Slave Narrative of Irene Coates
Interviewer: Viola B. Muse Person Interviewed: Irene Coates Location: Jacksonville, Florida Immediately after slavery in the United States, the southern white people found themselves without servants. Women who were accustomed to having a nurse, maid, cook and laundress found themselves without sufficient money to pay wages to all these. There was a great amount of work to be done and the great problem confronting married women who had not been taught to work and who thought it beneath their standing to soil their hands, found it very difficult. There were on the other hand many Negro women who needed work … Read more