H0018_Audio_1 |
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Object Description
Interview no. | H-0018 |
Restrictions | No restrictions. Open to research. |
Project | H.2. Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Burlington, N.C. |
Project description | Interviews, 1977-1984, about industrialization in Burlington, N.C., an early textile industry site and home to Burlington Industries, at one time the largest textile corporation in the world. Interviews focus on former workers of the E.M. Holt Plaid Mill, owned by the Holt family, and on the Pioneer plant, owned by Burlington Industries. Work, family, and living conditions are covered extensively. Other topics include geographic and job mobility; the transition from family ownership (the Holt mills) to corporate management (Burlington Industries); technology; work organization; the impact of the Depression and World War II; occupational sex roles; and child labor. Interviews were chiefly conducted as part of the "Perspectives on Industrialization: The Piedmont Crescent of Industry, 1900-1940" project. |
Date | January 1, 1979 |
Interviewee | Crutchfield, Joseph. |
Interviewee occupation | Textile workers |
Interviewee DOB | 1910 |
Interviewee ethnicity | Whites |
Interviewer | Tullos, Allen, 1950- |
Abstract | Mr. Joseph Crutchfield has been employed in some capacity with Tower Hosiery Mill in Burlington, N.C. for most of his adult life. His grandfather owned a cotton farm in Chatham County, but after he died the family had to move to Bellemont and work in the cotton mill. Crutchfield’s father started working the Bellemont mill when he was 12, and Crutchfield believes this is why he worked in the mills. It is all he has ever known as a way of life. He explains that in the past children didn’t move out of their parents’ home as they were needed to help out the family. They might move out when they got married. Crutchfield states that he has always been mechanically inclined and interested in the differing machines in the hosiery industry. Indeed, a good portion of the interview is spent discussing the different machines and the jobs they did. Also discussed is the differences in cotton mills vs. hosiery mills. There is talk of the Depression era and attempted unionization in the 1930s, with Crutchfield saying he is against unionization. Finally, he talks about the differences in men and women in hosiery mills, stating that women weren’t cut out to be knitters and often had the highest turnover and absenteeism. |
Subject Topical |
Textile workers--North Carolina. Burlington (N.C.)--Social life and customs. Textile workers--Training of. Textile workers--Health and hygiene. |
Citation | Interview with [interviewee name] by [interviewer name], [interview date] [interview number], in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Description
Interview no. | H0018_Audio_1 |