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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Eva Hopkins, March 5, 1980. Interview H-0167. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Two cases of serious injury at the mill

Hopkins only remembers two cases of employees being seriously injured while working in the mill. Neither involved her and her family members.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Eva Hopkins, March 5, 1980. Interview H-0167. 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

LU ANN JONES:
When you were working, do you remember people getting hurt on the job?
EVA HOPKINS:
Yes, there was a boy got his finger cut off in a machine out there at the Mercury Mill. They brought him out. I saw him when they brought him out with his hand wrapped up. They put him in a car and took him to the hospital. He seemed to be all right. They put him on the operating table to operate on that finger, to sew it up, and he died from shock. Then I saw a belt broke out there one time and hit a man in the head. His head was real bloody. He lived; he had some scars.
LU ANN JONES:
Did you ever get hurt?
EVA HOPKINS:
Oh no, I was always careful. I never got hurt. The only thing that hurt me was hurt my feelings had to go to work [laughter]