Oral history interview with Murphy Yomen Sigmon, July 27, 1979

Murphy Yomen Sigmon entered the workforce at the age of fourteen and held a variety of jobs in North Carolina industries before a mill shutdown ended his long working life. He began his laboring life in a shoelace factory, held a number of positions in a cotton mill, ran his own sock-making outfit, worked in a hosiery mill, and at the time of the interview, was dabbling in furniture-making out of a home workshop. In this interview, Sigmon describes these experiences, from taking swimming breaks while working as a doffer in a cotton mill, struggling to find work during the Great Depression, or enlisting his wife to help him start a sock-making business. Most of this interview addresses the details of the mill as a workplace, but the interviewer does take some time to ask Sigmon his opinions on subjects such as unions and social stratification among southern laborers.