A look inside a tobacco factory
As a sweeper in the tobacco factory, Burt was able to see every step of the tobacco product creation process. He seeks to describe it, and while his description can be hard to follow, his memories offer an interesting look inside a tobacco factory. He describes a dirty work environment, one that became so dusty that workers sprinkled water on the floor to keep the dust down. He also describes a racially and sexually segregated workplace, though the precise lines are unclear.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Thomas Burt, February 6, 1979. Interview H-0194-2. 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
- GLENN HINSON:
-
When you were sweepin' floors, what floor were you
workin' on then?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
I was workin' on the first floor. That's where all
the action was, down there on the bottom floor. That's where
they doin' all this stemmin' tobacco, and
shakin' tobacco. You had to shake that tobacco down there on
the bottom floor.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
When did you shake it?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
They kept somebody shakin' it all the time. That was some of
the jobs went on all the time. They had women doin'
nothin' but stemmin' tobacco.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
Would you shake it before you stemmed it?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
Yeah. That tobacco was in good order when it come in. They would come in
there and they'd hang it and put in some place up there.
It'd come out, they'd take it off the sticks, stem
it, it went on up to the trough and it went on up yonder. You see that
tobacco goin' on up there after they done stemmed it. Next
time you see it, it was in a cigarette or chewin' tobacco or
whatever they's gonna make out of it. It go on up yonder and
come down in a great big hopper. That thing was goin' around
all the time grindin' that tobacco up. It siftin'
out there, and they'd—I can't hardly
tell you how that thing worked. I never had time to see it work much,
puttin' that tobacco in that paper. That paper was
layin' open, spread it out in the place. They'd
put that tobacco in that paper. Some of them'd be as long as
that door yonder go by. When they get so many, then they'd
put it in a trough. It was a thing kind of like that, and it would run
right up against that thing. That machine was right busy
clippin' it. Sometimes some of it would go by.
That's what made them long ones. You'd clip them
and some of them were that long. They'd fall on the floor,
and that's what we'd pick up when we
got ready to quit work. About three or four minutes more
work time, we'd go in there and fill up our lunch box full. I
had cigarettes enough to fill a croker sack one time, just
givin' them away. A whole lot of them sold them. When we
stayed in Durham there's a
fellow—there's no tellin' how much
money he made sellin' cigarettes. Them boys sold more
cigarettes around there! I didn't never sell none. I brought
a gang of them out here home out to the country and give them to them
boys what smoked them—kept them in cigarettes near about.
Whole lot of them boys, no tellin' the money they
didn't make, sellin' them by the hundred. Me and
Pauline stayed in Durham, there's a fellow—I used
to buy some from him—I don't know what factory
he's workin' at; he's
workin' at Liggett and Meyers or Imperial or whatever.
He'd sell more cigarettes up and down Hazel Street. I used to
buy them from him when I stayed in Durham there at my
sister's. I forgot now what I used to pay forthem a hundred.
I believe 50¢ or 75¢ a hundred. That boy
makin' money! Whole lot of them boys get some cigarettes like
that and sell them.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
When you talked about the first floor in the factory, you said before
they did any pulling off sticks and the hanging, it was in good order.
Would the tobacco come in in
- THOMAS BURT:
-
No, it come in in baskets. The tobacco come from the warehouse,
it's in baskets. Then they hung it on sticks after it got to
the factory.
[END OF TAPE 1, SIDE B]
[TAPE 2, SIDE A]
[START OF TAPE 2, SIDE A]
- GLENN HINSON:
-
It was bundled up?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
Yeah, tied up in bundles. It come to the factory just like it left the
warehouse. They'd bring it in there in big truckloads.
There's a place out there where they'd unload them
trucks and baskets. It come from the warehouse when it come to the
factory. They had folks back there hangin' tobacco after they
bring it in there. I never could understand that. They had to hang it to
put it in that dry kiln, or whatever they call it. It was
somethin' to see.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
After it was dry somebody untied them all?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
Yeah, cut them heads loose. Big trough there, you'd take it
and dump it over there, and somebody clippin' the heads
loose. Then they'd shake it out, somebody'd stem
it, pull the whole stem out. Had a place to put the stems in one place
over there in a pile. The leaves, they'd pack that in a big,
deep trough. They were right busy goin' up. Left the bottom
floor and went on up to the second floor where the machines
was—all but this one that was down there clippin'
the cigarettes. That great big hopper, it was down next to the bottom
floor. The shippin' room was down in the basement, but you
could see that big hopper right back there in the corner. They had a
trough comin' out, and that tobacco's right busy
runnin' out somewhere. I don't know where it went.
The next time you see it, it'd rolled up. I don't
know how it rolled it. It'd rolled up and them
things'd be long as I don't know
what. It'd come up there and run through them things
sittin' up just wide enough for cigarettes to go in there.
That trough was about that wide, and that thing would be full. That
thing was right busy clippin'. It'd run up there
and bump that thing, it'd clip it. Sometimes it'd
bump so hard, some of them would pass and get too long.
They'd clip it right on off and them would fall on the floor.
They'd rake them up over in a corner in a pile; sometimes
there'd be a pile there about half big as this house.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
When you were sweeping, you were sweeping on the first floor. You were
sweeping where the folks were shaking the tobacco?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
Yeah, I just had a section to sweep. Just three or four
sweepin'. I didn't sweep the whole factory. I had
a part I swept, and another man a part he swept.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
What did you do … ?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
Run it over. You didn't sweep that outdoors, you just swept it
in a pile over there in the corner, and they'd run that stuff
over again. Sometimes, it's whole leaves, half of leaves, and
tobacco trash. That's all it was. Course there was dirt in
it, but I reckon that machine got the dirt out. You just sweep it over
in the corner in a great big pile of tobacco. They had a big
fork—they kept it piled up out your
way—you'd sweep so much and then you take that
fork and throw it up. Sometimes that pile'd be as high as
this house. That dust! I'd sneeze and cough, your
eyes'd burnin'. I had to wear me some of them big
goggles. All up your nose, your ears
would—get to the house and wash your ears—would
look like I don't know what comin' out of your
ears, that old dust settlin' on it. I'd be just as
dusty at night. I'd go to brush myself, dust just be
flyin'.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
Was it that dusty for most of the people working on that floor?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
No. For one thing, after so long a time, they got to
sprinklin' that floor. Folks just couldn't stand
it. After a while, they'd just go over that whole floor. The
section I worked in, the section everybody worked in, they'd
sprinkle it a little bit to kind of settle that dust. All of them
talkin' about quittin'. If they hadn't
done that, I don't think they would have had no floor
sweepers if it hadn't stopped.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
How did they sprinkle it?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
With a sprinklin' pot. They'd fill that thing full
of water. It had a cap that screwed on the end of it; they'd
go along, carry it in their hand. That thing just foggin'
water. That's a dusty, dusty, dusty place.
I liked it after I got caught onto down in the shippin' room.
That weren't so hard. That was easy work; only thing, you had
to keep your mind on what you're doin' or
you'd get the cigarettes mixed up. That's kind of
a tedious job, but it weren't hard. I'd stack up
them things as high as them pictures up yonder (about six feet).
I'd start at the bottom and pack up a rack and just keep on
packin'. Them folks over on the other side of us, they was
the ones puttin' the labels on them, cappin' them
up, and packin' them up in cartons.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
In the shipping room, were most of the folks working there black
folks?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
About all of them; there was three or four white boys down there. There
weren't no womens in that part. Weren't no one
down there but men. The women was on the first floor and the second
floor. The top floor was the place where they put the stuff that was
ordered and shipped in there. All the machines was on the second floor.
The top floor was the storage room up there. They had another big
storage room out there where they put tobacco. They'd unload
that tobacco out yonder in that other big one, and bring it in as they
used it. They didn't put a whole load of tobacco in there at
one time. They had trucks and runways, and they'd go out
there and bring that different tobacco in there.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
On the second floor, you said there was mostly women there?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
Yeah, mostly women on the second floor.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
Was it women running the machines?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
Some of them, yeah. There was two or three women runnin' the
machines.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
Were they white or black?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
Some black. There weren't no white women runnin'
them machines. In other words, there weren't too many white
women in there, nothing but secretaries, bookkeepers, and stuff like
that. Most of the folks workin' on them
machines, shakin' tobacco and all, they colored.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
What about white men? What did most white men do?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
There's a bunch of white men workin'. Some of them
was operatin' them machines. Most of them were
operatin' the machines.
- GLENN HINSON:
-
Were they different machines from what the women were operating?
- THOMAS BURT:
-
Yeah, some of them was. They had a machine to fix tobacco for cigarettes,
they had a machine to fix tobacco for cigars, and they had one for
chewin' tobacco. All the machines where was
runnin' operating for cigarettes, that was all the same
tobacco; there was no difference in that. All the tobacco come through
there was just cigarette tobacco. Them other machines over there was
makin' different cigars. Then they had another machine over
there to grind up these stems I was tellin' you about for
snuff. A whole lot of colored women runnin' them machines;
they done been there long enough to know how to operate them machines. I
didn't never fool with none of them.