Jewish settlement in Tobago is intimately involved with the effort
of the Dutch to settle the Wild Coast of the Americas witch lies between the
Caribbean and Brazil. Its southern boundary is the mouth of the Amazon river,
and its northern the mouth of the river Ornioco. The Dutch were trading in the
region as early as the second half of the 16th century. The Wild
Coast, with a climate adaptable to raising tropical agricultural produce, for
which there was a growing demand in European markets, was attractive to the
Dutch, British, and French. Especially so since the Spaniards and the
Portuguese, who already had strongholds all over South America, Central America,
and parts of North America, had not reached this areas.
The
native Indian population (called in the region Amerindians) was sparse, and from
reports of the ship captains who came in contact, with them, marked by a meek
and peaceful nature.
The
Wild Coast was of special interest to Zeeland, one of the most active agents
among the United Provinces of the Netherlands in colonizing in the Americas.
Unlike the Dutch outposts in the Caribbean islands which were, at that time,
mainly involved in trading, privateering, and shipping, the Wild Coast ventures
were aimed at settlement.
With the beginning of the 17th century Dutch outpost with factories destined to
develop agro-industries and food processing, started cropping all over the Wild
Coast. These outpost were intended to expand to more permanent settlements; we
are speaking of Orange and Nassau in the mouth of Amazon river, Fort Kijkoveral
on the Essequibo River, and outpost on the Berbice, Demerara, Pomeroon, and
Moruca rivers in what was later British Guyana and today the Republic of Guyana.
Other Dutch outpost were on the Marowyne, Surinam, Commanyne, and Corentyn
rivers, in what was the Dutch Guyana and today the republic of Suriname, and in
Cayenne, which is today the French Guyana.
The
Spanish governors on the islands of Trinidad and Margarita off the Wild Coast
and on mainland Venezuela alerted their government several times to the Dutch
activities on the Wild Coast, and there were several Spanish expeditions to
destroy the burgeoning Dutch colonies, in some instances with
success.
In
1621 the Dutch West India Company was formed to preserve and promote the Dutch
interest in the American continents. One of its aims was “to remove the
resources which Philip IV, king of Spain and Portugal, drew from his American
possessions” (1). The West India Company was, in a way an instrument of war
against Spain, and this purpose dictated many of the company’s decisions when
sending colonists to the new world.
One
of those decisions was to include Tobago in the effort to settle the Wild Coast.
Tobago a small island near the coast of the Guyanas (the Wild Coast), could
serve as a maritime outpost and base of defence from the Spanish. Tobago was
better situated than the Dutch Recife in Brazil or from the Netherlands could
drop anchor in Tobago without being sighted by the Spanish. In addition, Tobago
was destined by the West India Company to serve also as an agricultural
settlement for the growing and refining of sugar and cacao and for the
production of rum.
In
its initial policy the West India Company had taken into account the possibility
of having Jews among its colonist, and it gradually permitted the exercise of
the Jewish religion, although the Dutch Reformed Church was the only one
permitted in the colonies at the outset. With the growing presence of Jews in
the colonies, priest did not do missionary work and avoided wearing their frocks
in public (2).
Interestingly the Labor Code of the West India Company states that
‘the Negroes and slaves must be well treated and sent off at proper times, when
it was the hour for church…and not be burdened with labour on the holidays” (3).
This provision was never enforced except by the Jews, who did allow their slaves
to work on the Sabbath (4). Open resentment was displayed by the Wild Coast set
their slaves free after 49 years of servitude, following the Jewish law of the
Jubilee Year (5).
The real wave of Jewish immigration to the Wild Coast started after the fall to the Portuguese invaders on the two Dutch Olinda (called Mauricia by the Dutch). The history of the settlement of Dutch Brazil is short –1630-1654. The success, however, of the Jews who settled there in growing sugar cane and refining sugar, their proficiency defence against the Portuguese attacks made them a very attractive human element for colonizing the Wild Coast. Special efforts were made to attract Jews to those new Dutch settlements by patent rights , privileges, and protection.
In
paragraph 7 of a grant by the Dutch West India Company (Amsterdam) to David
Cohen Nassy and partners for a Jewish colony at cayenne, dated September 12,
1659 (6); one finds that “its shall be permitted to the Jews to have freedom of
conscience with public worship and a synagogue and school in the same manner as
is allowed in the city of Amsterdam in accordance with the doctrines of their
elders, without hindrance as well in the district of this Colony, as in other
places in our Dominions, and they shall enjoy all liberties and exemptions of
our other colonist…”.
Not
to be outdone, and in order to attract Jews, the British, who at the time
occupied Surinam which already had Jewish population in the so-called “Jewish
Savanna”. Surinam, August 17, 1665 (7) declaring that “Every person of the
Hebrew nation…shall possess and be considered as English born… shall not suffer
any hindrance in the observance of their Sabbath…and to have a tribunal of their
own”.
In
1658 and 1659, Jews who had fled Brazil, joined by Jews from Holland, from Saleh
in Morocco, and probably from Hamburg started settling on the Pomeroon and
Moruca rivers. The Jewish settlers as described by the British Major Scott who
wrote in 1669 an, account on the Dutch possession on Essequibo and Pomeroon
tells us that “ a great colony of Dutch and Jews drawn off from Brazil by the
Portuguese settled there, and being experienced planters that soon grew a
flourishing Collonie” (8). The Pomeroon settlement, where the majority of the
Jews resided, was called New Middelburgh. This colony was described as “the most
flourishing one the Dutch ever had in America”
(9).
Unfortunately, British forces coming from Barbados destroyed the
colony in January 1666. The Pomeroon Jews supposedly fled to the “Jewish
Savanna” in Surinam.
A
similar fate befell the flourishing Jewish settlement in cayenne. Here again
Jews from Brazil excelled themselves in growing sugar cane and indigo. The
capture of cayenne by the French in 1664 came after the Dutch surrendered on
condition that Jewish rights be preserved. The French did not keep their
promise, the colony was plundered and part of the Jews of cayenne fled to the
“Jewish Savanna” in Surinam. Another part, it is said, was taken by the French
to La Rochelle in France from where they trekked to the
Netherlands.
This was not the case with the Jewish settlement in Tobago. In
July 1654, Jewish refugees from Brazil petitioned the Netherlands States General
for Permission to found a separate settlement in Tobago. Curiously enough the
petition received no response (10), the explanation being that the Lampsins
brothers of Flushing in Zeeland were pressing to obtain rights on the island for
their own commercial interests.
The
islands of Tobago was inhabited by Indian tribes, the Arawaks and Caribs. In the
16th century, the island was visited by sailors and traders, but the
more stationary non-native residents, were pirates and buccaneers who came to
hide and overhaul their vessels.
In
the 18th century, surprisingly, the first of the European countries interested
in Tobago was the Dutch of Courland, consisting of the two western provinces of
Latvia, between the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga. Being a very religious
Lutherans and possessing a navy, their Duke Jekabs (Jacobus) became very
Interested in possessions overseas. His contacts with the Protestant Dutch were
strong, and he was related by marriage to shareholders of related by marriage to
shareholders of the Dutch West India Company. Thus, he became interested in
Tobago, when colonizing the Wild Coast, and the need to have a base there.
Attempts by Dutch Zeelanders in 1634 and 1637, and by Latvians in
1639 and 1642 met with disaster. Attacks by Spaniards coming from Trinidad for
by the warlike Carib Indian tribe managed to destroy the new
settlements.
The
first successful Tobago settlement was founded in 1652 by 80 Latvian Courlander
families in what is know until today as the “Great Courland Bay” named
“Jekabspills” and the island was renamed “New Courland”. Foreigners are
permitted to settle in Tobago, as long as they were willing to acknowledge the
authority of the Duke of Cournad. Some Dutch, German, French, and English
families settled there.
In
parallel, the influential Lampsins family of Zeeland with financial interests in
the Dutch West India Company, were also interested in the island. Adrian
Lampsins, “having great qualities was also considered as a sly crook” (11). In
Curiously enough the two settlements were unaware of each other’s
existence for quite a while. Between the two settlements were Carib Indian who
raided the new settlers, and who were gradually exhausting their resources, in
spite of fresh settlers from Latvia and Netherlands arriving from to
time.
According to a report from 1658 (12), in Tobago there were no more
than 40 Latvia capable of carrying arms, along with 500 Zeelanders, joined by
Frenchmen who settled under the Dutch. In 1659 the Latvians surrendered to the
Dutch.
In
1660 the Lampsins family started collaborating with the French king Louis XIV,
and Cornelius Lampsins was elevated to the title of French Baron of Tobago.
French planters founded a colony named “Les Quartiers des Trois Rivières” near
what is called today “Little Courland Bay”.
Under these strange circumstances, in which the Dutch, French, and
Latvians were fighting for Control of Tobago, while the Carib Indians continued
their raids, a representative of the Livorno Jews, Paulo Jacomo Pinto, started
negotiations in Amsterdam for the transportations of Livorno Jews to the new
colonies in 1658 and in 1659 with the second group to comprise 120 souls. It was
also understood that the group from Livorno would pass first through Zeeland.
This we learn from the Hague’s Reijkarchief’s West India Papers, in the
proceedings from February 24, 1659. This group was landed in Tobago, left there,
and, “reduced to poverty and misfortune”
(13).
Notwithstanding, a further group of 152 Livorno Jews sailed on the
Monte de Cisne on July 20, 1660. The destination should have been
Cayenne, but they again reached Tobago (14). Among the passengers was the famous
Spanish Jewish poet Daniel Levi de Barrios, whose wife Debora died in Tobago.
From these two or perhaps three, voyagers we can see that the Livorno Jews were
on the way to Pomeroon and to Cayenne and for some reason or by virtue of a
predetermined policy were left in Tobago.
From the West India Company proceedings we learn that in January
1661, Paulo Jacomo Pinto acted on behalf of those remaining in Tobago “which
colonists through an accident, were deviated to the island of Tobago and reduced
to utmost poverty”. In July 1661 “there appeared Avraham Israel Orta asking
restitution of payment made by him…because he was deviated to Tobago instead of
Pomeroon”.
Its
Should be noted that the Jewish Parnasim of Amsterdam in a resolution made
August 1661 prohibiting their Hazzanim (cantors) “of making misheberach or
accepting offers for other than the six officially recogized institutions…in
view of the great and urgent necessities that presently exist…on account of the
failures our brothers have sustained in…Tobago and other islands whence they
come, returning in utter poverty and requiring assistance”
(15).
Many of the Livorno Jew who had embarked on the perilous journey
were originally from Oran in Algeria, which at that time was under Spanish rule.
Marranos from Spain preferred to go to Oran and Mers-el-Kebir, where for a while
they could live in relative security. With growing Spanish inquisition
persecution many fled to Livorno
where they returned to Judaism (16). In Livorno they belonged to the poor
part of the Jewish community and looked therefore for a better life and were
attracted by the promise of the New World. Dutch middlemen were sent especially
to attract these people to the new colonies. It also can be suspected that Paulo
Jacomo Pinto had a financial interest in sending these people to their
fate.
Researchers disagree whether Tobago served as a transit point
only, or whether Jews were to finally settle in
Tobago.
The Latvian Courlanders returned to Tobago and were there at least until 1693. The Dutch settlement was wiped out by the French forces in 1678.
Some of the Jews of Tobago returned to Amsterdam, as was the case
with the poet Daniel Levi de Barrios and with Abraham Israel Orta mentioned
above. Some of those originally destined to reach Cayenne, arrived at their
destination only to be expelled from there in
1664.
However, some did remain. Among the applicants for dowries to the
“Santa Companhia para dotar donzelas” in Amsterdam (a Jewish organization which
saved for dowries for poor young virgins), there is a request by Sara, daughter
of David Peres of Tobago. The family Fernandes Tobago – added Tobago to its name
(17).
On
a signboard at the site of the Latvian monument erected in 1978 on Courlander
Point, the Tobago Tourist Bureau wrote, after historical investigation, that
“under the benevolent rule (with interruptions from 1639-1693) of the Dukes of
Courland in Latvia. Latvians, Dutch, British , French, Jews, Caribs and Gambians
formed an international settlement of free men” (Gambia was Latvian colony in
Africa at that time).
Daniel Levy de Barrios’s sister Judith had two sons, one of whom
died in Tobago in 1680 (18), while the other died in the same year in
Martinique.
The
above two cases prove that Jews lived in Tobago even after the Dutch had left
and the Jews were under Latvian rule.
A
search for any physical evidence of Jewish presence in Tobago, made on my last
trip there yielded nothing. The only Jewish graves were of Mr Baber Isaacs and
his wife, buried in the yard of the Scarborough (capital of Tobago) Hospital.
Neighbours told me that his father’s body had to be transported to Barbados the
inscription reads: Sacred/to the memory of/Isaac Baber Isaac/who died/in the
island of Tobago/20th Tammuz 5624/24th July 1864/and was
interred here 29 idem/age 38 years (19).
The
graves in Tobago are of Rudolph Sydney Baber Isaacs, born 1865, died 1885
(20).
Tobago Jewish history is unique compared to the other Jewish
settlements in the Caribbean and the Guyanas. It is the only place where there
was no real intention of developing Jewish life, no to initiate a settlement
with a sound economic base fitting for a more permanent stay. Some of the Jews
returned to Amsterdam, others went on to Cayenne – their original destination –
and a few went to Martinique where Jews could still reside – before their
expulsion by the French due to the infamous “Black
Code”.
Usually Jews fervently defended their newly acquired lands and
liberty. The Jews of Recife fought valiantly against the Portuguese invaders,
Pomeroon was abandoned after total destruction by the British, Cayenne Jews were
forcibly expelled by the French, and the Jewish National Guard defended “the
Jewish Savanna” of Surinam with such courage against the French that their stand
is praised in French chronicles. The Jews of Togabo did not show the same
attachment to their new land, or perhaps were not given a chance to do
so.
I
came to the conclusion that the reason for the failure of the Jewish settlement
in Tobago are:
1)
A large part of the settlers from Livorno were Marranos from Spanish
Algiers. They came to Dutch enclaves with no knowledge of the language, no
shipping. They lacked the expertise and know-how of the Jewish refugees from
Recife who managed to transform the jungle lands of Essequibo, Pomeroon, and
Cayenne into flourishing settlements.
2)
After living a life of Marranos for more than 200 years, and after a
relativity short stay in Livorno, where they returned to Judaism, they found
themselves on the way to Tobago, with no sense of community, no knowledge of
Jewish life, traditions, and religion.
3)
The Lampsins family who were the barons of Tobago, governed from
Amsterdam. Their only interest was in making money, and they did not care to
make provisions for taking care of the settlers
well-being.
4)
The dealings with the Livorno Jews were made through intermediaries who
were paid for each settlers they could mobilize, without having the welfare of
the settlers as their priority. Paolo Giacomo Pinto was apparently the one
responsible for delivering Livorno Jews to the Dutch Colonies. His role seems
dubious – we know that he became one of the affluent Jews in Holland, whereas
his client were reduced to starvation.
5)
Jewish settlers usually had strong leaders to guide them. This was the
role of David Cohen Nassi in Cayenne and later on in Surinam, Isaac da Costa in
settling Curacao, Rafael de Mercado in Barbados, and others. Tobago Jews did not
produce any known leadership able to act to defend their
interests.
6)
The timing of the Jews arrival in Tobago was the worst possible –
1658-1660 were years of war between the Dutch and Courland settlers and growing
French settlement with the blessing of the Lampsin. At the same time the Carib
and Arawak Indian continued their raids. It may be that the Jews just had
nowhere to settle. In the graveyard of the Jewish Savanna in Surinam there are
graves of Jews, born in Livorno (21). The one I saw is that of Abraham Mendes
Vais. The descendants of the Mopurgo family in Surinam which I interviewed claim
that they were originally from Padua in Italy, then embarked in Livorno and, via
Tobago and Cayenne, reached Surinam.. On my last trip to Tobago, September 1992,
while looking for some vestiges of Jewish presence in Tobago. I found it
inconceivable to see such a flourishing island, blessed with a mild climate,
natural ports, old plantations which still produce, and then fully understand
the failure of Jewish settlement, especially since in the nearby Guyanas, with
their heavy jungle growth and steaming tropical climate, the Jews were
surprisingly very successful.
Mordechai Arbell, former Ambassador of Israel and South and
Central America adviser to the World Jewish Congress, is a specialist in the
history of the Jews in the Caribbean. Writer, he is also a contributor to the
Encyclopedia Judaica.
(1)
Goslinga. The Dutch in the
Caribbean and on the Wild Coast, p. 89.
(2)
Goslinga. The Dutch in the
Caribbean , p. 338.
(3)
Hamelberg, Nederlanders 1, Doc, p.
107.
(4)
Hamelberg, Nederlanders 1, Doc., p.
100-102.
(5)
Arbelle, personal research among
descendants of the Arrias and Cotinho
families.
(6)
Historical Essay on the Colony of
Surinam, p. 183.
(7)
Historical Essay on the Colony of
Surinam, p. 188.
(8)
Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish Colony
in Western Guyana”, p. 128
(9)
Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish
Colony”, p. 137.
(10)
Goslilnga, The Dutch in the
Caribbean, p. 338.
(11)
Anderson, The First Colonization
of Tobago, paper 7, p. 5.
(12)
Anderson, The First colonization
of Tobago, paper 7, p. 7.
(13)
Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish Colony
in Western Guyana, Supplement data”, pp. 57,
67.
(14)
Schollberg, La poesia religiosa de Miguel
de Barrios, p. 10 : « El 20 de Julio de 1660, que fue al ayuno del 9
de Av. Miguel y su esposa se embarcaron en Liorna en la nave « Monte del
Cisne » con 152 correligionnaires. Pensaban probar fortunas en el Nuevo
Mundo. Apenas llegaron de Tobago, colonia hollandesa en aquel entonces, se le
murio
(15)
Emmanuel, « Fortunes and
Misfortunes of the Jews in Brazil », p.
23.
(16)
Fey, Histoire d’Oran, p.
211.
(17)
Cardoso de Betancourt,
« Notes on the Spanish and Portuguese Jews », p.
37.
(18)
Peterse, Daniel Levi de Barrios,
p. 16.
(19)
Shilstone, Jewish Monumental
inscriptions in Barbados – grave 110 , p.
58.
(20)
Copied by M. Arbell.
-
Anderson, E. and Goslinga, Cornelius Ch. The First Colonization of Tobago by the
Courlanders and the Dutch, Museum Paper 7, Museum of Tobago History,
Scarborough, Tobago, 1978.
-
Arbell, Mordechai, “1992: 500 Years after Columbus.
The Spanish-Portuguese Nation of the Caribbeans – La Nacion”, in: Encyclopaedia
Judaica Year Book 1990-91, Jerusalem, 1992.
-
The Barrios. Daniel Levy, Flor de Apolo, Brussels,
1665.
-
Idem, Triumpho del Gobierno Popular, Amsterdam,
1682.
-
Cardoso de Belancourt, “Notes on the Spanish and
Portuguese Jews in the United States, Guyana, and the Dutch and British West
Indies during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Waltham, Publication of
the American Jewish Historical Society, v. 29 (1929),
pp.36-38.
-
Chanlal, Liliane, Tobago et la présence
française (XVIIe – XIXe siècles), Archives Départementales de la Martinique,
Fort-de-France, 1992.
-
Emanuel, Isaac, « Fortunes and Misfortunes of
the Jews of Brazil (1630-1654). Cincinnati, American Jewish Archives, Jan, 1955,
pp. 4-64.
-
Goslinga, Cornelius Ch., The Dutch in the Caribbean
and on the Wild Coast 1580-1680, Assen,
1971.
-
Harsincks, Jacob Jan., Beschyving van Guyana,
Amsterdam, 1770, p. 520.
-
Lichtveld, Lou, A. Valuable Document concerning
Tobago A.D. 1647, Scarborough, Tobago, Mount Irvin Museum Trust, publication N.
2, Feb. 11, 1977.
-
Idem, The Earliest Reports about Tobago, Scarborough,
Tobago, Museum of Tobago History, paper N. 5,
1977.
-
Meijer, J. Pioneers of Pauroma – Eraliest History of
Jewish Colonization of America, Paramaribo,
1954.
-
Molho, Yitzhak, “El poeta y dramaturgo Miguel de
Barrios”; Jerusalem, Tresoro de los Judios Sefardies, v. 7, 1964, pp.
99-100.
-
Oppenheim Samuel, “An Early Jewish Colony in Western
Guyana 1658-1666 and Its Relation to the Jews in Surinam, Cayenne and Tobago”,
Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, v. 17 (1909), pp.
53-70.
-
Pieterse, Wilhelmina Christina, Daniel Levi de
Barrios als Geschiedschijver van de Portuguees-Israelitishe Gemeente te
Amsterdam in Zijn Triumpho del Gobierno Popular’. Amsterdam,
1968.
-
Rodway, James and Watt, Thomas, Chronological History
of the Discovery and Settlement of Guyana 1453-1665, Georgetown, Bermerara,
1888.
-
Scholberg, Kenneth,
-
Woodcok, Henry Iles, A. History of Tobago, Tobago,
1866.
-
Several authors – Historical Essay on the Colony of Surinam 1788,
Cincinnati, 1974.