James Madison Museum: A Visit From Edna Lewis

The Edna Lewis exhibit at the James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage features press clippings from Lewis’ 1976 visit to the museum among its artifacts. (Photo Credit: Bethany Sullivan)

For this inaugural column in The OC Bulletin, I was asked to write about Freetown-born and celebrity-bound Edna Lewis in recognition of the Edna Lewis Menu Trail, which continues through Memorial Day. Between the Orange County Historical Society’s “History to Go,” the Edna Lewis Foundation site, Orange County’s website and other articles and resources, there is a good deal on record about Lewis, the Freetown community in which she was born and raised, and her journey to being known as the “Grande Dame of Southern Cooking” with her own U.S. Postal Service stamp.

What could I possibly add to what has been recorded for posterity? Perhaps a little about her relationship to the James Madison Museum and our exhibit in her honor.

In 1976, the nation was celebrating its bicentennial and The Taste of Country Cooking had been released to widespread acclaim. It was Lewis’ second book, following The Edna Lewis Cookbook, and she graciously agreed to visit the museum on Saturday, April 28, to sign her books and talk about cooking. The event was well publicized and several newspaper clippings are included in the “Edna Lewis Notebook” as part of the exhibit.

Also included in the exhibit, are two letters she had written to Stuart Downs, the museum director at that time. It is obvious that they were in correspondence about topics beyond the museum book signing event.

In one of the letters, Lewis references having received and read a reproduction copy of the Constitution sent by Downs. Writing from the Bronx on Nov. 2, 1979, she stated, “This document [Constitution] is so interesting I can’t stop reading it. It is worded in such a way that I believe many People will read it and be moved by it. I have just read Jefferson’s Introduction of a Statement on Slavery to the Constitution which was rejected.”

I wonder if she meant Jefferson’s 168 words condemning Great Britain for introducing slavery into the Colonies in the public Declaration of Independence? In his original draft, Jefferson had written:

… [King George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.1

This segment was removed by the Second Continental Congress; however, no records are to be found of the debate which led to the omission. The removal was probably fueled by both political and economic reasons. The colonies were already divided on the issue of enslavement, but both North and South had financial reasons to perpetuate the system. Southern plantations, key to the colonial economy, needed the free labor to produce cash crops for export to Europe. Northern shipping merchants and ship builders remained strongly dependent upon the triangle of trade between Europe, the Americas and Africa, including the shipment of enslaved Africans.

In response to a prior letter from Downs, Lewis continues, “There were many highly skilled Blacks. Blacksmiths, Mid-wives, Cabinet Makers and other skills. There were a number of Skilled Persons at Monticello. I’ll get a list together after I get any Holiday work and Magazine commitments … Are you Planning to Invite some of the Older Citizens Black & White to the Opening of the [November] Exhibit?”

The exhibit appears to have been one of antebellum and older items crafted by enslaved people. Unfortunately, no photographs of that exhibit are to be found … yet. Lewis was unable to attend the November opening as she had hoped.

On Dec. 5, 1979, Lewis responded to a Nov. 27 letter from Downs, expressing her regret at having been unable to attend the exhibit opening as planned. She also states that she does have a photograph of her grandfather, Charles Lewis, and his home, and that she would send it to Downs directly. In addition, she assures him that “I can get you some Pre Civil War Artifacts.” Unfortunately, there are no other letters in our Edna Lewis artifacts.

 In honor of Lewis, our exhibit includes a notebook of her life and the letters quoted above, an autographed copy of the May 1976 The Taste of Country Cooking, the “Celebrity Chefs” stamps and a beautiful hand-crafted cupboard with deep sink from the Lewis family home.

 In total, Lewis wrote four cookbooks: The Edna Lewis Cookbook (1972), The Taste of Country Cooking (1976), In Pursuit of Flavor (1988), and The Gift of Southern Cooking (with Scott Peacock, 2003).

 Several books also have been written about Lewis and her cooking, including Bring Me Some Apples and I’ll Make You A Pie: A story about Edna Lewis by Robbin Gourley (2008) and Savoring the South: Memories of Edna Lewis, The Grande Dame of Southern Cooking with Recipes by Angela Mulloy (2014). These are wonderful books which are still available through numerous sources online.

To find the details regarding the Edna Lewis Menu Trail, go to www.visitorangevirginia.com, and please come and explore the James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage.  

- Bethany Sullivan, director, The James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage

The James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage is located at 129 Caroline St. in the Town of Orange. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.thejamesmadisonmuseum.net.

1 The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1: 1760-1776 (Princeton University Press, 1950), 423-28