Nell Shaw Interview

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Could you count to ten?

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses how she and her family came to work at the mill.

Keywords: mill villages; spinners

Subjects: Rural-urban migration; Textile workers; Wages; Working class women; Working class women--Family relationships

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now, now the part that we're most interested in is when Roosevelt came into office.

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses the impact of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency on working in the textile mill, union orgazining and union meetings.

Subjects: Labor union meetings; New Deal (1933-1939); Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Textile workers--Labor unions; Wages

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now do you remember why you went out on strike?

NELL SHAW: No.

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses the textile workers's strike of 1934.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; picket lines

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: NELL SHAW: Well honey I was raised up with them. They worked for my daddy, picked cotton.

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses her family's relationship with several African American mill workers who used to work on her family's farm, their involvement in the union, and the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; picket lines; union organizing

Subjects: African American agricultural laborers; Agriculture; Labor union meetings; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: How did they feel about the union? Do you remember that?

NELL SHAW: I don't remember that.

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses going back to work after the strike.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; mill managers

Subjects: Blacklisting, Labor; Textile workers

Partial Transcript: NELL SHAW: We married November the 10th and then we had the strike next July.

JUDITH HELFAND: You got married November the 10th, 1933?

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses her family being blacklisted after the strike.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; eight hour workday; eviction from mill village houses; spinners; stretch-out

Subjects: Blacklisting, Labor; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Did they, did they ask Lula to leave her house?

NELL SHAW: I reckon we all must've all went the same day and (inaudible) to go back to work but they didn't want us.

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses eviction notices given to strikers and how she and her family made ends meet during the strike.

Keywords: eviction from mill village houses; mill villages

Subjects: Blacklisting, Labor; Women textile workers

Partial Transcript: NELL SHAW: Momma had cooks down there. They's have girls and they's come help me and Belle clean house.

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses some of the African American women who worked as domestic workers for her family and the African American textile workers who were part of the union.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; domestic workers

Subjects: African American women; Textile workers--Labor unions; Working class African Americans; Working class women

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now do you remember how long they kept the guards and the machine guns at the gate?

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses the guards at the mill, union meetings, and African American mill workers.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; breaking the strike; picket lines

Subjects: Labor union meetings; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now in most towns the (inaudible) were very, very anti union, you know very negative, very angry with a lot of the workers for joining the union, is the what happened in Guntersville?

Segment Synopsis: Nell Shaw discusses the sequence of the strike and the people involved with it.

Subjects: Textile workers--Labor unions