Southern mill is a better place to work than northern mill
Herring says that the mill where she worked in the South was a better place to work than the mill she left in the north, in part because the mill town fostered a sense of community.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Harriet Herring, February 5, 1976. Interview G-0027. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- MARY FREDERICKSON:
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[laughter]
I wondered if you could compare the workers and conditions and the employers in the Pomona Mills and also in the Roxford Knitting Mill in Philadelphia.
- HARRIET HERRING:
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Well, they were more humane down here. They seemed to know their workers more. And I don't know, maybe it's because they had a village and they had contacts with them for various things. I don't know what the difference would be.
- MARY FREDERICKSON:
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What do you mean more humane?
- HARRIET HERRING:
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Well, their workers were people, you see, in these mills, and the superintendents and even the managers knew a lot of them personally.
- MARY FREDERICKSON:
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That wasn't the case in Roxford?
- HARRIET HERRING:
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Well, you see, they spread out all over a city and didn't have as much chance to; and usually just one in a family, and that sort of thing—I reckon that would make a deal of difference. But I think they were just friendlier people.
