Sallie Kate Hannah Interview

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: Could you introduce me to your friend here in just a moment, just so I could hear her sound for a minute?
F1: Yes, yes. Now, Sal -- this is Sallie Kate Hannah from Coweta County. Now Sallie Kate, you introduce me and see --
Stoney: That's fine.

Segment Synopsis: Sallie Kate Hannah was a worker at the Newnan Hosiery Mill in Newnan, Ga.
Hannah talks about when she started to work in the mill because of poor farming conditions on her family's farm. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: farming; women mill workers

Subjects: Farmers; Farms; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Hannah: Well, we were making about ten cents an hour, being that was up a little bit you know.
Stoney: Yeah.
Hannah: And then it went on, about a year or something, and went up to about fifteen cents. then it didn't go up anymore until President Roosevelt taken office.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah talks about how wages increased after President Roosevelt took office. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: labor legislation; women mill workers

Subjects: Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; Wages; Wages--Women; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Hannah: But the -- in that -- you've been in that room, haven't you?
Stoney: Mmhm.
Hannah: Alright. That big room housed the knitters, the loopers, the seamers, the hemmers, the inspectors, and the boarders and then back down there was the dye room, it had all of that.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah describes how space was organized in the mill where she worked. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: women mill workers; working conditions

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Stoney: Did anything happen to the machinery? Did you have to work harder?
Hannah: Oh, no sir, no sir. They had mechanics that'd keep up the machines all the time.
Stoney: Mmhm.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah talks about reduced workloads after labor reforms and the types of textiles manufactured in the mill. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: labor legislation; labor reform; machinery; women mill workers

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; Unfair labor practices; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Stoney: Now, did you -- did the workers families, did they employ say a whole family --
Hannah: Yes sir, they'd employ whole families, yes sir.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah talks about the mill manufacturers' practice of hiring entire families to work in the mill. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: women mill workers

Subjects: Families; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; Women--Employment; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Hannah: It was a pleasant place to work, particularly while Mr. Faulkner lived. He was a good supervisor, and he was nice to his hands. Of course there was a few, you know, that he pitied a little more than others and I happened to be one of them (laughs).
Stoney: (laughs) Why?

Segment Synopsis: Hannah discusses working conditions in the mill. She speaks positively about the conditions in the mill and the mill supervisors. She also talks about the mill workers' opposition to unions. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: mill managers; mill owners; opposition to labor unions; women mill workers; working conditions

Subjects: Labor unions; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; Textile workers--Health and hygiene; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Stoney: Now, now, I've talked to some people about the different gradations in the mills, people who worked in the woolen mills, somehow said they were better off than the people in the cotton mills. Were you better off than the people in the cotton mills because you were in hosiery?
Hannah: I don't think so. I worked in all of them, I worked in the woolen mill and I loved those looms better than anything I've seen.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah discusses working in a wool mill during World War II and compares conditions between wool mills, cotton mills, and hosiery mills. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: cotton mills; hosiery mills; women mill workers; wool mills; working conditions

Subjects: Cotton textile industry; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Stoney: Now I talked with some people that worked in East Newnan, and I got the feel -- impression that they favored who lived in their village. But you traveled a good distance to get there, didn't you? Or did you move over into the village?
Hannah: Well, we lived in the village about two months, I guess and moved out over on East Broad Street.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah talks about living in a mill village in Newnan, Ga. She also talks about her family working in the mill and on a farm. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: farming; mill villages; women mill workers

Subjects: Farmers; Farms; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Stoney:How much education did you have?
Hannah:Sir?
Stoney: How much education?
Hannah: Me?
Stoney: Uh-huh.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah talks about leaving school in the 7th grade to work in the mills. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: education; women mill workers

Subjects: Education, Secondary; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Stoney: Was there any -- were there any church services connected with the mill? Did they have -- use the mill for revival meetings or anything like that?
Hannah: No sir, they had a church of their own out there. They go to the services.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah talks about church services and mill workers' church attendance. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: churches; mill owners; women mill workers

Subjects: Baptist church buildings; Methodist church buildings; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: F1: Did ya'll bring your lunch?
Hannah: Mmhm. Yeah.
F1: And then how long a lunch period did you have?
Hannah: Thirty minutes.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah talks about lunch breaks in the mill and how women dealt with child care. Most older children worked with their families in the mill. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: childcare; women mill workers

Subjects: Child care services; Child labor; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Stoney: Did they -- did they have picnics and outings for the employees?
Hannah: No sir, no sir. It was straight through work.

Segment Synopsis: Hannah talks about the nonexistence of vacations for mill workers. She also talks about long hours worked in the mill before labor reforms, wages for piece work, and mill workers' production rates. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: hours; piece work; women mill workers

Subjects: Hours of Labor--Law and legislation; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile industry--Labor productivity; Textile workers; Wages; hosiery industry; hosiery workers

Partial Transcript: Stoney: Well, we were just been looking at the museum and the place that they've made out of the factory for community gatherings and so forth.
Hannah: Right.
Stoney: I think it's just an ideal way to use an old building like that.

Segment Synopsis: Stoney and Hannah talk about the readaptive use of the mill building for community gatherings. Hannah also recalls a story about a patient during her nursing career. Audio is poor in this segment.

Keywords: mill buildings; readaptive use

Subjects: Buildings--Repair and reconstruction; Cotton textile industry; Historic buildings--Conservation and restoration; Hosiery industry; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile factories; Textile workers; nurses; nursing