Oral history interview with Thomas Burt, February 6, 1979
Subtitle: interview H-0194-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Hinson, Glenn, 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: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Tobacco workers; African American men; Blue collar workers; Employment; Tobacco industry; Social life and customs
Other titles: Interview H-0194-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Thomas Burt, February 6, 1979; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Thomas Burt's wide array of jobs in and around Durham, N.C., ranged from working on a streetcar line to farming. Although he worked for only eighteen months in a tobacco factory, most of this interview is devoted to his experiences there. His descriptions of the factory contain many interesting and valuable details, from the lunchboxes full of irregularly cut cigarettes he and his fellow workers brought home after their shifts, to the swirling clouds of tobacco dust that would settle under feet and eventually become snuff, to the spirituals and blues songs the workers sang to pass the time. This interview provides a rich look at the tobacco industry in Durham in the first half of the 20th century, as well as a portrait of a colorful character.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on June 6, 2008).

Interview participants: Thomas Burt, interviewee; Glenn Hinson, interviewer.

Duration: 01:20:51.

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 Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 107.2 kilobytes, 148.1 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, interview H-0194-2, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Sharon King. Original transcript: 32 p.

Funding from the Institute of 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.