H-0064_Audio |
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Object Description
Interview no. | H-0064 |
Restrictions | No restrictions. Open to research. |
Project | H.3. Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Bynum, N.C. |
Project description | Interviews, 1976-1979, about industrialization in Bynum, N.C., a company-owned mill town in Chatham County. Many interviewees worked at the J.M. Odell Manufacturing Company, a spinning mill, for part or all of their careers. Topics include technology, the impact of the Depression and World War II on the mill, paternalism, work discipline, work division by sex and race, unionization attempts, brown lung and other health hazards of mill work, recollections of London family members who ran the mill, mill village life, and the transition from company to private ownership in the 1970s. Interviews were chiefly conducted as part of the "Perspectives on Industrialization: The Piedmont Crescent of Industry, 1900-1940" project. |
Date | 20 November 1978 |
Interviewee |
Durham, Eula. Durham, Vernon, b. 1907. |
Interviewee occupation |
Textile workers Textile workers |
Interviewee DOB | 1914 ; 1913 |
Interviewee ethnicity | Whites |
Interviewer | Leloudis, James L. |
Abstract | Eula Durham and her husband Vernon recall their experiences as mill workers in Bynum, North Carolina. The Durhams discuss the integration of their mill in the early 1970s and the failures of unionization, but their recollections of their lives as mill workers pale in comparison to their vivid memories of their childhood in Bynum and the many colorful ways they found to entertain themselves. Eula's memories of the joys of her childhood are more vibrant than Vernon's: she remembers making candy, decorating Christmas trees with popcorn, and snipe hunting; box parties, spin the bottle, and chicken stews; ball games, carnivals, and stealing chickens. This interview will be somewhat useful for researchers interested in mill work, more useful for those interested in childhood and adolescence in the rural South. |
Subject Topical |
Labor unions--North Carolina. Textile workers--North Carolina. Women textile workers. Textile industry--Technological innovations. Bynum (N.C.)--Religious life and customs. Bynum (N.C.)--Social life and customs. |
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. | H-0064_Audio |