As African American women left the plantation economy behind, many entered domestic service in southern cities and towns. Cooking was one of the primary jobs they performed, 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. As employment 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, Sharpless evokes African American women's voices from slavery to the open economy, examining their lives at work and at home.

Author: Rebecca Sharpless
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 02/01/2013
Series: The John Hope Franklin African American History and Culture
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781469606866

About the Author
Sharpless, Rebecca: - Rebecca Sharpless is associate professor of history at Texas Christian University. She is author of Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices: Women on Texas Cotton Farms.