DARE Interview : Brooklyn, Connecticut; Primary Informant CT020

Fieldworker

Goldberg, David

Date

• 1969

Publisher

Dictionary of American Regional English

Summary

• Informant Data:
• CT020: Black; female; age: 82 (old); education: college; community type: village
• Media Files:
• Arthur the Rat. Speaker: CT020 (4:38) [Frequent loud road noise]
• Full Interview 1 (Tape 0209-S1).
• Content:
• 00:15 Tells of Miss Prudence Crandall's private school for Blacks in 1832, and town resistance
• 05:20 School cut off from supplies by ostracism, well poisoned, teacher's house destroyed
• 08:40 Miss Crandall moves West (with husband?). Pension from town years later
• 11:25 Black education in early 19th century. Talking to people who knew Miss Crandall
• 15:00 Her work as historian of Miss Crandall, interviewing acquaintances and tracing places she lived
• 19:15 Miss Crandall a spiritualist, Informant's interaction with other spiritualists
• 24:30 Psychic experiences, dead sister helps her to find a cave when she needs one
• 27:10 Her Indian blood, uncertainty about whether psychic power comes from God or devil
• 30:10 Danger of wishing ill on others, of black magic
• 32:20 Tape end
• Full Interview 2 (Tape 0209-S2).
• Content:
• 00:10 Use of psychic power, man protecting house with magic powder and wishing a judge dead
• 03:35 Father was a slave, came north with Union Army. Grandmother was an Indian
• 06:50 Role of faith in her life; asking cat for food and it comes
• 10:50 Power of animals, time she was attacked by a pack of dogs
• 15:50 Arthur the Rat
• 20:40 Family uncomfortable with Indian heritage, so she doesn't know what tribe she is
• 24:30 Stories of her grandmother's
• 27:35 Cheated by her lawyer out of compensation after dog attack
• 30:00 Story of an adulterer shunned in strict church
• 32:30 Tape end