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Oral History Interview with Louise Riggsbee Jones, September 20, 1976. Interview H-0085-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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  • Abstract
    Louise Riggsbee Jones was born in Bynum, North Carolina, in 1897. In the first interview of a two-part series, Jones describes growing up in that cotton mill town during the early twentieth century. Jones's father worked as a cobbler during the day and occasionally worked as a night guard at the local grist mill. He died when Jones was only six years old. Jones, the youngest of six children, describes her close relationship with her mother, who did not remarry after her husband's death. Because several of Jones's older siblings had already begun to work in the mills, the family managed to survive financially. Her mother's garden and livestock supplemented their income. In addition to describing household economy, Jones discusses the role of religion in the community, her experiences in school, her work as a spinner in the cotton mill, and the different ways in which people received medical care in this small mill community.
    Excerpts
  • Living in mill housing
  • Employer control over mill housing
  • Discipline in a single mother household
  • Religion and visiting in a mill town
  • Leaving school to work in the mills
  • Family economic survival in a mill town
  • Women workers in the cotton mill
  • Devastating fire at a cotton mill
  • Midwifery and health care in a small community
  • Learn More
  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • Women in the textile industry
  • Bynum (N.C.)--Religious life
  • Bynum (N.C.)--Social life and customs
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.