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H-0019
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Interview no. H-0019
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 2 and 15 February 1979
Interviewee Davidson, Betty, 1913-
Interviewee occupation Textile workers
Interviewer Tullos, Allen, 1950-
Abstract Betty (Parker) and Lloyd Davidson both grew up in Danville, Virginia, during the 1910s and 1920s before settling in Burlington, North Carolina, in 1932. The interview begins with a focus on Betty Parker's family experiences while growing up. She describes how her parents shared a loom at the Dan River Cotton Mill, which her mother operated during the summer months while her father farmed. Like many other young people of her generation, Betty left school at the age of sixteen out of economic necessity in order to go work in the mills. While working as a weaver at the Dan City Silk Mill, Betty met Lloyd Davidson. In 1932, they moved to Burlington, North Carolina, to seek employment at the Plaid Mill. By that time, Jim Copland had moved from Danville to become superintendent of the Plaid Mill, and the Davidsons were able to get a job because of Betty's father's friendship with Copland. Betty and Lloyd were married shortly thereafter. They describe some of the leisure activities they enjoyed as a young married couple of limited economic means. Both worked as weavers at the Plaid Mill throughout the Depression years. At the time of the interview in 1979, Betty had worked as a weaver for nearly five decades; Lloyd, meanwhile, left the profession in 1956 to work for Melville Dairy. The Davidsons devote considerable attention to discussing their work as weavers, focusing primarily on the 1930s and 1940s, when technological advances drastically increased the number of looms individual weavers operated. In addition, they describe their day-to-day workplace experiences, explaining how working "on production" differed from working for hourly wages; the difficulty of working long hours with few breaks; their interactions with other workers and with their employers; the role of the Copland family in the Burlington textile industry; and their perception of labor unrest in the Piedmont during the Depression years.
Subject Topical Textile workers--North Carolina--Burlington.
Women textile workers--North Carolina--Burlington.
Textile workers--North Carolina--Burlington.
Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry--North Carolina--Burlington.
Subject Name Davidson, Betty, 1913-
Davidson, Lloyd.
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
Interview no. H-0019_Audio
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