Documenting the American South Logo
Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Blanche Scott, July 11, 1979. Interview H-0229. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Adapting working hours at Liggett and Myers to her school schedule

Scott remembers working at a Liggett and Myers cigarette factory as a child. Between the ages of twelve and sixteen, she worked after school hours during the school year and during the summer, worked a full day. When she left school at age sixteen, she worked full time for the next twenty-four years.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Blanche Scott, July 11, 1979. Interview H-0229. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

So they came here to Durham, and they was employed at the American Tobacco Company. They worked there for so long, then they went to Liggett and Myers. In the meantime, I was born in 1906. They used to let children go to school and work in the evening when they come from school.
BEVERLY JONES:
At Liggett and Myers?
BLANCHE SCOTT:
Yes. I used to go to West End School. I'd get out at the time we'd normally get out at 1:30. I'd come from school to the factory and worked from 2:00 until 6:00.
BEVERLY JONES:
So you began work as a child?
BLANCHE SCOTT:
As a child. I would work like that during the school term, and then in the summer, they'd let the children come and work all day until 4:00. You'd come in the morning at 7:00, and then we get off at 4:00 and go home, and that leaves the adults working.
BEVERLY JONES:
About how old were you when you began to work?
BLANCHE SCOTT:
In the factory? Going to school and work in the factory, around about twelve. So then, I worked like that until I got old enough that I could work all day. In the meantime, I went to work at sixteen years old in the factory. I worked from the time I was sixteen I worked twenty-four years. I was forty years old when I came out. So I practically spent most of my time working. I did go to school until I got old enough. At sixteen, I went to work regular. In 1946, was when I quit work. I had took this other course and went to doing a beautician.