Did you know? Black women in 1870s Virginia sold fried chicken through train windows
In the 1870s, entrepreneurial Black women in Virginia gained fame for selling homemade meals to passengers through train windows, creating a unique economic opportunity.
📜 Long before fast-food chains and drive-thru windows, Black women in Gordonsville, Virginia were already serving food directly to customers.
In the 1870s, Black women known as “waiter carriers” prepared fried chicken, biscuits, pies, coffee, and other homemade foods, then sold the meals directly through passenger train windows.
And this wasn’t just food — it was entrepreneurship. At a time when Black women had limited access to traditional jobs and business ownership, these women found a way to create income by spotting demand, meeting customers where they were, and turning a busy railroad stop into opportunity.
Their fried chicken became so well known that Gordonsville earned a reputation as the “Fried Chicken Capital of the World.”
Black women have BEEN entrepreneurs — finding the opportunity, creating the product, and getting it directly to the customer. 🖤
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