Black Baptist women debated whether obsessive housework crowds out spiritual duty

Evidence

In an article appearing in Arkansas’s Baptist Vanguard, Harriet Morris counterposed women’s housework against child rearing and religious duties. Concerned that thousands of her sisters were overly preoccupied with cleanliness and housework, Morris drew upon the imagery of Judgment Day when all would be called to answer for their deeds on earth. She sadly concluded that most women would have little to show for their life’s work except “polishing furnature [sic] and ruffling dresses . .. the best starching and ironing in all the neighborhood.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 377

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Black Baptist women’s columns openly challenged domestic and marital norms — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 375

Broader Connections

• Black Baptist women’s columns openly challenged domestic and marital norms #expands (0.78) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 375