The following excerpts are from WORK 'N PROGRESS: Lessons in the History of American Labor for Middle and Secondary Students
As you read the three excerpts, keep these questions in mind.
- How did each person’s experience differ?
- Why would each person’s view of mill life differ?
#1
Virginia Parsons was born in North Carolina 1899, a middle child in a family of nine children. Her father failed as a tobacco farmer and brought his family to the mill village in 1910.
I went to work in [the mill] when I was 12 years old. I stood up on a stool in what they called the warp room and tied knots in the warp that came down from the machines. I made 50 cents a day and I was the proudest thing that you ever saw. [By the time] I was 14, working in the spool room, I made about $10 q week. It seems to me that I worked from six [am] until seven [pm]. And also, we worked on Saturday until one. We quit at twelve and then it was always one when we left, because we had to clean up our own machines that we worked on. There was lint everywhere in the mill, ...and we made what you called dust caps. They were round and we would run elastic in them. There was a little ruffle and we wore them ion our heads to keep it out of our hair. Oh, we had the best time. We knew everybody. You see, Jane Harrison and I were very good friends, and we were always cutting up with Mr. Johnson, [my boss man]. He would wear his Sunday shoes to the mill and then he would have an old pair that he would put on after he got there. Well, we got his old shoes, one morning we got there before he did and we nailed them to the floor. We got back behind the machine to watch him, you know. And he pulled off his Sunday shoes and he put his feet in them, and he moved this way and that! I can see him now. [She laughs] So we did dumb things like that all the time. ..The rich folks owned the mill. So, on the Fourth of July, they'd put on a big barbecue and everything for the employees. Some of the people would get up a program for the Fourth of July and have all the young people in it and that went on all day. We had the old [Baptist] church, ...and on Sunday we would go to Sunday school and preaching. And in the afternoon, we would all get together and go walking.
Questions:
- What is the overall tone of the excerpt?
- Virginia started working when she was 12 years old, by using the context of the excerpt, do you think this was unusual?
- Despite working long hours, why do you think Virginia says she had “the best time”?
- How does this excerpt show the community aspects of the mill village?
#2
Frank Thompson was born in Chatham County, North Carolina in 1889.
I would say there were maybe 125 or 130 people in the mill; some men and some women--about equal parts. Years ago in the cotton mill, a woman's job was mostly spinning or winding or spooling. Women's hands are smaller. For a man, there was a lot of cleaning to do. Men would do the heavier work--run the heavy machines, card. Young boys doffed and swept. On the spinning frame there are 224 spinners and there's a bobbin on each one. When that would get full, they'd have to pull it off and put on another one. That's what you call doffing. That was done by boys mostly, just young boys. The girls ran the thread off the little wheel onto the spool, to put it in a bigger package. You could catch on to the work in two or three weeks. ...Maybe the first two or 8 three weeks you'd make 25 cents a day. (Eventually you'd get better] and you'd get up to. ..a dollar a day. You worked by the hour. If you were sick, you didn't get a thing; and. ..if the power went off--you'd have to make that up. When I first went to work it was 60 hours a week, and they finally put it down to 55. We'd go to work in the morning about 6:30. We'd work 10 hours a day for five days and a half day on Saturday. We'd sit down for about 30 minutes for dinner. The mill houses rented by the week. Twenty-five cents a room at that time. Most of them were three or four-room houses. There would be one well for four or five families. And just a little [privy] house in back. We never locked our door there. Everybody seemed to behave themselves all right. Better than they do now. Once in awhile there'd be somebody get drunk and get locked up. They'd fire them if they got drunk. I never heard of any stealing. There wasn't much recreation for the young people. Some of them would play on a baseball team. A lot of the boys would go hunt a lot. They'd just go down on the creek or go down on the river and fish some.
Questions
- What is the overall tone of the excerpt?
- How were jobs for men, women, and children separated?
- Why were men, women, and children given different jobs?
- How does this excerpt show the community aspects of the mill village?
- How does Frank’s version of mill village recreation differ from Virginia’s?
#3
Lola Derrick Byars:
My family came down from a farm in the Dutch Fork section of Richland and Lexington counties. We lived on a farm so poor it would grow nothing but rocks, my daddy cut cord wood on the side to buy food. He had heard about the mills opening in Columbia and one day he just decided to load all of our belongings and us onto the wagon and come to Columbia. He drove that old wagon onto the ferry at the Broad river and crossed. We came straight to the
Granby Mill Village in 1898 and went to the mill to get a job. I was 8 years old and worked in the Granby Mill until the Olympia Mill opened and then went to work there. We got one of those nice new houses on Fifth Street. I was an experienced worker when I reached twelve years of age and could run eight sides. I had two new dresses and plenty of food.
Questions
- What is the overall tone of the excerpt?
- How does this excerpt show the community aspects of the mill village?
- Why would being a mill worker seem like a good option to struggling farmers?
- Compare how Lola felt about her life on the farm and her life in the mills. What does she gain in the mill village?
Now that you have read all three excerpts answer these overall questions
- How did each person’s experience differ?
- Why would each person’s view of mill life differ?
The following excerpt is from Cotton Mill People: Work, Community, and Protest in the Textile South, 1880-1940
In Bynum, North Carolina, the mill owner supervised the Sunday School and kept tabs on residents' private lives. "If you stubbed your toe they'd fire you. They'd fire them here for not putting out the lights late at night. Old Mr. Bynum used to go around over the hill at nine o'clock and see who was up. And, if you were up, he'd knock on the door and tell you to cut the lights out and get into bed."
Along with surveillance came entanglement with the company store. Mill hands all too familiar with the crop lien once again found themselves in endless debt. Don Faucette's father often talked about it. "Said if you worked at the mill they'd just take your wages and put it in the company store and you didn't get nothing. For years and years they didn't get no money, just working for the house they lived in and what they got at the company store. They just kept them in the hole all the time."
Questions:
- What is the overall tone of this excerpt?
- How does this excerpt show the community aspect of the mill village?
- How did mill owners and supervisors create and maintain the workers’ dependence on the mill for their livelihood?
- Why would mill owners and supervisors want to create and maintain workers’ dependence on the mill?
- How would do you think the mill workers felt about strict surveillance and dependence on a company store?
- Compare the tone of this excerpt with the tone of the first three excerpts. How are they different?
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| A young girl works as a looper at the Crescent Hosiery Mill in Scotland Neck, N.C http://www.learnnc.org |
Questions:
- What is the overall tone of this image?
- How does this image show the community aspect of the mill village?
- What are the approximate ages of the people pictured?
- These two figures had the same responsibilities and worked the same hours. How does this differ from today?
- What does this image tell us about how children were viewed during this time period?
- What reasons may children have had for working?
Questions:
- What is the overall tone of this audio excerpt?
- How old was Flossie when she began working?
- How does Flossie feel about her life in the mill village?
- What measures did the overseers take to make sure their workers were safe?
Questions:
- What is the overall tone of this image?
- What was the purpose of this image?
- How does this image illustrate the community aspect of the mill village?
- What types of people are NOT pictured?
