Cape Verdean Americans are the only major group of Americans to have made the voyage from Africa to the United States voluntarily. Their homeland; a drought-stricken archipelago off the west coast of Africa; had long been colonized by the Portuguese. Arriving in New England first as crew members of whaling vessels; these Afro-Portuguese immigrants later came as permanent settlers in their own packet ships. They were employed in the cranberry industry; on the docks; and as domestic workers. Marilyn Halter combines oral history with analyses of ships' records to create a detailed picture of the history and adaptation patterns of the Cape Verdean Americans; who identified themselves in terms of ethnicity but whose mixed African-European ancestry led their new society to view them as a racial group. Halter emphasizes racial and ethnic identity formation among the Cape Verdeans; who adjusted to their new life by setting themselves apart from the African American community while attempting to shrug off white society's exclusionary tactics. Ethnographic analysis of rural life on the bogs of Cape Cod is contrasted with the New Bedford; Massachusetts; urban community to show how the immigrants established their own social and religious groups and maintained their 'Crioulo' customs. The author; Marilyn Halter; is a research associate at the Institute for the Study of Economic Cultures and an assistant professor of history at Boston University. This is part of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Series.
#1816136 in Books 1996-11-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 11.00 x 1.20 x 8.50l; 3.15 #File Name: 0252022734432 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A Wealth of InformationBy C. MartinAs a Civil War buff; I am always looking for new and interesting books to read. However; there are so many titles that it would take years just to research them and decide which ones are interesting and which ones are not. That is where David Eicher's "The Civil War in Books: AN ANALYTICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY" comes into play. This book provides a wealth of information; even though it is only one volume. While this book is comprehensive it is not quite as good as CE Dornbusch's Military Bibliography of the Civil War. Of course it is much easier to handle because Dornbusch's bibliography is multiple volumes.Even though it is not as detailed as Dornbusch's books; I find this extremely useful and a guide I keep handy at all times. I have it in my office as well as my home. It provides a concise; but useful; description of over a 1000 civil war books. It is well organized and the table of contents makes it very easy for the reader to do research on the battles; the participants as well as the units involved in the struggle.Like mentioned in another posting; the only major drawback I see is that it is out of date. The book was published in 1996 and there has been a tremendous increase in Civil War books since that date. I would love to see the author/editor work on a new update; even if it meant drawing on external resources for information.All in all; this is a very useful and informative book. I think it is a must for any Civil War library.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Great condition for usedBy John M HunterThis is the single best annotated bibliographic resource for American Civil War best books prior to 1995. Every Civil War buff should own this book.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy CustomerI love it good
