Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South,1865-1960

by Rebecca Sharpless

As African American women left slavery and the plantation economy behind, many entered domestic service in southern cities and towns. Cooking was one of the primary jobs they performed in white employers' homes, feeding generations of white families and, in the process, profoundly shaping southern foodways and culture.

Rebecca Sharpless argues that, in the face of discrimination, long workdays, and low wages, African American cooks worked to assert measures of control over their own lives and to maintain spaces for their own families despite the demands of employers and the restrictions of segregation. Sharpless also shows how these women's employment served as a bridge from old labor arrangements to new ones. As opportunities expanded in the twentieth century, most African American women chose to leave cooking for more lucrative and less oppressive manufacturing, clerical, or professional positions.

Through letters, autobiography, and oral history, this book evokes African American women's voices from slavery to the open economy, examining their lives at work and at home. Sharpless looks beyond stereotypes to introduce the real women who left their own houses and families each morning to cook in other women's kitchens.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Labor, Food, Grad School

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 11, 2010

About the author

Rebecca Sharpless teaches courses in American history, focusing on women, labor, food, and Texas. Sharpless has published articles in the Journal of Southern History, Southern Cultures, and the Florida Historical Quarterly as well as a variety of edited volumes. She is past president of the Southern Association for Women Historians, past president of the Oral History Association, and on the executive council of the Texas State Historical Association.

Reviews

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very thorough look at African American domestic workers from 1865-1960, particularly detailing the lives of domestic cooks. In the early years, many of these women had been enslaved cooks and, following emancipation, hired themselves out as domestic workers, often taking on larger responsibilities that included cleaning and caring for their employers' homes and children. Sometimes the work was no better than the work they had under enslavement.

Often pay was little or nonexistent, receiving food, clothing, or household wares instead. African American domestic cooks worked long hours away from their own families, sometimes having to stay for days to accomplish all of the tasks they were given. These women were often abused physically, mentally, and sexually. They were treated as secondary citizens and endured being treated as thieves or incompetent workers.

With the availability of modern conveniences and processed foods, as well as the ability to obtain higher education and better jobs after World War II, African American women no longer had to work in other women's kitchens.

Author Rebecca Sharpless covered a lot of ground in this book, utilizing diaries, newspaper articles, and oral history narratives from the Federal Writers Project as key sources of her research. This is a great historical reference book.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is in the style of an academic treatise and it suffers from the normal repetitiveness of most academic work so is not a particularly enjoyable book to read, but still worthwhile. I found it referenced in several threads about The Help.

What I enjoyed most was the history of food and food preparation and food products and learned (so late in life!) that Baking Powder is really a blend of baking soda and cream of tartar. I loved that the author referenced Mama Dips in Chapel Hill. I enjoyed the part about African Americans reclaiming the Aunt Jemima image in ironic art work and installations. I liked the discussion of "living out" rather than rooming in. And I will never be able to consider Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings again without thinking about what terrible person she was to her African American cook.

[Trenee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I talk about this book on my blog Black Girl Lost in a Book - http://naysue.wordpress.com/2012/11/2...

[Thomas Hyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional work of History, detailing the ways in which black women were forced into a sort of second slavery following the American Civil War. My only complaint is that the book relies so heavily on quotes that at times one begins to wonder if some of the claims made are more anecdotal than an accurate representation of reality, but the book is still certainly worth the read if you're interested in civil rights history or how the stereotype of black women as motherly subservient talented cooks emerged.

[York · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable look into the lives of Black cooks in the South during the time period in which they were near ubiquitous. I enjoyed the credit given to these often unnamed women for the greats of Southern cuisine, as well as acknowledgement of race and class taking precedence over sex in employer-employee relations.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the choices made (when choices were available) by African-American women in regards to domestic labor in the period between emancipation and the Civil Rights movement. A rich, well-told story with impeccable research and materials cited throughout.

[Beth Porter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book. It was more of a study, doctorate dissertation than what I thought was going to be a novel. There was a lot of information in the book and it would be a good research tool for information and references.

[Cordellya Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. Sharpless did a good job explaining the migration from the rural south to the cities and the transition from domestic to industrial work for African American women through our history.

[Degenerate Chemist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of Black domestic workers in the American South after the Civil War. Well researched and highly readable.

[Wayne C. Hickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

No revisionist histoty

Great resources! Would have liked more assess to original texts.
Now I am annoyed you are making me use more words than I

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent information, but so many names thrown all over the place, time periods intermixed, not easy to read. A very dense book.

[Robert Dickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

good background. found new info about things that even though I had heard about it,I just didn't get the full info.

[Ai Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! Sharpless's use of a variety of voices and stories really lend weight to her story, and was a really great, refreshing look at the work that Black women were doing as domestic workers. The number of historical actors she highlights may get a little dizzying at times, as she moves thematically rather than chronologically, but it really worked well for me, and I think her explicit disavowal of the "Mammy" stereotype is very effective.

[Joanna Hamadeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than The Help... at least more historically accurate and gives a more complete an unbiased picture of what the lives of black domestic workers lives were like. I felt bored at times, but it is an easy quick read and contributes to understanding how the labor market that emerged post-slavery was really just an extension of the slave system. The bodies and labor of blacks continued to be exploited and profited from.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful as a guide to understanding the conditions of African American domestic workers following the Civil War through World War II, but doesn't stick to a cohesive thread as much as I would have preferred. There's also a lot of repetition that makes it a somewhat monotonous read. Otherwise, though, it's very informative.