Between Race and Ethnicity
Cape Verdean American Immigrants, 1860-1965

Marilyn Halter (Author)

9780252063268

Paperback / softback, published 1 May 1993

248 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.367 kg

Arriving in New England first as crew members of whaling vessels, Afro-Portuguese immigrants from Cape Verde later came as permanent settlers and took work in the cranberry industry, on the docks, and as domestic workers.

Marilyn Halter combines oral history with analyses of ships' records to chart the history and adaptation patterns of the Cape Verdean Americans. Though identifying themselves in ethnic terms, Cape Verdeans found that their African-European ancestry led their new society to view them as a racial group. Halter emphasizes racial and ethnic identity formation to show how Cape Verdeans set themselves apart from the African Americans while attempting to shrug off white society's exclusionary tactics. She also contrasts rural life on the bogs of Cape Cod with New Bedford's urban community to reveal the ways immigrants established their own social and religious groups as they strove to maintain their Crioulo customs.

Preface: Of Marginal Natives and Multiple Identities 
 
xi
Acknowledgments 
 
xvii
Introduction: The Cape Verdeans -- All Shades, All Hues 
 
1
1 Becoming Visible: A Demographic Profile 
 
35
2 From Archipelago to America: A Sentimental Geography 
 
67
3 Working the Bogs 
 
99
4 Living -- Just Enough for the City 
 
131
5 Identity Matters: The Immigrant Children 
 
163
Appendix 
 
179
Bibliography 
 
187
Index 
 
209
Illustrations follow page 98