On 4/30/2016 10:12 AM, wrote:
> On Friday, April 29, 2016 at 6:26:06 PM UTC-4, Julie Bove wrote:
>
>> http://freepress.org/article/book-re...outh-1865-1960
>
>
> The link doesn't work.
>

Yes it does:


Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers In the South, 1865 -
1960
By Rebecca Sharpless
University of North Carolina Press
182 pages, Notes, Index
Though I have not read The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, I have seen the
movie. It has unleashed furious criticism, especially in the black
blogosphere. The most common criticism is that The Help sanitizes an
important and painful part of African American history: the role of
black female domestics in white homes. Not to worry, though: the real
story has been told, and more than admirably, in Cooking in Other
Women’s Kitchens.

Sharpless explores three issues in relation to black female domestics:
the manner in which they moved from slavery to paid employment as
domestics; how the women survived the brutal discrimination, racism and
poor working conditions common to their roles, and the myths and
stereotypes surrounding African American female cooks.

The period know as Reconstruction, which lasted from 1865 through 1876,
saw African Americans leave the plantations and pour into southern towns
and small cities looking for work. African American women were firmly
caught in the vise of race, class and gender, and found it incredibly
difficult to secure employment. Jim Crow and the inability to get an
education forced black women into domestic work in which they took care
of generations of white families while their own families were often
left unattended or in less-than-ideal situations.

Many cooks had no skills in preparing or cooking food, and oftentimes
the women of the household was similarly situated. Furthermore, the work
was fraught with minefields: the mistress of the house controlled what
was collected, cooked and how it was served. This meant that every
aspect of the work involved a power struggle. Black cooks worked with
inferior ingredients in insufficient quantities in poorly equipped
kitchens, yet were expected to produce elaborate and delicious meals at
any time of the day or night. The miracle is that so many black female
cooks developed the necessary skills to satisfy their employers.

African American female cooks also worked under deplorable conditions.
On average they worked six days a week if the cook lived out; a live-in
cook was expected to be on call twenty four hours a day. Most cooks made
fewer than five dollars per week, and many even less than that as white
employers used things such as left over food and second hand clothing
and furniture as payment. If ill, they dared not miss work; when they
became pregnant, they often worked right up to the time they delivered,
and were expected back at work almost immediately thereafter. Indeed,
Sharpless found that during this time period, black women had higher
rates of miscarriages, still births and complicated deliveries then did
white women. These were no doubt related to the conditions under which
they worked.