H0025_Audio_1 |
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Object Description
Interview no. | H-0025 |
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 | February 28, 1979 |
Interviewee |
Harrington, Edward, 1913- Harrington, Mary Estelle. |
Interviewee occupation |
Agricultural laborers Textile workers |
Interviewee DOB | 1913; 1917 |
Interviewee ethnicity | Whites |
Interviewer | Murphy, Mary, 1953- |
Abstract | This interview is with Edward Harrington and his wife Mary Harrington. They are not interviewed together; instead, this could be considered two separate interviews. The first half focuses on Edward’s life and mainly features discussion about his millwork. His father worked in a mill and Edward starting working in a mill when was 14 years old. In 1931 he began working for Burlington Mills and moved around many times after that, including a stint in farming, before finally settling down at Cannon Mill. He has held almost every position one can think of in mill, but weaving is his favorite. Edward talks about how lunch breaks worked, apprenticeships, and how you got paid for what you produced instead of hourly. There is also discussion of the textile strikes in the 1930s, with Edward stating that he never joined the union. The second half of the interview focuses on Mary’s farm upbringing and how that has affected her time as a city and mill wife. She grew up in a large tobacco farming family where they produced almost everything the family needed to survive. There are discussions about what food they ate, how the food was produced and preserved, and the production of lye soap. Mary mentions that country and farming people are often closer and that families tend to stick together. Yet, her oldest sister moved out to get a job in public works and Mary followed her example when she turned 18. She married Edward at the age of 19 and has herself only worked in the mills part-time. She states that she grew up with a mother whose main job was to keep house and that she wanted to emulate that as it’s all she has ever really known. Finally, throughout Mary’s part of the interview there is a distinct tone of how her lack of children has affected her life, with her seeking out belonging by taking care of neighbors and friends in need. |
Subject Topical |
Textile workers--North Carolina. Women textile workers. Textile workers--Training of. Textile workers--Religious life. |
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. | H0025_Audio_1 |