Subjects and objects on the move: settlement and survival of the Portuguese Jews in the Caribbean (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries)

• Leitão, Ana ^[1]
  1. [1] Insight - Piaget Research Center for Ecological Human Development
• Localización: More than homesickness: minorities and the transference of goods in the Mediterranean (1492–1956) / coord. por José Alberto Tavim, Hugo Martins, 2024, ISBN 978-972-778-389-2
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Letter writing acted as a cohesion factor for Portuguese Jews on a transnational and intercommunal level. For those who settled in the Dutch Caribbean colonies of Surinam (1670s) and Curaçao (1780s), who were suspected of trading goods and sharing sensitive information with the Dutch to the detriment of the British Crown, long‑distance communication was maintained for the success of cross‑border trade, but also to give strength and hope during such an intense period of their lives.The various letters from the Caribbean found in the National Archives (United Kingdom) can play a crucial role by providing access to a more personal and real perspective on the survival, economic activities and needs of the Jewish settlers, the strategies used to overcome being away from home and to succeed in work and business, as well as in maintaining long‑distance relationships.As will be shown, such ego‑documents provide an insight into their struggle by focusing on the circulation of people (such as their ties to past places), commodities, raw materials and other goods, some of which – like these letters – were confiscated during the period of the Anglo‑Dutch maritime wars due to Cromwell’s restrictions.