For the price of a Pullman ticket, a common rail passenger could be waited upon and pampered in the grand manner of privileged gentry.
The Pullman porter provided the labor for that luxury?
After the Civil War, the Pullman Palace Car Company, which built and operated luxury passenger and sleeper cars on America's railroads, began staffing their cars with newly freed slaves as porters. It soon became the largest single employer of black Americans.
Pullman porters led a hard, well-traveled and interesting life. They prepared and cleaned the cars and berths, while caring for the comfort and safety of passengers.
Porters assisted at marriages, births, and deaths; soothed celebrities and endured wrecks, holdups and abusive passengers.
Unlike many railroads, for many years the Milwaukee Road built, operated and staffed their own sleeping cars. Beginning in 1927 they turned some of the cars over to Pullman to manage. It sometimes happened that both companies would operate sleeping cars on the same train.
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