Author: The Creola Genealogist

Since beginning this journey of discovery for my personal family history I have always felt it was important to share as much information with not only my family but to anyone of Cape Verdean descent and non- Cape Verdeans, alike. I feel that our history is so intertwined with the general history of so many people’s that we can all learn from what happened on this tiny arquipelago off the coast of Senegal.

That being said, I have spent a lot of my own time, money and resources researching and combing through thousands of documents and additional hours putting all the pieces together. I really feel it is only right that I ask for a bit of recognition when someone decides to use any work that I have researched and produced material for. I have no issues at all with my research being included in anyone’s work provided that they at least seek appropriate permissions – and at least a phone call – I’d even settle for an email.

So…© Anna M. Lima Delgado and The Creola Genealogist, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Anna M. Delgado and The Creola Genealogist with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
The views expressed on this blog belong solely to me, Anna M. Delgado, The Creola Genealogist, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of my spouse, parents, step-parents, grandparents, step-grand-parents, great-grandparents or any of their ancesters directly or indirectly by birth or by marriage, dead or alive, siblings, half-siblings, step-siblings – known or otherwise, cousins – first, second, third, fourth, etc by birth or by marriage and in any combination or their direct and indirect descendants and ancestors, my children, step children, future children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and any of their descendants by birth or by marriage, legal or common-law, my in-laws and their ancestors and descendants, direct and indirect, by birth or by marriage, dead or alive, or of Cape Verdeans, in general.
Except when directly expressed, images contained in the blog belong to the owner and this blog and may not be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the owner, Anna M. Delgado, The Creola Genealogist, especially since they came straight from my own photo albums or those of my personal family members.  The contents of this blog are not meant to malign any religion, club, organization, company, or individual, or anyone or thing, any ethnic group, especially those among the pluthera of groups who, at one time or another, contributed to what is now known as “Cabo Verdeanidade” and making me who I am today 🙂 
For anyone who has already used any portion of this blog or research, I am humbled that you have thought my work worthy enough to include in your endeavors but it would still be nice to get my permissions and, in the very least, say “Hi”.

During my presentation at the Cape Verdean Progressive Center in East Providence two weeks ago, someone asked the question regarding slavery and the status of children born to people who were enslaved. At the time, I responded that from what I could tell from the records I’ve researched, only the mother was identified as a slave. For example, a child “Jose” was born to “Libania”, the slave of Joao das Armas. The child was only identified as being the “natural” or illegitimate child of the enslaved woman who was usually only identified by her first name.

With this question in mind, I went over some of these records again and found a few very interesting things. The baptism of an enslaved person, whether adult or child, always identified the person as a slave or “escravo”. The parents were usually unknown and some noted the place of birth as “Guinea” while others identified them as being naturals of the island.

There are also “justification” records, or records justifying the baptism of someone that was done at a prior time for which a record may not exist or may have been destroyed. Onerecord, in particular, from 1829, identified the person baptised by both her first and last name who was baptised about 34 years prior. She was the “natural” child of an enslaved woman and the record also included the name of her mother’s owner. This woman’s last name wasn’t her enslaved mother’s owner’s name. It is unclear if her last name came from her mother, as she was only listed by first name, or possibly by an unidentified father. What the record doesn’t do is identify her as a slave. Slavery existed well into the 1870’s. So if this woman was a slave she would have surely been identified as such.

One very interesting record exists, also in 1829, for a child born legitimately to a man and his wife, who was enslaved, herself. This record even lists her “owner”. Here is a legitimate child born to a man and an enslaved woman and the child is not identified as a slave. I should add that there are records of enslaved people marrying within the catholic church to non-enslaved people. This may not have been uncommon.

So – did children inherit their status from enslaved parents or were they free at birth?

I haven’t found any actual rules or laws pertaining this very question but we do know that children born to enslaved women and white, Portuguese men were recognized by their fathers and could even inherit from them. They may have also carried their father’s names, as well. We know that in some situations, enslaved people were usually freed upon the deatho f their “owners” which would mean that there were free Africans from very early on in Cape Verde’s history.

Another very interesting fact is that in the late 1700’s, Portugal enacted a law which stated that any African slave brought within Portugal’s borders were to freed after six months. I haven’t found anything that showed this law was rescinded. Did this law also apply to Cape Verde? I would think that it would since it was still a Portuguese colony and its people were considered its subjects.

Another point worth researching is on the exact nature of slavery within Cape Verde. It’s no secret that Cape Verde was once the hub of the slave trade. Slave traders from the America’s would travel to the islands and purchase slaves who were “seasoned’ or baptised and given christian names. Cape Verdeans participated in the trading and transportation of slaves, as well, mostly to the Caribbean, Central and South America, although there are records of some who transported them to North America.

Lancados, children of Portuguese slave traders were used as middle men on the mainland of Africa and facilitated the capture and trade to Cape Verde. These Africans would have been brought to Santiago or Fogo where they were, presumably, then sold and/or transported to the Americas. Some were, however, kept on the islands for their various skills. Females seemed to kept as slaves within the homes of well-to-do families. Slaves were also initially used on what the Portuguese tried to establish as plantations for growing coffee beans, sugar cane, etc, but didn’t prosper due to the unstable and arid conditions on the islands.

On the island of Maio, salt was being mined and sold on the open market. Passport records exist of men traveling to the island with numbers of slaves who were actualy identified by name. Slaves were used in the mining of salt there,primarily, until Manuel Antonio Martins established his salt mines on the island of Sal which included the first rail system in Africa by the early 1800’s. This rail system system was also built by enslaved African men owned by him.

It is very clear though that most of the Africans brought to Cape Verde were sold and transported to the Americas while a few were kept on the islands primarily to serve as house slaves with some instances of slave labor on islands that had some kind of industry like salt mining.

Were these slaves kept on the islands or were they later sold elsewhere? If they stayed, were their children born enslaved or free? Were the offspring of African women and European men sold into slavery? Or perhaps, sold into slavery on the different islands of Cape Verde? Its evident in passport records that enslaved Cape Verdeans were transported between the islands and even to Portugal.

By the beginning of the 19th century the transportation of slaves across the Atlantic became illegal and English and American squadrons were put in place to prevent ships from crossing. In 1843, a group of Cape Verdean and British officials established a commssion on the island of Boa Vista aimed to abolish the slave trade in Cape Verde but not necessarily slavery as an institution. Slavery, itself, wasn’t abolished until the late 1870’s.

The questions are numerous. Were the offspring of enlaved African women and European men born into slavery based on their mother’s status like it was here in the US? Were these children – the mixed ancestors of the majority of Cape Verdeans today – granted freedom by their owner/fathers? If so, what was their status in society? Did they own property? Could they vote? Were they seen as equals? Did they live their lives in the same way as the ‘European” offspring of their father’s? If these children inherited from their fathers, did it also include any slaves their fathers owned? Did they own slaves, themselves?

As more research is done, we may begin to understand Cape Verde’s history of slavery and gain better insight into its society of today. I don’t believe we should look at Cape Verdean history and culture only in terms of its slave history but as an important part of its past. And by gaining insight into our pasts we can ensure we don’t make the same mistakes in our future.

On my first trip to Cape Verde, I discovered the Cashew fruit. I had always known the cashew, which is pronounced “Caju” in Portuguese, to be a nut. But it’s actually a fruit AND a nut. All these years, I believed the cashew was only a nut – Who knew?!?!? It was during this same trip that I first realized my own Jewish ancestry – Who knew?!?!? All this time I believed my family was Catholic but, as I learned more of my ancestry, I realized that many of our traditions were, in fact, based in the Jewish faith.

So, if you’re born and raised in the Catholic Church but practiced Jewish traditions, are you Catholic or Jewish? This is a questions that many Cape Verdeans may begin asking themselves as we begin to seriously consider the impact of Jewish ancestry in Cape Verde. I jokingly referred to being a “CaJu” with a friend of mine, who also recently found out about his Jewish roots. Is it possible to be Catholic AND Jewish – basically, a “Ca-Ju”?

I was baptized in the Church, confirmed in the Church, and went to Catholic schools all the way through high school. But when it came to certain practices, what my family practiced differed a bit from what I was being taught in school. The starkest difference was the practice of the Nodjadu, or mourning period, which closely resembles the Jewish practice of sitting Shiva. As with many traditions passed down through my family, I cannot imagine doing things any differently.

Last week, I was honored to participate in the Annual Cape Verdean Jewish Sedar in Boston and was struck by the truth of this reality. I am a descendant of two groups of very strong people who survived a history of indescribable horrors for merely being who they were. So it was with great pride that I spoke to this group of Jews and Cape Verdeans about our shared history.  Because of our ancestors, we all have the freedom to be and to live how we’d like to. We are free to worship how we’d like. And I am free to be a Catholic or a Jew and even a “CaJu” if I please.

For immediate release

Genealogy isn’t just about tracing one’s family back as many generations as possible. It can reunite lost family members and even help people find a heritage they never knew about. Since starting my research I have found and connected with family members all over the country. It got to be that, at one point, whenever my aunt took a call from me, she would immediately ask, “Who did you find today?”! I have become known as the family detective.

I want to share just two of the many stories that have really made the hours of research so worth it.

~

Since I could remember, Bibi, my great grandmother, spoke about her brother, Julio, who she never saw again after he boarded a ship for America in the late 1920’s. By 1918, Bibi (age 14)her brother, Julio(age 10), and sister, Carolina(age 6) were orphaned when their parents died during the global Spanish Flu epidemic. With only each other to rely on and with the help of their aged great-grandmother, Angelica, the siblings managed to survive their losses but life was permanently changed from the comfortable lives their parents had given them.

During this time, many Cape Verdeans, mostly men, risked everything in search for a better life and means to care for their families in Cape Verde. By the time Julio was in his twenties, he followed in the footsteps of family before him and boarded a ship for America. Bibi periodically heard about her brother through letters sent from America by other family members but they had completely lost touch with Julio until 1965, when a letter arrived from California. This letter included a picture of Julio, his wife, Rovilla, two daughters and two granddaughters.

Time went on and by 1971, Bibi finally arrived in the US – a month after Julio passed away. Bibi never let any of us forget that she had this brother and that somewhere in California we had family.

Fast forward 41 years and after years of researching my family history, I decided, last year (2011) to try again to look for information about Julio. I found an obituary for him from 1971 that listed his remaining survivors. Eventually, I found a tree on ancestry.com that included some of these same names and decided to send this person an email. Later that day, I received a response and by the end of the day, I was on the phone with Julio’s two daughter’s!!! The best part of this is that it was my birthday and I could never have asked for a better gift than to put closure to a family journey that spanned 83 years and 3000 miles.

~

In 2010, I had autosomal DNA testing called Family Finder through FamilytreeDNA. Among my first matches was a woman named Linda who showed to be a 3rd cousin- we apparently shared a common great-grandparent. When we first spoke I learned that not only did she live in the same state as me but she was also adopted at birth and was trying connect with her birth family. Her mother was an American and she only knew that her father was a black Portuguese man from Falmouth. She had found records of people with her father’s name but they were from the Azores. She was never convinced her biological father was Azorean but rather a Cape Verdean. I assured her that if we were that closely related then he was Cape Verdean since all my great-grandparents were born on the islands.

One year later, I’m excited to say that Linda has made contact with her biological siblings in Massachusetts and speaks with one of her sisters on the phone at least a few times a day! Her father, unfortunately, passed away in 1995 but she now has a much larger family that includes many brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews – and one distant cousin 🙂

~

In my family, growing up, we were raised to understand that family wasn’t just a set of parents and siblings. Family meant aunts, uncles and so many cousins that after a while you considered and treated everyone like cousins- like family (whether we were sure or not). We laugh sometimes because there are people in our lives that we know as “cousins” but no one had ever explained exactly how we were related. It’s actually fun,now,to be able to explain, for example, that cousins I grew up with and saw everyday, were actually related because their great-grandmother was my great-grandmother’s aunt! That’s how it is in many families, especially Cape Verdean ones. In recent years I have added many, many, many additional lines to my extended family tree and look forward to adding more.

Is it possible to learn more about the origins of the Creole spoken in Cape Verde today by studying its history and, more specifically, it’s genealogy? Is it possible that the people who eventually settled on the islands, besides the Portuguese, also brought their languages? Cape Verdeans are not just descendants of Portuguese slave traders and African slaves. In fact, among the white population found throughout its history, we find Spaniards, Italians, French, English and Dutch people, among others and to consider the African impact as a singular influence is incorrect. Among them were Mandigo, Jalofa, and  Fulani, to name a few. Each of the above had their own cultures and languages that is inarguably evidenced in Cape Verde, today.

Creole languages are believed to be the result of the convergence of two languages resulting in a pidgin. One theory is that our Crioulo is a simplified Portuguese used to communicate with African speakers. A second theory is that it is an example of the innate language sense and universal grammar we are all born with as described by Bickerton (1981) and Chomsky (1965). Antonio Carreira (1983) describes the origin of our Crioulo as derived from a Portuguese pidgin spoken in mainland Portugal in the late 1400’s by black slaves brought over from Africa citing “lingua dos pretos” (language of the blacks) in early writings that contain some linguistic features found in Crioulo. Some have also written that early Crioulo is derived from Galician Portguese which is very different for modern Prtuguese. Dr. Marlyse Baptista, a Cape Verdean linguist, calls the above “proto-Kriolu” that eventually traveled to Santiago with the first settlers.

Linguists have then postulated that this “pidgin” was deliberately taught to these black slaves in order to use them as translators on the Guinea coast during the beginnings of the Atlantic Slave trade. For this to have been the beginnings of Cape Verdean Crioulo spoken today would have meant that every early Portuguese (and Spanish, Dutch, Italian, and English) settler spoke the same pidgin and taught this to every black slave brought to Cape Verde.

When you look at the early population of Cape Verde within the first 100 years, we know that among the white population existed a large number of Jews who were either “enticed” to leave Portugal with promise of a part in the settlement of Cape Verde or were exhiled during the Portuguese Inquisitions of the 1490’s onward. There were Conversos, as well as non-conversos, who may have found a place to practice their faith in relative anonymity and isolation. Many were relegated to “ghettos” and not fully accepted into the elite circles. These Jews, mostly men, freely intermingled with the black and mixed populations of the islands.

We also know that at the same time there was disdain among the Portuguese royals of the growing “Crioulo” culture and language resulting in more women (including female Jewish exhiles) sent to Cape Verde and they discouraged the use Crioulo being spoken. They were clearly not proponents of using and teaching Portuguese Pidgin to the population in its reign during the Atlantic Slave Trade. It’s very likely that the Crioulo language that emerged among the mixed people was hugely influenced by the Judeo-Portuguese speakers who were involved in every aspect of Cape Verdean culture.

Take, for example, Papiamento spoken in the “ABC” islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. Speakers of Crioulo easily understand Papiamento and, indeed, it has been documented that Papiamento has its origins based in the creole languages of Cape Verde and the guinea coast. It is also widely written of its Ladino, or more correctly, Judeo-Portuguese origins, as well. The people who settled these islands were the same people in Cape Verde and there are many passport records documenting Cape Verdeans traveling to these islands, among others, during this time period. If Papiamento is based in Judeo-Portuguese then it has to also be assumed that Cape Verdean Crioulo is, as well.

Judeo-Portuguese, just like its Spanish counterpart, Ladino, was spoken by Sephardic Jews in Portugal and Spain. Traces of Ladino is found in most Latino countries, including Mexico, where many Sephardic Jews and conversos were found. Ladino is still spoken but its speakers is dwindling in numbers.Judeo-Portuguese is thought to have died out in the 19th century. It was spoken by Morranos or conversos in Portugal and spread to other countries like Holland, Italy and Northern Germany where these Morranos “re-assumed Judaism” according to http://www.jewish-languages.org. In many places, Judeo-Portuguese speakers were absorbed into the larger Spanish – Ladino or “judezmo” speaking communities. There is nothing to suggest that Judeo-Portuguese was not spoken in Cape Verde.

We have evidence of Jewish ancestry in our traditions of Nodjadu, cemeteries and even towns called Synagogue. Couldn’t it then also be possible to study words used in Crioulu such as “fijo” (son/daughter) which is “filho” in Portuguese and “hijo” in Spanish to show evidence of Judeo influence? Words like “fijo” is used in Ladino where the /h/ is replaced by /f/. I think there is a very good case to be made for the study of Judeo-Portuguese roots in Cape Verdean Crioulo. If this proves to be true then it may open more conversation as to the impact on Cape Verdean culture by Jews from the beginning of Cape Verdean history and not just the influence of those found on the islands from Gibraltar and Morocco since the mid-1800’s.

I have written previously about Jews in Cape Verde and about “Nodjadu” reflecting the Jewish Shiva. Jews have been present in Cape Verde since its first settlement and undoubtedly brought their traditions with them. During the Inquisitions of Spain and Portugal, Jewish families were forced to convert to Christianity or face persecution and sometimes death. Thousands of Jews were burnt alive for refusing to renounce their religion.

For those who found themselves in Cape Verde, it was possibly an opportunity to continue practicing their traditions without as great a risk as they may have faced in Portugal. Many families practiced their beliefs privately while living as Christians publicly. They observed holidays and ate kosher. They didn’t baptize their children and even practiced Rosh Hashana!

Religious synchronism is the merging of two or more belief systems. What I grew up observing is probably a very good example of the synchronicity of religions in Cape Verde. Synchronistic traditions are not solely Christian and Jewish. We have many traditions that also have African as well as other European roots. Much of the traditions of Sephardic Judaism have been lost and of those that remain, most who still practice them have no idea why they do them. Many, like I had, think its part of Roman Catholic traditions or “just the way Cape Verdeans do things”. But it seems that those rituals that have to do with the way we come into this world and how we leave it remained almost unchanged.

In many Cape Verdean families, it is traditional to name a child on the eighth day, “setima Noite” with a small celebration. This is very similar to the Jewish Bris where a child’s name remains secret until the 8th day and circumcision ceremony for boys. My great-grandmother, who was also a mid-wife, made sure to tell me before the birth of my daughter, that the first thing to touch her body should be a piece of clothing that belonged to her father. She explained that this was something that was done long ago to bring luck to the child. I have no idea whether there is any connection to Jewish tradition here but I wanted to include this because it was a very important tradition in Brava that demonstrates the role of ritual in their way of life.

Before a child is baptized, it is usual to place a “conta d’odju” on a string around the waist of a child. The conta d’odju is a black ball with white dots. The number of dots vary but they are always odd numbered. The belief is that any evil spirits or the evil eye is absorbed by the ball and wards the child from those evil spirits before baptism. When the ball has absorbed any of these evil spirits it bursts and the next time a mother goes to change the child’s diaper, she may only find the string intact and no conta d’odju! Baptisms usually happened soon after.

Christians believe that all children are born with original sin. Baptism is a way to rid humans of this original sin and welcome a child into God’s family. Jews believe all children are born pure, without the blemish of sin and are born into God’s family.

Jews do not baptize their children as this was an act of Christianity. In Cape Verde, it was not unusual for a family to go through the act of baptism. I believe this may be another example of synchronicity. There are many records of children being baptized within a week of birth and this was also when parents first named their children.

When a person dies, there is a custom in some families in Cape Verde to tear clothing which is then tied around the wrist of the immediate family members. This is very similar to the Jewish Kriah, where immediate family tore articles of clothing, on the left side (close to the heart) for immediate relatives and the right side for others. Sometimes, a black ribbon is simple tied around the arm of the relatives. Here is a picture of a family member in Brava demonstrating Kriah with the black armband.

My great-grandmother first explained to me the proper ways of Nodjadu to explain why it was improper that some of our younger family members were going out during the first 30 days after a family members death. I remember her explaining to me how she had helped tend to many people after death which included closing their eyes, washing their bodies and wrapping them in cloth. They would bury the body by sundown but where the death may have occurred later in the day, she would sit would the body through the night. It was, also, customary for the family of the deceased to wail as the body was carried from the home to the burial site

Bibi explained that the family stayed in the house and did no work for seven days after the death of a loved one. Extended relatives and friends would come to the home for “visita” – a very important act that is still very important within the Cape Verdean culture. During “visita” others would bring food for the family. During most visitas I have been to, the immediate female relatives stayed in the bedroom, never the kitchen or living room, while the men received people in the living room. Mirrors in the were supposed to be covered or turned around. Bibi explained that because people have to work, we only do this in America on the weekends  (which equals 7 days) whereas, this takes place over the first seven days in Cape Verde. It’s customary for family members to stay at the home where “visita” takes place but its acceptable for family to go home to sleep and return in the morning.

When my paternal grandfather passed away, my father observed tradition by not shaving or cutting his hair during the mourning period. It’s expected that family members wear black during the first 30 days and when making any “visitas”. The observance of wearing black extends for 6 months for immediate family and a year for parents and children of the deceased. It is not uncommon for widows and widowers to continue wearing black for a longer period of time. My great-grandmother wore black continuously for 42 years when she was widowed at the age of 24. She rarely wore bright clothes even afterwards.

The Jewish Shiva begins when the person is buried and continues for seven days. Sitting Shiva includes family members of the deceased not leaving the home during this time and receiving people who bring food as they are not allowed to cook. Mirrors are covered in the home in observance of the idea that mourners should not do anything for their comfort which includes changing clothes or other things of vanity like looking at yourself in a mirror. Sitting Shiva includes family members staying in the home but it is acceptable for them to go home to sleep. You’re not allowed to wear leather, shave or cut you hair during this time as well.

Shiva services are done in the home which includes prayer. During Nodjadu, it is common for a cape verdean priest or nun to come to the home to lead prayer services with the family.

During the first 30 days, a widow or parent of a deceased child usually does not return to work while other family members do. Once the 30 days are over, for most, people continue usual life activities but it’s frowned upon to listen to music or attend celebratory activities. The end of the first 30 days of mourning ends with a mass followed by food in the home of the deceased. People are not expected to continue “visitas” after the 30 day mass.

For Jews, this period of time is called Shloshim. The first thirty days, some activities are permitted for most people besides parents of a deceased child.

The Cape Verdean mourning period does not officially end until one year after the death of a loved one. There is a mass held for the deceased followed by “visita” or receiving of people at the home where food is served. This is also the time that it’s expected to have a gravestone placed at the burial site. There is no steadfast rule to the timing of the placement but it is definitely expected that this be done by the first anniversary of the death.

Jewish custom is to have an unveiling or dedication of the grave marker at the one year anniversary of the deceased’s burial. 

Another tradition I believe was observed at least on the island of Brava, was Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish New Year. My great-grandmother told me that when she was young, she and her family members would dress in white and go to the beach around New Year’s day. They would say prayers and throw bits of food into the water as a way to usher in the new year. I always believed this to by some synchronistic ritual with African roots as it had no elements of Catholicism that I recognized, especially after 12 years of Catholic school educations. That is, until I began to research Jewish customs and traditions and found that this is exactly the ritual followed by most Jews at Rosh Hashana!

This particular tradition of dressing in white and throwing bread in the water was usually done by the Cohanim, or members of the priestly family of Tribe of Levi, descendants of Aaron, to bring the New Year by tossing away sins from the past year and beginning anew. These people, the Cohanim/Cohens, historically, held certain responsibility during synagogue services including Tashlich – the exact ritual described by my great-grandmother!

 The origin and meaning of Tashlich comes from this verse in the Old Testament;

God will take us back in love;
God will cover up our iniquites,
You [God] will hurl all our sins
Into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19)

(This is actually one tradition I think I may start to observe. I like the idea of tossing out the sins (and mistakes) of the past year and not carrying the baggage into the new one.)

Even more interesting is the fact that my family name, Coelho, is a variation of the name Cohen or Cohanim – Priestly family. It is thought that Coelho was a name taken by conversos (Jews converted to Christianity) that had a meaning in nature, rabbit,  like da Lomba (woods), da Silva (bush) or Oliveira (Olive bush). But the actual name that would have derived from rabbit is Cunha which is a surname found in Cape Verde. Coelho is not a converso name. It is actually the Jewish name of my ancestors who either fled or were exhiled to Cape Verde during the Inquisitions. There is an Inquisition record of a Joam Coelho in Portugal. There is also record of a Joam Coelho and his brother, Ergas, who were donantarios of the island of Maio, ancestors to the Coelho’s of Brava.

My paternal ancestors would light candles on Friday nights. My father recalls that he saw his mother, aunts, and grandmother do this on Friday evenings but did not know that this was the ritual of Shabbat to usher in the day of Sabbath. Shabbat is a ritual of lighting candles, usually two, to signify “Remember the Sabbath” and “Observe the Sabbath”.  Some families use the number of children in the household to determine how many candles to light. But that number can never be reduced.

There is no question that Cape Verde’s history includes Jews who were fleeing or who were exiled solely because of their religious beliefs. And now, as more and more Cape Verdeans are more open about their memories of family prayer rituals and other Jewish traditions, we can begin to look at how these and other religious and ethnic influences have shaped Cape Verdean identity.

In the first session held of the 28th Congress of the United States in 1844, on the floor of the US capital, the story was told of a young man named Marcelino who escaped from slavery in Cape Verde after boarding the Barque, Pantheon.

Joao Jose Claudio de Lima, a merchant from Rabil, Boa Vista, had his most trusted and skilled slave, Marcelino, tending to his many boats. First hand accounts from that day describe Mercellino as a “ladino” which best suggests that he was of mixed ancestry and probably the son of Mr. De Lima. Other accounts tell of Marcelino rushing past the custom house with a bundle under his arm and when asked where he was going, he replied that he was going to look after one of the boats that had gotten tangled up. Another witness described seeing Marcelino swimming from his master’s boat to the Pantheon where he was helped aboard.

Joao Jose Claudio de Lima immediately tried to get his slave back but was unsuccessful since the Pantheon was already outside of Cape Verde’s jurisdiction. His only other resort was to file an official complaint against Captain Borden, the owner of the Pantheon and  the United States government for compensation of his “stolen property”. His complaint, filed on March 7, 1844, stated;

I, John Joseph Claudius de Lima, a merchant in the city of Praia, Santiago, declare that on the 26th of December last, the whaling barque Pantheon, from Fall River, in the United States of America, while under sail off this port, set about to buy refreshments, which remained all day, and retired at seven o’clock in the evening. During the stay of that boat ashore, her crew enticed away a young “ladino” slave named Marcelino, by trade a carpenter and sailor, belonging to the petitioner and carried him away furtively on board and took him to the place whither the vessel was abound, causing the petitioner to lose an annual sum of a hundred and fifty milReis, clear of all expenses, as he earned at least 600 Reis a day…


Captain Borden and the Patheon sailed out of the port of Fall River, Massachusetts in 1841, stopping in Cape Verde for supplies. The ship was owned by Isaac Hall who served as a state representative for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1837 to 1872. Mr Hall was known to be very anti-slavery and even left the Democratic party because if it. The Pantheon was a 271 ton whaling ship which was commissioned by President Martin Van Buren on June 3, 1841. I haven’t found further information on Joao Jose Claudio de Lima’s petition or whether he received any of the 800,000 milReis he actually petitioned for. In searching the records for the Pantheon, I only found a “Manuel” from Cape de Verd who arrived with the ship to the US in 1844. Captain Daniel Borden died at sea in the summer of 1849 and Isaac Hall kept serving the Massachusetts House of Representatives until his death in 1872.

Joao Jose Claudio de Lima was a well-to-do land owner, ship builder, merchant and slave holder from Boa Vista, Cape Verde. There are records of him in his dealings with Manuel Antonio Martins, also from Boa Vista who was the first civilian governor of Cape Verde, who built the salinas on the island of Sal and made his money in the salt industry.

It is difficult to make a direct connection between my earliest Lima ancestor, Rosa Joanna de Lima, and Joao Jose Claudio de Lima, however, they were both from the exact area of Rabil, the northern part of Cabecinhas.  The vital records that are in existence for Boa Vista only date back to the 1870’s. But there are other records showing Mr. de Lima as the owner date back to the early 1800’s so I am placing his birthdate to the late 1700’s. I am guessing Rosa was born around 1800 or so. Her son, Luis Antonio, was born in 1826. Most of the de Lima’s I have found from that time period were all from Rabil.

I hope Marcelino was able to make a life for himself after escaping slavery in Cape Verde. He probably arrived in the US with the Pantheon in 1844 and maybe even continued working on other whaling ships for a living. Maybe he settled in Fall River or New Bedford and had a family. Perhaps he decided to get off at another port in New Zealand, Cardiff , or Hawaii, as so many other Cape Verdean whalers did. We may never know what happened to Marcelino but the story of a slave named Marcelino who escaped slavery in Cape Verde is forever recorded in the Congressional Papers in the Library of Congress of the United States of America and his story is still being told almost two hundred years later.

I previously wrote about how I was a bit uncertain on when my great grandmother, Joana, was born. On some documentation, she is listed as having been born in the 1886. Her obituary reads that she was 75 years old when she died in 1961. But her headstone says that she was born in 1876! In doing more research, I actually saw paperwork that shows 1886 crossed out and someone writing in 1876. This paperwork was corrected by her son, Daniel.

So this means that she was the child and not the grandchild of Luis Antonio de Lima and Camilla Fortes Ramos Lima. This also means that her name was originally Querina and that she was born in Rabil, Boa Vista on March 25, 1876. She was one of five children,including, Palmira, Manoel, Maria, and Antonio. Their father, Luis, died in 1882, at the age of 56. There are no further records for Camilla after this time.

Boa Vista was devestated between 1883-1886 and between 1896-1898, when crops failed there. It was around this time that Joanna was sent to Brava to live with relatives who at the time were being sustained by money and goods being sent from America. She had an uncle, Francisco Lima, living in Brava at the time. It is probably the case that she was brought there as an orphan because of the droughts.

According to Richard Lobban in the Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cape Verde, there was a total of 58 years of famine and over 250,000 deaths between 1747 and 1970. Learning more about my great-grandmother, Joana, has made me realize that we, her descendants, are so lucky to be alive today.