Oral History Interview with Louise Rigsbee Jones, September 20, 1976
Subtitle: Interview H-0085-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Frederickson, Mary E., 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; Social life and customs; Company towns; Textile workers; Family relationships; Religious life and customs; Working class; Education; Rural Medicine; Childbirth
Other titles: Interview H-0085-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Louise Rigsbee Jones, September 20, 1976; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Louise Riggsbee Jones was born in Bynum, North Carolina, in 1897. In the first interview of a two-part series, Jones describes growing up in that cotton mill town during the early twentieth century. Jones' father worked as a cobbler during the day and occasionally worked as a night guard at the local grist mill. He died when Jones was only six years old. Jones, the youngest of six children, describes her close relationship with her mother, who did not remarry after her husband's death. Because several of Jones' older siblings had already begun to work in the mills, the family managed to survive financially. Her mother's garden and livestock supplemented their income. In addition to describing household economy, Jones discusses the role of religion in the community, her experiences in school, her work as a spinner in the cotton mill, and the different ways in which people received medical care in this small mill community.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on May 30, 2008).

Interview participants: Louise Rigsbee Jones, interviewee; Unknown, interviewee; Mary Frederickson, interviewer.

Duration: 02:02:29.

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. 251.5 kilobytes, 224 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, 1974-1980, interview H-0085-1, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jean Houston. Original transcript: 68 p.

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

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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