Cooking in Other Women's Kitchens by Sharpless Rebecca;

Author:Sharpless, Rebecca;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2010-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

I remember very well the first and last place from which I was dismissed. I lost my place because I refused to let the madam's husband kiss me. He must have been accustomed to undue familiarity with his servants, or else he took it as a matter of course, because without any love-making at all, soon after I was installed as cook, he walked up to me, threw his arms around me, and was in the act of kissing me, when I demanded to know what he meant, and shoved him away. I was young then, and newly married, and didn't know then that what has been a burden to my mind and heart ever since: that a colored woman's virtue in this part of the country has no protection.

Naively, she turned to her husband to set the matter straight: “I at once went home, and told my husband about it. When my husband went to the man who had insulted me, the man cursed him, and slapped him, and—had him arrested! The police judge fined my husband $25. I was present at the hearing, and testified on oath to the insult offered me. The white man, of course, denied the charge. The old judge looked up and said: ‘This court will never take the word of a nigger against the word of a white man.’” “Negro Nurse” concluded that such situations were all too common: “Many and many a time since I have heard similar stories repeated again and again by my friends. I believe nearly all white men take, and expect to take, undue liberties with their colored female servants—not only the fathers, but in many cases the sons also. Those servants who rebel against such familiarity must either leave or expect a mighty hard time, if they stay.”64

Nancy White, who grew up in Tennessee in the early twentieth century, also spoke of leaving a job to avoid sexual harassment: “Now, I have worked for some nice people and some rotten ones. I've had to ask some hands off me and I've had to just give up some jobs if they got too hot behind me. . . . In one job I had I could see this young boy who was just able to pee straight making up his mind whether he was going to try me. I told the woman some lie and got my money and got out of there fast!” White castigated the boy's mother, who had to be aware of what was happening but “had spoiled that fool little boy of hers” and would not correct him. The cost of leaving such a situation, according to White, was worth it: “Now, I have lost some money that way, but that's all right. When you lose control of your body, you have just about lost all you have in this world!”65 Determined to keep her physical integrity, White took her leave.

While each of these women spoke out against her would-be assailant, others acceded to or resisted aggression differently.

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