Telfair Museums Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters Audio Tour

Welcome to the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters. As you make your way around the property today, you’ll explore the lives of the free and enslaved people who lived and worked here. Our story focuses primarily on the 1820s and 1830s, when Savannah’s population numbered around 7,000 people, including wealthy white residents, working-class white residents, and enslaved and free people of color.

Shipping merchant Richard Richardson commissioned this house around 1816, and his family moved in upon its completion in 1819. The family only lived in the home for a few years before the combination of a major fire in the city, a yellow fever epidemic, and several deaths in his family forced Richardson to relocate to Louisiana and sell the property. For six years after the Richardsons’ departure, Mary Maxwell, a widowed entrepreneur, operated an upscale boarding house on the site. In 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette, the famous American Revolutionary War general, stayed in the boarding house during his visit to Savannah. In 1830, lawyer and landholder George Welshman Owens purchased this home for his family’s primary residence. He lived here with his wife, Sarah, and their six children. George and Sarah Owenses’ granddaughter Margaret Gray Thomas bequeathed the property to the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, now known as Telfair Museums, upon her death in 1951. It opened to the public as a museum in 1954.

As you can see on this timeline, census records indicate that often more enslaved people lived on this property than the numbers of individuals in the Richardson and Owens families. Today, tours at the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters tell the story of the relationships between the wealthy white families that lived in this home and the individuals of African descent whom they enslaved. Most of this information is derived from letters and documents written by the Owenses and their peers, so it is inherently biased. Research on these families and the individuals they enslaved is ongoing.

This Orientation Gallery is located in the original carriage house. It had space for horses and carriages on the first floor and a hayloft on the second. Your next listening station is in this room at the Wall of Names.

The entire political and economic system of the South was structured around the institution of slavery in the early 19th century. Although five to 14 people were enslaved on this property at any given time, the creation of the wealth required to maintain the Richardsons’ and Owenses’ lifestyles was reliant on exploiting enslaved labor in a variety of industries.

Richard Richardson made most of his fortune shipping goods in and out of the bustling port of Savannah. In addition to transporting goods like cotton that were generated through enslaved labor, Richardson also participated in the slave trade. During his time in Savannah, he shipped hundreds of people out of the port, and a large portion of them were children.

George Welshman Owens worked as an attorney and served in several elected offices, including mayor and U.S. Congressman, but most of his income came from his vast agricultural holdings. Owens enslaved over 400 people on various properties around the state, producing rice, cotton, and other goods for market.

The names of some of the people enslaved by the Richardson and Owens families are displayed on this wall to remind us that the economic exploitation of slavery reached far beyond this urban property.

Please proceed out the doors and up the ramp to your right to visit the next stop on your tour.

The majority of the enslaved people who worked on this property lived in this building. Most of the enslaved people here were female, and many were children or teenagers, but it is not clear what relationships they had, if any. The Owenses may have pulled enslaved laborers from an agricultural labor setting because of their skills or lack of usefulness in the fields. Instead, these individuals worked in domestic labor duties like cooking, cleaning, washing laundry, caring for horses and livestock, driving carriages, and raising children. Life for enslaved people in urban settings had some key differences from enslaved people’s experiences on rural sites. While they might receive better food, clothing, and shelter here, they also were kept under close watch by their enslavers, white neighbors, constables, and others. Enslaved people at urban locations were more likely to be separated from relatives and friends who lived at rural sites. Their proximity to their enslavers also made them more susceptible to violence and sexual assault.

You can view the second floor of the slave quarters via the staircase. Please proceed up the stairs one person at a time.

Architectural evidence suggests that wood partitions divided each floor in this building into two small rooms and a large room near the fireplace. Originally, stairs on the left side of the fireplace led to the second floor, with a small landing and hallway to reach the other rooms. It is not apparent if these divisions were for privacy and sleeping, or for other purposes. Some individuals, like the nursemaid and cook, probably slept closer to their workspaces in the main house. The beds on view here are examples of sleeping arrangements that former enslaved individuals described to interviewers during Works Progress Administration fieldwork in the 1930s.

Once you have finished here, you will find the next listening station in the garden. Please be mindful of other visitors as you descend the stairs and exit this building.

The formal garden on view today was designed by landscape architect Clermont Lee and installed in the 1950s when the house became a museum. This area originally functioned as a work yard. Oyster shell paths led through the space, which probably included a small kitchen garden, areas to dry laundry and clean rugs, and perhaps pens or coops for small livestock and chickens. We do know that Richard Richardson kept a cow on the property at one time, because he was cited by the city when it escaped and blocked traffic. A two-stall brick privy, likely intended for enslaved laborers’ use, stood in a rear corner of the yard until the 1950s garden installation.

From here, you also can see the spaces over the back porch that George Owens added when he purchased the home. The linear patterns incised in the stucco and painted on the siding mimic smooth stonework. The remainder of the house has been restored to the stucco treatment in place during the Richardsons’ occupation.

Please proceed to the back porch via the right staircase and watch for other groups exiting the house.

The rear entrances to the house, on the porch and in the basement below, would have been the primary access points for enslaved laborers. Family members and tradesmen also would have used this back entrance and the rear hall. Other guests, however, were welcomed at the front of the house.

Richard Richardson’s home would have made quite an impression on these guests. Its location on a large lot on Oglethorpe Square made a statement about the Richardsons’ place within society. Around 1816, Richardson hired an architect, his relative William Jay, to design the building. Trained in London, Jay designed a home in keeping with fashions in England, freely using motifs inspired by ancient Greek and Roman architecture on the interior and exterior. Jay went on to design several other homes in the city, including what is now the Telfair Academy. John Retan, whose name is inscribed in mortar underneath the front porch stairs, supervised construction. It is not known how many individuals, including enslaved laborers, built this home.

One of the key elements of early 19thcentury architecture was symmetry. This is especially apparent here, where a blind, non-functional window on the right side of the porch balances the usable window on the left. As you move through the house, look for other places where pairs of architectural elements have been designed, even where they may not have an obvious function. Please proceed into the rear hall and move to your right to continue your tour.

Each of the rooms in the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters is furnished according to historic records and other resources. While select pieces came from the Richardson and Owens families, most of the objects and art you will see are works from Telfair Museums’ collections that were made or used during the first half of the 19th century.

A range of activities took place in this family dining room, including eating informal meals, reading, learning lessons, playing games, drawing and painting, sewing, or playing musical instruments. It is similar to the ways many families use their kitchens or living rooms today. However, this family would have been served by enslaved servants passing to and from the butler’s pantry, which is located off the right corner.

Though George Owens was the head of his household, when he traveled or was away serving in political office, Sarah Owens oversaw her family, home, and many other aspects of the Owenses’ agricultural pursuits. We know from George’s letters to Sarah that these duties included negotiating the sale or purchase of enslaved laborers. White women in Sarah’s position also commonly held control of and access to some of the expensive food and goods within the home, kept under lock and key in spaces such as the cellar and the butler’s pantry.

As you leave this room, notice, but please don’t touch, the small knobs located on the right side of the door frame. These knobs rang bells in the basement to summon an enslaved servant or cue the next course of a meal.

Because most of the city’s wealthy white population escaped the heat, humidity, and spread of disease in Savannah in the summer, their social season typically lasted from late September until May. The Richardsons likely used this room for various social entertainments, including formal dining, for large groups of guests. By the Owenses’ time in the home, specific rooms for formal dining became popular, and these occasions would have been very important for a wealthy politician like George Owens. Many locally, regionally, and nationally prominent men and women dined in this room, including President James K. Polk. After dinner, while women retired to the drawing room, men remained to enjoy drinks and cigars.

Peter, who we believe to have been the Owenses’ enslaved butler, organized and led the service for these dinners. He and other enslaved servants extended the table to the length needed to accommodate guests, and then placed leaves, or removable pieces of tabletop, on the braces. They set the table and sideboards with cloths and large amounts of dishes, glasses, and silverware. They also attended and served these lengthy, multi-course meals and all their after-dinner activities.

Enslaved butlers held a challenging position in the structure of domestic slavery. Enslavers often highly valued good butlers because of the importance of a butler’s duties to their own status. For this reason, butlers sometimes received privileges or access to information that other enslaved laborers did not. However, this did not change these butlers’ overall enslaved status, while their elevated position sometimes made them untrustworthy in the eyes of other enslaved people.

The elaborate finishes here, in the dining room, and in the front hall were meant to signal the family’s wealth, education, and taste level. The ornament in these rooms shows that the patrons were familiar with ancient Greek and Roman architecture, at least enough to know that it was stylish among the upper classes throughout Europe. The families may have had an enslaved servant dress in livery, or a fancy uniform, to further impress guests entering the home. The Richardsons and Owenses would have welcomed only certain elite individuals into the drawing room for tea, social visits, or after-dinner entertainment. In these instances, the Owens daughters would have demonstrated their skills at playing music or engaging in conversation to meet social expectations.

Enslaved maids would have needed to constantly clean to keep up these appearances, especially in early 19th century Savannah. The windows, left open for ventilation, allowed dust and grime from the dirt streets to settle on all the surfaces in the room. Likewise, the enslaved maids needed to clean the expensive carpets in these rooms by hand, watching for spots to avoid permanent staining. Notice that there are oilcloths in the busy hall areas. For areas of high traffic, these oiled and painted canvases created a floor surface that could be more easily cleaned and replaced.

Please proceed up the stairs carefully to your right, being conscious of other groups descending. The next station will be the girls’ bed chamber, which is on the left side of the stairs when you reach the upper landing.

Although little information exists about the bed chambers in this home, the numerous Richardson and Owens children likely shared rooms, and even beds. Mary, Margaret, and Sarah Owens took lessons with a private tutor and attended local schools. George Owens encouraged them to practice their writing by sending him letters. They also probably learned reading, arithmetic, and geography, as well as drawing, needlework, and music, to demonstrate their refinement. Some toys, such as tea sets, prepared them for futures running a household and entertaining.

In all these activities, enslaved servants would have attended to the Owens daughters. A nursemaid or even an enslaved child likely slept on a bed roll in their room in case they had any needs at night. Perhaps Fanny, the 9-year-old enslaved girl who George Owens mentions in one of his letters, slept here.

Numerous enslaved children lived on this property. The 1840 US Census lists six enslaved girls under the age of 10. They would not have had much access to formal education, as local and state law prohibited teaching enslaved and free people of color how to read and write. These children more likely learned practical skills such as cooking, sewing, and cleaning through working alongside their elders.

Welcome to the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters. As you travel through the site today, please remember to remain with your group, remain on the designated path, and wait until the next listening station is vacant to advance. Please keep your mask on at all times and refrain from touching any surfaces whenever possible. There will be historical interpreters on each level of the house. They are happy to answer any questions you may have.

As you make your way around the property today, you’ll explore the lives of the free and enslaved people who lived and worked here. Our interpretation focuses primarily on the 1820s and 1830s, when Savannah’s population numbered around 7000 people, including wealthy white residents, working class white residents, enslaved people, and free people of color. Our story focuses on the relationships and interactions between the elite residents of this home and the people they enslaved on the property. The Orientation Gallery, which you are about to enter, was originally a carriage house that housed horses and carriages on the first floor with a hayloft above on the second.