Oral History Interview with Thomas Henderson, October 28, 1999. Interview K-0228. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
Thomas Henderson was born in Brookneal, Virginia, in 1914. His family roots in that area (Henderson's family had a small farm that was worked by tenant farmers) date back to the Civil War. Henderson describes growing up in this small agricultural community. In the early 1930s, Henderson attended Lynchburg College and East Carolina Teachers' College, each for one year. After finishing a year of study at East Carolina as one of the first male students in 1932, Henderson left school out of economic necessity and began working for the tobacco industry. Henderson quickly became a tobacco buyer and remained in that position for the duration of his career, eventually becoming one of the most respected tobacco buyers for tobacco companies such as Liggett & Myers, the Greenville Tobacco Company, and Philip Morris. Henderson focuses primarily on his work for the tobacco industry in the 1930s and 1940s, and life in Greenville, North Carolina, which he explains was a "tobacco town" until World War II. In addition, Henderson explains the establishment of gradation policies for the tobacco industry as a New Deal reform measure, the process of buying and selling tobacco at auction, and changes in tobacco farming.
Excerpts
An African American tenant farmer defies the odds
Low ratio of male to female students at Eastern Carolina Teachers' College
Family heritage and memories of the Civil War
Description of tobacco processing from superintendent's perspective
Trying to balance work and family
Tobacco regulation during the New Deal
Transformations in tobacco farming during the 1930s and 1940s
Negative impression of the entrance of female buyers and sellers in the tobacco industry
Pride in skilled work of tobacco buying
A tobacco town in transition
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Subjects
Tobacco workers--North Carolina
Tobacco--Moral and ethical aspects--United States
Tobacco--North Carolina
Henderson, Thomas, 1914-
East Carolina University
Confederate States of America--Social conditions
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