Help wanted: European views of domestic servitude and equality in the northern United States, 1819-1860

Abstract

The travel accounts of European women touring the northern United States between 1819 and 1860 reveal the issues within American domestic service. The observations and comments in these accounts have been used to illustrate that the major flaws in America domestic service of this period were grounded in the idea of equality. The comments on domestic servitude provided in travel journals illustrate the class difficulties of both middle-class women and the lower-class women they employed. The disjointed relationships between employers and domestic servants illustrated by the European women highlighted their appreciation for the order of their own societies. Their dislike of American domestic servitude was evident and they further demonstrated their sense of superiority through their harsh criticisms of everyone involved in the American domestic system. This struggle of American equality has continued as a sense of friction in American society ever since.