This is the book that Kathryn Stockett used for research for The Help.  And a model for the book that Skeeter and the maids wrote in that book.  Except.   The actual book interviewed both black maids and white employers.  And it was written in the 80's, when the way of life it describes was mostly dead and gone.  Some of the white women, with the benefit of hindsight, reflected on their days of employing (exploiting?) maids with unease.  But many viewed those days with nostalgia, as a time when everyone lived in harmony.  The black women - not so much.  Granted, there was often affection on both sides.  But it was a sorely unequal relationship, with the black woman scraping by on a pittance, eked out by the gift of their employer's discards and leavings.