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Archiver > CARIBBEAN > 2001-04 > 0986502029


From: "Dean de Freitas" <>
Subject: RE: Guyana Portuguese
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 16:21:41 -0400
In-Reply-To: <005001c0bdf1$9cae23c0$4924e440@default>


Well said Douglas. I would only add that there is a mailing list and
website dedicated to the Madeira Exiles at:

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~madeiraexiles/

There is an essay regarding the Portuguese migration written by a researcher
in Trindad named Jo-Anne Ferreira at the Portuguese of the West Indies
website. A link is provided below.

Dean de Freitas
Researching: D'ABREU, and de FREITAS
Dean's Family History http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~ddefreit/
TriniGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~ttowgw/
Portuguese of the West Indies
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~portwestind/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Douglas Fraites [mailto:]
> Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 12:58 PM
> To:
> Subject: Re: Guyana Portuguese
>
>
> Sorry....the vast majority of Guyana Portuguese and those who went to
> Trinidad and the other East Caribbean Islands of St.Kitts,St.Vincent,
> Antigua and Grenada were indeed from Madeira (something like
> 98%) but only a
> small portion were Protestants. The Madeirans came to British
> Guiana and the
> Eastern Caribbean for economic reasons and were recruited by
> the British to
> supplement labour in the sugar industry after the abolition
> of slavery in
> the British Empire. The Madeira protestants,known as the
> Madeira Exiles,
> came on the scene in the mid 1860's as a result of conversions by a
> Scottish Presbyterian minister but the conversions triggered
> resentment of
> the Catholics who were till them almost 100% of the population of the
> island. Life became intolerable for the Protestants and they
> had to flee
> Madeira, hence the name "madeira Exiles". The majority of the
> exiles went to
> the USA but as the recruitment of workers for the Caribbean
> was going on
> some exiles took the opportunity to get out, most going to
> Trinidad with
> some filtering out to British Guiana and the smaller islands.
> Eventually
> most of those who went to Trinidad ended up going to join the
> other exiles
> in the USA. After some time many of
> the protestants married Catholic Madeirans and according to
> the rules of
> the Catholic Church children of such marriages had to be
> brought up Catholic
> even if one party to the marriage remained protestant. Over time most
> reverted back to the Catholic church and as a result it is
> rare to find any
> Portuguese in Guyana and the Eastern Caribbean who is not catholic.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard Bond" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 10:53 AM
> Subject: Guyana Portuguese
>
>
> > Most of the Guyana Portuguese are descended from the
> followers of a
> > British evangelist minister who converted a large minority to
> > Protestantism. They ended up leaving for the New World when Madeira
> > became polarized they settled in a number of places and many
> > subsequently relocated to the US midwest. In Massachusetts
> by contrast
> > most Portuguese were Azorean.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

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