Marguerite: A Georgia-Born Domestic Worker in Plattsburgh, New York

Marguerite appears in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census as a twenty-five-year-old single woman born around 1905 in Georgia. She lived as a lodger in the household of Domina Bell at 20 Miller Street in Plattsburgh, New York, along with four male lodgers. Although she was not attending school, Marguerite could read and write English. She worked as a domestic servant for a private family, an occupation that provided employment for many African American women during the early twentieth century. Her presence in Plattsburgh contributes to the history of Black women, domestic labor, and migration from the South to New York’s North Country.