Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………1 Historical Background Literature Review Sources and Methodology Chapter 1…………………………………………………………………….18 “We hea' a callin' from Colon”: Migrating to the Canal Zone. Chapter 2…………………………………………………………………….38 “Come to see Janie:” Labor, Surveillance and Independence. Chapter 3…………………………………………………………………….73 “Woman a Heavy Load”: Family and the Expectations of Femininity. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………99 Appendix A…………………………………………………………………..104 Bibliographical notes on the National Archives holdings. Bibliography………………………………………………………………….106
practice. But Kay's story also offers a rare glimpse into the personal decisions made by West Indian women working as domestic servants. Kay is surprised that Mary decides to leave for a pregnancy—to her, the decision just came out of the blue. Kay has no idea whether Mary even has a husband. Kay's surprise about Mary's social life shows the disparity between white bosses' perception of their control over their maids versus the real extent of their authority. Though the sources are silent on the matter, West Indian women probably had some opportunities to socialize with other members of the community during ventures to town to shop or to launder at the river. A pregnancy, proof of a life external to the American home, is surprising to Kay, who presumes that Mary is constantly working. West Indian women like Mary did not in fact live a sequestered life and would quit their jobs to pursue other personal matters. Moreover, Mary saw maternal leave as her right. In the end, Kay fires Mary, but Mary was probably aware of that possibility and still chose to prioritize motherhood. Another common theme in these memoirs is the high turnover of domestics in American households. Elizabeth Parker and Rose Van Hardeveld cycle through four or five maids in the course of their memoirs. Job security for domestics must have been somewhat low, given the abundance of laborers available in the Canal area, especially later in the construction years. Americans could easily replace a servant deemed unfit. On the other hand, the turnover could have been due to domestics who would quit and find new jobs, exerting some control over their environment. Servants, whose work lives were limited by the domestic space, could achieve some mobility by quitting their jobs and finding new bosses. Julie Greene argues that “unless [West Indian women's] actions seemed
Commission had only hired male laborers so far, as most West Indian women traveled independently. But the opening of numerous hotels, hospitals, commissaries, and other facilities of “civilized” life, along with the settlement of American neighborhoods required a large number of laborers for what was seen as “female” work—domestic servants, nurses and laundresses. Many of the women spoke of Mr. Lavenel, the Commission recruiting agent in Martinique who promised them that there was plenty of work to be had in the Canal for women. The information spread through word of mouth and, in November 1905, the steamship Floridian left Martinique for Colon with 650 passengers, of which 280 were women. The unprecedented step of recruiting West Indian women and paying for their passage raised some eyebrows in the Canal community, and rumors began to circulate that they had been brought for immoral purposes. The official trouble began with a visit to the Canal from Poultney Bigelow, a New York journalist wishing to report on the status of West Indian workers in the Zone. His article in the New York Herald claimed that “On the occasion of my visit the clergy of the Isthmus were loud in protest because the United States authorities had imported at considerable expense several hundreds of colored ladies. Prostitutes are not needed on the Isthmus; if they were there is no call to send for them at the expense of the taxpayer. They may be trusted to come without any special assistance whenever Colon clamors for kindred consolation.” Bigelow's article also decried the abominable conditions of all West Indian workers: “Colon to-day is mainly a swamp, into which is dumped all the human excrement of the negro population and where this population is compelled to sleep.” Bigelow's article created an uproar both in the U.S. and the Canal Zone. President Roosevelt ordered a full Senate investigation of
some West Indians had enough money to celebrate lavishly. Middle-class West Indians were probably used to these kinds of wedding ceremonies. These ceremonies also display West Indians' commitment to staying in Panama, and building communities there. West Indian Marriage in Panama Willis John Abbott, Panama and the Canal in picture and prose (New York: Syndicate Publishing Company, 1913), 235. Divorces required even more money than marriages in order to pay the required attorney fees and court taxes. Given the cost of both, it was less likely for lower-class West Indian couples to marry and therefore to obtain a divorce. Most men involved in the divorce cases on record worked as regular I.C.C. laborers, except for Alfred White, a Zone policeman, and Alfred Meltz, a jeweler. The case files rarely list the women's employment except for two who worked as domestics. Many of the West Indian women who acted as complainants in divorce cases submitted affidavits testifying to their impoverishment and requesting that their husbands promise to pay the court fees. Certainly West Indian women were not completely dependent on their husbands for their finances, but the Courts acting on patriarchal models treated them as such. Thus, it was to the women's benefit to present themselves as poor, fulfilling the court's expectations and arousing their pity, if they wished to receive alimony from the divorce settlement. The ten divorce cases on record are evenly spread between the First and Third Judicial Circuits, with only one from the Second Circuit. The First circuit served Colon and the Third was close to Panama City, the two cities with the biggest West Indian communities. The cases are also evenly spread throughout the years of 1905 to 1914, meaning West Indians began to petition for divorce from the first years of migration. The civil code of the Canal describes the mix of legal precedent that the courts were drawing
him in December of 1912. Instead of moving in together, Alfred rented a room for her at a hotel. According to her petition for divorce, Alfred refused to live with and abandoned her at the hotel while he lived in concubinage with someone else. Mary received no money beyond the payment for the hotel and claimed to be unable even to afford a bond or court fees. Since it is unlikely she had procured a job during her short stay in the Canal, Mary basically lived a life of confinement—she had no money and no knowledge of the area to go out beyond the hotel. After a month and a half of this arrangement, Mary petitioned the court for a divorce. Even though she had no money and no support network in the Canal, Mary found a way out of her restrictive marriage with Alfred. He argued in court that he put her up in a hotel because there was no other housing and had not visited because he was busy with work; that he had not been abusive or adulterous and that in fact, it was she who was making unreasonable demands on him and on the hotel. The court granted the divorce—Alfred was to pay $500.00 alimony to Mary, while she awaited deportation on the next boat for St. Lucia. West Indian women saw men's financial support as a spousal obligation, particularly for their children, but divorce was not the only solution these women sought when their husbands neglected them financially. For example, one account from Core's Maid in Panama, titled “A Maiden Young and Fair”, tells the story of a white boss who has to deal with his worker's personal problems. He often receives letters from West Indian women complaining that certain men have not paid the child support they owe. The story paints the event as amusing, making fun of the “irate lady” and frames it around the heavy burden of the “unofficial duties” the white man who works with West Indians has to bear. But the story also reveals that West Indian women considered child
their silence on black women's lives on the lack of sources. Yet, the memoirs of white women speak often about these women's relationships to their domestics and the race relations of the Canal. Sue Core's book, which focuses explicitly on the relationship between Americans and West Indians in service jobs, has been completely ignored by Canal historians. The court records, which have many cases featuring black women, have sat in the National Archives since the 1980's, easily accessible to any visitor, yet only Julie Greene has looked at them. There is not as much information about black women as there is about other groups in the Canal, but their stories are not hidden—they are everywhere. Only in retrospect has the Canal become a purely American construction. This thesis tells the story of West Indian women in the Panama Canal during the decade of construction—their migration, their work and their family life. The first chapter discusses black women's motivations to migrate and their experience traveling and settling in Panama. Black women had many reasons to migrate to the Canal. They based their decision to migrate on a variety of factors, including economic incentives, emotional relationships and a desire for a new start. The second chapter describes the different types of labor women performed in the Canal Zone and how they negotiated the authority between themselves and their bosses. Lastly, the third chapter looks at divorce and insanity cases, and explores how black women manipulated the American system to gain more freedoms, as well as how this system at times protected them. These chapters show how black women took advantage of the opportunities available in Panama at the time, seeking independence in their jobs and relationships. The sources also show the highly public and interactive nature of black women's lives. Jane Hall, for example, owned a boarding-house frequented by West Indian workers and
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