On this day in 1888: this small article appeared in New York Age, a Black newspaper published in New
On this day in 1888: this small article appeared in New York Age, a Black newspaper published in New York City. The article mentions that Saratoga is having the “dullest season” in 14 years, leaving the hotels with few visitors and a surplus of waiters who may have to be cut if the season did not improve.Working in the hotels in Saratoga and other tourist towns was an important source of income for African Americans in the later half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Finding employment as waitstaff, launderers, or maids was one of the few options open to them in the Victorian era, even in Upstate NY, and a slow tourist season could mean loss of precious income. The lives of Black Americans working in tourism towns was chronicled in the book Lord, Please Don’t Take Me in August by Myra B. Armstead.Scan of New York Age taken from digital collections. -- source link
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