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

pt. I. The background. Introduction

History and context

The women of the Great Migration

pt. II. The maid narratives. In their own words: They didn't want no Negroes to have no freedom / Elra Johnson ; I worked in the home of William Faulkner / Pearline Sisk Jones ; The man didn't want me to wash my hands in the wash pan / Vinella Byrd ; My mother named me after her doll / Mamie Johnson ; I worked for white families as soon as I was old enough to walk / Annie Victoria Johnson ; I wish to God I could tell you more, but it's too painful / Irene Williams ; I came from a little nobody to somebody / Odessa Roberts ; She's twelve years old : call her Miss Nancy / Ruthie O'Neal ; You never went in the front door / Annie Pearl Stevenson ; It's just the way we lived down South : nobody bothered anybody / Jimmie Lane ; I always thought that my brother might have been kin to them [the white family] / Melvina Scott ; [My sister] told me, 'I would not only clean the bathroom but I'd take a bath in the bathtub / Hazel Rankins ; I always wanted to be a teacher / Gloria Kirkland Holmes

The maid narrative themes.

pt. III. The white family narratives. In their own words: It's just not done / Elise Talmage ; I don't remember experiencing any tension or problem resulting from this custom / Flora Talmage Landwehr ; Thanks for the memories / Anne Noell Rowan ; You have to talk to them, and really listen to them / Hal Chase ; It was what it was, and now is no more / Margaret Smith ; To realize ... that my family was a part of it was humiliating / Mary Hart ; Viola was my second mother / Lettice Binnings Stuart ; If only I had been able to appreciate her when I knew her as a child / Flora Templeton Stuart ; I grew up during Freedom Summer / Jeannie Falkner ; My story ... has only one act / Beth Walker ; It remains a difficult topic to discuss in polite company / Barbara Jentleson ; She remembered me as a small child / Ann Levy ; These photos have been in every kitchen I have ever had / Susan Burdon Hudgens ; I wonder if May ever thought of us being spoiled / Penny Hanks ; My parents were civil rights allies / Barbara Lehmann ; My father was Native American / Lacey Sloan

The white family narrative themes.