3 minute read
WHAT PAINT CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE LIVES OF THE ENSLAVED
If you're unsure how much time has passed since Drayton Hall was constructed, your first look at the paint on the interior walls might give you some idea.
Despite being carefully conserved with a technique that gently reattached fractured bits of historic paint to the wall, Drayton Hall's paint still shows its age What it doesn’t show is how many important clues lie hidden within its layers. To uncover such clues, we use a scalpel and tweezers to take tiny samples which, viewed under a microscope, reveal snapshots from the house’s history
Six years ago, we started using paint analysis to help us better understand the service spaces inside Drayton Hall--that is--the spaces primarily used or traversed by enslaved individuals engaged in cooking, cleaning, childcare and other domestic duties What we learned changed the way we talk about Drayton Hall A tiny paint sample, magnified 200 times, revealed animal fats clinging to tiny soot particles trapped beneath several layers of whitewash evidence of a cooking fire in close proximity to the sample location, in a space that was less likely to be used for preparing meals for the Draytons It was evidence of a dwelling place for enslaved people, and it was located in the cellar of Drayton Hall This tiny paint sample helped us understand that while the slave houses on this property did not survive, Drayton Hall, was indeed a slave house a place where enslaved people slept and prepared their meals and lived their lives alongside their enslavers
This last round of paint analysis revealed additional information about the service spaces in Drayton Hall but since then our list of research questions has grown We hope to take more samples that will help us understand the prevalence of a bright red paint that survives in a few locations of the cellar. Was that space more colorful in the 18th century? What can the paint layers tell us about the graffiti that appears around the house who might have done it, and when? Can we determine when various architectural features were added or removed and can we test for residues on shelves to tell us what was once stored on them? These are just some of the questions that we hope to answer in 2023 to enrich our understanding of these important service spaces.
To find these answers, renowned conservator and paint analyst Susan Buck will travel to Drayton Hall to take samples and then return to her lab to process and interpret what she collects This process can be time-consuming and requires the use of high-tech microscopes and other laboratory equipment to find the answers we seek, but the time and expense involved will inevitably bring important new insights about the lives of the enslaved at Drayton Hall
We will be seeking grant funding for this project but if you would like to support this work please contact Molly McGaan, Leadership Giving Manager at, 843-769-2611, mmcgaan@draytonhall.org, for more information.
