Cape Verdean Americans are individuals with ancestry from Cape Verde born or residing in the United States.
Immigration waves Prior to independence in 1975, Cape Verdean immigrants were registered as Portuguese immigrants from the overseas province of Portuguese Cape Verde. Cape Verdean immigration to the United States began in the early 19th century. The first Cape Verdean immigrants came aboard New England whaling ships, which would often pick up crewmen off the coast of Cape Verde. The presence of Cape Verdeans in the New England whaling inspired the fictional character Daggoo in Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. Yankee captains in the packet trade valued Cape Verdeans as crew, because they "worked hard to save what they could while on board vessel they could be hired for much less money than American seamen. Furthermore, they made a disciplined crew.". Quoted in The Cape Verdeans were universally regarded as "hardworking, honest seamen." When all others abandoned the old sailing ships, the Cape Verdeans bought the decrepit vessels out of their earnings as seamen and kept patching them up with loving care. Eventually, they came to own almost all that remained of the New Bedford fleet, either by purchase or by default. In some cases, they received the ships as outright gifts and "sailed them all over the earth with their own crews and made a modest profit by whaling in the old and tried manner."
Following the abolition of slavery throughout the Portuguese Empire in 1869, the Cape Verde Islands suffered drought, starvation, and economic decline leading to a wave of mass emigration. Once on whaling ships and in America, Cape Verdean men were able to send home money and news of other family and friends already in "the land of opportunity." They also sent bidons (gasoline barrels) full of food, clothes, and other items from New Bedford, Massachusetts; and Providence, Rhode Island. The latter are the oldest and largest Cape Verdean communities in the United States. These communities and new Cape Verdean communities are marked by close kinship ties and interdependence among families, a traditional Cape Verdean practice that has been passed down through the generations.
One of the major forces that brought Cape Verdeans to the Americas was the whaling industry. American whalers from New Bedford first began travelling to the islands in the 1790s, and further developed their trade as time progressed into the 19th century. During this time, many Cape Verdeans joined American whaling crews in order to escape Cape Verde, a land plagued with poor natural resources and an often abusive Portuguese colonial government. By the mid-1800s New Bedford had transformed into an economic maritime center, where Cape Verdeans were not only about to excel in the whaling industry but in other maritime industries (such as fishing) as well. New Bedford Whaling Museum explains, "As the 20th century went on and the ties between the islands and the port strengthened, entrepreneurs like Roy Teixeira, Henrique Mendes, Louis Lopes, Frank Lopes and Antonio Cardoza purchased, managed and owned packet ships like the Coriolanus, the Savoia, and the Arcturus... Importantly, not only did Cape Verdeans settle in New Bedford, but between 1860 and 1965 41% of the packets trading between New England and the Islands were owned by Cape Verdeans."
Many Cape Verdeans worked in the cranberry bogs for the cranberry industry in Southeastern Massachusetts.Semedo, Querino Kenneth J., "The Story Must Be Told : A Story of Cape Verdeans : A story about the forgotten cranberry bog workers, the Cape Verdean men and women who helped to build the cranberry industry" , University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, November 25, 1999."Cranberry Harvest Trail Guide Information - Southeastern Massachusetts" , Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association
Cape Verdean migration to the United States in the 19th century and early 20th century was composed of the islands' poorer classes. In 1922, the U.S. government restricted the immigration of peoples of color, greatly reducing Cape Verdean immigration. The new regulations also prevented Cape Verdean Americans from visiting the islands for fear of being denied reentry to the United States. The two communities thus were relatively isolated from each other for approximately 40 years. With doors to America closed, Cape Verdeans began to immigrate in larger numbers to Europe, South America, and West Africa along routes charted by commercial shipping and the Portuguese colonial empire. During the same period some Cape Verdean Americans migrated from the long-established East Coast communities to the steel towns of Ohio and Pennsylvania; and to California.
In 1966, due to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the U.S. government relaxed its regulations, and a new wave of Cape Verdean immigration began. The new arrivals in Boston, Brockton, Taunton and Onset, Massachusetts; Pawtucket, Rhode Island; Waterbury, Connecticut; Brooklyn, and Yonkers, New York; and other communities on the East Coast met a Cape Verdean-American ethnic group whose members looked like them, but differed culturally. Separated for so long, the groups knew little of each other's recent history or treasured memories.Halter, Marilyn. "Cape Verdeans in the U.S."
Full independence was achieved by Cape Verde on July 5, 1975 after a long struggle for complete rights and unrestricted control from the struggle of the country's colonial past. Though growing nationalism, prior efforts for independence slowly gained momentum and territory led by the efforts of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). This newfound independence allowed a new path that would be essential to the migration of Cape Verdean American as Cape Verde was one of few African countries allowing overflight of European and U.S. air travel. This was accompanied by two further actions of independence that aided Cape Verdean migration: broken political unity between Guinea-Bissau in 1980, and the election of António Mascarenhas Monteiro which brought economic struggles that incited emigration.Cape Verde. (2013). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/93703/Cape-Verde/281270/Struggle-for-independence
By 2010, the American Community Survey stated that there were 95,003 Americans living in the US with Cape Verdean ancestors which has since increased to 106,084 by 2023.
Areas The states with the largest population of Cape Verdeans (as of 2020) were: TOTAL POPULATION 2015-2020 American Community Survey Selected Population Tables
U.S. states with the largest Cape Verdean-Americans populations
State/Territory Cape-VerdeanAmericanPopulation(2024 estimate) Percentage 93 0.0% 24 0.0% 365 0.0% 19 0.0% 3,305 0.0% 254 0.0% 4,794 0.1% 69 0.0% 136 0.0% 4,724 0.0% Georgia 1,406 0.0% 98 0.0% 37 0.0% 195 0.0% 109 0.0% 18 0.0% 36 0.0% 84 0.0% 67 0.0% 302 0.0% 835 0.0% 90,118 1.3% 162 0.0% 78 0.0% 36 0.0% 89 0.0% 8 0.0% 23 0.0% 327 0.0% 497 0.0% 1,131 0.0% 39 0.0% 1,556 0.0% 903 0.0% 15 0.0% 411 0.0% 102 0.0% 117 0.0% 606 0.0% 26,376 2.4% 319 0.0% 8 0.0% 163 0.0% 852 0.0% 125 0.0% 102 0.0% 1,060 0.0% 305 0.0% 15 0.0% 46 0.0% 11 0.0% US (2024) 142,570 0.0%
The largest communities of Cape Verdeans (as of 2010) were: Brockton, Massachusetts (2023) – 16,753 or approximately 16% of the population. Boston, Massachusetts – 13,605 New Bedford, Massachusetts – 9,613 Pawtucket, Rhode Island – 8,092 Providence, Rhode Island – 2,957 Taunton, Massachusetts – 2,391 Fall River, Massachusetts (2023) – 1,771 East Providence, Rhode Island – 1,717 Randolph, Massachusetts – 1,111 Central Falls, Rhode Island – 1,061 Barnstable, Massachusetts – 1,012 Cranston, Rhode Island – 924
Dorchester, Massachusetts, Brockton, Massachusetts, Taunton, Massachusetts, New Bedford, Massachusetts, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Onset, Massachusetts are the new immigrant communities of Cape Verdean Americans in the United States.
There are an estimated 265,000 Cape Verdean immigrants and their descendants living in the United States, according to a June 2007 article in The New York Times. Cape Verdean Americans reside mostly in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Assimilation Cape Verdeans suffered discrimination when they came to America. Cape Verdeans retained a unique culture apart from African Americans. This was especially true for those who settled outside the Cape Verdean communities concentrated in New England, and settled in the Midwest. Cape Verdeans maintained their own ethnic identity and lived in separate communities from African Americans. However, during the civil rights struggles of the 60s, Cape Verdeans saw similarities between their own struggle and that of African Americans and emerged a sense of solidarity with them. While some islands have a heavy European-descended population, most Cape Verdeans have African ancestry mixed with European and Sephardic Jewish heritage. Because later people from all over the world settled in Cape Verde, not only Europeans, the population is one of the most unusual ethnic melting pots in the world. Due to this uniqueness, most Cape Verdeans choose to cite "Cape Verdean" as their race, which not only reflects a strong sense of patriotism, but a sense of community that is found among Cape Verdeans regardless of skin tone.Everyculture: Cape Verdean American. Posted by Jane E. Spear. Retrieved September 5, 2012, to 2:08pm.
For well over a century, the U.S. has hosted the largest proportion of the worldwide Cape Verdean diaspora residing in any individual nation.
One important consequence of the technological development in recent decades has been the emergence of Cape Verdean transnationalism on the Internet. Sónia Melo discusses how Cape Verdean websites have become important for linking diaspora communities with each other, for maintaining ties with Cape Verde, and for the local politics of emigrant communities in their countries of residence.Batalha, Luís and Jørgen Carling ed. 2008. Transnational Archipelago
Additionally, some Cape Verdeans have a lighter skin color than Africans from the continent. This partially comes from the fact that in the beginning, Portuguese encouraged miscegenation between Portuguese colonizers and the members of African colonies throughout their empire (with the government often rewarding soldiers and officials with monetary or land benefits if they married indigenous people). Also, the prime location and solidarity found in the island allowed for interracial relationships to develop without traditional suppression. As a result, when it comes to hair textures, skin and eye colors there are a wide variety ranging from blue eyes and blonde hair on the islands of Fogo and Brava, to crisp and darker shades on the island of Santiago. Yet it is not uncommon for nuclear families to have a variety of tones and textures for members. The uniqueness of Cape Verdeans is reflected in the Massachusetts census permitting a "Cape-Verdean" check-box for ethnic identification.
Languages
Generally, Cape Verdean Americans speak English, Portuguese, and Kriolu (or Crioulo). The Creole language is a mixture of Portuguese and the native African tongues spoken by slaves. In some Islands (mainly Fogo and Brava) there is a lot English vocabulary adopted. Although much of the vocabulary stems from Portuguese, many of these words were no longer used in twentieth-century Portugal. The African tongues, mostly Mande, influenced Kriolu chiefly. Since the Republic of Cape Verde became independent of Portugal in 1975, Kriolu has become the dominant language among the islanders.
The Cape Verdean Creole Institute was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1996, to teach the Cape Verdean language. In addition, many schools in the Boston Public School district offer Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) as a language class. Currently 2.3% of the population of Boston speaks CVC.