Domestic service was the most common category of employment for women before World War II; it was particularly important for black women, who were excluded from most other occupations. By 1920 some 40 percent of all domestic workers were African American—and more than 70 percent of all wage-earning African-American women worked as servants or laundresses. The struggles of domestic workers were sometimes recorded in songs like Hattie Burleson’s 1928 “Sadie’s Servant Room Blues,” a musical version of common complaints of domestic workers about long hours, low pay, and lack of privacy.
Listen to Audio:This here job don’t pay me much,
They give me just what they think I’m worth.
I’m going to change my mind, Yeah, change my mind.
'Cause I keep the servant room blues all the time.
I receive my company in the rear,
Here these folks don’t want to see them here.
I’m going to change my mind, Yeah, change my mind.
'Cause I keep the servant room blues all the time.
I’m going to change this little new room for a nice big flat,
Goin' to let my friends know where I’m living at.
I’m going to change my mind, Yeah, change my mind.
'Cause I keep the servant room blues all the time.
They have a party at noon, a party at night,
The midnight parties don’t ever break up right.
I’m going to change my mind, Yeah, change my mind.
'Cause I keep the servant room blues all the time.
Source: Hard Times anthology, Rounder Records, 1928.
See Also:"Experiences of a 'Hired Girl'": An Early Twentieth-Century Domestic Worker Speaks Out