INTRODUCTION.

The article presents an introduction to a paper on colored domestic service in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The paper attempts to show the relation of the colored domestic to the general domestic service problem on the one hand, and to the great mass of the African American people on the other. This predominance of domestic service over all other occupations followed by the African Americans is recorded of every state in the Union, excepting the Southern States, where agriculture stands first and domestic service a second. It is evident from tables presented in the article that very nearly 60 per cent of the colored workingmen of Pennsylvania are engaged in domestic service; while over 91 per cent of the colored workingwomen of the state are in service. A graphic presentation of these facts makes clear the large proportion of the African American population of Pennsylvania employed in domestic service. In the city of Philadelphia nearly the same preponderance of domestic service in relation to other occupations of the colored people is found. In this house-to-house canvass, every domestic scheduled, with a very few exceptions, was personally interviewed.