Oral history interview with Geddes Elam Dodson, May 26, 1980
Subtitle: interview H-0240, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Tullos, Allen, 1950- 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; Textile workers; Social life and customs; Violence; Working mothers; Strikes and lockouts; Textile industry; Labor unions; Textile factories; Technological innovations; Accidents
Other titles: Interview H-0240, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Geddes Elam Dodson, May 26, 1980; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: At thirteen, Geddes Dodson entered the local textile mill as an employee, and he remained a mill worker for the next sixty years. During that time, he worked a variety of jobs, moving from cleaning up the spinning room to more skilled positions and eventually into work as a machinist, one of the most respected and highly paid positions in the factories. His father had entered the mill as a young man but retained a strong connection to agriculture, owning farmland that he either rented to a tenant farmer or cultivated himself much of his adult life. Nevertheless, his father, mother and all of their children spent most of their lives working. Dodson describes life in a mill village in the 1920s and 1930s, offering examples of how his mother balanced work and family, the way race determined employment, the ways children moved from education into the workforce and the various ways injuries could happen during the workday. In addition, he returns several times to issues of violence and gender, showing how men used physical force to defend their reputations, establish their authority over other men, and protect their women from other men. As an anti-union worker during the 1934 strike, he also offers some insight into the reasons some workers chose to join with the mill owners to fight against the flying squadrons.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on May 8, 2008).

Interview participants: Geddes Elam Dodson, interviewee; Allen Tullos, interviewer.

Duration: 02:01:28.

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. 97.9 kilobytes, 222 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, 1974-1980, interview H-0240, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jean Houston. Original transcript: 37 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.