A servant is an individual who acts as an assistant to another, either by chosen vocation or by some type of mental or physical enslavement. Servants may range in type from professional assistants to ordinary butlers (who are almost always guilty of something), to indentured personnel. In a negative connotation, servants may also be referred to as lackeys, cronies or henchmen.
Types of servants[]
- Butler
- A butler is a hired member of an estate, generally male, who is in charge of all matters and personnel in regards to housekeeping and upkeep. A butler manages the day-to-day affairs of the cooking and cleaning staff as well as other hired help such as groundskeepers.
- Housekeeper
- A housekeeper is a hired individual charged with maintaining cleanliness and order of an estate. They may or may not have additional staff members who work under them. The are often referred to as maids or maidservants. Duties may include cooking, cleaning, laundry, and minding any children that may live on the property. In some cases, a housekeeper may actually live on the estate itself.
- Groundskeeper
- A groundskeeper is in charge of maintaining the external property of an estate. This includes maintenance, cutting, pruning and seeding of the lawn, as well as plants and shrubbery. A groundskeeper may also be charged with maintaining the family's pool if one exists.
- Porter
- A porter, also called a bearer, is a person who shifts objects for others. The word derives from the Latin portare (to carry). Porters were used commonly as human beasts of burden in the ancient world, when labor was generally cheap, especially in societies that depended on slavery. The ancient Sumerians, for example, enslaved women to shift wool and flax.
- Slave
- A slave is an individual who is considered the legal property of another person. In the United States, slavery was a common practice, particularly amongst Southern land owners up until the mid 19th century. Slave owners made slaves work on plantations, usually under harsh and violent conditions. All of the slaves in the United States at this time were of African descent, though most of them were actually born in the country. Slavery was abolished following the American Civil War.
- Coolie
- Coolie is an old form informal term referring to slaves or indentured servants found in the regions of South Asia such as China and the Philippines. In the 1935 film Werewolf of London, Doctor Wilfred Glendon employed a group of "coolies" guide him through the mountains of Tibet in search of the elusive wolf flower, Mariphasa lupine lumina. Members of the team, which appeared to be of Cantonese origin, discussed matters relating to Doctor Glendon's work, while also shepherding the camels across the rough terrain.
Characters[]
- Brudah: Brudah was a brutish servant, valet and henchman to the vampire known as Count Yorga. He maintained Yorga's mansion home in Los Angeles, California and guarded his master while he slept. [1]
- Hives: Hives worked as a butler to wealthy socialite Mrs. Rittenhouse in Long Island, New York. He had previously been in the employ of neighbor Mrs. Whitehead. In 1930, Mrs. Rittenhouse hosted a gala event at Rittenhouse Manor in which she showcased a painting by Beauregard called "After the Hunt", which was valued at more than $100,000. Hives was charged with guarding the painting. Mrs. Whitehead, and her friend Grace Carpenter, embarked upon a scheme to ruin Mrs. Rittenhouse's social standing, and tried to bribe Hives into helping them replace the real painting with a fake duplicate. [2]
- Mister Plimpton: Mister Plimpton was the butler for the Glendon estate in London, England during the 1930s. He was aware that his employer, Wilfred Glendon, was a botanist who had been working on mysterious experiments in his laboratory. Plimpton had a discussion with Glendon's assistant, Mister Hawkins, but tried his best into prying into his master's business too much. [3]