In his 1901 memoir, Booker T. Washington described how much he had learned in the 1860s by listening to dinner conversations about "the subject of freedom and the war." Neal Upson, another former slave, recalled that his owner whipped him when he faltered operating the fan. Henry Coleman recalled being hoisted into an overhead swing as a slave child to operate his master's dining room punkah.

Scholars began documenting the punkahs in the early 20th century when plantation home restorations became increasingly popular. Sadly, most of their writings barely mentioned that the devices functioned through forced slave labor. Fortunately the full story has survived through recorded interviews with former slaves who pulled the ropes and longed for the dinner parties to end. Many recalled pulling at ropes and chains nonstop during summertime meals to create a gentle breeze and keep flies away from the food and their master's guests.

Punkah fan at Tallwood house in Green Mountain, Virginia. Library of Congress.​

Source: The Punkah Project by Dr. Dana E. Byrd

 

[Seduzal]

Wow! Something new learn a new . Interesting story, thanks for sharing.

 

[kel1985]

Cool post, never heard of punkah fans before

 

[grace]

I was aware that fans had been used, but not on this scale. Seems like a good task for a pulley contraption with a pedal under the table! I have a mechanically minded family member who could rig us up something...

 

[WJC]

I knew of the fan, but I don't recall ever knowing its name! Thanks!
(Frankly, when I saw the title and the originator, I thought it was another great recipe for something good to eat!)

 

[Eleanor Rose]

I was aware that fans had been used, but not on this scale. Seems like a good task for a pulley contraption with a pedal under the table! I have a mechanically minded family member who could rig us up something...

Thomas Jefferson tinkered around with ideas for equipment to spare his slaves from punkah duty. He made drawings for gears and pendulums that could power a ceiling fan in the dining room at Monticello in 1804. He predicted that it would "run an hour" before it required rewinding. There is no evidence the machine was ever prototyped or installed.

Source: Monticello: notebook of improvements, page 7 of 14, 1804-1807, by Thomas Jefferson. N171; K161 and K162 [electronic edition]

 

[grace]

I would have never guessed! Thanks, @Eleanor Rose!

 

[Eleanor Rose]

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The dining room at Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana can still be gently cooled by the movement of the "shoo fly" or punkah fan suspended over the table. This punkah is original to the house and is still in working order.

 

[Eleanor Rose]

Punkah at Rosedown Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana.​

 

[Eleanor Rose]

The punkah above was installed in Prestwould in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. According to Edith Tunis Sale, the cords used to operate the punka were pulled with a see-saw motion, and the breeze produced was quite remarkable.


Source: Photograph from Edith Tunis Sale, Colonial Interiors: Southern Colonial and Early Federal; Second Series, William Hepburn, Inc., 1930.

Prestwood Plantation punkah 2007. Photo courtesy Bowdoin College.​

The above punka was photographed at Linden in Natchez, Mississippi around 1940. This model had openings, rather than being a solid piece of wood.


Source: Photograph from Nola Nance Oliver, Natchez: Symbol of the Old South, copyright 1940.

 

[mofederal]

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/punkahs

 

[mofederal]

https://research.bowdoin.edu/punka-project/

This link is to site that deals with the antebellum use of punkahs in the South

 

[RobertP]

My first trip to Natchez and the pilgrimage was in the very earli 60's. I remember the dining room fans, don't recall the name Punkah though, and they clearly said it was a slave's job to keep 'em moving.

 

[vmicraig]

That's very cool, thanks for the info. Never really gave them much thought before...

 

[RobertP]

My first trip to Natchez and the pilgrimage was in the very earli 60's. I remember the dining room fans, don't recall the name Punkah though, and they clearly said it was a slave's job to keep 'em moving.

That trip was before we had A/C in the house, only 100 miles north in Jackson. Those summers were hot, at least we had screens on the windows! Our Punkah was a big attic fan that kept a breeze going all the time.

 

[RobertP]

E.R., you should start a thread on mosquito netting around the beds. It must've been bad enough at Natchez but at least it was out of the swamps. The worst swarms I ever saw were at Oak Alley. I really don't know how they stood it.

 

[Patrick H]

I've never seen one of these fans. I don't believe I've even seen them in period movies. I have seen individual slaves and servants slowly waving fans in some scenes, but never one of these ceiling fans. This is very interesting.