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Masters of a Craft: Philadelphia's Black Public Waiters, 1820–50
Pilgrim, Danya M.
Pilgrim, Danya M.
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Journal article
Date
2018-10-01
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History
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https://doi.org/10.1353/pmh.2018.0030
Abstract
This essay surveys the work of black public waiters in nineteenth-century Philadelphia and considers how they transformed menial domestic jobs into lucrative businesses. The work of public waiters in this era helped develop a catering trade for which the city became well-known. Sources such as print culture, financial records, censuses, and directories reveal a transitional period in which public waiters negotiated a new role. From the 1820s through the antebellum era, as public waiters developed entrepreneurial catering businesses, they also helped build the black community, effect social mobility, and change eating culture.
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Citation
Pilgrim, Danya M. "Masters of a Craft: Philadelphia's Black Public Waiters, 1820–50." The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 142, no. 3 (2018), 269-293. https://doi.org/10.1353/pmh.2018.0030
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University of Pennsylvania Press
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Vol. 142, No. 3, October 2018
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