ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the legacy of the master-servant narrative in the George Mortimer Pullman Company and argues that not only is the employability of black workers heavily influenced by stereotypes held by employers, but that racial stereotypes are historically contingent. At the end of the Civil War, when George Mortimer Pullman manufactured an impressive sleeping car for railroads, he revolutionized the industry. He gained monopoly status for his Pullman Palace Sleeping Car Company by constructing a sleeping car designed to envelop passengers in a luxurious world. George Pullman's official biographer noted that black Americans were his choice for personal servants on the rails because they had been "trained as a race by years of personal service in various capacities." To the public who patronized Pullman Sleeping Cars, porters often were not fully-formed, three dimensional characters; they were just "George"—usually the only way they were summoned—a servant whose identity was shaped by serving the white public.
