Oral history interview with Thomas Henderson, October 28, 1999
Subtitle: interview K-0228, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Thompson, Charles D., Jr. (Charles Dillard), 1956- 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; Tobacco industry; Employees; Depressions; Social life and customs; Government policy; Tobacco farms; Tobacco; Varieties; Marketing; Quality control; Students; East Carolina Teachers College
Other titles: Interview K-0228, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Thomas Henderson, October 28, 1999; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Thomas Henderson was born in Brookneil, 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.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on May 30, 2008).

Interview participants: Thomas Henderson, interviewee; Charles Thompson, interviewer.

Duration: 01:56:22.

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. 247 kilobytes, 213 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0228, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 65 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.