Sally Seymour

Sally Seymour (died 3 April 1824), was an American pastry chef and restaurateur.[1] [2]

She was the slave mistress of Thomas Martin, who was the father of her children. Thomas Martin had her trained as a pastry chef by the Parisian-trained chef Adam Prior, one of only two French trained chefs in Charleston at the time.

In 1795, Thomas Martin, manumitted her, and she took the name Seymour or Seymore. She established her own pastry bakery in Charleston, and was able to buy it in 1802. She had several pupils among the free people of color in the city. A former slave, she became a slave owner herself, and used slave labour in her staff. She was remarkably successful: in 1817, the St. Cecilia Society held their meeting in her establishment.

She became the matriarch of an Afro-American dynasty of pastry chefs and restaurateurs in Charleston, and the mother of Eliza Seymour Lee. She left her business to her daughter, who expanded it even more.

See also

References
  1. Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston
  2. David S. Shields, The Culinarians: Lives and Careers from the First Age of American Fine Dining

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