Inter-Municipal Research Committee Bulletin,Vol. I, No. 7. pp. 5-9
May 1905

Southern Colored Girls in the North

The story of the Southern girl in the North begins in the South with the Southern employment agency. Read the advertisement of one of these Southern offices, and see what an alluring opportunity is set before the young girl who already looks to the North as an Eldorado. Expenses paid from the Southern port to the Northern employer's home, a situation provided; and no money to be paid down—nothing required except the signing of a contract.

The Southern agent does not always depend on the power of his advertisement alone. Sometimes he sends runners out into the country districts, clever young fellows who drive around the country and stop to chat at the Negro cabins; or men grotesquely dressed, carrying drums, who parade through the smaller towns, and cry the rare opportunities offered by the agency to any girls who wish to go North, shouting, "Fall into line! Free passage! No fees!"

When they reach the agencies, these ignorant colored girls are promised good wages, easy work and good times. That is what "going North" has always meant to most of them, in prospect. They sign a paper, often without reading it at all or having it explained to them. It is a contract by which they agree to work one or two months without pay for the person paying their expenses, "And I further agree," continues a typical contract, "that all my personal effects may be subject to their order until I have fulfilled this contract, forfeiting all claim to said personal effects after sixty days from this date, should I fail to comply with agreement." A copy of the contract is sent by mail to the prospective employer or the agent who pays expenses, together with the steamship company's check for the girl's baggage.

Sometimes the boat is delayed in sailing; and as the agency has no sleeping quarters, the women begin their new pilgrimage by walking the streets, or by going to questionable places. Then they are shipped. Many, indeed most of them—start North penniless; with but one place to go, the address of the employment agency or of their employer. This is all the Southern agency does—gathers the women up, gets the contract signed, pays the fare of $7.00 to $10.00, and puts them aboard the boat with but one address. Some of the steamship lines provide good accommodations and stewardesses who protect the women during the trip; others do not, and those that do not, facilitate the second step in the depravity and demoralization which often follow.

The steamships dock at the New York and Philadelphia ports. Any woman whose expenses have been paid by an employment agency is met by his runner. Her baggage—the property of the agent—goes to the agency, and she, also the property of the agent, follows.to a lodging house which he runs in connection with the agency, or which some friend of his runs. There she waits until a position is offered. If she has money, no place is offered her. until her small fund is spent for board; if she has not, she is sent to the place which offers the highest fee. And what place is that? The disreputable house, where, according to promise, "the pay is high and the work easy."

Be it said to the credit of some agencies that they do bring Negro women North with the intention of sending them to honest homes to work. But the woman who proves inefficient as a houseworker, or whose easy going Southern temperament shrinks from hard work, or who came on the promise of twice the wages she can earn and insists on getting every penny—these the agent turns loose upon the city, many of them to find their way into hospitals, almshouses and reformatories.

But there are agencies—many of them—that never intend to send women to honest places. When the newcomers are safely in the agency lodging house, the runners or "friends" of the agency show them the "sights about town," usually ending up with concert halls; and after such evenings, domestic service in a quiet home seems drudgery.

The lodging house life completes what this sight- seeing has begun. Not only are men and women lodged together, but habitués of disreputable houses, street walkers and other questionable characters mingle with them without discrimination, both in the lodging house and in the agency. After a few days or even hours of this life, the green girl may be approached on the subject of "going to work in a sporting house." Why not, for a time at least? Many a young girl accepts with the intention of staying only long enough to pay her debt and redeem her baggage, and buy a few gay clothes; and then of leaving for a pleasant home. She does not realize how difficult it will be to leave, or how easy to step from the workers' ranks, when one is living daily amidst immoral influences and the temptation of easy money. And suppose that she refuses?

Now let us look at the forgotten contract. She owes not $7.00, but $20.00; for she finds in New York that this sum is the price of her transportation and agent's commission— almost three times the regular fare. She cannot even open her trunk without permission from the agent and she must work two months without pay. She knows not one person in the city but the agent and his runners; and she is penniless. I appeal to my readers to ask what is to become of the girl who angers the agent by refusing the position that he offers? Is it that the Negro woman is already immoral when she reaches our Northern cities? There are many known cases to prove that her first wrong step is taken in the North where she is friendless and subjected to dangers greater than those that beset any other woman, except the most ignorant of immigrants.

The agent maintains that this bondage of the Southern girl is necessary for his protection, in case the woman is too lazy to work, or tries to run away after she has been brought North; it is really a device that renders her a slave. Once in a disreputable house as a worker, the luxury and ease make the life of the inmate attractive, and the agent knows that he can safely propose this as the next step. But it does not end here. Is it forgotten that the girl must work from one to two months without pay? The agent tells her she may leave her trunk without charge, taking only the little she needs, until she sees if she likes the place. At the end of two months she calls for her trunk and finds fifty cents a week or month is the charge for storage. She has earned no money during these weeks, because of the terms of her contract with the agent; so she forfeits all her possessions! There is cunning in this forfeiture! By keeping the girl's baggage and permitting her to use it at the agency, the agent holds her indefinitely in his power. He always knows where she is, he places her when she is out of work, or takes her away from one employer for another; he even compels her to give names and addresses of her Southern friends, so that he may write them to come North, using her name as an inducement.

The employment agencies licensed by the Northern seaport cities are the chief mediums through which disreputable houses get their supply of women. It is a matter of pride with some agencies that they have the patronage of the best of such houses. Even granted that the women ask for this kind of work and know what it means (which many hundreds of them do not), is that an argument for cities to license and protect such exchanges to encourage easy times among a race prone to unthrifty living; and does not this touch one of the very sources that are giving Northern cities such a large percentage of crime and pauperism among Negroes? The higher wages paid will always make it easy for questionable houses to find help without licensing agencies to attract the unemployed, who in their helpless, friendless condition yield more readily to temptation.

But some protection is also needed for the Negro woman who is going directly to an employer. She lands from the steamer. A policeman or ever watchful "friend" finds that there is no such street and number as she has. What shall she do? Or her boat arrives at 4 P. M. on Saturday; she is going to Southampton. The train left for Southampton one hour before she landed, and the next one is scheduled for eight o'clock Monday morning. She has two cents in her pocket- book. She may be going to a perfectly honest home, but she has to lodge two nights in New York. One old Negro woman arrived last week, going to work with "Lizzie" in Newburgh, who knew a Mr. B.—working in a telephone office. She knew nothing else of her destination, and insisted that her Clyde Line ticket would take her to Newburgh. She had no money. Who would telephone or telegraph Mr. B., or hunt up "Lizzie"? One woman may be going to work at 96th Street, but she has no carfare, and has never seen the city. These are but a few of the problems of the newly landed Negro.

I am not discussing the question of whether these Negro women shall be imported for domestic service; but I do insist that if they are to be dragged from homes where they are safe and happy and earning a living, it shall be by employers who will instruct and guide them, and by agencies that are responsible and reliable, and that around them shall be thrown every safeguard possible. And to meet this great danger there must be certain steps, supported by the people whom this labor benefits, and by those interested in the progress of the human race.

First: The household employer has a responsibility. In her anxiety to secure an employee, she is often thoughtless of the methods she employs. Let her learn these before she "imports a Negro." When she reads of these conditions, she immediately vows she will have nothing more to do with employment agencies, and so lessens the girls' chance of getting into honest homes. This is easier than inquiry if the agency which she patronizes is honest and reliable, or than transferring her patronage to one that is honest, or than insisting upon higher standards in that agency. The agencies are what they are partly through the indifference of employers. Who can bring up the standards of an agency better than the patrons? There are groups of honest Negro agencies in every city that find it difficult to compete with agencies receiving enormous fees from disreputable places, and the patronage of householders given to these would enable them to take a more independent stand in the rescue and placing of young Negro women.

Second: There is need of continued warning and preaching throughout the South of the dangers of reckless traveling and the falsity of the promises of high wages and easy times. Our Northern cities are at the height of tense competition, and the woman who would live honestly must work hard.

Third: Supervision by the cities at the port of shipment is needed to prevent frauds. The steamship lines can do much to further this. At every dock there should be a matron familiar with Northern city conditions, who can advise and direct these women, inquiring if they have money and addresses of homes or friends to whom they can go. Some provision should be made for lodging these women at night, especially at Norfolk, and it has been proposed that the churches near the docks use their basements for this purpose and open a lunch room. It is a suggestion worthy of their thought.

These matrons and rescue agencies at the South should have the closest connection with an agent—a Travelers' Aid—at the docks at Northern ports. Steamship companies not employing stewardesses should institute them, for they have already proved to be successful and helpful on some lines, and they will greatly facilitate the work of these rescue agencies. In this, as in all philanthropic work, prevention of the evil is easier and more effective than cure.

But the agent at the docks must have a place to take the Negro women until they can be placed; and they must be trained to meet Northern conditions, and for this are needed both lodging houses and domestic training schools.

The employment agency and its runner, the lodging house, the disreputable house, are in league and form a system. Only a system can defeat such organized work. There are in these cities influences at work upon this problem. The churches, the missions, the Christian Associations and a few non- sectarian organizations are endeavoring to meet this great demand. For their excellent work all credit should be given, but their weakness is that they do not work together—that singly and alone each tries to fight this "system," each works for its own organization rather than unselfishly upon the task of saving Negro women, and the "system" slips in and with its perfect machinery takes the women from the very grasp of many of their rescuers. The problem of the colored Southern woman coming to our Northern cities is not an educational matter alone; it is so fundamental that it must be undertaken through the co- operation of all forces; it is a matter so grave that there can be no denominational jealousies or factional theories.

Within the next six months hundreds of Negro women will come North for work and if there were an agent at the docks and good lodging houses and reliable employment agencies, not only could many be given a chance to escape this slavery, but some of the disreputable agencies would close their doors. Will the community help these committees to answer the question which comes to them from Southern ports: "If we find a group of honest Southern Negro women being shipped North, and we telegraph you, can you send someone to the docks to meet them and take them to safe places?" Or, will the community turn aside, thinking that this is not its problem, and then later trace these women to their ultimate destinations— the hospitals, workhouses, prisons and almshouses; while the homes remain without workers, and the cry still goes up for "servants."