Oral history interview with Abraham Joseph
Object Details
- General
- Associated documentation, including partial transcripts, for this interview is available in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives. The textual transcripts are not verbatim of the audio recordings.
- Title created by ACMA staff using text written on sound cassette, contents of audio recording, textual transcript, and/or associated archival documentation.
- Interviewer
- Brown, Tamara, 1969-
- Names
- Tontons macoutes
- Joseph, Abraham
- Collection Creator
- Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum
- Place
- Haiti
- Washington (D.C.)
- Topic
- Haitians
- boat people
- Emigration and immigration
- Porters
- Taxicab drivers
- Automobile driver education
- Automobile driver education teachers
- Businesspeople
- Family-owned business enterprises
- Interviews
- Interviewer
- Brown, Tamara, 1969-
- Culture
- Haitian Americans
- See more items in
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records / Series 3: Oral History Interviews
- Sponsor
- Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
- Extent
- 1 Digital file
- 1 Sound cassette
- Date
- 1994 July 26
- Archival Repository
- Anacostia Community Museum Archives
- Type
- Archival materials
- Digital files
- Sound cassettes
- Citation
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
- Collection Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
- Note
- The total playing time of interview recording is approximately 28 minutes.
- Scope and Contents
- Abraham Joseph, a driving school owner from Haiti, talked about his family, including his siblings, his parents who were farmers, and his children; walking to school; the village, Gros-Morne, where he lived in Haiti; and working as a carpenter in Haiti and the Bahamas before immigrating to the United States in 1980 because he had a fear of Tonton Macoute. He explained the power of Tonton Macoute, including the time his brother was arrested. Joseph described traveling on a little boat from Haiti to the Bahamas and then to Miami; moving to Washington, DC because his fiancée, who he met in the Bahamas, lived in DC with her relatives; and his reaction to seeing snow for the first time in Washington, DC. Joseph detailed the challenges of working as a porter, his first job in Washington, DC. He explained his decision to become a taxi driver and how he accomplished his goal; how he helped others from all over the world learn how to drive; why he opened a driving school, called AB Discount Driving School; and the challenges of running a business and securing insurance for the driving school. Abraham Joseph was interviewed by Tamara Brown on July 26, 1994. Interview is in English. Digital audio files include very loud white noise, static, and background noise; interviewee can be heard clearly for the most part.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
- Record ID
- ebl-1712088000981-1712088003341-0
- Metadata Usage
- CC0