H-0194-2_Audio |
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Object Description
Interview no. | H-0194-2 |
Restrictions | No restrictions. Open to research. |
Project | H.6. Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Durham, N.C. |
Project description | Interviews, 1976-1979, about industrialization in Durham, N.C., chiefly documenting experiences of workers in the city's tobacco, textile, and hosiery industries. Some interviewees discuss farming, sawmilling, or domestic service jobs they held in addition to factory work. Tobacco workers focus on work conditions, processing tobacco, the division of labor by gender and by race, labor policies, labor unions, and strikes. Textile and hosiery workers cover similar topics, plus speedups and time studies. Some discuss factory owners William Erwin and Kemp Plummer Lewis. Other topics include race relations (many of the tobacco workers were African American), including segregation and discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere; family life; living conditions; education; music and other forms of recreation; and health concerns. Interviews were chiefly conducted as part of the "Perspectives on Industrialization: The Piedmont Crescent of Industry, 1900-1940" project. |
Date | 6 February 1979 |
Interviewee | Burt, Thomas, 1900-1987. |
Interviewee occupation | Factory workers |
Interviewee DOB | 1900 |
Interviewee ethnicity | African Americans |
Interviewer | Hinson, Glenn. |
Abstract | Thomas Burt's wide array of jobs in and around Durham, N.C., ranged from working on a streetcar line to farming. Although he worked for only eighteen months in a tobacco factory, most of this interview is devoted to his experiences there. His descriptions of the factory contain many interesting and valuable details, from the lunchboxes full of irregularly cut cigarettes he and his fellow workers brought home after their shifts, to the swirling clouds of tobacco dust that would settle under feet and eventually become snuff, to the spirituals and blues songs the workers sang to pass the time. This interview provides a rich look at the tobacco industry in Durham in the first half of the 20th century, as well as a portrait of a colorful character. |
Subject Topical |
Tobacco workers--North Carolina--Durham. African American men--North Carolina--Durham. Blue collar workers--North Carolina--Durham. Tobacco workers--North Carolina--Durham. Tobacco industry--North Carolina--Durham. Tobacco workers--North Carolina--Durham. |
Subject Name | Burt, Thomas, 1900-1987. |
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-0194-2_Audio |