Black Women's Job Opportunities in the Golden Triangle
Jobs were very limited for women in the late 1800s and early 1900s throughout The Golden Triangle. A main reason for this was because after the Civil War ended, there were few jobs for freed slaves especially for women. According to Jones, women in the late 1800s who were in slavery typically would do household work. This would lighten the load of the landlord so they wouldn't have to "supply cash, furnishings or credit for goods and services" (p. 44). Once the war was over and they were freed, they still stuck with plantation work and being maids because many women decided to show that they were going to put their families first. This explains how women created the image in people's minds that their role in society is to be a housewive. Numerous freed black women would stay and work on the plantations since they could not support their children in any other way, unless they had a man to depend on to provide. Another alternative for housework would to be tradeswomen for gardening, poultry-raising and cooking. The stereotypical roles of women are displayed because they are known to work in the kitchen and do housework when they were previously enslaved, and it was easier for women after the fact to be self-supporting for their children. In Beloved, Sethe's was a cook for another family and Baby Suggs was a preacher. The two comparisons are similar to our research in the sense that most women stayed and worked for white families and did housework.