Oral History Interview with Blanche Scott, July 11, 1979. Interview H-0229. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
Blanche Scott began working at the Liggett and Myers tobacco factory in Durham, North Carolina, at the age of twelve. She spent more than two decades there until she left to pursue a career as a beautician. In this interview, she recalls her two careers and her motivation to rise from poverty and her religious devotion. Researchers interested in the industrializing South will find her recollections of life as a child laborer in a tobacco factory particularly useful. She describes how relatively lax child labor laws enabled her to land a job, the dynamics of the factory floor and the influence of unions thereupon, and some of the details of tobacco work, including her handling of the noxious burly tobacco. This interview offers an interesting look at the tobacco industry, which dominated North Carolina for decades
Excerpts
Adapting working hours at Liggett and Myers to her school schedule
Poverty nurtures a strong work ethic
Ending a career as a tobacco stemmer to begin one as a beautician
Work, bosses, and unions at Liggett and Myers
The adverse effects of burly tobacco
Lying about her age to skirt child labor laws
Sources of Scott's work ethic
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Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
Subjects
Textile workers--North Carolina--Health and hygiene
African American women tobacco workers--North Carolina
African American beauty operators--North Carolina
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