No complaints despite tiring tobacco factory work
Standing for hours at her butting machine in the Liggett and Myers tobacco factory was tiring, Miller remembers, and sometimes burly tobacco, a particularly strong strain, made the workers ill. But no one complained, she remembered; people were stronger back then.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Dora Scott Miller, June 6, 1979. Interview H-0211. 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
- EVERLY JONES:
-
In reference to the job you had to do, did you stand up?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
You had to stand up all them hours.
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
Stand up at the machine?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
All them hours, except when you went to have that little break to go to
the rest room and thirty minutes for lunch, you had to stand up.
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
Did you ever get tired?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
Yep, we got tired. But it was just as if you hadn't gotten
tired. You had to work right on.
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
Do you recall any women that might have worked around you, or maybe you,
that probably had fatigue, fainted…
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
They didn't faint. Sometimes, we worked this burly tobacco
which comes out of Kentucky which is very strong. Like times, you can go
by the factory now and smell some real strong tobacco. At times, some of
them'd get sick on that; they'd get sick on that
and have to go to the dispensary. But other than that, they
didn't; they didn't They
didn't know people got tired. You didn't hear
nobody complain. People were so much stronger than they are now.
