Interview with Philip Mitchell
IntervieweeInterview with
Philip Mitchell
Trinidadian
Date2001 February 3
Mediumdigitized audio cassette tape
DimensionsDuration (tape 1, side 1): 47 Minutes, 9 Seconds
Duration (tape 1, side 2): 46 Minutes, 20 Seconds
Duration (tape 2): 39 Minutes, 38 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 2 Hours, 13 Minutes, 8 Seconds
Duration (tape 1, side 2): 46 Minutes, 20 Seconds
Duration (tape 2): 39 Minutes, 38 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 2 Hours, 13 Minutes, 8 Seconds
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineGift of the CHS Exhibitions Department
DescriptionTwo audio cassette tapes of an interview with Philip Mitchell, who was interviewed by Fiona Vernal on February 3, 2001.
Topics discussed include Mitchell's childhood in Trinidad; sports; his parent's occupations; explaining his family's mobility in different areas in Trinidad; his mother migrating to the United States as a domestic worker in the late 1960s; his relationship with his father; generational differences; his education and taking advantage of the educational opportunities in Hartford; the logistics of paying for Hartford State Tech [now part of Capitol Community College]; his mother relocating to New York; tough times on his own in Hartford; feeling isolated and without a community; trying to fit in and adapting to life in the U.S.; generational experiences in migration; work ethics and the opportunity to foster West Indian work ethics; uniting the Caribbean community; the controversy about West Indian indepdendence celebrations versus Carnival; maintaing neutrality among the social organizations; and the origins of the Trinbago Association of Connecticut - Twin Island Entertainment.
Tape 1: 2013.26.20.1a-d consists of two sides, the tape, and J-card.
Tape 2: 2013.26.20.2a-c consists of one side, the tape, and a J-card.
Topics discussed include Mitchell's childhood in Trinidad; sports; his parent's occupations; explaining his family's mobility in different areas in Trinidad; his mother migrating to the United States as a domestic worker in the late 1960s; his relationship with his father; generational differences; his education and taking advantage of the educational opportunities in Hartford; the logistics of paying for Hartford State Tech [now part of Capitol Community College]; his mother relocating to New York; tough times on his own in Hartford; feeling isolated and without a community; trying to fit in and adapting to life in the U.S.; generational experiences in migration; work ethics and the opportunity to foster West Indian work ethics; uniting the Caribbean community; the controversy about West Indian indepdendence celebrations versus Carnival; maintaing neutrality among the social organizations; and the origins of the Trinbago Association of Connecticut - Twin Island Entertainment.
Tape 1: 2013.26.20.1a-d consists of two sides, the tape, and J-card.
Tape 2: 2013.26.20.2a-c consists of one side, the tape, and a J-card.
Object number2013.26.20.1-.2
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.
Subject Terms
On View
Not on view
