upplying the first and largest numbers of Cape Verdean immigrants to the New England region beginning in the 1700s. American whaling ships used to save money by leaving the eastern seaboard with half crews and picking up the excellent sailors, for very low wages, from Fogo and Brava when they reached the seasonal whaling seas around Cape Verde. The proportion of slaves to Portuguese on Fogo and Brava was small, resulting in a very light-skinned population. The whaling captains preferred them to other Cape Verdeans not only for their skills as sailors but also because they caused little problem when taken to the United States since they could pass for swarthy Portuguese or other whites.
What began, it seems, as low wage labor, however, became an integral part of the American Slave trade.
"In 1466, some Portuguese settlers arriving from the Algarve...petitioned the Crown for a trading license on slaves, and received permission to do so...In 1472 a royal warrant gave the permanent residents of Santiago the privilege to own either male or female slaves working for them in order to facilitate their lives. The Slave traders were allowed to trade anywhere in West Africa except Argium." Donnan explains that it wasn't until 1513 that "the sale of licenses to import negroes become a source of profit to the government." The slave trade increased thus throughout the 1500's, and eventually became Cape Verde's primary economy, with much of the wealth of the islands depending on the trafficking of slaves. This was particularly because the land in Cape Verde was essentially useless and unprofitable, save for its geographical location in the Atlantic ocean.
During the height of slavery in America, thousands upon thousands of African slaves passed through Cape Verde, and thousands of Cape Verdean slaves came to the US as well. Without distinct characteristics, they were matriculated into American society, and often became slaves in the sout...