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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Size | 328 interviews |
Abstract | The Southern Oral History Program conducts and collects interviews with Southerners who have made significant contributions to various fields of human endeavor. In addition, the Program undertakes special projects with the purpose of rendering historically visible those whose experience is not reflected in traditional written sources. The Southern Oral History Program Collection, Series H: Piedmont Industrialization contains interviews conducted for Perspectives on Industrialization: The Piedmont Crescent of Industry, 1900-1940, a project funded primarily by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The project focuses on the impact of industrialization in seven main areas: Badin, Burlington, Bynum, Catawba County, Charlotte, and Durham, N.C., and Greenville, S.C. Other interviews are with individuals from Carrboro, Greensboro, Gastonia, and Marion, N.C., and several interviews pertain to the textile workers' strike in Elizabethton, Tenn., in 1929. |
Creator | Southern Oral History Program. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English. |
Finding aid for Series H created and encoded by Laura Hart in December 2016.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Back to TopIn 1973, the History Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill established an oral history program devoted to the study of the southern region of the United States.
The Southern Oral History Program collects interviews with Southerners who have made significant contributions to various fields of human endeavor. In addition, the Program undertakes special projects with the purpose of rendering historically visible those whose experience is not reflected in traditional written sources. Interviews are conducted by Program staff, graduate students, faculty members, and consultants. The Program also serves as a collecting agency, accepting donations of tapes and transcripts of interviews conducted by other researchers.
Back to TopThe Southern Oral History Program Collection, Series H: Piedmont Industrialization contains interviews conducted for Perspectives on Industrialization: The Piedmont Crescent of Industry, 1900-1940, a project funded primarily by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The project focuses on the impact of industrialization in seven main areas: Badin, Burlington, Bynum, Catawba County, Charlotte, and Durham, N.C., and Greenville, S.C. Other interviews are with individuals from Carrboro, Greensboro, Gastonia, and Marion, N.C., and several interviews pertain to the textile workers' strike in Elizabethton, Tenn., in 1929. Topics discussed include the development of various industries in these regions, especially textiles, tobacco, hosiery, and furniture and the experiences of workers in these industries and in various facets of their daily life, including health, recreation, religion, family, education, and financial hardships.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
Back to TopThe interviews for this region document the transformation of a rural area into a company town, Badin, N.C., which was dominated by the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). The transformation began with the construction of a dam across the Yadkin River by the Whitney Reduction Company, founded by George Whitney of Whitney and Stephenson, a Pittsburgh brokerage house. After Whitney went bankrupt in 1907, a French company, L'Aluminum Francaise, continued construction of the dam and built an aluminum plant. In 1914, the company sold its holdings to Andrew Mellon, who formed the Tallassee Power Company, a subsidiary of ALCOA. Originally a sparsely settled area, the influx of convict construction crews and black and Italian laborers had a major impact on the social and economic structure of the community. The people interviewed discussed these changes and the effects on their lives. Several of the interviewees recalled the original rural character of the area and the construction of the dam, aluminum plant, and the company town of Badin. Union activity is also an important topic of discussion in these interviews. The vote for affiliation with the Aluminum Workers of America in 1940 was especially significant because it was the first time in the South that a union won certification in a company-owned town. Race relations are another issue explored. Discrimination at work and in the town, living conditions, and union participation are all topics of discussion. The Badin interviews were conducted in 1979 by Southern Oral History Program staff member Rosemarie Hester under the sponsorship of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. The project culminated in the production of a video documentary, Aluminum Town. Although the study of Badin was not originally part of the Piedmont industrialization project, these interviews were included in the series because Badin's development contrasted with industrialization in some of the other regions selected for research.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
Cary Joseph Allen, white factory worker, discusses his experiences with Alcoa Aluminum Company in Badin, N.C., the poor working and living conditions for Alcoa workers because of the company's strong paternalistic influence within the community, the weak representation of aluminum workers within the American Federation of Labor (AFL), he and his fellow workers' efforts to establish a local branch of the Aluminum Workers of America in Badin, N.C., difficulty in attracting new union members who feared losing their jobs, the long-term goals of the union to better working and living conditions and wages, and their successful unionization in 1937 with interviewer Rosemarie Hester. 3 April 1980
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Barbara Britt, factory worker, discusses her family background, work experiences prior to and with Alcoa Aluminum Company, concerns about working conditions and job security with Alcoa, experiences as a member of a union, a specific case of two women who were fired and rehired after arbitration by the union, and her experiences as a woman working in a predominantly male industry with interviewer Rosemarie Hester. 28 July 1977
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Clyde Cook, African American factory worker, discusses difficulties growing up in Badin, N.C., and attending segregated schools owned and operated by Alcoa Aluminum Company, his experiences working for Alcoa and frustration with the racial hierarchies within the plant, discouragement and intimidation targeted toward African American workers during the process of unionization, eventual improved conditions for African American workers during the 1940s and 1950s, and his other experiences within the community, such as his work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with interviewer Rosemarie Hester. 10 July 1977
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T.J. Cotton, white farmer, discusses his birthplace, the families living in Badin, N.C., before the construction of Bodin dam and Alcoa Aluminum Company plant, the expansive recruitment of construction workers, convict labor from Raleigh prison, law enforcement, housing conditions for workers, reactions toward the construction, various residents of Badin, N.C., schools in Palmerville, N.C., his own decision to leave his farm, and other thoughts on weather, bugs, and farming with interviewer Rosemarie Hester. 17 June 1977
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Carlee Drye, white labor leader, discusses his role in establishing a local union for Alcoa Aluminum Company workers under the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) in Badin, N.C., its merge with steelworkers in 1959, his years as president of the union from 1952 to 1959, relations between the union and Alcoa management at the time of this interview in 1980, the process of eliminating racial discrimination in hiring practices at Alcoa, the impact of passing control of the Badin, N.C., sewer and water systems from Alcoa to the county, the tearing down of downtown buildings by Alcoa, and the decreased work opportunities for Badin, N.C., residents within the Alcoa plant with interviewer Rosemarie Hester. 2 April 1980
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George Edgar Eddins, white bank employee, discusses present-day Palmerville, N.C., the genteel Yadkin Mineral Springs Academy boarding school, the atmosphere of Palmerville, N.C., prior to the Whitney Company's plans to dam the Yadkin River, the rapid transformation of Palmerville, N.C., from a primarily rural place to a site of big industrial development, the turnover of the Whitney Company's plans to the Alcoa Aluminum Company, Alcoa's relocation of the site downriver to Badin, N.C., his years away from Palmerville, N.C. from before World War I until 1977, his work experiences in banking and finance in New York, and at the time of this interview in 1980, how he spent his time in the wing of his parent's home used by Yadkin Mineral Springs Academy students with interviewer Rosemarie Hester. 20 February 1980
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Harry Royal, African American factory worker, discusses his family background, early schooling and work experiences, his experiences working for Alcoa Aluminum Company and living in the Alcoa housing community in Badin, N.C., relations with workers who commuted to the plant, the establishing of the union, race relations within the union, the first labor strike, changes in working conditions brought on by the union, poll tax in N.C., and his political involvement and precinct work with interviewer Rosemarie Hester. 19 June 1977
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John David Summerlin, white factory worker, discusses his experiences in one of the first apprenticeship programs at Alcoa Aluminum Company, his promotions and movement up the company, the working conditions at the plant and improvements made to the health standards, differences between the plant before modernization and at the time of this interview in 1980, experiences for women working in the plant, his interest in Badin, N.C., history, the antique store he owns, his desire to open a museum in one of the old downtown buildings, and his unsuccessful attempt to buy the old pharmacy, which was purchased by Alcoa to be torn down the summer after this interview with interviewer Rosemarie Hester. 19 February 1980
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Burlington, N.C., is of particular significance for industrialization in the Piedmont because it was one of the first places where the textile industry took hold, and it eventually became the center for Burlington Industries, the largest textile corporation in the world. At first called Company Shops, Burlington originated in the 1850s as the location of the repair shops of the Goldsboro-Charlotte line of the North Carolina Railroad. The name was changed to Burlington in 1887. The first cotton mill in Alamance County, the Alamance Cotton Mill, was built on Cane Creek in 1837 by Edwin Michael Holt and William Carrigan. The mill survived the Civil War, and Holt and his sons gradually added other cotton mills to their holdings. By 1900, the Holt family controlled 24 of the 29 mills in Alamance County. Several mills were located in Burlington, and the city limits later expanded to include other mills and the villages surrounding them. After World War I, the cotton industry in Burlington experienced economic difficulties, partly due to a fall in demand for the ginghams that constituted the area's main product. In 1923, at the invitation of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce, James Spencer Love, who owned a controlling interest in the Gastonia Cotton Manufacturing Company of Gastonia, N.C., founded Burlington Industries. Initially, Love's company manufactured cotton cloth, but it was affected by the general slump in the cotton industry. Within a year, Love had switched to rayon manufacturing. During the 1920s and even during the Depression, Burlington Industries expanded, building new mills and taking over old ones. By the end of 1936, Burlington Industries owned 29 mills. In order to explore the history of the textile industry in Burlington, efforts were focused on former workers of the E. M. Holt Plaid Mill, owned by the Holt family, and on the Pioneer plant, owned by Burlington Industries. Established in 1883, the Plaid Mill was one of two cotton mills in Company Shops before the town was renamed. The mill was established by Lawrence Holt with financial backing from Banks Holt, W. H. Turrentine, and William A. Erwin. Burlington Industries acquired Plaid Mill in 1938. The Pioneer plant, the first mill owned by Burlington Industries, was built in 1923; the Piedmont Heights mill village grew up around it. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Burlington textile industry diversified into hosiery as well as rayon manufacture. As a result, the interviewers also talked with former workers from the Burlington area's many hosiery mills. Work, family, and living conditions are the topics covered most extensively in these interviews. Although the interviewers focused primarily on the Plaid and Pioneer mills, the interviews deal with the geographic and job mobility that characterized these people's lives. Movement--from farm to factory, from job to job, and from village to village--is an important feature of most of these interviews. Consequently, many Piedmont mill towns are discussed, among them Swepsonville, Leaksville, Spray, Schoolfield, Glen Raven, Glencoe, Altamahaw, Gibsonville, Durham, Bellemont, and Graham. Many of the interviewees worked part or all of their lives in Burlington's hosiery mills. Several of them engaged in home production of stockings, an important feature of the hosiery industry in the 1920s and 1930s. Ethel Hilliard discussed at length her childhood in El Dorado, a North Carolina gold mining town. One of the main themes pursued by the interviewers was the transition from family ownership (the Holt mills) to corporate management (Burlington Industries). The relationship between workers and owners is reflected in vignettes about members of the Holt family and of J. Spencer Love, and in accounts of union activity. Technology, time study, work organization, the impact of the Depression and World War II on the textile industry, occupational sex roles, child labor, and working conditions, are all topics of discussion. These interviews are also important for the information they include about everyday life. Most of the interviewees discuss family history, childhood, and education. Other topics include housing, sanitation, the advent of electricity, transportation, and diet. Some of the interviews reveal how some farm practices, such as gardening, raising livestock, and canning, were continued in the mill villages. The interview with Ben Wiles, a grocer, is informative both about the grocery business before the age of supermarkets, and about the implements of everyday living. Boarding was an important feature of mill village life, and more than half of these interviewees either boarded at some stage in their lives or had parents who ran boarding houses. Health was an important topic of discussion in almost every interview. Common illnesses, the effect of cotton dust in the mills, childbearing, the flu epidemic of 1918 , and health care (doctors, midwives, and folk remedies) are all discussed. Interviews with Carroll Lupton , a doctor who had worked in Piedmont Heights, and with Grace Moore Maynard and Mrs. Robinson former members of the Burlington Service League are particularly informative on the subject of health. Recreation is another aspect of everyday life discussed in these interviews. Many of the interviewees talked about dances, drinking customs, and entertainments such as the circus, medicine shows, and movies. Music--string bands, labor and folk songs, fiddling, and gospel--was also an important part of these workers' lives. Among sports activities, baseball stands out. Several workers including H. G. Meacham, V. Baxter Splawn, and Frank Webster played in baseball leagues and a few belonged to semi-pro teams . Religion is also covered. In some cases, the interviewers were especially interested in exploring the relationship between the churches and the mill owners. Other interviews reveal the importance of preacher George Washington Swinney and Glen Hope Baptist Church to Piedmont Heights mill village. Preacher Swinney was no longer alive at the time that these interviews were conducted, but an interview with his wife, Etta Swinney and tapes of his preaching are included. Interviews with Mildred Overman, educational director of Glen Hope Church, and Thomas Staley, a church maintenance worker, are of particular interest. Interviews with mill managers, other entrepreneurs, and middle-class women, add another dimension to this study of Burlington. Of particular significance are interviews with female entrepreneurs Bertha Cates, a coal and lumber yard operator, and her sister Verna Cates Stackhouse, manager of the King Cotton Mill. Cates was an active member of the Association of Business and Professional Women. One of the first female bank clerks in the area, Grace Moore Maynard, described the impact of World War I on the employment of women in white collar jobs. A number of other topics are touched upon more briefly. Reid Maynard discussed life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during World War II and his wartime service. The interview with Grace Moore Maynard, daughter of D. M. Moore, mayor of Burlington from 1912 to 1919, provides some information about that period of the city's history. Finally, these interviews provide some insights into the mill workers' racial attitudes, but this topic is not explored extensively.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
Henry Adams and Janie Adams, white textile workers, discuss their experiences working in various textile mills across N.C. and Va., the history of textile mills including machines and textiles captured in a book that the interviewer brought to the interview, working conditions and high expectations in the mills, the impact of the safety labor laws implemented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and differences between unionization in the South and elsewhere in the United States and their impact on the workplace environment with interviewer Allen Tullos. 28 February 1979
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Lottie Jeanette Adams, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 23 March 1979
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Bill Andrews and Daisy Andrews, white textile workers, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 23 March 1979
Closed. No release form received.
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Jessie L. Brooks, white textile worker, discusses his early desire to work in the textile mills to get away from farming, his experiences working at numerous mills in the area, his family's experiences working at mills, the varying work opportunities and expectations in mills during the Great Depression, differences and changes in management practices and technology over the years, the labor movement of the 1930s, the textile mill strike of 1934, his early interest in unions and skepticism about union leaders' actions, his ideas of returning to farming, and his thoughts on neighborliness at the time of the interview in 1977 with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 20 July 1977
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Stella Foust Carden, white textile worker, discusses her lifetime of experiences working in textile mills until her retirement in 1957, her experiences growing up on a farm and in a milltown, life during the Spanish Flu epidemic and World War I, her general thoughts on people's work ethic and helpfulness at the time of the interview in 1979, her experiences leaving school after age eight, the various jobs she has held at mills, her opinions of labor unions and the women's liberation movement, mill operations during the Great Depression, and her opinions on public versus private race relations with interviewer Mary Murphy. 25 April 1979
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Bertha Cates, white miner, discusses her experiences as the daughter of prominent businessman John Wesley Cates, his involvement with the Erwin Mill and other business dealings, her take over of his coal business in 1918, her college education experiences, the importance of education for women to her father, her thoughts against the Equal Rights Amendment, and the negative impacts of coal strikes and the Great Depression on the coal business with interviewer Mary Murphy. 13 June 1979
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Ernest Chapman, white factory supervisor, discusses his experiences as former superintendent of the Tower Mills hosiery mill in Burlington, N.C., his experiences in hosiery plants outside of N.C., the different jobs and machines associated with hosiery work, lower wages during the Great Depression and again in the 1940s leading to a mill strike and attempted unionization, competition between Tower Mills and Burlington Mills, and the differences between hosiery, cotton, and other textile mills with interviewer Mary Murphy. 4 June 1979
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Anonymous with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 29 June 1979
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Joseph Crutchfield, white textile worker, discusses his grandfather's cotton farm in Chatham County, N.C., his family's move to Bellemont, N.C., to work in the cotton mill, family life in the past, his early interest in mechanics and machines used in the hosiery industry, differences between cotton and hosiery mills, the Great Depression and attempted unionization in the 1930s, his thoughts on unionization, and his thoughts on the differences between men and women's abilities within hosiery mills with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1 January 1979
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Betty Davidson, white textile worker, discusses her family experiences growing up and working at the Dan River Cotton Mill where she met her husband Lloyd Davidson, their move to Burlington, N.C., to seek employment at the Plaid Mill, their early married life, her nearly five decades of work as a weaver, technological advances for weavers in the 1930s and 1940s, day-to-day workplace experiences in the mill, difficult work conditions, interactions with other workers, the role of the Copland family in the Burlington, N.C., textile industry, and labor in the Piedmont during the Great Depression with interviewer Allen Tullos. 2 February 1979
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Ethel Marshall Faucette, white textile worker, discusses her nearly fifty years of work at Glencoe Mill Town cotton mill until its closing in 1954, her childhood experiences bringing lunch to fellow village mill hands and learning skills for future millwork, her father's role as the mill's superintendent and the strong work ethic he instilled in his children, the social benefits and economic limitations of mill life between the late 1910s to mid 1950s, the twelve-hour work shifts and the eight-hour work day labor law's prevention of growing union activity, her memory of working conditions and race relations at the mill, and the negative impact of heightened consumer culture and increased job mobility on the mill village's social cohesion with interviewer Allen Tullos. 16 November 1979
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Donald Lee Faucette and Paul Faucette, white textile workers, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 7 January 1979
Closed. No release form received.
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Howard K. Glenn and Josephine Glenn, white textile workers, discuss the differences between textile factories in Burlington, N.C., and their working environments, life in the mill villages, Josephine's family's transformation from rural farmers to members of the industrial workforce, her first job as a spinner, her lack of involvement with a union, the hierarchy of jobs at mills, the transportation for mill workers to factories in other towns, technological changes, entertainment provided by the mills, adaptations for wartime production, the end of segregation, and changing roles for women in the workplace with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 27 June 1979
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Staley Gordon, white factory supervisor, discusses the Tower Mills hosiery mill, and its management procedures and job descriptions with interviewer Allen Tullos. 3 May 1979
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Versa V. Haithcock, white textile worker, discusses his experiences moving around and working at various mills in the Piedmont region of N.C., life in the mill villages and boarding houses, and unionization in the 1930s with interviewer Mary Murphy. 4 April 1979
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Edward Harrington and Mary Estelle Harrington, white agricultural laborers and textile workers, discuss Edward's experiences working in different mills since the age of 14, the various operations of a mill, including lunch breaks, apprenticeships, and how they got paid, textile strikes in the 1930s, Mary's upbringing on a tobacco farm, the food and other goods they produced, the closeness of farming families, and her desire to keep house as her mother did and take care of friends and neighbors with interviewer Mary Murphy. 28 February 1979
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Ethel Hilliard, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 29 March 1979
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Rena Capes and Sallie Johnson, white textile workers, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 20 March 1979
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Carroll Lupton, white physician, discusses his medical practice in Burlington, N.C., the hardships and economic conditions in the South during the Great Depression, the medical care and common medical procedures that he provided for working class families, and the prominent role of the local midwife, Granny Lewis with interviewer Mary Murphy. 2 April 1979
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Dewey McBride and Gladys McBride, white police officer and textile worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 16 May 1979
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Swannie McDaniel, white textile worker, with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 1 July 1979
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Grace Moore Maynard, white bank employee, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1 January 1979
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Reid Atwater Maynard, white bank employee, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 6 and 13 February and 3 April 1979
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H. G. Meacham, white textile worker, with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 26 July 1979
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Zelma Montgomery Murray and Charles Murray, white textile workers, discuss their life and work in N.C. mill towns, the lack of control mill workers had over many aspects of their lives, and difficulties in joining a union because of the control of mill owners and vulnerability of workers with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 4 March 1979
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Lessie Newman, white textile worker, with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 28 June 1979
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Icy Norman, white textile worker, discusses the transition between farm life and work to living in town and working at factories and mills in and around Burlington, N.C., her experiences working at a shoe factory and eventually a textile mill where she worked for the rest of her career, memories of farm life, the social and working conditions in the mill, her dedication to her job, her resisting of unionization and retiring without a pension in 1976, and her regret that she did not profit more from the industry with interviewer Mary Murphy. 6 April 1979
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Mildred Cates Overman, white factory worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 17 April 1979
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James Pharis, white textile worker, discusses starting work at the age of twelve or thirteen, working up the ranks at various mills, his experiences in supervisory roles in R.I., and N.C., his management position in a weaving room in South America, his leadership position in his union's chapter of the United Textile Workers in the 1920s, difficulties in organizing a union in the 1930s, management training experiences, and changes in the textile industry in general with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 24 July 1979
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James Pharis and Nannie Pharis, white textile workers, discuss moving to Spray (now Eden), N.C., when their tenant farmer fathers both decided to pursue work in the local cotton mill industry, their work experiences and personal lives, Nannie's family background as one of 13 children, her work experiences in the cotton mill starting at the age of nine, her marriage to James in 1911 after meeting at a square dance, the family labor system, the food her family grew and ate, the importance of religion in her family, interactions with the community, and their hiring of an African American woman to help with child-rearing and cooking after they started a family with interviewer Allen Tullos. 5 December 1979
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William Redmon Robertson and Margaret Robertson, white textile workers, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 27 March 1979
Folder H0040 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0040 |
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Jefferson M. Robinette, white mill worker, discusses working in the mill at the age of twelve in Charlotte, N.C., his experiences moving between the area's textile mills and furniture factories before settling into a job at a dairy, his family, and lack of involvement with a union with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 1977
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Mrs. Robinson, white nurse, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 26 June 1979
Closed. No release form received.
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Harry Lee Rogers, white textile worker, with interviewer Cliff Kuhn 21 July 1979
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Harry Lee Rogers, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1 June 1979
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Ethel Bowman Shockley, white textile worker, discusses growing up in a working-class family in Carroll County, Va., moving to Glen Raven, N.C., after getting married to find work in the mill, life in the mill town, the unstable work and effects of labor activism during the Great Depression, the unionization and textile strike of some of the mills in the community though not at Plaid Mill where she worked, the positive impact on working conditions after the National Recovery Act and after the United States entered World War II, changes to the materials produced and techniques used, and issues of child labor, health care, worker's compensation, and racial relations in the workplace with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 24 June 1977
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Mattie Shoemaker and Mildred Shoemaker Edmonds, white textile workers, discuss their experiences working at a textile mill in Burlington, N.C., work routines, labor strikes, the impact of the Great Depression, the integration of the mill, and their own thoughts on race relations in the community and the persistence of racism at the time of the interview in 1979 with interviewer Mary Murphy. 23 March 1979
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V. Baxter Splawn, white textile worker, with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 27 July 1979
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V. Baxter Splawn, white textile worker, with interviewer Billy Mass and Allen Tullos. 19 February 1980
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/32 |
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Verna Lee Cates Stackhouse, white factory supervisor, with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 19 July 1979
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Thomas Lee Staley, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1 May 1979
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Nettie Mae Stout, white secretary, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 13 June 1979
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Etta Gay Swinney, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 4 April 1979
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Hester Mayhew Taylor, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 4 April 1979
Closed. No release form received.
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Herman Newton Truitt, white textile worker, discusses his rural childhood, his experience owning a grocery store in a mill town during the 1920s through 1940s, food traditions of mill workers in the South, changes in the grocery and mill industries at mid-century, and the economic status of mill workers with interviewer Allen Tullos. 5 December 1979
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Christine Weaver, white textile worker, with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 25 July 1979
Closed. No release form received.
Folder H0055 |
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Frank Webster, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 30 January 1979
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Emma Whitesell, white textile worker, discusses her work experiences in a textile mill starting at the age of twelve and continuing work after getting married and bearing five children with interviewer Cliff Kuhn. 27 July 1979
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Benn G. Wiles, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 15 February 1979
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Ina Lee Wrenn, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 23 March 1979
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Robert Latta, white religious leader, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 17 April 1984
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The Bynum, N.C., interviews focus on a company-owned cotton mill town in Chatham County, N.C. Bynum had its beginnings as the site of a grist mill located on the Bynum family property. In 1872, Luther and Carney Bynum and neighbors George Thompson and E. W. Atwater established a cotton spinning mill, the Bynum Manufacturing Company. In addition, they created a mill village to house the workers, which included a church, a parsonage, and a company store. In 1886, John Milton Odell of Concord, N.C., acquired majority shares in the Bynum Manufacturing Company, which was dissolved when it became part of the J. M. Odell Manufacturing Company. The Bynums continued to serve as mill superintendents until 1902 when William Lord London of Pittsboro became secretary of the mill. London came from a distinguished North Carolina family. His grandfather had been secretary to Governor William Tryon. After the Revolution, London settled in Wilmington. His son, Henry Adolphus London, moved to Pittsboro before 1838, established a mercantile business, and served as secretary-treasurer of the Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company. Henry London's sons were also active entrepreneurs. Henry Armand London edited the Chatham Record for 40 years and was president of the state senate in 1901 and 1903. With his brother, William Lord London, he founded the first bank of Pittsboro. After returning from the Civil War, William Lord London took over his father's mercantile business. In addition to his banking venture, London served on the board of directors of the Pittsboro Railroad Company and the Elizabeth Hosiery Company. He also arranged for the construction of the Pittsboro court house. In his capacity as secretary of the mill, William Lord London appointed Edgar Moore superintendent in 1904. Except for a break from 1922 to 1927, Moore was superintendent until 1955. By the time William Lord London died in 1916, the Londons had acquired a controlling share in the company. 1916 was also the year that a fire destroyed the mill. Upon reopening the plant in 1917, the company expanded production by adding a second shift and built new houses to accommodate a larger work force. Arthur London succeeded his father as superintendent and, in 1955, became chairman of the board of the J. M. Odell Manufacturing Company. He was succeeded by his son, W. L. London, and, in 1964, by John London. 1955 also was the year that Frank Durham succeeded Edgar Moore as mill superintendent. As early as the 1950s and 1960s, many long-time workers had begun to leave the mill. More workers left in the 1970s after the mill began to manufacture a synthetic blend and hired the Tuscarora Company of Mount Pleasant, N.C., to manage mill operations. In 1977, Chatham County, with assistance from the Agency for Housing and Urban Development, purchased the mill houses, renovated them, and sold them to the inhabitants and other buyers. John London retired in 1979, ending the London family's association with the mill. Most of the Bynum interviewees worked at J. M. Odell Manufacturing Company for part or all of their careers. Many of them began to work at Odell after the 1916 fire. Most of the Bynum mill workers moved around less frequently than their Burlington counterparts and maintained close ties with the rural community after migrating to Bynum from surrounding farms. In fact, some of the interviewees spent part of their working lives as farmers or farm laborers. Because the J. M. Odell Manufacturing Company in Bynum was a spinning mill, the subseries covers only this branch of the textile industry. Among the topics covered are technology, the impact of the Depression and World War II on the mill, paternalism, work discipline, work division by sex and race, and unionization attempts. Many of the workers also discussed at length brown lung and other health hazards of mill work. Many of the workers knew the Londons and shared their recollections with the interviewers. Interviews with John and Lawrence London provide more detailed information about the London family and the mill's history. The interviews also document mill village life in great detail. Interviewer Douglas DeNatale conducted many of the interviews, and the series strongly reflects his interest in rural culture and how it survived and changed in the mill village. Gardens, livestock maintained within the village, diet, homes, and furnishings comprise some of the elements of everyday living covered by the interviewees. Many of the workers also talked about early modes of transportation and the advent of the automobile. The transition from company to private ownership in the 1970s had a major impact on the community, and many of the interviewers discussed this change. Good information about this change can be found in the interview with Greg Warren of the Chatham County Housing Authority. Family ties and relationships are also discussed in these interviews. Childhood, early work experiences, and education are covered in almost every interview. In addition, the interviewees described domestic activities, courting, family violence, and household servants. Most of the interviewees boarded when they first arrived in Bynum, but they tended to lodge with relatives rather than in organized boarding houses. DeNatale was particularly interested in music, religious practices and traditions, and folklore, and, as a result, his interviews explore these topics in detail. Story-telling was a popular pastime in Bynum, and some of the interviewees recounted popular tales. Bynum's musical traditions included gospel singing, Hawaiian music, string bands, and fiddling. Other common pastimes described in the interviews are baseball games, listening to the radio, socials, dances, card playing, movies, hunting and fishing, community fish fries and barbecues, and quilting. Almost every interviewee mentioned religion, and many recalled attending revivals. DeNatale's interest in folkways extended to medical and health matters, and some of his interviews include information about home remedies and folk beliefs. In addition, the interviewees discussed epidemics, especially the 1918 flu epidemic; alcoholism; and health care, including the roles of doctors and midwives. Other topics are covered in less detail. Some of the interviewees left mill work to take jobs at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. Race relations are also covered in discussions of African Americans entering mill work, servants, the Ku Klux Klan, and school desegregation in Pittsboro. A few of the interviewees mentioned Bynum citizens serving in World War I. The Bynum interviews include the first interviews conducted for the Perspectives on Industrialization Project by an oral history class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The class was designed to train field workers to conduct subsequent interviews for the project. As a result, the interviews in this subseries vary in quality. After the class ended, one student, Douglas DeNatale, conducted further interviews in Bynum for his master's thesis in the folklore curriculum at UNC Chapel Hill.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
J. Nathaniel Atwater, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 4 October 1979
Folder H0060 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0060 |
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Digital Folder H-0060 |
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Curtis Baldwin, white textile worker, with interviewer Robert Jeffrey. 1 November and 9 December 1978
Closed. No release form received.
Audiotape T-4007/ H0061 |
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Digital Folder H-0061 |
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/34 |
Supplementary material
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Ann Bynum, white musician and teacher, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 24 October 1979
Folder H0062 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0062 |
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Mary Council, white textile worker, with interviewer Kennette Nowell. 1 November 1978
Folder H0063 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0063 |
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Eula Durham and Vernon Durham, white textile workers, with interviewer James L. Leloudis. 20 November 1978
Folder H0064 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0064 |
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Digital Folder H-0064 |
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Eula Durham, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 1 March 1979
Folder H0065 |
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Digital Folder H-0065 |
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/35 |
Supplementary material
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Flossie Moore Durham, white textile worker, discusses her experiences working at a cotton mill in Bynum, N.C., from the age of ten until she married at 18, the rhythms of mill life, her experiences as a wife and mother, and the mill community with interviewers Mary Frederickson and Brent D. Glass. 2 September 1976
Folder H0066 |
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Frank Durham, white factory supervisor, discusses the life and community of working in a mill, his own experiences working up to become superintendent, the inner workings of the mill and how management handled employees, various aspects of employee life and entertainment, his personal family life, struggles they faced, and the changes that he has seen since he started as a mill worker in the early-20th century with interviewer Douglas Denale. 10 September 1979
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Lewis Durham, white textile worker, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 15 August 1976
Folder H0068 |
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Jimmy Elgin, white textile worker, with interviewer Marcella Groon. 2 November 1978
Folder H0069 |
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Jimmy Elgin, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 20 October 1979
Folder H0070 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0070 |
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Anonymous with interviewers James L. Leloudis and Mary Murphy. 14 November 1978
Folder H0071 |
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/36 |
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Anonymous with interviewer Margaret Lee. 12 November 1978
Folder H0072 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0072 |
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Beulah Eubanks, white textile worker, with interviewer Susan Sink. 25 October 1978
Folder H0073 |
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Roy Eubanks, white textile worker, with interviewer Vann Vogel. 29 October 1978
Folder H0074 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0074 |
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Sally Fowler, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 29 August 1979
Folder H0075 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0075 |
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Digital Folder H-0075 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Mary Gattis, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 1 August 1979
Folder H0076 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0076 |
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/37 |
Supplementary material
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Carrie Lee Gerringer, white textile worker, discusses her experiences raising a family and working in the textile industry in Bynum, N.C., her experiences doing chores rather than playing as a child, starting work at the mill at the age of 14 where she worked for more than 50 years, and the economic difficulties they face with interviewer Douglas Denale. 11 August 1979
Folder H0077 |
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Louise Harris, white textile worker, with interviewer Helen Bresler. 24 October 1978
Folder H0078 |
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Roy Hatley, white textile worker, with interviewer Vann Vogel. 15 November 1978
Folder H0079 |
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Digital Folder H-0079 |
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Henry Hearne, with interviewer Alma G. Blount. Undated
Closed. No release form received.
Folder H0080 |
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Digital Folder H-0080 |
Administrative information |
James Hearne, white factory worker, with interviewer Marianne Hansen. 1 November 1978
Folder H0081 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0081 |
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Christine Herndon, white textile worker, with interviewer Susan Sink. 8 November 1978
Folder H0082 |
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Helen Howard, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 22 October 1979
Folder H0083 |
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Digital Folder H-0083 |
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Trennie Johnson, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 28 October 1978
Folder H0084 |
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Louise Riggsbee Jones, white textile worker, discusses growing up in the cotton mill town of Bynum, N.C., during the early-20th century, her father's death when she was only six years old, her close relationship with her mother, the working lives of her older siblings that allowed their family to manage financially, her mother's garden and livestock, the role of religion in the community, her school experiences, her experiences in the cotton mill, and the variety of ways in which people received medical care in the community with interviewer Mary Frederickson. 20 September 1976
Folder H0085001 |
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Digital Folder H-0085-001 |
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Louise Riggsbee Jones, white textile worker, discusses life and work in the mill community of Bynum, N.C., the importance of church and religion to her community, her early marriage and family life, her work in the local cotton mill before her first child and during the Great Depression, and difficulties she faced around issues such as work conditions, gender relations in the workplace, balancing family and work life, relationships between workers, and workers' benefits with interviewer Mary Frederickson. 13 October 1976
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Louise Rigsbee Jones, white textile worker, with interviewer Margaret Lee. 31 October 1978
Folder H0086 |
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Louise Rigsbee Jones and Paul Jones, white textile worker, with interviewers Mary Frederickson and Brent D. Glass. 14 September 1976
Audiotape T-4007/ H0087 |
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Louise Rigsbee Jones and Paul Jones, white textile workers, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 23 October 1979
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Diane Kirkpatrick, white secretary, with interviewer Marcella Groon. Undated
Closed. No release form received.
Audiotape T-4007/ H0089 |
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Pearl Foushee Lindsey, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 18 September 1979
Folder H0090 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0090 |
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Digital Folder H-0090 |
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John London white mayor, with interviewer Gary Richard Freeze. 2 November 1978
Folder H0091 |
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Lawrence Foushee London, white librarian, with interviewer Gary Richard Freeze. 7 December 1978
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/38 |
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Lawrence Foushee London, white librarian, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 29 October 1979
Folder H0093 |
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Bland Moore, white textile worker, with interviewer Carol Shaw. 28 October 1978
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Annie Mae Perkins, white textile worker, with interviewer Susan Sink. 26 October 1978
Folder H0095 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0095 |
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Digital Folder H-0095 |
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Mozelle Riddle, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 1 November 1978
Folder H0096001 |
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Digital Folder H-0096-001 |
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Mozelle Riddle, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 13 November 1978
Folder H0096002 |
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Digital Folder H-0096-002 |
Administrative information
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Louise Riggsbee, white textile worker, with interviewer Susan Sink. 26 October 1978
Folder H0097 |
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John Wesley Snipes, white farmer, discusses his family's role in the history of Chatham County, N.C., his childhood experiences, tales of Civil War veterans, rural recreations, home medical remedies, religion, self-reliance, and other aspects of living in an early-20th-century farming community with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 20 September 1976
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John Wesley Snipes, white farmer, discusses his early experiences growing up in an agricultural family, community celebrations and gatherings they held, his marriage to Lessie Mae Smith in 1919, his own experiences farming throughout the 1920s, the economic difficulties of the Great Depression that caused them to relocate to Bynum, N.C., to find work at the Jay and Muldell Company cotton mill, working conditions and restrictions he experienced in the mill, life in the mill villages, efforts to organize workers, and his decision to leave the cotton mill in 1946 to enter the timber industry with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 20 November 1976
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John Wesley Snipes, white farmer, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 22 August 1979
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Thomas Snipes, white factory worker, with interviewer Tony Mace. 2 December 1978
Folder H0100 |
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Tim Taylor, textile worker, with interviewer Margaret Lee. 6 December 1978
Closed. No release form received.
Folder H0101 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0101 |
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Digital Folder H-0101 |
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Gregg Warren, program coordinator, with interviewer Helen Bresler. 7 November 1978
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Gregg Warren, program coordinator, with interviewer Margaret Lee. 16 November 1978
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Annie Baldwin Watson, white teacher, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 3 September 1979
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Ruth Williams, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas Denale. 23 August 1979
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The Catawba, N.C., interviews focus on the industrialization of an entire county. Cotton manufacturing began in Catawba County as early as 1816, but substantial industrial development in Catawba came with the railroads. Hickory and Conover, the main industrial centers, were originally stops along the Western North Carolina Railroad line from Salisbury to Morganton. Maiden, a third industrial town, developed around a cotton mill that farmer Henry Carpenter built to take advantage of a rail line through his property. After the turn of the century, Catawba County's nascent industry received a boost when the Southern Power Company (later Duke Power) began to promote industry in order to add customers for the electricity generated by its hydroelectric plants on the Catawba River. In addition to cotton, the manufacturing of hosiery, furniture, and work gloves became main industries in the area. Although the interviews are with workers in all four of Catawba County's major industries, furniture and glove manufacturing were stressed more than hosiery or cotton. Many of the interviews relate to the Shuford family and the many enterprises they created. In 1880, Abel A. Shuford founded a cotton mill at Granite Falls, which he later moved to Hickory. Shuford also founded Hickory's first bank (the First National Bank of Hickory) and invested in other local enterprises. Subsequent generations diversified into furniture, plastics, rayon, and pressure-sensitive tape. In the early 1980s, Shuford Mills and another Shuford enterprise, Century Furniture, were the largest employers in Hickory. Another branch of the Shuford family was instrumental in the development of the glove and furniture industries in Conover. Adrian L. Shuford began his career as a clerk in his uncle Abel Shuford's bank in Hickory. In 1916, Shuford and a local Republican politician, Charles Robert Brady, bought the Warlong Glove Company of Newton and moved it to Conover. Brady and Shuford branched into other business ventures, and, by 1925, they held a controlling interest in Hickory Handle. In 1927, they sold the company to Preston Yount and Rob Herman, who were the supervisors at the glove and furniture mills respectively. A year later, Brady and Shuford divided Conover Furniture into two companies, with Brady retaining control of Conover Furniture and Shuford taking charge of Warlong Glove. Under Shuford's management, Conover Knitting Company was established and installed in the same building as Warlong Glove. Conover Furniture passed to Brady's son, Walter Brady, and son-in-law Bill Barker upon his death in 1934. Interviews with members of the Shuford family and with Lula Brady Barker document the history of the Shuford and Brady enterprises in Conover. During the Depression, the furniture industry hit upon hard times owing to a decline in the market. As a result, Conover Furniture went bankrupt in 1938. James Edgar Broyhill, a Lenoir industrialist, bought the plant in 1941. Information on the development of the glove industry after World War II can be found in the interview with Arthur Little, founder and owner of Southern Glove, and in interviews with Ralph Bowman, former president of Hickory Chair, and Hugh Boyer, president of the company (now called Hickory Manufacturing). These interviews also document the transition from family to corporate management, and the interviewees' ties with the furniture industry as a whole through membership in such organizations as Western Carolina Industries and the Southern Furniture Manufacturers' Association.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
Junie Edna Kaylor Aaron, white textile worker, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 12 December 1979
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Eunice Austin, white textile worker, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 2 July 1979
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Roy Lee Auton, white textile worker, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 28 February 1979
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Hill Baker, African American factory worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 8 June 1979
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Hill Baker, African American factory worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 June 1979
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Oscar Dearmont Baker, African American factory worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 June 1979
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Lula Brady Barker, white accountant, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 30 May 1979
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Ralph Bowman, white executive, with interviewers Sharon P. Dilley and Margaret Lee. 1 June 1979
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Hugh Boyer, white executive, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 July 1979
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Marshall Clay, white factory supervisor, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 13 August 1979
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Mareda Sigmon Cobb and Carrie Sigmon Yelton, white textile worker, with interviewers Jacquelyn Dowd Hall and Sharon P. Dilley and Margaret Lee. 16 and 18 June 1979
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Carrie Davis, white textile worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 31 July 1979
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Hoy Deal, white artisan, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1979
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Hoy DealPhotographic prints
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Lonnie Eggers, white textile worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 22 October 1979
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Fred Yount Fox, white executive, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 15 December 1979
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Bob Gayle, white public officer, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 July 1979
Closed. No release form received.
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Frank Carman Gilbert and Mrs. Frank Carman Gilbert, white textile workers, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. Summer 1977
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Virginia Moser Gilbert, white textile worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 June 1979
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Roy Ham, white accountant, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1977
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Gladys Florene Harris, white textile worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 8 August 1979
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Coleen Deal Hefner, white textile worker, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 13 December 1979
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Edgar H. Herman, white textile workers, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 23 October 1979
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Esley Herman, white factory worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 23 October 1979
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Gladys Irene Moser Hollar and Glenn Hollar, white textile workers, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 26 February 1979
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Carmon Hudson, white textile worker, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 11 December 1979
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Eda Luella Hyder, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 24 July 1979
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Kathry Killian and Blanche Bolick, white textile workers, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 12 December 1979
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Arthur Little, white executive, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 14 December 1979
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Flake Oran Meyers and Nellie Mae Workman Meyers, white textile workers, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley.
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Dolly Moser, white farmer with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 13 December 1979
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Joan Murphy, white woman, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 5 July 1979
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Adelaide Henry and Annie Shuford Rankin, white bank employee and white teacher, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 14 December 1979
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Ila Mae Rice, white factory supervisor, with interviewers Jacquelyn Dowd Hall and Sharon P. Dilley. 15 June 1979
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Thurman Sheets, white labor leader, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 20 July 1979
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Adrian L. Shuford, white executive, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 29 February 1979
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Harley Shuford, white executive, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 13 November 1979
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A. Pope Shuford, white executive, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 July 1979
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Murphy Yomen Sigmon and Nell Putnam Sigmon, white textile workers, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. Friday, July 27, 1979
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Nell Putnam Sigmon, white textile worker, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 13 December 1979
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Clifford Simmons, white factory worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 January 1979
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Ralph Simmons, white factory supervisor, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 January 1979
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Ralph Simmons, white factory supervisor, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 January 1979
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Mable Kinney Summers and Pete Summers, white textile workers, with interviewers Sharon P. Dilley and Mary Murphy. 25 July 1979
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W. Farel Warlick, white teacher, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 29 February 1979
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Julian G. Whitener, white mayor, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 June 1979
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John Jacob Workman, white textile worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 19 July 1979
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Lee A. Workman, white factory worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 June 1979
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Memory Luther Workman, white factory worker, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 January 1979
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Scott Workman, white tailor, with interviewer Sharon P. Dilley. 1 January 1979
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Fred R. Yoder, white teacher, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 20 September 1979
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Charlotte, N.C., has been a focal point for economic development in the Piedmont region. During the antebellum period, Charlotte was a small market town, with only 3,000 citizens in 1860. In spite of its small size, it became an important trade center. As early as 1825, Charlotte businessmen began urging the state legislature to improve the town's transportation links with other markets by establishing railroad service. Construction on the first railroad began in 1849. Location in the center of a gold-producing region also added to Charlotte's importance. With the discovery of gold in Mecklenburg County in 1799 and the opening of other mines in surrounding counties, Charlotte became a center for shipping gold to the federal mint in Philadelphia. In 1835, the United States government established a branch of the mint in Charlotte. Industrial and commercial development began in the second half of the 19th century, with cotton playing an important role. As cotton prices fell after the Civil War, it became more profitable to manufacture textiles in the South, thereby avoiding the cost of shipping cotton north. Charlotte, however, was slower to develop a textile industry than elsewhere in North Carolina. In 1881, entrepreneurs established the town's first textile manufacturing establishment, the Charlotte Cotton Mill. Other mills followed, with the most rapid expansion occurring between 1889 and 1910. Charlotte began to expanded even more rapidly after the turn of the century. With the encouragement of businessmen and investors such as Daniel Augustus Tompkins, Charlotte's industry became more diversified, with no one industry predominating. Textile and agricultural machinery, chemicals, cotton seed oil, and peanut food products were among the industries that developed in Charlotte during this period. Real estate development and construction accompanied economic expansion. In 1890, James Latta began to develop Dilworth, a tract of land outside the city limits. The Dilworth project eventually included both residential and industrial neighborhoods. Myers Park, a residential development, was begun shortly after the turn of the century. As Charlotte expanded, the city used North Carolina's annexation law to incorporate outlying neighborhoods and mill villages. After World War II, distribution rather than manufacturing became central to Charlotte's economy. As conglomerates began to incorporate individual mills, cotton manufacturing became more centralized. Consequently, textile manufacturing moved out of the city to other locations, although Charlotte remained at the geographical center of the region's cotton industry. At the same time, new highways began to displace mill villages and other working-class neighborhoods. The development of superhighways facilitated Charlotte's development as a distribution center. Charlotte eventually claimed to be second only to Chicago as a trucking terminal. Charlotte's emergence as a financial center began after the Civil War. Numerous banks were founded in the 1870s, and the wave of new financial and commercial institutions continued into the 1920s. By the early 1980s, Charlotte claimed to be the largest financial center in the southeast. The Charlotte interviews on the mill village neighborhoods of north Charlotte. Most of the interviewees worked all or part of their careers in the cotton or hosiery industries. Among the topics discussed are various jobs in the mills, work conditions, child labor, work discipline, changing technology, speed ups, and efficiency experts. The impact of the Depression and World War II is also discussed. Accounts of unionization attempts and strikes figure prominently in these interviews. A few interviewees recalled specific strikes, among them the Gastonia Strike and the 1934 General Strike. Mildred Gwin Andrews, who served as secretary-manager for the Yarn Spinners' Association and worked as a researcher for the Cotton Textile Institute and the American Textile Machinery Association, provided information about the history of cotton manufacturing in North Carolina and described some of the industry's professional associations. Mill village and family life constitute the other major themes of these interviews. Discussions of paternalism, living conditions, and company stores reveal the close ties between the mills and the villages. The relationship between textile workers and other Charlotte residents illuminates class relations within the city. Almost all of the interviewees discussed family life, including childhood, education, furnishings and diet, courtship, marriage, and pregnancy. A few interviewees also touched upon more personal matters, such as illegitimacy, divorce, birth control, suicide, and alcoholism. Because the interviewers made some of their contacts through a church hot lunch program for senior citizens, programs for the elderly are an important element in these interviews. Other themes relating to everyday life include recreation, health care, and religion. The interviewees enjoyed a wide variety of recreational activities, including fishing, hunting, square dancing, quilting bees, and playing in musical groups. Interviewees also mentioned attending movies, minstrel and medicine shows, and listening to the phonograph and radio. Several workers also played on mill baseball teams. Among the topics relating to health care are folk cures, the 1918 flu epidemic, and vaccinations. Midwives attended many women at the births of their children, but hospital deliveries are also mentioned. Religion was an important element in the lives of these interviewees. In their narratives, they emphasized church attendance, Sunday school, and revivals rather than their experiences as members of specific denominations. Because of Charlotte's importance as a commercial center, a few of the interviewees are from outside the textile industry. The owner of a trucking company, and railway, streetcar, and auto workers are included among the interviewees representing occupations relating to transportation. These interviewees discussed unionization in the trucking and railroad industries, and the streetcar workers recalled the strike of 1918. Several mentioned Cameron Morrison, a Charlotte businessman who served as governor of North Carolina (1920-1928) in connection with transportation. In order to show Charlotte's economic diversity, the project included interviews with business leaders and executives. Milton Short, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, offered a businessman's perspective on Charlotte's growth and development. Interviews with John Belk, Jean Cole, and with engineers at Duke Power and Westinghouse provide information about some of Charlotte's other major enterprises. The Charlotte interviews include information on a number of prominent North Carolinians. The role Mildred Gwin Andrews took in the textile industry brought her into contact with Liston Pope, Harriet Herring, Howard Odum, Luther Hodges, and James Spencer Love. In his capacity as a naval officer serving in Georgia, Ralph W. Strickland recalled meeting Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Benjamin V. Martin, son of a Clemson professor, had many recollections of his early years and college education at Clemson University.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
Mildred Gwin Andrews, white secretary, with interviewers James L. Leloudis and Mary Murphy. 1979
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Mildred Gwin Andrews, white secretary, with interviewers Billy Mass and Allen Tullos. 1980
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Jesse B. Ashe, white railroad worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1980
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Ralph Charles Austin, white factory worker, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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John Belk, white worker, with interviewe Allen Tullos. 1980
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Loy Connelly Cloniger, white worker, with interviewe Allen Tullos. 1980
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John Dunn and Minnie R. Dunn, white textile worker, with interviewe Allen Tullos. 1980
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Minnie Lawrence Dunn, African American agricultural worker, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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George Dyer and Tessie Dyer, white textile worker, with interviewer Lu Ann Jones. 1980
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Alice Evitt, white textile worker, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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Edna Y. Hargett, white textile worker, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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L. Worth Harris, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1980
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Jean Cole Hatcher, white worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1980
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Willie Mae Honnecutt, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1980
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Eva Ballentine Hopkins, white textile worker, with interviewer Lu Ann Jones. 1980
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Julius Edwin Kimbirl, white factory worker, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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Laura Mae Kirkpatrick, white domestic worker, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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Coy M. Kiser, white factory worker, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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Hoyle McCorkle and Mamie McCorkle, white factory workers, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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Benjamin V. Martin, white worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1980
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Baxter Merrit, white factory worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1980
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Viola Pitts, white textile worker, with interviewer Lu Ann Jones. 1980
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Lila Mae Sanders, white textile worker, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
Closed. No release form received.
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Milton Short, white business owner, with interviewers James L. Leloudis and Carol Shaw. 1979
Audiotape T-4007/ H0176 |
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George R. Shue and Mamie Shue, white factory supervisor, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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Gertrude Shuping, white textile worker, with interviewer Lu Ann Jones. 1980
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Loyd Hay Shuping, white textile worker, with interviewer Lu Ann Jones. 1980
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Ralph Waldo Strickland, white railroad employee, with interviewer Lu Ann Jones. 1980
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Digital Folder H-0180 |
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Claude Thomas, white mechanic, with interviewer Lu Ann Jones. 1980
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Digital Folder H-0181 |
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Carl Thompson and Mary Thompson, white textile worker, with interviwer James L. Leloudis. 1979
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Digital Folder H-0182 |
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Ada Mae Wilson, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1980
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Digital Folder H-0183 |
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Blaine H. Wofford, white factory worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1980
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0184 |
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Digital Folder H-0184 |
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Herman Wolf, white worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1980
Audiotape T-4007/ H0185 |
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The Durham, N.C., interviews document the experiences of workers in the city's tobacco, textile, and hosiery industries. Durham began its transformation from a crossroads into a major industrial city with the completion of the railroad line between Raleigh and Greensboro, just prior to the Civil War. After the war, Robert F. Morris, one of the largest farmers in Orange County, moved his tobacco business to Durham. William Blackwell, a Person County merchant, acquired the business in 1869 and, in 1870, he took Julian Shakespeare Carr, son of Chapel Hill's leading merchant, as a partner. Carr assumed full ownership of the plant in 1883. By the mid-1880s, Durham had many other tobacco companies, among them Washington Duke and Sons. The Dukes gradually absorbed Blackwell's and other firms and, by 1890, had established a consolidated cigarette firm, the American Tobacco Company. Anti-trust action in 1911, however, forced the dissolution of the company, which was reorganized as the new American Tobacco Company consisting of the former Duke properties, and Liggett and Meyers, which included Blackwell's former holdings. The textile and hosiery industries in Durham arose in conjunction with the tobacco industry. These mills provided outlets for surplus capital and made bags and other products needed by the tobacco companies. Among Durham's textile establishments was the Erwin Cotton Manufacturing Company and mill village in West Durham, founded by members of the Duke family. William Erwin, who was related to the Holts of Alamance County and had supervised Plaid Mill, served as superintendent. Eventually, Erwin took on Kemp Plummer Lewis, whose family owned the Rocky Mount Cotton Mills, as an associate. The hosiery industry in Durham had similar origins. In 1884, J. S. Carr and J. M. Odell, established the Durham Cotton Mill in East Durham. By the 1890s, Carr, driven out of tobacco by the Tobacco Trust, devoted most of his energies to hosiery as he consolidated 14 local mills into one company. Work is one of the most important topics covered in these interviews. Many of the interviewees migrated to Durham from surrounding farms (among them, Stagville, owned by Bennehan Cameron), and many of them alternated between farm or sawmilling jobs and work in the city's factories. Often the interviews include accounts of sharecropping, farm work, lumbering, and sawmilling. Among women, domestic service often was their first job. In talking about work in the tobacco factories, the interviewees focus on work conditions, the steps involved in processing tobacco, the division of labor by gender and by race, labor policies, the advent of labor unions, and strikes. The textile and hosiery workers cover similar topics, as well as speedups and time studies. A number of the interviewees relate their personal recollections of William Erwin and Kemp Plummer Lewis. Race relations are covered more thoroughly in these interviews than in others in the series because many of the tobacco workers were African Americans. Many of the interviewees discussed segregation in the factories, both in jobs and in the facilities provided for blacks and whites. Other topics relating to race relations include segregation and discrimination in the churches, schools, neighborhoods, mill villages, and especially in the unions. Racial violence, such as lynching and Ku Klux Klan incidents, and miscegenation, are also discussed. Almost all of the interviewees discussed childhood experiences, work as children, education, family life, courtship and marriage, and living conditions. Many of the interviewees described boarding house life, their homes, sanitation facilities, and life in the mill villages. Education occupies a particularly important place in these interviews because some of them were conducted by Kenneth Kornblau, a Duke undergraduate, for a paper on the Durham schools. These interviews focus on the backgrounds and experiences of teachers and school officials and on the history of Durham's school system. Music played an important role in the lives of many of the people interviewed. They sang in the tobacco factories, played guitars and other instruments, and formed bands and singing groups to perform gospel music and the blues. Several interviewees shared memories of Gary Davis, a nationally known blues singer from Durham. Two of the interviewees worked as musicians, touring with medicine shows and performing on the radio. Other forms of recreation and entertainment are dances, cornshucking and quilting parties, movies, vaudeville, and sports. These interviews touch on a variety of other topics. Many of the interviewees discussed illnesses, such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, and the flu epidemic of 1918. Medical care, especially the segregated services provided by the tobacco companies, is also covered. Many of the women discussed birth control, pregnancy, childbirth, and abortion. Religion was important in the lives of many of the interviewees, and most of them discussed their church involvement. Crime, street life, and prostitution are also covered in several of the interviews. Finally, most of the interviewees discussed the Depression, and a few of them referred to experiences during World War I and World War II.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
William Amey, African American business owner, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 17 November 1976
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Digital Folder H-0186 |
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Lellie Arnold, white factory supervisor, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 11 July 1979
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0187 |
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Digital Folder H-0187 |
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Robert Avery, white factory worker, with interviewer Ken Kornblau. 8 April 1979
Folder H0188 |
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0188 |
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Digital Folder H-0188 |
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Mary Bailey, African American domestic worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 26 January 1976
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Digital Folder H-0189 |
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Annie Mack Barbee, African American factory worker, with interviewer Beverly Washington Jones. 28 May 1979
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0190 |
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Digital Folder H-0190 |
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Nellie Bobbitt, factory worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 17 July 1979
Closed. No release form received.
Digital Folder H-0191 |
Administrative information
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Maude Brown, African American domestic worker and factory worker, with interviewer Beverly Washington Jones. 3 August 1979
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Bessie Buchanan, textile worker, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 1 June 1977
Closed. No release form received.
Folder H0193001 |
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Digital Folder H-0193-001 |
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Bessie Buchanan, textile worker, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 13 July 1977
Closed. No release form received.
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Digital Folder H-0193-002 |
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/49 |
Supplementary material
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Thomas Burt, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 26 October 1976
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Thomas Burt, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 6 February 1979
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Thomas Burt, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 6 February 1979
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Hallie Caesar, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 21 May 1979
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Pansy Cheatham, African American factory worker, with interviewer Beverly Washington Jones. 9 July 1979
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Chester Clark and Rozanna Clark, African American factory workers, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. January 1979
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Elizabeth H. Cooke, white teacher, with interviewer Ken Kornblau. 17 April 1979
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Mary Magaline Dove, African American factory worker, with interviewer Beverly Washington Jones. 7 July 1979
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Maude W. Dunn, white teacher, with interviewer Ken Kornblau. 20 April 1979
Audiotape T-4007/ H0200 |
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/50 |
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Harvey Ellington, white musician, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1 March 1979
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Bessie W. Glenn, white factory worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 12 July 1979
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Lovie Henry, African American textile worker, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 1 June 1977
Closed. No release form received.
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Estelle Hodges, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 23 May 1979
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J. Ernest Latta, white labor leader, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 7 June 1977
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Leota Lowery, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 17 July 1979
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Mamie McCaughin, white teacher, with interviewer Ken Kornblau. 19 April 1979
Audiotape T-4007/ H0207 |
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Salina McMillon, African American domestic worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 25 October 1976
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Digital Folder H-0208 |
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Charlie Necoda Mack, African American architects builder, with interviewer Beverly Washington Jones. 22 May 1979
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Fannie Marcom with interviewer Mary Murphy. 17 July 1979
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Dora Scott Miller, African American factory worker, with interviewer Beverly Washington Jones. 6 June 1979
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Reginald Mitchiner, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 15 November 1976
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Digital Folder H-0212-001 |
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Reginald Mitchiner, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 7 December 1976
Audiotape T-4007/ H0212002 |
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Digital Folder H-0212-002 |
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Reginald Mitchiner, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 7 February 1979
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Digital Folder H-0212-003 |
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Maxie Oakley, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Murphy. 12 July 1979
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Reuben O'Neal, African American factory worker, with interviewer Beverly Washington Jones. 16 August 1979
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Frank Page, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 3 December 1976
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George Parks, white executive, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 27 July 1977
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John Patterson, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 3 November 1979
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Conrad Odell Pearson, white attorney and political activist, with interviewer Walter B Weare. 18 April 1979
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E. S. Phillips, white textile worker, with unidentified interviewer. 9 February 1977
Closed. No release form received.
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Edward L. Phillips, white teacher, with interviewer Ken Kornblau. 19 April 1979
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Bertie Pratt, white factory worker, with interviewer Linda Guthrie. 1 March 1975
Closed. No release form received.
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Samuel Lee Pridgen, white musician, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 16 February 1979
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Obie Richmond, African American factory worker, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 1 June 1977
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Ozzie Linwood Richmond, African American factory worker, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 1 June 1977
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Luther E. Riley, white textile worker, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 1 July 1977
Closed. No release form received.
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Digital Folder H-0225 |
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Charles Russell, African American agricultural worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 30 November 1976
Closed. No release form received.
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Vernon Saunders with interviewer Allen Tullos. 26 October 1976
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Vernon Saunders with interviewer Allen Tullos. 24 May 1979
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Blanche Scott, African American factory worker, with interviewer Beverly Washington Jones. 11 July 1979
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Martha Gena Harris, white factory worker, with interviewer Dolores E Janiewski. 29 April 1977
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Richard Trice, African American factory worker, with interviewer Glenn Hinson. 16 February 1978
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James Tucker, African American factory worker, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 1 August 1977
Closed. No release form received.
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Margaret Turner, African American domestic worker, with interviewer Beverly Washington Jones. 2 June 1979
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Theotis Williamson, white textile worker, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 1 February 1977
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Loyd Erwin Winn, white factory worker, with interviewer Lanier Rand. 21 July 1977
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Esther Jenks, African American textile worker, with interviewer Karen Sindelar. 7 June 1976
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Josephine Turner, white textile worker, with interviewer Dolores E Janiewski. 26 April 1977
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These interviews focus on the development of the textile industry in Greenville, S.C. Before the Civil War, Greenville served as a county seat, a center for grain milling, and a summer vacationing area for Low Country planters. In the 1880s, entrepreneurs began to build cotton mills and accompanying mill villages along the railroad lines on the outskirts of Greenville. As a result, Greenville developed distinctive neighborhoods that reflected the social tensions within the community. There were the prosperous town, the neighborhoods in which black servants lived, and the mill villages. The interviews also cover the work experiences and daily lives of Greenville's mill workers. Most of the workers or their families migrated to the city from farms in the Piedmont or the Appalachian Mountains. Many of the interviewees related their farming experiences and described their adjustments to mill work. In describing mill work, the interviewees talked about work conditions, safety, stretchouts, wages, paternalism, the division of labor by gender, home work, the impact of the Depression and World War II, and violence in the mills. They also discussed unionization attempts, and several interviewees had vivid recollections of the 1934 General Strike. Occupational illness is an especially important topic in these interviews. Many of the interviewees suffered from emphysema, byssinosis, or brown lung as a result of their mill work, and some of them had been involved in litigation with textile companies over health issues. Technology, the construction of mills and mill villages, and the movement of the textile industry from New England to the South are also mentioned. Interviews also document family life in the mill villages. Almost all of the interviewees discussed their childhoods and school years. Many talked about marriage, courtship, illegitimacy, pregnancy, divorce, sex and birth control, and old age. Discussions of sanitation, attitudes towards the residents of the mill villages, part-time farming, community violence, housing, illnesses and medical care, transportation, and housing reflect the tenor of mill village life. The interviewees belonged to a variety of churches, and some of them discussed company involvement in mill village churches. Although many mentioned recreation and music, this topic is not as important in these interviews as it is in some of the other series. Other topics include World War I, military service in World War II, the electric power industry, and politics. Although there is one interview with an African American worker and some mention of the role of blacks in the mills, race relations are not a major topic.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
Robert Roy Adams, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 19 October 1979
Folder H0236 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0236 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0236 |
Digitized transcript
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Image Folder PF-4007H/4 |
Robert Ray AdamsPhotographic print
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/51 |
Supplementary material
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Jessie Lee Carter, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 22 October 1979
Folder H0237 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0237 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0237 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Myrtle Cleveland, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 25 March 1980
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0238 |
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Digital Folder H-0238 |
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Paul Edward Cline, white teacher, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 30 May 1980
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Digital Folder H-0239 |
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/52 |
Supplementary material
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Geddes Elam Dodson, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1979
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0240 |
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Digital Folder H-0240 |
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/53 |
Supplementary material
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Ila Hartsell Dodson, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 23 May 1980
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Digital Folder H-0241 |
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Mack Duncan, white executive, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 27 August 1979
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Digital Folder H-0242 |
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Norvin Duncan, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 8 June 1979
Audiotape T-4007/ H0243 |
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Digital Folder H-0243 |
Administrative information
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Separated Folder SEP-4007H/54 |
Supplementary material
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Curtis Lelon Enlow, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 3 May 1980
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Dovie Gambrell and James Gambrell, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 28 May 1979
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Myrtle Gentry, white engineer, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 6 April 1976
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James Paul Griffith and Pauline Phillips Griffith, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 27 May 1980
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Alice Evelyn Hardin, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 4 May 1980
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Digital Folder H-0248 |
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Glover Hardin, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 5 May 1980
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Evelyn Gosnell Harvell, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 11 November 1979
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Ernest Hickum, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 29 May 1980
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Mildred V. Holden, white engineer, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 1979
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Martin E. Lowe, white clerk, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 22 October 1979
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Letha Ann Sloan Osteen, white men, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 5 May 1980
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Mary Elizabeth Robertson Padgett, white textile workers, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 30 May 1980
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Albert Sanders, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 27 March 1980
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Walter E. Soderberg, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 25 March 1980
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Audiotape T-4007/ H0257 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0257 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Naomi Sizemore Trammel, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 2 May 1980
Folder H0258 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0258 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0258 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Walter Vaughn, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 9 November 1979
Folder H0259 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0259 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0259 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Edward W. Wright, white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 26 May 1980
Folder H0260 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0260 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0260 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
George Wrigley, Jr., white textile worker, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 8 November 1979
Folder H0261 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0261 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0261 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Abner Darden Asbury, Jr., white executive, with interviewers Allen Tullos and Brent D. Glass. 15 February 1980
Folder H0262 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0262 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0262 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Interviews in this group reflect the theme of the "Perspectives on Industrialization: The Piedmont Crescent of Industry, 1900-1940" project, but either were not conducted in any of the original seven communities or were done after the completion of the original project. The project focuses on the impact of industrialization in seven main areas: Badin, Burlington, Bynum, Catawba County, Charlotte, and Durham, N.C., and Greenville, S.C. These interviews are with workers from the communities Carrboro, Greensboro, Gastonia, and Marion, N.C. Topics include the development of various industries in these regions, especially textiles, tobacco, hosiery, and furniture and the experiences of workers in these industries, both in their work and in daily life, including health, recreation, religion, family, education, and financial hardships.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
Gordon Berkstresser, white teacher, with interviewer Patricia Raub. 29 April 1986
Folder H0263 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0263 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0263 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
George Elmore, white textile worker, with interviewer Hugh P. Brinton. 15 May 1974
Folder H0265 |
Transcript |
Digital Folder H-0265 |
Digitized transcript
|
George Elmore, white textile worker, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 11 March 1976
Folder H0266 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0266 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0266 |
Digitized transcript
|
Vesta Finley, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Frederickson. 22 July 1975
Folder H0267 |
Transcript |
Digital Folder H-0267 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Charles Foster, white textile worker, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 4 March 1976
Folder H0268 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0268 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0268 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Thomas F. Fuller, white farmer, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 9 October 1975
Folder H0269 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0269 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0269 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Joseph H. Gwynn, white business owner, with interviewer Gwen D. Maples. 1975
Folder H0270 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0270 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0270 |
Digitized audio |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/55 |
Supplementary material
|
Dock E. Hall, white factory worker, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 7 January 1976
Folder H0271 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0271 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0271 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Rosa Holland, white textile worker, with interviewer Karen Thomisee. 22 July 1975
Closed. No release form received.
Folder H0272 |
Transcript |
Digital Folder H-0272 |
Digitized transcript
|
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/56 |
Supplementary material
|
Johnnie Jones, white maintenance worker, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 27 August 1976
Folder H0273 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0273 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0273 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Johnnie Jones, white maintenance worker, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 22 September 1976
Folder H0274 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0274 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0274 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Mrs. Ollie Melton, white textile worker, with interviewer Douglas DeNatale. 19 December 1979
Folder H0275 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0275 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0275 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Musker Semple Moore, white factory supervisor, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 17 May 1979
Folder H0276 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0276 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0276 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
John Thomas Outlaw, white automobile driver, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 5 June 1980
Folder H0277 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0277 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0277 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Margaret Skinner Parker, white textile worker, with interviewers W. Weldon Huske and Mrs. Isaac Hall Huske. 7 March 1976
Folder H0278 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0278 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0278 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Roy Clifton Parris, white logger, with interviewer Roy Clifton Parris. 1 March 1982
Folder H0279 |
Transcript |
Digital Folder H-0279 |
Administrative information
|
George Perkel, white academic, with interviewer Patricia Raub. 27 May 1986
Folder H0281 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0281 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0281 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Joseph A. Porter, white professor, with interviewer Allen Tullos. 25 June 1979
Folder H0282 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0282 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0282 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Lillie Morris Price, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Frederickson. 22 July 1975
Folder H0283 |
Transcript |
Digital Folder H-0283 |
Digitized transcript
|
Caldwell Ragan, white executive, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 15 November 1975
Folder H0284 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0284 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0284 |
Digitized transcript
|
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/57 |
Supplementary material
|
Caldwell Ragan, white executive, with interviewer Robert A. Ragan. 3 April 1976
Folder H0285 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0285 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0285 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/58 |
Supplementary material
|
Mary Robertson, white labor union member, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 13 August 1979
Folder H0288 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0288 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0288 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/59 |
Supplementary material
|
Stuart Rosenfeld, white factory supervisor, with interviewer Patricia Raub. 17 May 1986
Folder H0289 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0289 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0289 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Orlin P. Shuping, white textile worker, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 15 June 1975
Folder H0290 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0290 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0290 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/60 |
Supplementary material
|
Suzanne B. Stafford, consultant, with interviewer Patricia Raub. 9 May 1986
Folder H0291 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0291 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0291 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Decie Susman with interviewer Peter Talbert Hall. 1 January 1975
Folder H0292 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0292 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0292 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Claude Sutton, white business owner, with interviewer Brent D. Glass. 12 August 1974
Folder H0293 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0293 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0293 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/61 |
Supplementary material
|
Fitzhugh Lee Tatum with interviewer Ruth L. Stokes. 19 October 1974
Folder H0294 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0294 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0294 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
E. L. Smith, executive, with interviewer Margaret Lee. 1 July 1979
Closed. No release form received.
Audiotape T-4007/ H0294a |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0294a |
Digitized audio |
Interviews about industry in Farmville, N.C., were done by Scott Ellsworth of Duke University in 1977.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
Joseph A. Blount, salesperson, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 June 1977
Closed. No release form received.
Audiotape T-4007/ H0295 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0295 |
Digitized audio |
Kelly Blount with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 2 July 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0296 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0296 |
Digitized audio |
Samuel B. Bundy, white school principal, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 July 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0297 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0297 |
Digitized audio |
John L. Burge and Eula Burge, teachers, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 August 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0298 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0298 |
Digitized audio |
Rudy Cobb, African American business owner, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 July 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0299 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0299 |
Digitized audio |
Addie Herring Darden, white teacher, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 July 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0300 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0300 |
Digitized audio |
Tabitha M. DeVisconti with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 July 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0301 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0301 |
Digitized audio |
Martha L. Edwards, African American teacher, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 September 1977
Closed. No release form received.
Audiotape T-4007/ H0302 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0302 |
Digitized audio |
Louis Wentz, white railroad employee, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 July 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0303 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0303 |
Digitized audio |
Bessie Patrice W. Hagan, African American textile worker, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 September 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0304 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0304 |
Digitized audio |
William Edward Joyner, white mayor, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 July 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0305 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0305 |
Digitized audio |
Edward King and Nina L. King, African American military personnel and African American homemaker, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 July 1977
Audiotape T-4007/ H0306 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0306 |
Digitized audio |
Alfred B. Moore and Katherine B. Moore, white farmer and white teacher, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 2 July 1977
Folder H0307 |
Transcript |
Digital Folder H-0307 |
Administrative information
|
Gene H. Oglesby, white accountant, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 3 July 1977
Closed. No release form received.
Folder H0308 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0308 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0308 |
Digitized audio |
Robert Smith, white farmer, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 September 1977
Folder H0309 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0309 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0309 |
Digitized audio |
James Walter Taylor, African American factory worker, with interviewer Scott Ellsworth. 1 September 1977
Folder H0310 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0310 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0310 |
Digitized audio |
Interviews are chiefly about the strike in 1929 by textile workers in Elizabethton, Tenn.
ONLINE INTERVIEW DATABASE
Click here for the online, sortable list of oral history interviews in this series. Each interview is cataloged in the interview database with descriptive information about the interviewee and the contents of the interview. Transcriptions and audio recordings for many of the unrestricted interviews are available in this online database.
Everette Burchelle, white textile worker, with interviewer Cliff Kuhn
Closed. No release form received.
Folder H0013 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0013 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0013 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Robert Cole, white textile worker, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 10 May 1981
Folder H0311 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0311 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0311 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
George F. Dugger, white attorney, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 9 August 1979
Folder H0312 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0312 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0312 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Bessie Edens, white textile worker, with interviewer Mary Frederickson. 14 August 1979
Digital Folder H-0313 |
Digitized transcript
|
Christine Galliher and Dave Galliher, white textile worker, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 8 August 1979
Folder H0314 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0314 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0314 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Flossie Cole Grindstaff, white textile worker, with interviewer Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. 11 July 1981
Closed. No release form received.
Folder H0315 |
Transcript |
Audiotape T-4007/ H0315 |
Audio |
Digital Folder H-0315 |
Digitized transcript Digitized audio |
Research files for Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World(1987), which draws heavily on the interviews of Series H. Materials include chapter drafts, correspondence, reports, notes, genealogies, research project proposals, scholarly articles, local history materials, newspaper clippings, maps, photographs, and other related material.
Processing information: The original folder titles and arrangement have been retained.
Supplementary materials pertain to the grant project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and titled "Perspectives on Industrialization: The Piedmont Crescent of Industry, 1900-1940. Items include a grant report, working papers on the cities and counties where oral histories were conducted, an annotated bibliography, newspaper clippings, copies of relevant documents related to the mills or cities, field notes, and memoranda.
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 1 |
Grant report, "Perspectives on Industrialization," 1981
|
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 2 |
Curriculum vitae for grant project staff, circa 1981
|
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 3 |
"Industrialization in the Piedmont: An Overview." 1980Written by Bob Korstad. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 4 |
"Badin, North Carolina," 1980Written by Rosemarie Hester. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 5 |
"Burlington, North Carolina," 1980Written by Mary Murphy. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 6 |
"Traditional Culture and Community in a Piedmont Textile Mill Village," 1980Written by Douglas DeNatale. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 7 |
"Catawba County, North Carolina," 1980Written by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall and Patty Dilley. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 8 |
"Charlotte, North Carolina," 1980Written by Allen Tullos. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 9 |
"Durham, North Carolina," 1980Written by Cliff Kuhn. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 10 |
"Greenville, South Carolina," 1980Written by Allen Tullos. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 11 |
Annotated bibliography, 1980Compiled by Bob Korstad. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 12 |
"Oral History in a Southern Mill Village," 1980Wriiten by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 13 |
Copy of Charter, J.E. Odell Manufacturing Co.
|
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 14-18 |
Bynum project information
|
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 19-20 |
Elizabethton project information
|
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 21 |
"Women, Kin and Collective Action," 1981> Written by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/ 22-23 |
"Cramerton, North Carolina: A Piedmont Mill Town," 1974Written by Woody Connette, Tom Hatley, and Roger Manley. |
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/24 |
Cramerton project information
|
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/25 |
Cotton manufacturing
|
Separated Folder SEP-4007H/26-27
SEP-4007H/26SEP-4007H/27 |
"Cotton from Raw Material to Finished Product," 1939Compiled by the Cotton-Textile Institute, Inc. |