Cape Verdean American Immigration, 1860-1965

[get these nets]

Episode of the Ilha Cast Podcast
They begin speaking in English @17:49
@31 They begin discussing the book



Ilhacast Podcast is an authentic internet radio program about the Capeverdean experience both in the motherland & the diaspora. AlphaKiko is your humble host who is looking to bring you information for your enjoyment & empowerment
Guest are

• Marilyn Halter, Professor Emerita of History at Boston University
• Marcy dePina, Ethnomusicologist and radio/tv producer

Between Race and Ethnicity
Cape Verdean American Immigrants, 1860-1965
Author: Marilyn Halter


Cape Verdean Americans were one of the first major groups of Americans to have made the voyage from Africa to the United States voluntarily. Their homeland, an archiaelago off the west coast of Africa, had long been colonized by the Portuguese. Arriving in New England first as crew members of whaling vessels, these Afro-Portuguese immigrants later came as permanent settlers in their own packet ships. They were employed in the cranberry industry, on the docks, and as domestic workers.

Marilyn Halter combines oral history with analyses of ships' records to create a detailed picture of the history and adaptation patterns of the Cape Verdean Americans, who identified themselves in terms of ethnicity but whose mixed African-European ancestry led their new society to view them as a racial group. Halter emphasizes racial and ethnic identity formation among Cape Verdeans, who adjusted to their new life . Ethnographic analysis of rural life on the bogs of Cape Cod is contrasted with the New Bedford, Massachusetts, urban community to show how the immigrants established their own social and religious groups and maintained their Crioulo customs

 

[havoc]

Great information. I had no idea Africans voluntarily migrated to the US prior to the Civil War.

 

[Secure Da Bag]

I wanna ask a question, but I don't want to this thread into a shytshow.

With that said, I didn't know this either. I thought all voluntary African immigration happened after 1865.

 

[get these nets]

-NA-

 

[Secure Da Bag]

What's the question?

Would they qualify for reparations?

 

[get these nets]

-NA-

 

[Secure Da Bag]

?????

Why would voluntary immigrants qualify for reparations for the descendants of enslaved African Americans? How did question even cross your mind?

The date.

 

[get these nets]

-NA-

 

[Secure Da Bag]

They arrived here by choice as free people, though...and they migrated to Northern states that had already abolished slavery.

We know and agree that reparations are for enslaved Africans and their descendants of the United States of America.

However, the rhetoric (of which there is many) makes the delineation (IMO, especially this case) muddy.

Currently, Black Americans qualify if: they've been on the census for at least 10 years and identified as Negro, Black American, and African-American and if they can find your family name on the 1870 census.
Also, AFAIK, any Afram who escaped to the North from the South weren't going to get 40 acres and a mule. That was just for the Freedmen still in the south after the war. I haven't seen any documentation stating otherwise. So if anyone has any official documentation that does state otherwise please share.
So in the case of these Cape Verdean American, they fit both criteria. So based on what's being said today, they'd qualify for reparations. Even though they shouldn't.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Would they qualify for reparations?

They weren't slaves in the USA, they DON'T descend from mainland USA slaves, and they arrived in the North when slavery had already ended in the region

 

[Ish Gibor]

Notes about Cape Verdeans on Nantucket - Nantucket Historical Association

Whaling Between the 1790s and the 1850s, outward-bound Nantucket whaleships stopped at the Cape Verde Islands to provision and recruit...More Read more from Notes about Cape Verdeans on Nantucket

nha.org

Cape Verdean Population in the United States Over Time

Period	Estimated Population	Context & Notes
1790s–1850s	A few hundred	First Cape Verdean sailors and whalers arrive in New England ports (Nantucket, New Bedford, Providence). Mostly single men who sometimes settled and intermarried locally.
1860–1900	1,000–5,000	Small but steady community in Massachusetts and Rhode Island; some Cape Verdeans appear in ship registries, boarding houses, and church records.
1900–1924	~10,000–15,000	Whaling industry peak and migration boom before the 1924 Immigration Act. Many Cape Verdeans enter the U.S. with Portuguese passports. Communities expand in New Bedford, Fall River, Providence, Pawtucket.
1924–1950	~12,000–20,000	Immigration restrictions slow growth. Population stabilizes through U.S.-born generations. Cape Verdeans are often counted as “Portuguese” or “other” in census data, so actual numbers likely higher.
1950–1975	~25,000–35,000	Families grow in New England; Cape Verde still under Portuguese rule. A few new migrants arrive under family sponsorship.
1975–1990	~40,000–60,000	Major post-independence wave due to drought and instability in Cape Verde. Family reunification visas increase arrivals. Communities spread to Connecticut, New York, and California.
1990–2010	~80,000–100,000	Established diaspora with 2nd and 3rd generations. Cape Verdean-American organizations, festivals, and media grow. Some move to Florida and Georgia.
2010–Today (2020s)	~110,000–120,000 (including mixed descendants)	Concentrated mostly in Massachusetts (esp. Boston, Brockton, New Bedford), Rhode Island (Providence, Pawtucket), and smaller groups in Connecticut, California, and Florida.