Race, Republicanism, and Domestic Service in the Antebellum United States

Abstract

Current debates in the United States over illegal immigration and domestic labour are predicated on many assumptions, among them the notion that service work is degraded, degrading, and 'unfit' for white Americans. This assumption has roots deep in American history, so deep that it has come to be shared both by defenders of undocumented workers and by their adversaries, and so deep that its origins are rarely considered. Yet from the founding of the republic until the 1830s, domestic service was regarded in a very different light by white Americans of all social classes. Throughout the Northern states, where slavery had not taken firm hold and was being gradually abolished, domestic service was most commonly performed by young white women who found their work to be valued, respectable and good training for their own eventual marriage and motherhood. Under this so-called system of "helps," a Yankee woman might take in a niece or a neighbour's daughter and teach her the art and science of household management in return for assistance with performing household tasks. This relation resembled that of a master craftsman training an apprentice, with no money being exchanged. The "helps" were regarded not as employees, and not just as members of the household, but often as members of the family itself, sharing living quarters and dining with the others. This system of helps did not last long into the antebellum period, however. As scholars Faye Dudden and Carol Lasser have shown, the rise of industrialization and the emerging market in immigrant labour created a set of social conditions that drove native-born white American women from service and replaced the system of helps with a wage relationship. Dudden and Lasser have explored the impact of this new economy on American serving women, explaining that it opened the door both to more autonomy for and greater exploitation of servants. 1 But servants were not the only women whose conditions and identities were affected by the transition from "helps" to service: the women who employed them were also forced to contend with changes to the material circumstances of their households, as well as with a host of new ideological problems. These problems stemmed from the intrusion of the market economy into the domestic space, compounded by the fears associated with bringing strange hirelings into the home and trusting them with intimate family tasks. Together these developments threatened the sanctity of the home and thrust the household mistress into the traditionally unfeminine-and therefore, in the nineteenth century, uncomfortable-role of acting as a boss to dependent labour. The fact that her employees were most

Οι Μεταβολές Στην Εξέλιξη Και Στην Κατανόηση Της Σταδιοδροµίας Από Τις Ρουµάνες Μετανάστριες

“…). Δηλαδή, υπάρχουν συγκεκριμένες εθνικές ομάδες που αποκτούν συγκεκριμένο κύρος (είτε θετικό είτε αρνητικό) πριν από την εισαγωγή τους στην εργασία και το οποίο αναπαράγεται μέσα από τη σχέση τους με αυτήν.Παρόμοια εμφανίζεται η περίπτωση των μαύρων στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, όπου ο τρόπος συμπεριφοράς των γυναικών εργοδοτών προσφέρει μια εικόνα για το πώς κατασκευάζεται η έννοια της φυλής στα πλαίσια του νοικοκυριού και της παραμονής στο επάγγελμα της υπηρετικής εργασίας και πώς χρησιμοποιείται η έννοια αυτή για να εδραιώσουν οι εργοδότριες τη δική τους θέση εξουσίας(Cain 2007). Αναδεικνύεται, λοιπόν, ότι ο φυλετικός διαχωρισμός που έκαναν οι εργοδότριες μέσα από τις σχέσεις στο χώρο εργασίας οδήγησε στον διαρκή , αδυνατούσαν να μετακινηθούν προς άλλα επαγγέλματα που ήταν στιγματισμένα σε λιγότερο βαθμό.…”