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BEA, THE WASH WOMAN
(Georgia)
Tom's note:
The handwritten editing on this story has the 'for short' name changed
from Dee to something else that is very lightly written. I wasn't
able to make out the name 'Bea' from it, but the transcription from the
Library of Congress has it as Bea. The name Sarah was also changed
to something else in a couple places, and that name appeared to be 'Susan'
or 'Sirah'. As with many of these Georgia life histories there is
substantial handwritten editing, and much of it is difficult to read due
to the quality of the copy or of the handwriting itself.
When I reached Sarah's house, and
knocked at the front door, three voices greet me. "Here we is come 'round
to the back." I made my way to the back yard, jumping a mud hole in the
walk, walking in the grass that mired down every step I took. It had been
raining lots that week, however, the sun was shining on that particular
afternoon.
In the back yard two negro girls were bending over old fashion wash tubs
washing. There were four lines filled with clothes drying in the sun.
Sarah was sitting on the porch talking to another Negro woman, I heard her
say: "It's too bad he had to get in jail." When she saw me, she said: "Lawdy
Mistess, if I had knowed it was a white lady I would have let you come
through the house so you wouldn't git your shoes muddy." She called to one
of her daughters who was washing. "Ca'Line git that clean pot rag hanging
on that chair, and come here and wipe mistessess shoes off for her." I
told her that was quite all right I didn't mind a little mud. "Well,
that's all right than, but come here and git the lady a chair. 'cuse me
for not getting up I has been sick in bed with the flues, this is the
first day I has been up, and I is pow'ful weak. But I couldn't stay in no
longer 'cause I had to see that the children wash them clothes clean.
[Susan?], is about five feet tall and is very black, she was wearing a
black and white dress of some thin material, a red waist over this, a
knee-length black wool coat, a white cloth wound turban fashion around her
head, black shoes and gray cotton stockings.
"Yes'um, when us is out here in the yard washing I ain't gwine let Negroes
com thro' my house in bad weather tracking up my house." What is your name
I asked the woman? "My name is Sarah Hill, but they calls me [?] for
short." [?], how long have you been washing for the white folks? "Oh, my
gracious Mistess, gwine on thirty-five years I am sho! 'bout that." Well,
would you mind telling me about your experiences as a washwoman? "Now,
Mistess, what in the name of the Lord do you want to know that for?" I
stated my mission, she laughed. "Well, if you want a history of my life I
can tell you what I knows. Yet and still, I am sho' you can find somebody
else what had a better story than me to tell. 'Cause what I knows ain't no
'count you know cullud folks don't have money to do things like white
folks does, leastwise us don't.
"I have been working every since I knowed what work was. I maided and
cooked befo' I married, I maided a while and cooked a while. After I
married and started having chillun I couldn't do no good at working out.
So I stayed home and tuk in washing." SArah stopped talking to me to give
orders to the girls washing. "Look here sister that sheet belongs in that
white sack. Just look at that dirt you got on that man's shirt tail, rub
it out befo' it gets dry. Ca'line, git up off them steps and git back to
that wash tub. If I don't come out here and stay in behind you you
wouldn't finish washing to day." "Well, Ma, I am hungry and you won't cook
us no dinner." "You finish that washing then you can cook something to eat
yourself. That's what I done when you won't big enough to help me."
"Mistess, I use to git good money for washing. I have made about ten
dollars heap of weeks way back yonder. I had a heap of washings than, now
I don't git near as much for them as I use to. And folks are lots harder
to please. Now I am ready to put them down.
"I am getting too old to do family washings any more. Both of my girls had
good jobs, but I won't able to do all my work, so they had to stop, so
they could help me. The last white woman sister worked for was a good
lady. I done her washing too. I told sister she loved that white lady and
her chillun as well as she did us.
"I washed for a family of Jew's who paid me $4.00 a week. You know how
them kind of folks is 'bout wanting you to do their work for nothing.
Well, the lady kept cutting me down 25¢ at a time until she got to $2.00.
So I put her washing down. I won't thinking 'bout washing for for that
little. She had ten and twelve sheets in wash every week. Twenty and
thirty towels, twenty-four pillow cases three and four table clothes and
no end to shirts and other things."
She stopped talking to watch two roosters fightning in the yard, while the
girls threw rocks at them. She yelled at them: Ca'lina, sister, get back
to your washing. Ca'line come in the kitchen and git that startch off the
stove and thin it down and stir it good so it wont be lumpy. Sister bring
me Professor Yank's socks here and let me turn them. You are gwine to let
'em git mixed with them other folkses clothes than he will fuss if they is
lost.
"Once I was washing for a family, who I had washed for a long time. After
they were ready to be sent home, sister took them. The lady sont me word
one of the little boy's shirts was not in the laundry I had sent home.
Well, we asked every body we washed for if they had a shirt what didn't
belong to them no body had seen it. I reckon Sister lost it 'cause she was
working for the lady and knowed the shirt was in the wash when the lady
got 'em up. So sister had to take her money what the lady paid her for
working and buy the little boy a new shirt. That didn't look right in a
way, yet and still Sister was 'sponsible for them clothes from the house
to be washed and tuk 'em back.
"Yes, mam, I have been working all my life. My mammy and daddy died when I
was about three year old. I went to live with my brother and sister-in-law
and nursed their chillun. My sister-in-law was a mighty good trainer, she
learned me how to clean up good and cook. I knowed better than to leave
any cat faces in the clothes when I ironed them. She whupped me many a
time 'cause I didn't wash the clothes clean. 'Course I am speaking 'bout
when I got big enough to do them things.
"I was borned in Elberton, and have several aunts living there now. My
mammy didn't work out none, she stayed home and kept the children. She had
a heap of hogs and cows to look after. My Pa was a blacksmith. They lived
in Tignall befo' they moved to Elberton. After they died I went back to
Tignall to live with my brother. No, mam, I wont big enough to work in the
field I when I first went to live with him, I jest worked 'round the house
doing what little I could.
"I jest have two girls and two boys one
is the cook at the Varsity and the other one is an insurance agent in
Flint, Michigan. He come to see me Christmas. My girls maids when I am
well enough to do the washings I take in. I don't have but two big family
washings and I was for two students. I have been washing for Professor
Yank long befo' he married his wife. I don't wash for her, the cook does
her washing.
A man came by selling produce, the girl Sarah [?] sister asked her mother:
"Lets buy some turnip greens I want some boiled victuals." "You know I
ain't got no money, today is Wednesday and I wont have none befo' Sadday
when I gets my wash money." "Well, I am going to tell him to charge it. I
want a cake too." "No you don't jest get me a half pound of butter." The
negress yelled: "Say Mr. Waters does you have any turnip greens?" "No"
"Well has you got a cake?" "No," "Well what has you got?" "Us has been
washing hard all day and we is hungry." I just have potatoes today."
"Huh," said Sarah, "He just wanted me to know he was still selling things
and come by here in a empty wagon. That white man knows I will pay him
when I gets my money Sadday, I ain't never failed to pay him yet and he
has been coming 'round here a long time.
Her husband is a preacher, he came about this time, "Mama," he said in a
deep voice to his wife: "I was hoping you had dinner ready. I have got to
go to a deacons meeting to night, and I want to go down to the courthouse
to the trial, therefo' I wanted to eat befo' I left." "Papa, you know I
don't feel like cooking and if I don't sit out here and keep Sister and
Ca'line over the wash tub they won't ever git through." "All right, all
right, than I reckon I had better go on down the street and see sister
Mary Jones you know she ain't been well for a long time. I am mighty
un-easy 'bout her, I am afraid she won't last much longer. She sho' will
be missed out of my congregation at the church."
My second visit to Sarah's was made in the pouring rain, when I reached
her house which is perched on a high hill. The walk up to the house is red
clay. I knocked on the door and a young black girl invited me in. "Come in
Mistess." she invited. I asked if Sarah was at home, before she could
answer, Sarah called "Here I am in here. Come in to the fire." I entered
the room from a narrow hall that had two red scatter rugs on the floor,
and a hall stand with a red umbrella resting on it. In the bedroom Sarah
sat patching. There was an old style wood bed, an iron bed, dresser,
several chairs a table trunk and curtains that needed laundering, a much
worn rug almost covered the floor.
"Have that chair in front of the fire and dry your foots, sister take
mistess coat and spread it over that chair to dry." I asked her if she was
ready to finish telling me about herself. "Lawdy, Mistess, I have thought
and thought. I was sick when you was here befo' my brother had jest died
and I have had a house full of company up 'til last Sunday. I have had so
much expense trying to buy something for them to eat and it has been
raining so much I couldn't do no good at washing, everything I had thought
to tell you has left me. Sister do you reccomember what I told you to keep
with so I could tell her? "I cain't remember you told me so much.
"I ain't collected much money here lately and it takes all I make to pay
house rent, and a little something to eat. "Taint nothing left to buy even
a pair of cotton stockings with. I did want to have a supper for the
church but its been too bad for that. I buy the food and cook it then I
let the folks know about it and they come and buy their supper. Sometimes
I has a fish-fry, than again I has a oyster supper. I gets 25¢ for every
plate sold. After I pay for the food I buy, I turn the rest over to the
church. If I don't git to washing I will have to have a supper to git some
money for ourselves it looks like.
"I told sister and Ca'line today looks like I will have to hire them out
instead of keeping them home to help me. Sister had a chance to work for a
lady who has jest come to Athens and gone in business of some kind for
herself, but she lived so far from my house I knowed she couldn't git
there on time these winter days. Looks like I don't know what I am gwine
do for money. Whitt has gone out to find a job, but ain't nobody gwine
have no carpenter work done 'til spring 'less they has to. He ought to fix
the leak in the kitchen, but the house don't belong to us. Looks like the
man what owns it won't fix it no how.
"Sister show the lady the house if she wants to see it." Oh, mama the lady
don't want to see the house, she come here to git your story about
washing." I would like to see your house. "See there I told you so, go on
and it will give me a chance to think about what I want to say. Right now
I can't get my mind off that tub of clothes on the back porch."
I followed the girl through the hall to the livingroom. There was a three
piece jackard valour livingroom suit, a studio couch, dresser, organ, a
mahogany library table with a coal oil lamp, books and magazines on it,
another table of golden oak with a crochet cover and radio on it. The
table was placed back of the divan, pictures of the family as well as
others were scattered about on the wall. A heater and rug on the floor
completed the furnishings of this room also red draperies with ball fringe
and cream scrim curtains at the two windows. "My brother give us that
table with the lamp on it when he was here two years ago. We don't play
the organ any more since we got our battery set radio, unless we have
company and they want to play and sing.
"Come in here this is our diningroom." There was a golden oak suit in this
room. Round table with a white cloth on it and a cheap glass fruit bowl.
On the sideboard were several pieces of glass ware and a vase filled with
artificial daisies reflecting in the mirror in the sideboard. Curtains at
the window are of scrim a fruit picture on the wall and a curtain
stretched across one corner of the room for a closet.
"I hate to take you in the kitchen." said the girl. "It leaks so you might
get your feets wet." There was a bucket under the leak in the kitchen. In
the small room, was a wood stove, an old dresser used as a cabinet, in
large glass jars on the makeshift cabinet, was filled with flower, sugar,
meal and lard there was a eating table and over this hung two huge hams
and a middling of meat. The girl said: "I sho' wish papa would let us cut
one of them hams, but he said we couldn't because they are not to be cut
until summer."
Whitt came in the back door as we were talking about the hams. "Good
evening Miss, how do you like the looks of them hams?" Oh, they lood good
to me I replied. "Yes, mam, they sho' does, they wouldn't be here now if I
let the old woman and the girls have their way. I told them the other day
when they wanted to cut one. I won't thinking 'bout it. They had all ready
run away with it too fast now." By that time we had gone on the back porch
entered into another bedroom which was furnished very much like the other.
Bed, pilled with clothes to be washed as well as a folding couch, dresser,
a few chairs and curtains at the windows. It is a five-room house ceiled
with wide boards. The framed house was at one time painted gray. There was
a swing on the porch and a sack to wipe muddy feet on. The only shrubbery
in the yard was a few bushes of privet hedge planted near the porch. "We
sodded the yard in Bemuda grass to keep it from washing." the girl told
me.
Again I went into the room where Sarah sat still patching the pants.
"Miss, how did you like them hams?" I think they are fine. Whitt
interrupted, "Sarah when we cuts them hams I am going to send Miss a nice
thin slice." There are three of us I told him. "Than I will send you three
nice thin slices."
"We have lucky about getting washings, its the weather that messes us up.
I got $1.50 for a family washing and 75¢ for one person when I started
washing look like I was afraid to start, I was sho' I couldn't please the
whitefolks. Than I started at it and I must have pleased the folks 'cause
they come to me when I won't expecting them too. That's what I tell
Ca'line 'bout getting a job, she is skaert the folks wont be pleased with
her work.
"In bad weather folks don't realize you don't have no way of boiling
clothes, 'course we do wash in the house, and rinse the clothes as good as
we can, they does git dingy in the winter and you can't help it.
"We use to pay out and have a little left when I made good money. Now I
don't pay out and have nothing left either. This house we live in cost us
$8.50 a month, but we has to pay it by the week which cost us more in the
end. I pay $2.25 every week and that makes $9.00 with 50¢ included for the
water.
She spit a mouthful of snuff spittle into the fireplace. "Ca'line go cut
off that radio, I done forgot what I did think of telling the lady go on
put that dream book down. All you think about is that dream book and the
radio.
"The worst trouble I ever got in was when we lived cross the river on the
tother side of town. I had my wash out on the line and they didn't git
dry, so I left them on the line that night to dry when I got up next
morning every lasting piece of them clothes was gone. Well sir I didn't
know what to do, so I ported it to the police. He searched every house on
that side of town, and all the time it was us next door neighbor what took
them and that was the last house the police searched. I washed them
clothes and tuk them to the whitefolks, and as soon as I found a house on
this side of town I left that place and I don't think I has ever been back
to stay no time.
"No mistess, I sho' don't like these fire places what has grates in them.
Long befo' folks got to sticking 'em in every room, I could clean my hath
(hearth) nice and sot my irons in front of the fire and iron all day
without stopping so long as I had a heap of oak hickory and ash wood to
burn, 'twon't no need to put a iron by the fire if you didn't have that
kind of wood 'cause they didn't heat and jest git the irons full of smut
and one thing I jest hate is to iron with a nasty iron. I have cooked on a
fireplace many a time befo' stoves come in fashion, and iron at the same
time I have sot up many a night 'til twelve and one o'clock ironing. That
is what's the matter with my eyes now. Come here sister and thread my
needle. I don't do that no mo' what I don't do in the day time I leave it
alone, unless I put sister and Ca'line to work on them. I wish I had
electric lights, 'cause you can't do no good at ironing the wrinkles out
of clothes by lamp light.
"Since the folks what rents houses stopped up the fireplaces with them
grates, us had to use charcoal buckets. I reckon that is what they done it
for. Yet and still the buckets don't cost as much as they use to. The
first bucket I bought cost a $1.25 that sho' was a heap of money. Now I
can git one for 75¢ and 50¢. It takes about a bushel of charcoal to do the
ironing I has now. It cost 20¢ a bushel but I use to pay 25¢ for it.
Charcoal is like everything else there is good and bad. Ash charcoal is
heaps better 'bout holding heat than pine. I don't use pine if I can help
it. The buckets have been in use about fifteen years.
"No, Mistess, us wash women don't make good money no mo' since the
whitefolks what use to pay good, all got washing machines and these
laundries have open up. 'Bout the onliest folkses what has washings done
now is them what ain't got no machine and can't pay the laundry their
price they is the ones what brings their clothes to us and we have to do
it for mighty near nothing or stop work. It sho' is bad on us what is
trying to make an honest living and raise our chillun right.
"All my chillun has fairly good school nothing to brag about, but they
talks a heap better than some of the folks do round here. We is all
members of the Baptist church. Sister here sings in the church choir.
Whitt is a preacher, so we do try to live good christian lives. I would
like to hire my girls out on good jobs, but folks don't want to pay
nothing for your work no mo' if they did than I wouldn't have to work no
mo'.
"Well Mistess I have told you all I know about washing I might have
thought of lots more to tell you, but since my brother died my mind has
been crossed up so I cain't remember what I use to know."
I got up to leave, and Whitt began about the hams. "Miss did I tell you
them hams weighs 33 pounds a piece. If you know of anybody that wants
carpenter work done, I wish you would pint them out to me. And sent the
old lady a washing. Times is might tight. I got to go down to Arnoldsville
and get some of my good white friends to sign a paper for me so's I can
git the old age pension. I reckon they is living, yet and still I ain't
been back there in 40 years."
February 1, 1939
Sarah Hill (Negro)
157 Church Street
Athens, Georgia
Wash Woman
Sadie B. Hornsby
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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