Restrictions to Access

Use of audio materials may require production of listening copies.

Interviews on C-4205/8, C-4205/12 (Folder 30), C-4205/24 (Folder 31) and C-4205/26 are closed due to the absence of release forms.

Restrictions to Use

A. C. Howell Interview on C-4205/11 does not allow copying or quotation of material found on page 6 of the transcript (Folder 12). Ruth West interview on C-4205/28 and transcript (Folder 27) requires permission from the interviewee to quote, copy, or cite.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Generations of Carrboro Mill Families Oral Histories #4205, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the Chapel Hill Historical Society of Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2005.

This material was originally part of a larger collection on loan from the Chapel Hill Historical Society that was received in 1979 and returned to the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1995.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Joyce Chapman, February 2008

Encoded by: Joyce Chapman, February 2008

Updated by: Anne Wells, June 2021

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African Americans--North Carolina--Carrboro.
• African Americans--North Carolina--Chapel Hill.
• African Americans--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Carrboro (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Carrboro (N.C.)--History.
• Carrboro (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--History.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Chapel Hill Historical Society.
• Depressions--1929--North Carolina.
• Education--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Industries--North Carolina.
• North Carolina--Economic conditions.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Oral history.
• Textile industry--North Carolina--Carrboro.
• Textile industry--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Textile manufacturers--North Carolina.
• Textile workers--North Carolina--Carrboro.
• Textile workers--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--History.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--History.
• Women employees--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Women--North Carolina--Social life and customs.

• Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Series H: Piedmont Industrialization

The Chapel Hill Historical Society was formed in 1966 in Chapel Hill, N.C. In 1974, the oral history committee was established to conduct interviews with local Chapel Hill and Carrboro, N.C., residents in an effort to preserve first hand-recollections about the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, local African American communities, and local mill-worker communities. One of the first major projects conducted was a series of interviews with men and women who had worked in the Carrboro textile mills in the early and mid-20th century. The purpose of the project was to gather biographical, social, and cultural information about the first generation of mill workers in the town and to compare their lives to those of their sons and daughters. The interviews were supplemented by documentary research into government, business, and census records.

Co-directors and principal investigators for the project were High P. Brinton, Brent D. Glass, and Valerie Quinney. The Chapel Hill Historical Society obtained a grant of $2,500 from the North Carolina Bicentennial Commission to provide support for the transcription of 70 interviews. The Southern Oral History Program provided technical and administrative assistance throughout the project.

The collection consists of 40 of the original 117 oral history interviews conducted by the Chapel Hill Historical Society between 1974 and 1978 in the "Generations of Carrboro Mill Families" project. Interviewees include mill workers, mill supervisors, and several doctors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who discuss health in the early 20th century. Interview topics include working in the Carrboro mills from the turn of the 20th century through the Great Depression and World War I; work conditions, social relations, and union organizing in the mills; everyday life in North Carolina and especially in Carrboro in the early 20th century, including displacement from farms into the town, housing conditions, health, education, family life, childbirth, and women in work; and the University of North Carolina.

• Audiocassettes (C-4205/1-31)