H0009_Audio_1 |
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Object Description
Interview no. | H-0009 |
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 |
Adams, Henry, 1908- Adams, Janie. |
Interviewee occupation |
Textile workers Textile workers |
Interviewee DOB | 1908; 1910 |
Interviewee ethnicity | Whites |
Interviewer | Tullos, Allen, 1950- |
Abstract | In this interview, Allen Tullos interviews Harry and Janie Adams of Burlington, N.C. Mr. Adams has over 50 years of experience working in various textile mills across North Carolina and Virginia, including working in Danville, South Boston, Burlington, and Greenville. He began working in 1929 in Danville, Va., a few years after the major labor strikes of 1927 and 1928. The mills that Mr. Adams worked in mainly produced bedding and drapery, not necessarily clothes or hosiery. Most of the interview is spent with Mr. Adams going through a book of the history of textile mills that Tullos had brought to the interview and identifying the various machines and cloths portrayed in the photographs. Mr. Adams gives a great overview of the different machines that he worked on throughout his career, including which ones were easy to operate, which ones were difficult to operate, and which machines were for specific types of cloth. Also discussed are the working conditions in the mills and how workers were expected to keep up with breakneck production, sometimes running more machines than they could actually handle. They were also expected to work through lunch and to try to fix their machines themselves instead of shutting them down for repair. Finally, there is bit of discussion about the new labor laws that Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented to allow for the workplace to be a bit safer. Also discussed is how the south was and is not as unionized as the north and other areas of the country and how that leads to a workplace environment of every man for himself. |
Subject Topical |
Women textile workers. Danville (Va.)--Religious life and customs. Danville (Va.)--Social life and customs. Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry. Textile workers--Virginia--Danville. |
Citation | Interview with Henry Adams and Janie Adams by Allen Tullos, 28 February 1979 H-0009, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Description
Interview no. | H0009_Audio_1 |