Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Summer/105/Section 06/Ethel Vassar

Ethel Vassar
Born	Ethel Vassar Late 1880s Seaboard, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	Unknown
Education	Middle School, Homeschool
Occupation	Cook

Overview

Ethel Vassar was an African American cook born in the late 1880s. On February 23, 1939, Bernice Kelly Harris interviewed Vassar for the Federal Writers' Project.

Early Life

Vassar was born in Seaboard, North Carolina in the late 1880s. The exact date of her birth is unknown. Her mother, from Greensville County, Virginia, and father, from Pleasant Hill, North Carolina, were former slaves. Together, they had nine children including Vassar. As a child, Vassar received an education but stopped going to school in 1900. She was homeschooled by her parents and grew up religious.

Career

At the time of the interview, Vassar had been a cook for nearly twenty years. Her first job as a cook was for the Batten family where she also had roles as a gardener and caretaker. Vassar worked for the Batten family as a cook for nine years making between three dollars and five dollars a week during her time. She recalls an instance when she had to intervene in Mr. Batten's attempted suicide, saying:

One time I kept Mr. Batten from killin' hisself. The two daughters was fussin' with each other, cussin' worse'n men, when two business men come to the gate to talk with Mr. Batten. The girls was sittin' at the table eatin' at the time, and they didn't knock off a thing for the company outside, but kept cussin' and carryin' on. When they left, Mr. Batten run in the house, chased Elsie upstairs, thinkin' it was Rena who was doin' the biggest of the cussin', and throwed her down on the bed. When I got there he was chokin' the girl to death. I pulled him off; then he grabbed the pistol and was in the act of puttin' it to his head, he was in such a temper, when I rushed there and held his arm straight up till a neighbor and his wife rushed in to help.

Next, Vassar worked as a cook for the Calvet family in Suffolk, Virginia. The family had a maid, so Vassar only had to work in the kitchen as opposed to her previous job with the Battens. Vassar worked twelve-hour days, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and was paid five dollars a week.

After working for the Calvets, Vassar worked at a teacherage in Black Creek, North Carolina for three winters. She had to prepare three meals a day for thirteen teachers. Vassar said, "when times was good, they paid me $10 a week; one winter it was just five, and the last they went up to six dollars a week." She would also do farm work for the teacherage during the summers.

Vassar's next job would find her in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina for a lady named Miss Ida who was in the hospital for an operation. Much like her job at the Batten household, Vassar had to work many other tasks such as washing clothes, cleaning the house, and tending to children in addition to her job as a cook. Her work for Miss Ida would only find Vassar $3.50 a week. She then moved on to work with a lady name Miss Roxie in Norfolk, Virginia where she did the same type of work and received the same salary.

Vassar jumped around jobs for a few weeks at a time. After moving back to her home in Seaboard, North Carolina to take care of her younger sibling, whom she calls Little Sister, Vassar lander her most recent with Miss Janie and Mr. Wilson. There, she only had to serve breakfast and lunch, do groceries and errands, and clean the whole house once a week. Her efforts would earn her $2.50 a week, one of the highest wages of all the cooks in the town, including those who work more than her. Despite the lackluster work, Vassar, argues that she would rather do more work and get paid more for it.

Personal Life

Welfare issues

Vassar moved back to her family home in Seaboard, North Carolina when Little Sister suffered a leg injury and became sick. Vassar would take care of her in addition to working her job as a cook. Due to her low pay and weekly dues for her and Little Sister and her children, Vassar and Little Sister attempted to receive Welfare benefits but were rejected on multiple occasions.

Little Sister attempted to receive clothes for her children for Christmas, and the Welfare program promised she would get them. Shortly before Christmas, the Welfare program told her they would no longer be able to give her clothes. Despite the decision by the Welfare program, Vassar saw clothing and other items being given to white families in Seaboard who were able to afford them without Welfare.

To inquire about receiving clothes from the Welfare program, Little Sister went to see Dr. Parker, a white doctor in town. He told her that he might be able to help her case if she receives shots from the clinic. After receiving the shots, which Vassar told her she didn't need, her report came back saying nothing was wrong with her. Little Sister went back to see Dr. Parker to inquire about the clothing again. Dr. Parker told her that the Welfare program was unable to help her because she owns a home.

Standings on health care

Vassar was not a fan of doctors and the health care system. The last time she had gone to see a doctor was thirteen years prior to the interview to get a goiter removed. Vassar was a believer that the compulsory medicine of that time was like slavery saying, "We're under a king gov'ment. When you see healthy folks gatherin' at the clinics to let them doctors make 'em sick... it's drivin' folks, and it ain't right to make 'em do nothin' they don't want to do!" With this reasoning, Vassar did not take the mandatory shots that were required of all the cooks.

Instead, Vassar treated her ailments with herbal medicine. When she was younger, her father would make salves using herbs, lard, salts, and turpentines that he would sell. Her mother would make her and her siblings wear garlic as a wormer. Vassar used her knowledge from her childhood to make treatments for coughs, typhoid fever, rheumatisms, and burns.

A physician preparing an elixir, from an Arabic version of Dioscorides's pharmacopoeia, 1224

Relationships

Vassar was never married. When she was a young woman, she loved a man whom her parents opposed her from marrying. After turning down chances from other men, she eventually met a gentleman from Franklin, Virginia who began writing to her and sending her gifts. Vassar was not enthusiastic about him but decided to give him a date. The man wrote Vassar to meet him at the train, saying he would recognize her by the watch he gifted her, but she never went.

Despite being turned down, the man found his way to Vassar's home where he met her sister, Julia, pretending to be her. Although not seeing her face prior, he knew it was not Vassar. Vassar's parents were very fond of this man, but every time she had tried to make up her mind, the man she previously loved would get in her way preventing her from sealing the deal.

Vassar would go on to embrace her life as an unmarried woman, decidedly focusing on her career and family instead. She would go on to say that she would like to be her own boss, and that she has seen friends and family members who have married previously and did not do well in their marriages.

Social Issues

Role of an unmarried woman in the 20th century

The Spinner by William-Adolphe Bouguereau shows a woman hand-spinning using a drop spindle. Fibers to be spun are bound to a distaff held in her left hand.

Unmarried women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries played a crucial role in the economy of the United States. These women called spinsters, were unmarried or unlikely to marry due to their age. Most women of the early 20th century did not work outside the home, and during this time, there were many sentiments against women, especially those who were married, that did. Only 20% of women in the early 20th century were classified as gainful workers by the Census Bureau. Though according to the Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, "women did enter the labor force in greater numbers over this period, with participation rates reaching nearly 50 percent for single women by 1930." African American women especially were about twice as likely to remain in the workforce compared to white women.

The unmarried women of this era oftentimes received backlash for their decision to remain single. These women were repeatedly "suspected of lesbianism and accused of suppressing frustrated sexuality." Although some women of this time did fall on the LGBT spectrum, there were many other reasons why women decided not to get married such as the professional opportunities provided. Labor-intensive jobs were often set aside for unmarried women, and many women found that they were unable to enter a relationship that was "worth pursuing to the detriment of their often benevolent vocations."

Others chose the life of spinsterhood as a symbol of empowerment, arguing they do not need a man to boss them around. The independence that came with spinsterhood was something that was attractive to many unmarried women during this time. Another popular reason though was women understanding the value of marriage and not finding a man suitable enough for them. Many women decidedly remained single because they did not want to go against their ideas about love in a shifting society.

The prevalence of unmarried women in the U.S. dropped to around 35% as the nuclear family rose in popularity during the 1960s. Since then, that number has been on the rise, with the percentage of unmarried women increasing to 45% in 2000 and 49% in 2020. This is due to a number of reasons such as the increase of women pursuing post-secondary education. It is estimated that the number of women remaining unmarried will continue to rise during the next few years.

African American health care and herbalism

Throughout history, race and ethnicity have been major factors for receiving health care for many Americans. The late 19th and early 20th centuries brought pseudoscientific racial principles that would factor into the type of treatments and medical advice many African Americans received. Physician Samuel Cartwright coined the term "drapetomania," a treatable mental illness that causes slaves to attempt escape. These "racist principles, character references, and "pronouncements of impending black racial extinction... served as the social setting and atmosphere in which... American hospital and medical education reform movements occurred."

Label from a box of medicine

Since arriving in the United States, African Americans have been known to have some of the worst health care and health statuses due to racial stereotypes and racial mythology. African Americans were frequently not taken seriously by doctors. As well, doctors' offices were often segregated. Due to the lack of education black medical professionals received in comparison to their white counterparts, African Americans would often find their care to be inferior to those of white Americans.

Due to this, many African Americans avoided doctors, and instead practiced herbalism. Herbalism is estimated to date prior to the age of modern Homo sapiens. It has had prevalent use in civilizations such as ancient China and Mesopotamia. Herbal remedies and treatments, such as Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, were popular in the United States market during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the span of which was the golden age of herbalism in the U.S. Remedies like these were very successful up until the passage of the Food and Drug Act of 1906, prohibiting manufacturers from making false claims about and mislabeling their products.

Herbalism had been practiced by Africans prior to becoming enslaved in the U.S. The herbalism practiced by African American slaves had a deep-rooted history in both African and Asian medicinal practices. This herbalism was not only for medicinal uses though, but was also used as a connection to spiritualism. American colonizers and slave masters would even employ the use of African American and Native American herbalists when their medicines did not work or were too expensive.

Herbs were utilized to create tinctures, salves, syrups, ointments, and other treatments. Ingredients were often times foraged rather than cultivated, and there was a great understanding of the maturity of barks, plants, and other ingredients. Mullein was one of the "oldest medicinal plants" and used as a remedy for coughs, colds, and respiratory conditions. Cotton was used to treat women's health issues. Basil and sassafras were used topically to relieve burns, bug bites, rashes, and gout.

References

• Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Historical Marital Status Tables § (2020). https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/marital.html.
• Blakemore, Erin. “Original Spin: On the History of the Spinster.” JSTOR Daily, April 24, 2015. https://daily.jstor.org/original-spin-history-spinster/.
• Byrd, W M, and L A Clayton. “Race, Medicine, and Health Care in the United States: a Historical Survey.” Journal of the National Medical Association 93, no. 3 (March 2001).
• Cartwright, Samuel A. “Africans in America/Part 4/‘Diseases and Peculiarities.’” PBS. Public Broadcasting Service. Accessed July 2021. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3106t.html.
• Harris, Bernice K, and Ethel Vassar. Folder 475: Harris, Bernice K. (interviewer): Ethel Vassar, Cook. Other. Federal Writers Project Papers. Federal Writers Project Papers. Accessed July 18, 2021. https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/03709/id/426/rec/1.
• Morgan, Alyson. “Roots of African American Herbalism: Herbal Use by Enslaved Africans.” Herbal Academy, August 30, 2020. https://theherbalacademy.com/african-american-herbalism-history/.
• Newkirk, Vann R. “Why American Health Care Is Still Segregated.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, June 24, 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/americas-health-segregation-problem/483219/.
• Office of the Commissioner, Part I: The 1906 Food and Drugs Act and Its Enforcement § (2019). https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/changes-science-law-and-regulatory-authorities/part-i-1906-food-and-drugs-act-and-its-enforcement.
• Rose, Shari. “The Economic Power of a Spinster.” Blurred Bylines | Long-Form Articles, February 29, 2020. https://blurredbylines.com/blog/spinster-old-maid-progressive-era/.
• Tyler, Varro E. “Herbal Medicine: from the Past to the Future.” Public Health Nutrition 3, no. 4a (December 2000): 447–52. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980000000525.
• Yellen, Janet L. “The History of Women's Work and Wages and How It Has Created Success for Us All.” Brookings. Brookings, January 6, 2021. https://www.brookings.edu/essay/the-history-of-womens-work-and-wages-and-how-it-has-created-success-for-us-all/.