The maid narratives : black domestic and white families in the Jim Crow South

The maid narratives Black domestic and white families in the Jim Crow South

Katherine S. Van Wormer

Book - 2012

"Shares the memories of black domestic workers and the white families they served, uncovering the often intimate relationships between maid and mistress. Based on interviews with over fifty people--both white and black--these stories deliver a personal and powerful message about resilience and resistance in the face of oppression in the Jim Crow South"--Page [2] of jacket.

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Subjects
1900-1999
African American household employees > Southern States > History > 20th century.
African Americans > Biography.
Women household employees > Southern States > History > 20th century.
African American household employees.
Manners and customs.
Race relations.
Social conditions.
Women household employees.
Southern States > Race relations > History > 20th century.
Southern States > Social conditions > 20th century.
Southern States > Social life and customs > 20th century.
Southern States.
History.
Biographies.
Genres
History
Biographies
Published
Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press [2012]
Language
English
Main Author
Katherine S. Van Wormer (-)
Other Authors
David W. Jackson, 1972- (-), Charletta Sudduth, 1968-
Physical Description
xviii, 298 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-292) and index.
ISBN
9780807149683
9780807149690
9780807149706
9780807149713
9780807162361
  • Acknowledgments
  • Prologue: Notes from the Authors
  • Part I. The Background
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. History and Context
  • 3. The Women of the Great Migration
  • Part II. The Maid Narratives
  • 4. In Their Own Words
  • "They didn't want no Negroes to have no freedom."
  • "I worked in the home of William Faulkner."
  • "The man didn't want me to wash my hands in the wash pan."
  • "My mother named me after her doll."
  • "I worked for white families as soon as I was old enough to walk."
  • "I wish to God I could tell you more, but it's too painful."
  • "I came from a little nobody to somebody."
  • '"She's twelve years old; call her Miss Nancy.'"
  • "You never went in the front door."
  • "It's just the way we lived down South; nobody bothered anybody."
  • "I always thought that my brother might have been kin to them [the white family]."
  • "[My sister] told me, 'I would not only clean the bathroom but I'd take a bath in the bathtub.'"
  • "I always wanted to be a teacher."
  • 5. The Maid Narrative Themes
  • Part III. The White Family Narratives
  • 6. In Their Own Words
  • "It's just not done."
  • "I don't remember experiencing any tension or problem resulting from this custom."
  • "Thanks for the memories."
  • "You have to talk to them, and really listen to them."
  • "It was what it was, and now is no more."
  • "To realize... that my family was a part of it was humiliating."
  • "Viola was my second mother."
  • "If only I had been able to appreciate her when I knew her as a child."
  • "I grew up during Freedom Slimmer."
  • "My story... has only one act."
  • "It remains a difficult topic to discuss in polite company."
  • "She remembered me as a small child."
  • "These photos have been in every kitchen I have ever had."
  • "I wonder if May ever thought of us being spoiled."
  • "My parents were civil rights allies."
  • "My father was Native American."
  • 7. The White Family Narrative Themes
  • Epilogue
  • References
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

During the last 25 years, a spate of books about the lives of black women who worked as domestics and who moved from the South to the North during the second Great Migration have appeared. A number are oral histories. The present book set out to be oral histories of black women who moved to Iowa (one-third of the book's content) and comments by white women, but the evidence also includes published works of fiction and biography and frequent comments on the recent book and movie The Help. This work is really a sociological and psychological analysis of the interactions of black and white women and the unspoken social boundaries that enforced southern racial relations. The authors are particularly interested in the wearing of uniforms, entering by the back door, where food was eaten, "toting" home gifts, the use of toilets, and names used. The pool of white respondents is limited to the lead author's acquaintances and emphasizes the white women's fantasies of love from their black servants and their blindness to the world of black women. A good addition to a still sparse literature. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. S. S. Arpad emerita, California State University, Fresno

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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