From The Root
Dear Professor Gates:
My father is African American and Cape Verdean, and he grew up on Cape Cod. His mother was Almeda Matilda Santos, born Jan. 22, 1922. She died March 7, 2002, and her parents had immigrated to the United States from Cape Verde Islands in the early 1900s. My father’s father, Benjamin Franklin Johnson, was the child of a slave who escaped to Canada with a Wampanoag Indian wife, as the story goes.
Can you tell me who my Cape Verdean ancestors were, or how I would trace that? —Renee Johnson
Perhaps we can. First, it’s important to note that the Cape Verde Islands nation (officially known as the Republic of Cabo Verde) is a nation of about 540,000 people located about 600 miles off the coast of Senegal on the west coast of the African continent. A Portuguese colony between the 15th century and 1975, Cabo Verde was active in the transatlantic slave trade and other types of commercial shipping. Immigration between the African country and America dates from the 18th century, when Cabo Verdeans were recruited for the New England whaling industry. According to The CIA World Factbook, 71 percent of the people in Cabo Verde are “mulatto” of mixed African and European heritage, while 28 percent are African and 1 percent are European. More than 200,000 people of Cabo Verdean descent live in the United States today. Many live in New England.
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