H-0041_Audio |
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Object Description
Interview no. | H-0041 |
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 | July 1977 |
Interviewee | Robinette, Jefferson M., b. 1891. |
Interviewee occupation |
Fire fighters Artisans |
Interviewee DOB | Unknown |
Interviewee ethnicity | Whites |
Interviewer | Kuhn, Cliff. |
Abstract | Jefferson Robinette started mill work at the age of twelve in Charlotte, North Carolina, and spent his working life moving between the area's textile mills and furniture factories, and eventually settling into a job at a dairy. In this interview, Robinette recalls these experiences, offering plenty of detail but little reflection. Robinette worked hard to raise four children and care for his wife, but he never pursued wealth and seemed to accept what was offered by his employers. As a result, he never joined a union and worked well into his old age, retiring from his dairy job at the age of eighty-three. |
Description
Interview no. | H-0041_Audio |