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Laundry Workers: Tools of the Trade

This collection of sources illustrates the backbreaking nature of laundry work, one of the few professions open to Black women in the Reconstruction Era.

This resource includes a racist depiction. Please use discretion when scrolling down the page.

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Laundry Workers: Tools of the Trade

This resource includes a racist depiction. Please use discretion when scrolling down the page.

A circa 1900, black and white photograph of Black women attending to laundry in a rural setting. One stands over a wash basin scrubbing a washboard while another lays cloth to dry. A young girl stirs over a black cauldron, while three other children watch attentively nearby.
African-American woman doing laundry with a scrub board and tub

African-American woman doing laundry with a scrub board and tub, ca. 1900. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

A well worn, circa 1750-1820, wooden washboard with an upper lid set above 14 wide ridges of reeding. Dimensions: 24 x 10 ⅜ x 2 ¼ in.
Washboard

Washboard, ca. 1750-1820. New-York Historical Society.

A Black female toy doll wearing a red patterned dress, a yellow plaid apron, a fichu collar, and a tignon headscarf scrubs cloth while leaning over a washboard set in a wooden basin. The base of the windup toy is a rectangular wooden prism, painted blue.
“Old Aunt Chloe”

Old Aunt Chloe, The Negro Washerwoman, ca. 1870-1900. New-York Historical Society, Gift Mrs. C. W. Tuttle.

Background

When slavery was abolished, newly freed people across the United States were able to decide how to live their own lives for the first time. Many Black men and women wanted to live like working- and middle-class white Americans. Black men wanted to work outside the home to make enough money so Black women could stay home and care for the home and family. But racist economic and social policies prevented most Black men from earning enough to support their families. Most Black women had to find paid work, while still balancing the demands of home and family.

Washing laundry was one of the most popular jobs for married Black women. It allowed them to make a living from their own homes while caring for their children. Sometimes, children even helped their mothers with the laundry work.

Doing laundry before the invention of the washing machine was very labor and time intensive. Anyon