The Portuguese in New England
© 2006 Rickie Lazzerini

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          New England has provided a home for many immigrant groups, but none rival the volume and cultural impact of the Portuguese. Portuguese immigration to New England is both old and new, beginning during the colonial times and continuing into the twenty-first century. The roots laid down by the first Portuguese settlers in the 18th century created a legacy of chain migration that has lasted for over 200 years. More Portuguese have settled in southern New England than in any other region of the United States. New England has become a hub for other Portuguese-speaking cultures as well, including Brazilians and Cape Verdeans. The heavy Portuguese influence drew these Portuguese-speaking people, even though they maintain their own distinct cultures. New England has the country's largest population of Cape Verdeans, and Brazilians are the region's third fastest growing immigrant group.(2) The Portuguese have a fascinating relationship with New England that began with the explorers of the 16th century and continues with the modern Portuguese, Cape Verdean, and Brazilian immigrants of the 21st century.

          Many Portuguese explorers sailed the Atlantic and explored the New World during the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular the area near Newfoundland. Some historians even believe that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover America. This belief is based on the discovery of a nautical map that dates back to 1424. A. Davies, a British historian, believes that a Portuguese sailor named Dualmo reached the Americas in 1487, five years before Columbus.(3) Another theory places Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real as the first Europeans to set foot in New England. The story begins when the two brothers sailed from Lisbon to Greenland on an exploratory mission in 1501. They couldn't reach Greenland because of ice, so they modified their route and sailed to Labrador. They continued south to Cape Harrison, Sandwich Bay, and Newfoundland. Miguel sailed back to Lisbon with two of the three ships while Gaspar remained to explore. Gaspar did not return to Lisbon, so Miguel set out to find him. Two ships were sent out in different directions, in search of Gaspar, with plans to rendezvous at a later time. No sign of Gaspar's ship was ever found, and Miguel's ship never made it to the rendezvous point. Both brothers had been lost. The Dighton Rock in Massachusetts is believed by some to contain communication from Miguel. The rock, which is covered in pictographs and inscriptions, was uncovered in the 17th century. In 1928, Edmund B. Delabarre, claimed that the inscriptions were in a cryptic Portuguese script that read, "Miguel Cortereal by the will of God here chief of Indians, 1511."(4) His hypothesis included the belief that Miguel was shipwrecked in New England and became chief of a Wampanoag tribe and a crewmember inscribed the words on the rock. If Delabarre is correct, that would mean that the first European to set foot on New England soil was Portuguese.

          Regardless of who the first person to land in New England was, it is true that the Portuguese had frequent contact with the area. Fishing expeditions were sent to Newfoundland in the 16th century to bring cod back to Portugal. A company was founded in 1521 with the intentions to create a fishing colony on Newfoundland. With a grant from the king, the colonists settled on what is now Ingonish, on the coast of Cape Breton Island. They migrated to another location, but little is known about what became of it. Many believe that they abandoned the site and returned to Portugal. Although there were no permanent Portuguese settlements created during this time, Portuguese Jews, sailors, and whalers were documented in colonial New England.

          The earliest Portuguese settlers in New England were from the Azores. The Azores are an archipelago of nine islands in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 miles west of Portugal. They were uninhabited until the Portuguese colonized them in the 15th century, and the islands have been part of Portugal since then. The Cape Verde Islands, off of the west coast of Africa, were also colonized by the Portuguese. Black slaves were brought to the Cape Verde Islands to work on sugar plantations. The black African population (of which there were many ethnic groups) and the white Europeans intermarried and created a unique hybrid of Portuguese-African cultures. They speak a creolized Portuguese dialect, called Crioulo, as well as Portuguese. The Cape Verdean immigrants were much less numerous in America than their Azorean counterparts, but constitute an important part of New England's immigrant history that has oftentimes been overlooked. Mainland Portuguese immigrants became more numerous during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Azorean immigrants have always dominated Portuguese settlement in America.