HONOUR Female PVC PVC Melody Maid Dress in Black & White

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And we heard of the bravery of Annie Pearl Stevenson, the mother of the book co-author, Charletta Sudduth, who conducted the interview.

The paradoxes of historic southern etiquette emerge in such statements as “I would not only clean the bathroom, but I’d take a bath in the bathtub” as recalled by one woman who was not allowed to use the facilities. Another example is offered by Vinella Byrd: “The man didn’t want me to wash my hands in the wash pan.” The bathroom was off limits as well. So she was forced to cook the family dinner without being able to wash up.Inspired by events that were taking place in Montgomery, Alabama, our interviewees found ways to quietly, or very openly, resist the system, and ultimately to change it. Bottom of Form

The resilience of these strong, intelligent women who had endured the caste system of the South shines through their stories. Working as cooks, maids, and housekeepers in white homes in the Jim Crow South, they cared and helped raise white children, who were destined to grow up privileged while their own children would have none of these advantages. For a long time, this reflection on dress had been confined to the clothing of the elite because of the role of the upper classes as trend setters with a more vibrant, extravagant, and varied fashion and because upper-class clothing has been more carefully preserved. Nevertheless, more recently, historians such as Vivienne Richmond and John Styles have shown that clothes were not just practical items for the poor which protected them from the cold and dirt, they were also highly symbolic. Clothing had an impact on the way they saw themselves and were seen by others: inadequate dress could make them targets of pity or ridicule, affect their courting or inhibit their ability to gain employment. By understanding how people dress, therefore, we can learn much about how they fitted within the wider society. It was thanks to these domestic servants, in short, that the first victory of civil rights was won, and a national movement built on concepts of passive resistance (really pacifist resistance) and civil disobedience was born. And it was not just in Montgomery, Alabama, but in other parts of the South as well that servants and former servants took a stand. If they couldn’t march themselves, out of fear for losing their jobs, they sent their children. Their older, retired relatives were there also. We learned much of social change efforts from our interviewees.

I want to underscore the debt we owe to these domestic servants, not just for all the warm caregiving they provided to their own and others’ families, but for the roles that so many of them played in shaping the history of social justice. About the author: Fanny Louvier is a social historian of modern France and Britain, with an interest in women’s work and domesticity. She has recently completed a DPhil in Economic and Social History at the University of Oxford. Her thesis is entitled ‘A Comparative Study of the Dress, Food and Leisure of Domestic Servants in France and Britain, 1900-1939′ British servants also suffered from the way that the uniform distinguished them from other women. As one chambermaid highlighted: ‘the greatest trouble with service is having to wear a cap and apron. Shop girls and business girls look down upon servants for that reason.’ The uniform was a central element of servants’ life stories and identities in Britain.