Oral history interview with Zelma Montgomery Murray, March 4, 1976
Subtitle: interview H-0034, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Murray, Charles, 1897- interviewee; Glass, Brent D., interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Women textile workers; Textile workers; Social conditions; Company towns; Paternalism
Other titles: Interview H-0034, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Zelma Montgomery Murray, March 4, 1976; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Two consecutive interviews are combined here, one each of Zelma Montgomery Murray and her husband Charley Murray. The couple speaks about their life in North Carolina mill towns and their jobs in the mills. They discuss the lack of control that workers had over their own lives: factories provided the housing and turned off the lights at prescribed bedtimes, company stores provided the only places to shop, and workers lived in relative isolation. The Murrays also recall how joining a union was not really a practical option given the level of control asserted by mill owners and the vulnerability of the workers. However, neither of the Murrays exhibits any self-pity or regret for the lives they've led.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on May 30, 2008).

Interview participants: Zelma Montgomery Murray, interviewee; Charles Murray, interviewee; Brent Glass, interviewer.

Duration: 01:17:48.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Mike Millner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 180.7 kilobytes, 142 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, 1974-1980, interview H-0034, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Patricia Crowley. Original transcript: 41 p.

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

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.