As African American women left slavery and the plantation economy behind, many entered domestic service in southern cities and towns. Cooking was one of the primary tasks they performed in white employers' homes, profoundly shaping southern foodways and culture. In the face of discrimination, long workdays, and low wages, African American cooks worked to assert measures of control over their own lives. As employment opportunities expanded in the twentieth century, most African American women chose to leave cooking for more lucrative and less oppressive manufacturing, clerical, or professional positions. Through letters, autobiography, and oral history, this book evokes African American women's voices from slavery to the open economy, examining their lives at work and at home.