I am Junior. I was in the CAAP program and learned much about my own culture. I am 15 and my favorite sports are basketball and football. I had a lot of fun at the CAAP program. I also learned much about what to do on the computer. I even learned how to make my own site and I have used what I learned to make this site that you are checking out now.
West Indians are people from the West Indies, which are islands such as St. Lucia, Trinidad and Jamaica. West Indian people have a stereotype of being labeled as dread locked, smoking people. The truth is people of West Indian descent are anything but lazy. People from the West Indies are typically hard working people. Some of the West Indian population can be found in Hartford CT. The West Indian people have brought diversity to CT. They came here from the West Indies out of need for work and have been a valuable part of Hartford ever since they came.
The West Indian culture is one that is very diverse. Music is quite an influential part of the West Indian culture. In fact Bob Marley, a West Indian musician used the influence of music to protest war and promote peace and love between all nations. In Hartford, the West Indian culture is quite visible. Hartford has a lot of West Indian influence throughout its many streets and stores. There are many bakeries with food of the West Indian culture. There are Jamaican parades celebrating the culture of the West Indies as well.
The West Indian people came here in search of work and education. One of the jobs that most West Indian people found working at the tobacco farms was the farming of tobacco. At the CAAP program we took a trip to such a farm. The men would do work like the planting and harvesting of the tobacco leaves. The harvesting was very difficult because if the leaves were harmed in any way then they would be worthless, so the men had to be very delicate when collecting the leaves. The women would have to sew the leaves together, which was as difficult as harvesting them because they had to be careful not to sew the leaves themselves but the stem only. The men would then have to take the leaves into the sheds and hang them to dry. Then they would have propane flames, which would help with the drying of the leaves. Work like this was very time-consuming, but this is the type of work that attracted many West Indians to Connecticut. We also visited the Connecticut Historical Society Museum. At the Museum we learned about how the West Indian people dispersed throughout Connecticut.
This is an early plow that would make the rows for the planters to plant the tobacco seeds.
This is a small scale layout of what a tobacco farm looked like back then.
This is the inside of the tobacco shed that holds the tobacco. The shed has cotton cloths covering the leaves to keep insects from eating them.
