Elizabeth Pritchett Interview

Partial Transcript: ELIZABETH PRITCHETT:-- you do?

JUDITH HELFAND: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses her childhood growing up as a child of textile workers and how she came to work in the textile mill.

Keywords: mill villages; spinners; women mill workers

Subjects: Rural-urban migration; Sharecroppers; Textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: You know, as the years progressed tell me about your work.

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses how things changed in the textile mill between the 1920s and 1930s.

Keywords: eight hour workday

Subjects: Minimum wage; Textile factories

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Do you think you would've been able to make ends meet with out the house that they provided you with?

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses what she and her husband earned and what they needed to spend it on.

Keywords: mill villages

Subjects: Company stores; Wages; Working class--Dwellings

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: I'm gonna jump a whole bunch, but I know that in 1934 there was a big strike all over the South. What happened here at Whittier Mill?

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: picket lines; union organizing; violence during the strike

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now is this the house that you brought your children up in?

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses being a working mother and what she, her husband, and her children did for fun.

Keywords: women mill workers

Subjects: Child care services; Working class--Recreation; Working mothers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Um, well, let's see. Well like I said the one thing that I was really trying to sort of chip away at is this strike.

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett tries to remember the textile workers' strike of 1934, and discusses how different mill owners impacted her working life.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; violence during the strike

Subjects: Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: How many frames were you doing when you were --

ELIZABETH PRITCHETT: Oh gosh that was a lot of them then.

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses her work as a spinner

Keywords: spinners

Subjects: Women textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Tell me about the day the mill shut down.

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses the impact of the mill closing down.

Keywords: women mill workers

Subjects: Textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: What was the best part about living in this community?

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses a doffer's strike at Whittier Mills.

Keywords: doffer; mill villages; picket lines

Subjects: Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Did they give you? What did they give you (inaudible) holiday time?

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses what benefits textile workers had.

Subjects: Textile workers; Textile workers--Health and hygiene

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Where did you get any of your education that you got?

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses her education, working in the mill and her home.

Keywords: mill villages

Subjects: Women textile workers; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: The day that the mill closed, you started to tell me about it.

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discussses what the mill closing down meant to her, the sounds of the textile mill, and the rhythms of mill village life.

Subjects: Textile factories; Textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Did black people work in the mills?

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses the work African Americans were allowed to do in Whittier Mill.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; mill villages

Subjects: African Americans--Segregation; Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Could you, if you can, tell me what the sounds were like inside the mill.

Segment Synopsis: Elizabeth Pritchett discusses the sounds of the mill and how people looked down on cotton mill workers.

Keywords: lintheads; spinning

Subjects: Textile workers--Health and hygiene