Interview with Major Phillips, January 25, 2004
Scope and Contents
Oral history interview with Major Phillips, January 25, 2004. Adrian (Ga.). Fieldworker: Le Roy Henderson. Audio file digitized from cassette tape. Part of the South Georgia Folklife Project at Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections. Topics include Turpentining.
Subjects: Georgia; Oral histories; Sound recordings; Phillips, Major (1945-2010); Turpentine; Turpentine industry and trade; Adrian (Ga.); African Americans;
Dates
- January 25, 2004
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Series 8: PRJ-1010 Sounds of South Georgia
Box 19
Folder 70: VHS-1010.06 The McIntosh County Shouters may not be copied
Biographical Note
Major Phillips was born in 1945 in Treutlen County, Georgia, and has worked in the woods for most of his life. He dipped the last barrel of commercial turpentine in August, 2001, while in the employ of Jim Gillis, Jr. of Soperton Naval Stores. At the time of the industry’s demise, Phillips had worked for the Gillis family for over 20 years and is still in their employ as of this writing. Phillips’ father had worked the pine woods for over 40 years, and young Major began working beside him at age 12. His first job was dipping tar, and he states that he and his father could dip as many as 2000 trees per day. Phillips worked for a number of employers in the Soperton vicinity and beyond, including the Claxtons, the Phillips, and the Kennedys of Cobbtown, the latter an African American family that had its own farm, still and turpentine farm. Along with turpentine, he sharecropped cotton, worked in a sawmill, and also worked cotton and tobacco on his family farm.
Obituary: ADRIAN, Ga. - Mr. Major Phillips, 64, passed away Monday, May 3, 2010. Link
Extent
657 Megabytes (1 electronic record(s) and derivatives. 1 audio file (wav, mp3) 502213660 bytes. 00:47:27. 4 PDF documents (7 scans, jp2). 1 jpg image. 657 MB (689,554,339 bytes).) : Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-10T13:45:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 ua22-12prj1002_phillips_cas1002-16.mp3: 114148168 bytes, checksum: bb9f9f52d984b88ef5837bfbbfe1d5a9 (MD5) tapelog-and-transcript_Redacted.pdf: 92393 bytes, checksum: 45a411b60d78d92a65c2666fa98848ad (MD5) ADS-1002-26.pdf: 202589 bytes, checksum: 748dda962d08a02a820662e512487d92 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004-01-25
Language
From the Collection: English
Tape Log and Artist Data Sheet
id: DAT-1002.16
item_title: Major Phillips interview
call_number: PRJ-1002
project_title: Turpentine
informant_name: Major Phillips
fieldworker: LeRoy Henderson
recording_engineer: LeRoy Henderson
date: 25-Jan-04
recording_location: Adrian
content_summary: Interview with Phillips about his life farming, turpentining, and gathering last barrel of domestic turpentine for Soperton Naval Stores.
notes: Phillips has a speech impediment which affects the interview. See Faces of Piney Woods web site and End of an Era article in VF.
technical_summary: good quality
genre: occupational folklife, turpentine, personal experience narrative
places: Adrian, Soperton
people: Major Phillips, Marsten Kennedy, Phillips, Gillis
groups: African American
keywords: quarters, commissary, tally board, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving
id_number: ADS-1002-26
last_name: Phillips
first_name: Major
Call number: PRJ-1002
artist_city: Adrian
state: GA
zip: 31002
artist_county: Treutlen
birthdate: 11/03/45
birthplace: Soperton
ethnicity_1: African American
religion: Baptist
genre: "personal experience narrative, occupational folklife, naval stores, turpentine"
Processing Information
PRJ1014-066, DAT-1002.16, ADS-1002-26
Source
- Phillips, Major, 1945-2010 (Interviewee, Person)
- Henderson, LeRoy (Interviewer, Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections Repository
Valdosta State University Archives, Odum Library
1500 N. Patterson St.
Valdosta GA 30601 United States
7063728116
229-259-5055 (Fax)
archives@valdosta.edu