Cape Verdean Experience

The Chat: The Lives of Cape Verdean Whalers

⚓ The Biggest Myth and the Reality of Migration

​​The biggest myth about Cape Verdean whalers is the oversimplification of their migration story—the idea that their sole motivation for coming to New Bedford was starvation, drought, and famine.

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The Reality: Diversity of Reasons (Push and Pull Factors)

The panelists agreed that the history is much more complicated, involving a diverse set of "push" (reasons to leave) and "pull" (reasons to go elsewhere) factors. Cape Verdeans are noted as the first African group that chose to migrate to the United States.

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Push Factors (Reasons to Leave Cabo Verde):

• Portuguese "Blood Tribute" (The Draft): Cape Verdean men were drafted to fight in other Portuguese colonies (like Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique), with little chance of returning home.

• Forced Labor: Being shipped to São Tomé and Príncipe to work on cocoa farms.

• Political Acts: Men fleeing political persecution, such as those involved in the Insurrection of Paúl in 1893 (as noted by Jim Lopes's ancestor).

• Limited Sustainability: The islands could only sustain a limited population, making emigration a necessary choice.

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Pull Factors (Reasons to Come to New Bedford):

• Economic Opportunity: The promise of a better life and ability to provide for family.

• Seeing the World: Desire for adventure, travel, and encountering people from other places.

• Established Whaling Ties: Opportunities on whaling ships, an industry that increasingly needed their expertise.

• Relatively Better Off: Migration was often done by those who could afford to migrate, not necessarily the absolute neediest.

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Cape Verdean Dominance in Whaling

By the turn of the 20th century, Cape Verdeans and Azoreans came to dominate the New Bedford whaling industry, particularly as the industry declined and "old school Yankees" were shifting focus.

• Captaincy and Ownership: Contrary to the myth that they were primarily general laborers, a significant number of Cape Verdean whalers became captains and owners of vessels.

• Packet Ships: As the U.S. economy moved away from whale oil, old whaling ships were sold. Cape Verdean masters bought these vessels and converted them into packet ships, controlling their own transportation back and forth between Cabo Verde, the Azores, and New Bedford. The Charles W. Morgan was one such ship that brought hundreds of immigrants.

The Whaleman Statue Controversy

The discussion highlighted the complexity of preserving cultural history and the shift in the identity of New Bedford's whalers.

• Original Model: The original model for the iconic Whaleman Statue in downtown New Bedford was Theophilos Manuel Freighus, a Cape Verdean harpooner (or "boat steerer").

• Revision: The decision was made by the commissioning parties to change the face of the statue. The stated intent was to "typify the early Yankee courage" and celebrate the history of whaling from the 1840s, before the shift from "green hands to brown hands."

• Historical Context: This decision reflected the "nostalgia about the good old days of Yankee Whaling" and a cultural anxiety among the "old school Yankees" in the face of massive immigration (Cape Verdean, Azorean, Greek, Italian, Irish, Jewish) around the turn of the century.

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Experiences with Discrimination

Despite often coming from diverse economic backgrounds (including some from middle-class families) and achieving success in the whaling industry, early Cape Verdean immigrants faced clear discrimination:

• Religious Discrimination: Cape Verdeans were Catholics, but at the time, Catholic churches in New Bedford were divided by ethnic groups (Irish, Italian, Polish). They were often not immediately accepted.

• Marriage: Cape Verdean couples, like Don Blake Souza's grandparents, had to get married civilly at the Seaman's Bethel (a Protestant establishment) because the Catholic churches would not accept them. They later had their marriage blessed at Our Lady Of the Assumption (OLOA) once the Cape Verdean Catholic Church was established/acquired.

Would you be interested in learning more about the life of a Cape Verdean whaler on board a ship, or perhaps the specific details of the Cape Verdean packet ships?​

Complex Family Lives and Responsibilities

The discussion revealed that for many Cape Verdean whalers, life involved maintaining multiple sets of responsibilities across two continents—a common, though often unspoken, reality for immigrant groups.

• Two Families/Two Continents: It was not uncommon for whalers to have a family in Cabo Verde (where they were often married) and another family in New Bedford.

  • They actively supported their original families by sending money and provisions back home while simultaneously supporting their new families in America.

• The Burden of Secrecy (The "Illegal" Status): Dr. Gomes shared a compelling story of her great-grandfather, Felipe/Felipe Gomes, who, after overstaying his stay after a whaling voyage (possibly forgetting to re-board his ship), lived in fear of deportation.

  • His greatest fear was being deported and having to leave his five American-born children behind.

  • This fear led him to refuse to speak Creole or Portuguese in public and to avoid teaching his children the language, a poignant illustration of the "contemporary pain of immigrant groups" having to hide their culture to survive.

The Power of Communal and Kinship Networks

The panelists highlighted the strength and critical role of the Cape Verdean community's communitarian ethic and extensive kinship networks (the idea that "everyone is a cousin") in the migration and settlement process.

• Networking and Sponsorship: Whalers and community members actively helped each other:

  • Theophilos Freighus (Reggie's grandfather) brought the father of Don's late husband to America on the Wanderer to "make a man out of him," showing a deep commitment to guiding the next generation.

  • The Fortes brothers met Don's grandfather, Valentine Fermino, on a whaling ship and brought him home to meet their aunt, creating a direct family connection.

• Genealogy and DNA: Modern tools like DNA testing are now verifying the global reach of this network, connecting descendants of Cape Verdean whalers across six continents, including in:

  • Alaska (with Nupiaq and Inuit cousins).

  • New Zealand and Australia (descended from the same whaler, Rufus Gonzalez).

  • The Cook Islands (with Māori cousins).

📜 Passing on the Legacy

The need to preserve these complex and heroic stories was a central theme, stressing the importance of both oral and written history:

• Theophilos Freighus's Legacy: The family of Reggie Gomes Lopes remembers his quiet nature; he never spoke of the dangers of whaling. His wife's fear and his comforting words—"I'm right here"—after she watched the film Down to the Sea and Ships underscored the silent sacrifices made by the whalers.

• The Importance of Sharing: Don Blake Souza emphasized that these stories must be shared with the next generation before they are lost to Americanization, stressing the positive image and contribution immigrant families made to New Bedford.

• Personal Closure: Jean Montero shared his deeply moving journey to Cabo Verde to bury a letter for his grandfather, João Antônio Montero, at his grave in São Nicolau, a symbolic act of bringing closure and honoring his ancestor's life and return.

The history of the Cape Verdean whalers is a powerful narrative of ambition, cultural resilience, and the enduring strength of family and community in the face of immense challenge and discrimination.

Would you like to explore the specific experience of Cape Verdean whalers in other locations, such as the Arctic whaling expeditions, or focus more on the economic structure of the packet ship trade?