Interview with Raymond H. Davis
IntervieweeInterview with
Raymond H. Davis
(Jamaican)
Date2001 May 2
Mediumdigitized audio cassette tape
DimensionsDuration (side 1): 44 Minutes, 24 Seconds
Duration (side 2): 29 Minutes, 3 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 1 Hour, 13 Minutes, 28 Seconds
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineGift of the CHS Exhibitions Department
Object number2013.26.27a-d
DescriptionAudio cassette tape of an interview with Raymond H. Davis, who was interviewed by Fiona Vernal on May 2, 2001.
Topics discussed include Davis' childhood in Jamaica; reasons for migrating; education; playing cricket as a young boy and working in the Income Tax Department before emigrating; emigrating to pursue other goals besides becoming a teacher; his father's occupation as a carpenter and contractor and his mother staying at home; buying time with his parents until he figured out what career to pursue; his decision to stay in the United States; race relations in the U.S. and Jamaica; distinguishing between West Indians and African Americans; farm workers paving the way for the next generation; generational differences; generational differences in migration opportunities; the prospects of returning to Jamaica; difficulties of adjusting to the slower pace of life in Jamaica; the values and value of West Indian culture; the generation of the 1980s and increasing Americanization; his occupational history; reflections on women's independence and its abuses; the West Indian Social Club; the decline of discipline; lending his financial expertise to the West Indian Social Club; his activities as president of the Club; the problem of internal unity; anti-West Indian sentiments; bringing all West Indian organizations together; West Indian camaraderie; making celebrations more Carnivalesque; and West Indian sayings.
2013.26.27a-d consists of two sides, the tape, and a J-card.
Topics discussed include Davis' childhood in Jamaica; reasons for migrating; education; playing cricket as a young boy and working in the Income Tax Department before emigrating; emigrating to pursue other goals besides becoming a teacher; his father's occupation as a carpenter and contractor and his mother staying at home; buying time with his parents until he figured out what career to pursue; his decision to stay in the United States; race relations in the U.S. and Jamaica; distinguishing between West Indians and African Americans; farm workers paving the way for the next generation; generational differences; generational differences in migration opportunities; the prospects of returning to Jamaica; difficulties of adjusting to the slower pace of life in Jamaica; the values and value of West Indian culture; the generation of the 1980s and increasing Americanization; his occupational history; reflections on women's independence and its abuses; the West Indian Social Club; the decline of discipline; lending his financial expertise to the West Indian Social Club; his activities as president of the Club; the problem of internal unity; anti-West Indian sentiments; bringing all West Indian organizations together; West Indian camaraderie; making celebrations more Carnivalesque; and West Indian sayings.
2013.26.27a-d consists of two sides, the tape, and a J-card.
Label TextListen to interview at http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:19641568
NotesSubject Note: In 1999, the West Indian Social Club of Hartford and the West Indian Foundation asked the Connecticut Historical Society to join them in documenting the lives of the West Indian immigrants who first came to the Hartford area in the 1940s to work on local tobacco farms.What began as a project designed to record the experiences of these early pioneers - mostly men from Jamaica - subsequently grew to include audio and videotaped interviews of men and women, elders and young people, longtime residents and more recent arrivals to the Greater Hartford area, both from Jamaica and the other English-speaking, independent countries in the Caribbean.
The exhibition explored a common thread that seems to link people’s individual stories: the challenge of putting down roots in a new place while maintaining ties with the people, history, and cultural heritage of their homelands in the West Indies.
The exhibition, "Finding a Place, Maintaining Ties: Greater Hartford’s West Indians," was on view at the Connecticut Historical Society from July 2, 2002 – August 31, 2003.
Status
Not on view
