DEDICATED TO MY PARENTS:
BARBARA AND JAMES PERKINS
FOR BELIEF, SUPPORT, AND LOVE.
Her beauty was notorious through all that part of the country; and colonel Moore had been frequently tempted to sell her by the offer of very high prices. All such offers however, he had steadily rejected; for he especially prided himself upon owning the swiftest horse, the handsomest wench, and the finest pack of hounds in all Virginia.
– THE SLAVE: OR MEMOIRS OF ARCHY MOORE (1836)
Illustration of Tawawa House used courtesy of the Ohio Historical Society.
WENCH:
(c. 1290): A girl, maid, young woman; a female child.
(1362): A wanton woman; a mistress.
United States:
(1812; 1832): A black or colored female servant; a negress.
(1848): A colored woman of any age; a negress or mulattress, especially one in service.