Authors: Laura Amy Schlitz
The Hired Girl (45 page)
In
The Hired Girl,
I have tried to be historically accurate about language. This has led me to use terms that are considered pejorative today, such as
Hebrew, Mahomet,
and
Mahometans.
I used
Mahomet
and
Mahometan
for two reasons. The word
Muslim,
which is now preferred, was not in use until much later in the twentieth century. And, as a reader of
Jane Eyre, Ivanhoe,
and
The Picturesque World,
Joan would have encountered the words
Mahomet
and
Mahometan.
These are the words that were used at that time.
Similarly, many Jewish people today find the term
Hebrew
offensive, but the fact that many Jewish organizations in Baltimore used it (the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, the Hebrew Literary Society, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, etc.) suggests that at the turn of the century, the word
Hebrew
was used with pride.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2015 by Laura Amy Schlitz
Cover image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
(
The House Maid,
William McGregor Paxton, 1910)
Art acknowledgments are found here
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2015
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014955411
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